Performance marketing is a discipline that is characterized by constant innovation (see Workflow Automation / Marketing Automation) and constantly brings with it new challenges and requirements. To be successful, you not only have to develop the right strategies and creative concepts, but also perform a variety of operational and repetitive tasks. These include, for example, creating and optimizing campaigns, monitoring and analyzing data, testing and adjusting ads, managing budgets and bids, creating reports and much more.

While these tasks are necessary to achieve your performance marketing goals, they are also very time-consuming and monotonous. They take away valuable time that could be better spent on strategic or creative activities that have a greater impact on your results. Plus, these tasks are often error-prone and difficult to scale when you have to manage multiple campaigns or channels.

So how can you overcome these challenges and make your performance marketing processes more efficient and effective? The answer is: workflow automation.

What is Workflow Automation?

Workflow automation is the use of software or technology to automate certain tasks or processes that would otherwise have to be performed manually. Workflow automation allows you to define rules or conditions that determine when and how a task should be performed, and then hand it over to a system that completes the task for you.

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Workflow automation has many advantages for performance marketing, such as

• Time saving: You can free yourself from the boring and time-consuming tasks and concentrate on the more important aspects of your marketing, such as strategy, creativity or customer relations.
• Scalability: You can manage more campaigns or channels without hiring additional resources or staff. You can scale your workforce by adapting and expanding the automation solutions to your needs.
• Accuracy: You can reduce or eliminate human errors that can lead to incorrect data, wrong decisions or poor performance. You can ensure that your tasks are always performed correctly and consistently, regardless of complexity or scope.
• Performance: You can improve your performance marketing results by continuously optimizing, testing and adjusting your campaigns based on real-time data and feedback. You can react faster and more flexibly to market changes or customer needs.

How can you use workflow automation in performance marketing?

There are many ways you can use workflow automation in performance marketing, depending on your goals, budget and technical know-how. Some examples are:

• Campaign creation and optimization: You can use software or tools that help you to automatically create, manage and optimize your campaigns based on your specifications and goals. For example, you can use tools that automatically adapt your ads to different target groups, formats or platforms, or that automatically adjust your bids or budgets to achieve the best possible performance.
• Data monitoring and analysis: You can use software or tools that automatically monitor, collect and analyze your data to provide you with valuable insights and recommendations. For example, you can use tools that automatically generate reports or dashboards that show you your key metrics and trends, or that automatically send you alerts or notifications when something requires your attention.
• Ad testing and customization: You can use software or tools that automatically test and adjust your ads to achieve the best possible performance. For example, you can use tools that automatically vary your ads according to various criteria such as text, image, color, font, call-to-action or placement, or that automatically prioritize or pause your ads according to their performance.

What alternatives are there to workflow automation?

In the past, many performance marketers have turned to scripts to automate some of their tasks. Scripts are snippets of code that you can insert into certain platforms, such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads, to perform specific actions. Scripts can be useful to perform simple or specific tasks, but they also have many disadvantages, such as:

• You need to be able to code in order to create or edit scripts. This requires time, effort and expertise that you may not have or that you would rather use for other things.
• Not everyone can customize or understand your scripts. If you're working with a team or a client, it can be difficult to share, explain or deliver your scripts if you don't all have the same skills or understanding.
• Scripts are often unreliable or error-prone. Scripts can easily break if platforms or requirements change, or if they are not properly tested or updated. Scripts can also cause unwanted or unpredictable results if they are not properly monitored or controlled.

Workflow automation offers a better alternative to scripting as it gives you more flexibility, ease of use and security. Workflow automation is based on software or tools specifically designed for performance marketing that allow you to automate, manage and monitor your tasks without code. Workflow automation also gives you more options to personalize, scale and optimize your tasks to achieve your performance marketing goals.

Conclusion

Workflow automation is a powerful and effective way to improve your performance marketing processes and increase your results. It doesn't matter whether the person carrying out the work is a freelancer, an entire marketing department or an agency. Workflow automation makes all marketers more efficient. Workflow automation allows you to save time, scale your workforce, increase your accuracy and improve your performance by automating your operational and repetitive tasks. Workflow automation also offers you a better alternative to scripts, which are often time-consuming, complicated and unreliable. If you want to use workflow automation in performance marketing, you can choose from a variety of software or tools to help you automate your campaigns, data and ads based on your needs and goals. We are also currently developing a no-code workflow automation platform for marketing & e-commerce.

Interested in marketing automation and would like to find out more about our Shopstory software? Then perhaps you'd like to read our white paper "The Future of Automation in Ecommerce & Marketing" or follow the link below to learn more about our software:

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