Performance Marketing: Paid media judged by what it earns

Executive summary

Marketing budgets held at 7.7% of company revenue in 2025, and 59% of CMOs said their budget was insufficient for their strategy, according to Gartner.¹
IPA analysis by Binet and Field found the optimum split to be about 60:40 between brand building and short-term activation.²
Ehrenberg-Bass research cited by Edelman and LinkedIn suggests 95% of business buyers are not in the market at any given time.³
Programmes that only chase immediate conversions run out of people to convert.
We plan, run and report paid media across Google, Meta, LinkedIn and TikTok, measured in enquiries and revenue.

01Market context

Every dirham of marketing is under scrutiny.¹ That pushes spend toward channels that report quick conversions. But only a small share of the market is buying at any moment,³ and effectiveness research shows that brands balancing reach with activation outperform those that only activate.²

Exhibit 1 Balancing today’s demand with tomorrow’s

Business buyers not in the market at any given time95%

Optimum share of budget for brand building (IPA)60%

Optimum share for short-term activation (IPA)40%

Source: Ehrenberg-Bass via Edelman–LinkedIn 2024; IPA, Binet and Field.

02The challenge

Vanity metrics. Reports full of impressions and clicks, light on revenue.
All activation. Budgets spent on people ready to buy today, with nothing building future demand.
Broken tracking. Conversions not measured, or counted twice.
Set and forget. Campaigns left running without testing or optimisation.

03Our point of view

Start with the economics: what a customer is worth and what you can afford to pay to win one. Fix tracking before spending. Use search for people already looking, and social and video to reach the many who are not yet. Report weekly in the language of the business: enquiries, sales, cost per acquisition and revenue.

04How we work

Set the economics. Customer value, target cost per acquisition, budget and the brand-to-activation balance.
Fix tracking. Conversion tracking, CRM connection and offline conversions where possible.
Launch and test. Campaigns by channel and audience, with creative and landing pages tested.
Optimise and report. Weekly optimisation and a monthly report on revenue, not clicks.

Exhibit 2 Planned around revenue

Set the economics
Value and target cost

Fix tracking
End to end

Launch and test
Channels and creative

Optimise and report
Revenue, weekly

The Market Concepts.

05What you receive

A media plan with budget by channel and expected outcomes.
Tracking set-up verified end to end.
Campaigns and creative across chosen channels.
Landing pages where needed.
A revenue-based monthly report.

06Measures of success

Cost per qualified enquiry and per customer
Return on ad spend or revenue per dirham
Growth in branded search and direct visits
Share of budget spent against plan

07Risks and governance

Accounts. Ad accounts and data are owned by you, with our access granted.
Platform policies. Ads follow each platform’s rules, especially for regulated sectors.
Privacy. Tracking and audiences follow consent requirements and the UAE PDPL.⁴
Transparency. Media spend is billed at cost; our fee is separate.

This paper is general guidance and not legal advice.

08Illustrative scenario

ILLUSTRATIVE — NOT A CLIENT CASE STUDY

A Dubai home-services company spends heavily on search ads. Costs per lead keep rising, and its monthly agency report shows clicks but not jobs booked.

Tracking is connected to the CRM so booked jobs are counted. Search is narrowed to high-intent terms, a modest share of budget moves to short video ads in its service areas, and reports switch to cost per booked job.

09Frequently asked questions

What budget do we need?: It depends on your market and customer value. We size it from the economics, not a template.
Which channels?: Usually Google Search plus one or two social channels where your customers are.
Do you manage our ad accounts?: Yes, in your name, so you keep the data and history.

Performance Marketing