Performance marketing is often time seems as the bottom of the funnel activity. While a lot of the investments in performance marketing would make it seem like ‘bottom of funnel activity’ the reality is a little different. To clarify, its goals are realise at the bottom of the funnel (leads, conversions, sales) but its activation is across the entire customer journey.
 
The objective for performance marketing is conversion – leads, sign-ups, sales. Intermediate metrics like ‘clicks’ and ‘impressions’ are only milestones in building a more robust metric like CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) and should not be treated as an end to themselves.
 
Lets talk about 3 key metrics for Performance Marketing (for a full range on this topic please read Avinash Kaushiks blog on this topic – link given below) :

1. Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
2. Micro Conversions
3. Macro Conversions

 
How can we improve these performance marketing metrics and how is it linked to top-medium funnel consumer engagement ?

1. CPA : Cost per acquisistion is commonly understood as the Cost of the Campaign divided by the Conversions (where conversions is a desirable action/ goal that either leads to sale or is a sale). Reducing CPA has two components:
   1. Eliminate Wasteage : Look at post click through drop offs from the POV of underperformance in Search key words / landing page optimisation / mobile compatibility/ content fit as reasons why the drop-offs could occur.
   2. Improve Frictionless Flow : Audit user flows and think about reduction in steps/ simplicity in step completion to aid conversion.
2. Micro Conversion : Actions taken by consumers that strongly signal future intent are micros-conversions. Subscriptions to your newsletters, viewing your content, booking an appointment for a test-drive, form filling, making an enquiry are all medium to strong intent signals by consumers to buy your product. Isolate these valuable opportunities and see if you are making it simple and utilitarian for consumers to perform these behaviors. A better understanding of the user journey/ personas/ goals will lead to building a better user experience that usually eliminates much of the issues faced in microconversions.
3. Macro Conversion : Is the ultimate outcome desired – subscriptions, sales etc.. The last mile to conversion has usually the issues of complexity and transparency (pricing/ hidden costs/ delivery). Providing for complete transparency of pricing in terms of key cost factors (hidden costs/ delivery/ returns etc) earlier on in the process while eliminating the complexity of order completion in the last mile should help improve macro conversions.

 
The value of performance marketing when done right is strategic and goes beyond short-term results to optimising the entire user journey for widening the funnel at the top-middle while enabling an ease of conversion at the bottom.

Computers As Persuasive Technology (CAPT), coined by BJ Fogg, studies the research, analysis, design and ethics of using computer technology to change peoples behavior. It’s a systematic approach to change behavior and achieve a set goal. At its core is the concept of ‘simplicity’ - the role of technology being to make a task simple enabling behavior change to occur.
 
Understanding the desired behavior change (adopt, maintain, increase, decrease and stop) across frequency (one time, many times, from now on) helps reduce the task to a single unit. For example : we want new people to install an app (start), current users to continue to use it (maintain a  habit), higher usage per day/ week (increase) and so on.
 
Persuasive technology works at its best, invisibly. Creating a frictionless environment for change. Example : the dynamic newsfeed updates on Facebook subtly encourages you to refresh and engage with the content. Push notifications of news updates flashing on your mobile phone invites you to revisit the site at the earliest to be up-to-date.
 
Captology as a tool for behavior change works best when its rooted in consumer centric design – ethically and economically (encouraging addictive behaviors for technology using technology is NOT the right use of the principles of captology). Utility, goal completion and delight are the cornerstone of captology – where persuasion results in an equal value exchange between user and brand.
 
Metrics used in digital marketing can often-times obfuscate the true potential of persuasive technology and its impact. Example : if you judge the success of your website based on time spent then your team will constantly try and increase time spent using techniques & tools that decrease the user experience. Goal completion as a metric will ensure that the website design enables consumers to find information quickly, choose simply, complete multiple tasks and log out without feeling the tug of marketing tools designed to persuade them to stay on for a few seconds longer.
 
A great example of persuasive technology that’s also is of great utility is Uber. Behavior change in getting people to drive with strangers is no mean task. The design of the app took the challenges into account as created an experience that signals the wide availability of drivers (cut the stress of uncertainity in travel), share the credentials of the driver (increase trust when travelling with a stranger) and show the driver location/ arrival time (provide precision of arrival).  Despite its best intentions the user experience has not been bug free (driver credentials/ locations/ arrival times etc have all failed with consistency and surge-pricing does not help win friends). This does not take away from the design of a consumer centric experience that has managed to smoothen out many of the barriers linked to intra-city travel.
 
Net, brands that are building their digital experiences using the principles of captology need to design user experiences of utility, transparency and delight. In service of consumers.