Performance marketing, paid on performance.
Most performance marketing agencies sell you performance and charge you a retainer. We charge for the performance.
Definition
Performance marketing is the discipline of buying media you can measure, attribute and judge against revenue. At Pinstorm it goes one step further: we are paid on the performance we create — a share of the revenue, a CAC target, a ROAS floor — not a flat monthly fee that arrives whether the campaigns worked or not.
Performance marketing was supposed to fix advertising. Every click measured, every conversion tracked, every dollar accountable. Then the agency model quietly broke the promise: agencies kept the retainer, kept the media commission, and kept getting paid whether the numbers moved or not. “Performance” became a department name, not a deal structure.
We started Pinstorm in 2004 to close that gap. We buy the search, social and programmatic media, we build the funnels behind it, and we get paid on what it produces. If the revenue doesn't grow, neither does our invoice. That single change — putting our own money where our forecasts are — is what makes our performance marketing actually about performance.
What performance marketing should actually mean
Real performance marketing answers four questions before a single ad runs: what revenue number is this designed to move, what would have happened without the spend, what attribution window are we reading, and at what point do we kill it. An agency that can't answer those is running brand advertising with a tracking pixel bolted on.
We run paid search, paid social, programmatic display, retargeting and marketplace media as one accountable system — not as channels competing for credit in a last-click report. The channel mix is whatever moves the revenue number. Nothing is sacred, including the channels we recommended last quarter.
Why pay-on-results changes the work, not just the invoice
When an agency is paid on outcomes, it can't afford vanity metrics. Impressions, reach and “engagement” stop being deliverables and become diagnostics. The whole operation reorganises around incremental revenue, because that's the only thing that pays us.
It also changes who we say no to. We turn down accounts where the product can't convert, the margins can't carry paid acquisition, or the attribution can't be trusted — because under our model, taking that work would cost us money. A retainer agency never has to be that honest.
What's included
- Paid search (Google, Bing, marketplace search)
- Paid social (Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, X)
- Programmatic display, video and native
- Retargeting and lifecycle media
- Conversion tracking and incrementality testing
- Creative testing tied to revenue, not awards
- Weekly P&L-level reporting, not dashboard theatre
Frequently asked
What does a performance marketing agency do?
A performance marketing agency plans, buys and optimises measurable media — search, social, programmatic — against a defined business outcome like revenue, leads or return on ad spend. Pinstorm differs from most in that it is compensated on that outcome rather than on a fixed retainer or media commission.
How is Pinstorm different from other performance marketing agencies?
Most agencies sell performance and bill a retainer. Pinstorm invests its own capital into the media, builds the funnels, and is paid through revenue share, equity or performance milestones — so we only make money when the client's numbers actually move.
Which channels does Pinstorm run?
Paid search, paid social, programmatic display and video, retargeting and marketplace media — selected and weighted purely by what moves the client's revenue target, not by what's fashionable or what carries the highest commission.
Related services
Want performance marketing that's paid on results?
If you'd like a marketing partner who only gets paid when you grow, talk to us. If you'd like to understand the philosophy first, read about outcome-based marketing and evidence-based marketing.