Performance marketing alone won’t save you

Why your ads might not be performing

Hi there,

If you ask the majority of startups, paid ads are the Holy Grail of Growth. They’re expected to deliver immediate, impressive results. Brands pour their efforts into ads, often neglecting brand-building along the way.

The result? High CPCs and a low ceiling for performance.

But the startups I see truly smashing it with their ads all have one thing in common: they’ve invested in brand awareness.

For some, that means a retail presence; for others, a strong organic social following. It’s not so much about how they do it, just that they do.

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I had this epiphany back at Heights

Before I became Head of Growth at Heights, I mostly worked with later-stage startups and larger organisations. Brand awareness channels were already in place; it was a given. Like expecting a dog that’s off-lead to listen to their owner—yeah, I’m guilty of this one.

Fast-forward to my time at Heights, and we were struggling to get Meta ads to work.

The first few months had gone really well, but performance had recently dropped off. So, we ran a big influencer gifting campaign, sending free product to nearly 100 influencers.

The result? Our best-ever month for Instagram growth and engagement, with a range of influencers posting organically. And the one or two months that followed turned out to be some of our strongest ever in terms of sales.

There was a slight lag, but that burst of awareness clearly translated into revenue.

That’s when it clicked: those early strong results? They’d also followed a podcast feature. The pattern was clear — for paid ads to truly perform, we needed brand awareness in the mix.

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Why does brand awareness matter for performance marketing?

Most people don’t buy after just one touchpoint; it usually takes a series of interactions to build enough trust to convert. If your target audience has seen your brand before, they’re far more likely to recognise and trust you.

This leads to higher click-through rates, which often means lower cost-per-clicks.

Beyond that, brand awareness efforts can also strengthen the social proof in your ads — for example, being able to say “Featured in X” or “Available at Y.”

And when you focus on organic social content — especially on the same platform where you're running ads — there are additional benefits:

• You feed the algorithm better data about who’s actually interested in your products

• You can test ad concepts organically first to gauge what resonates

• If someone clicks through, they land on a profile that actually reflects who you are

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Why do most startups neglect brand building?

Too many startups (especially venture-backed ones) get caught in the cycle of chasing monthly targets.

The problem, as I saw firsthand at Heights, is that the impact of brand awareness isn’t immediate. It lags and takes longer to measure.

That makes it feel less tangible, and therefore harder to prioritise.

But that doesn’t make it any less powerful.

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Prioritising brand building

Enough complaining, it’s time for us to take action and train this dog to go off-lead. Basically, how have I seen startups actually solve for this?

1. Split out responsibility for brand vs. growth. This doesn’t have to mean two full-time hires. For example, the founder might lead on brand awareness, while a fractional growth person focuses on performance marketing.

2. Split out KPIs. Define how you’ll measure brand awareness, whether that’s social engagement, branded search, or a combination metric that works for you.

3. Split out budgets. Avoid making it an “either/or” decision every time, as this can easily lead to funnelling everything into paid ads. If you’re currently spending nothing on brand, start by shifting 10–20% of your paid budget and build from there.

4. Keep the focus on quality over quantity. Most startups can’t (and don’t need to) launch massive offline campaigns. Brand building isn’t about being everywhere; it’s about showing up in the right places and ways for your ideal customers. Start small and be intentional.

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Recommendation

As always, here are some resources to help you learn more about this week’s topic:

1. If you still need convincing that you need both (or someone else in your startup does): Brand or Performance? Why Ecommerce Marketers Can’t Choose Just One - Operators Network

2. If you want to learn more about ways to build brand awareness in eCommerce - How to Build Brand Awareness for Your Ecommerce Business - Cloudflight

3. If you aren’t sure how to measure brand performance - How to Build Brand Awareness for Your Ecommerce Business - Frontify

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Brand vs. performance should never be an either–or question.
Investing in brand awareness is a slower burn, but it builds a stronger fire for your paid ads.

If you’ve been spending months trying to make paid work and scale, ask yourself: Is paid really the issue? Or is the real problem that we haven’t built an audience — or a relationship with them — first?

I’m by no means an expert on the brand side, but I’ve promised myself since my time at Heights never to underestimate its importance.

Have you found yourself neglecting brand building or becoming its only cheerleader? Let me know!

Daphne