Performance Marketing & CRO Services: Performance marketing process map showing targeting, campaign launch, tracking, testing, optimization and scaling

Performance Marketing & CRO ServicesEvery pound accountable.
Every channel measured.

Performance marketing is not a channel — it is a discipline. We run paid across search, social and display against one blended target, moving budget toward whatever is genuinely producing rather than whatever reports best inside its own dashboard.

1Blended CAC target
Server-sideConversion tracking
MonthlyCreative testing
HoldoutIncrementality tests
5Paid channels
At a glance

Performance Marketing & CRO Services at a glance

Our performance marketing services combine paid media, PPC management and conversion rate optimisation into one programme judged on ROAS, CPA and profit. As a performance marketing agency, we move budget to what earns and cut what does not.

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What’s included
  • Paid media strategy
  • PPC management
  • Conversion rate optimisation
  • Attribution & tracking
  • Budget allocation
  • Profit reporting
01
What we actually do

One blended target. Budget moves to whatever earns it.

We manage paid channels against a single blended efficiency target rather than optimising each platform to its own reported ROAS. That reframing is what stops budget drifting toward whichever network claims credit most aggressively.

Underneath it sits the unglamorous work: correct conversion tracking, structured creative testing, audience expansion sequenced so CAC does not spike, and periodic holdout tests to establish what spend is genuinely incremental.

Channel-by-channel
Blended performance
Each platform's own ROAS
One blended target
Conversions double-counted
Deduplicated reporting
Creative runs until it dies
Tested and retired on schedule
Scale by raising budgets
Scale by expanding audiences
Retargeting assumed to work
Incrementality tested
Browser-based tracking only
Server-side measurement

The uncomfortable test: add up the conversions every platform reports and compare it to orders in your own system. If the first number is meaningfully larger, you are allocating budget on figures that cannot all be true.

What’s included

Five systems we build and run for you

Every engagement covers all five. Structured creative testing sits at the centre — the rest make sure the data is right, the targets are blended and your spend is proven to be incremental.

Structured creative testing icon

Structured creative testing

A standing test programme with enough volume to reach significance, and retirement rules for fatigued assets.

  1. Hooks
  2. Angles
  3. Offers
  4. Formats
  5. Landing pages
  6. Audiences
Blended efficiency targets icon

Blended efficiency targets

One CAC or ROAS figure across all paid, so channels are compared on the same basis rather than on self-reported numbers.

Server-side conversion tracking icon

Server-side conversion tracking

Properly implemented measurement that survives browser restrictions, because bad data produces confidently wrong decisions.

Audience sequencing icon

Audience sequencing

Expansion planned so CAC rises predictably rather than spiking when the efficient segments are exhausted.

Incrementality testing icon

Incrementality testing

Geo and audience holdouts on branded search and retargeting, to establish what your spend actually caused.

02
The Sachkhand blueprint

How we build a paid programme that scales

Six workstreams, measurement first — because optimising against broken tracking makes performance worse with total confidence.

Phase 1MeasureFix tracking and audit where the money is really going.
  1. 01

    Measurement foundation

    Server-side conversion tracking, deduplication and a blended reporting layer. Nothing else matters if the numbers being optimised against are wrong.

  2. 02

    Account & spend audit

    Structure, targeting overlap, wasted spend and creative fatigue across every channel. Most accounts have meaningful budget going to segments that never convert.

Phase 2TestSet blended targets and run a standing creative test programme.
  1. 03

    Blended targets set

    One CAC or ROAS goal across all paid, with channel roles defined — prospecting, capture, retention — so each is judged on the job it is doing.

  2. 04

    Creative testing programme

    Standing tests with defined win conditions and retirement rules, because creative is the largest lever in paid social and the fastest to decay.

Phase 3ScaleExpand audiences predictably and prove what spend actually caused.
  1. 05

    Audience expansion

    Sequenced so efficiency degrades predictably as you scale rather than collapsing when the cheapest segments run out.

  2. 06

    Incrementality testing

    Geo and audience holdouts run periodically, particularly on branded search and retargeting where reported returns are usually most inflated.

ⓘ Tracking is fixed before budget increases — each phase starts only when the one before it is working.

03
What is changing through 2026

Four shifts in paid media

Signal loss and platform automation have changed where the operator adds value. It is no longer in manual bid management.

01

Signal loss made tracking a skill again

Browser restrictions and privacy changes degraded conversion data substantially. Server-side tracking and modelled conversions are now table stakes, and accounts without them are optimising on partial information.

02

Automation moved the job to inputs

Platforms handle bidding and placement better than manual management. The operator’s value has shifted entirely to what goes in — creative, audience definition, conversion signals and budget allocation.

03

Creative is the main lever

With targeting increasingly automated, creative is what differentiates performance. Accounts testing systematically outperform accounts with better targeting and static assets.

04

Incrementality replaced last-click

As attribution degrades, holdout testing is becoming the credible way to establish what spend caused. It is uncomfortable because it usually reveals that some channels were being over-credited.

Blended, not platform-reported

We lead with blended CAC and ROAS. Platform figures appear as diagnostics, clearly labelled as self-reported rather than presented as truth.

Tracking fixed first

Server-side measurement before optimisation. Tuning an account against broken conversion data produces confident, expensive mistakes.

Incrementality tested

We run holdouts even when the result is awkward. Discovering that retargeting was over-credited is worth more than a flattering report.

Creative as the primary lever

Structured testing with real win conditions, because with bidding automated, creative is where the remaining performance difference lives.

We will tell you to stop spending

If a channel is not incremental we recommend cutting it, even though that reduces the budget we manage. Managing spend that does not work is not a service.

Coordinated with organic

Paid and SEO planned together so you are not buying clicks for terms you already rank first for, which is one of the most common avoidable wastes.

05 The honest comparison

Why businesses choose SDM for performance marketing

Same budget, very different outcomes. Point by point, here’s how a specialist partner compares to a typical agency or doing it in-house.

✓ Included with Sachkhand Common gap elsewhere
What actually mattersRecommendedSachkhandPaid media specialistsTypical agencyGeneralist teamIn-house / DIYStretched team
Senior paid media specialist on your accountAlwaysOften a juniorStretched thin
Server-side conversion tracking✓Pixel onlyOften broken
One blended CAC / ROAS target✓Per-platform ROASUnknown
Account & wasted-spend audit✓Surface-levelRarely
Creative tested to significanceMonthlyAd-hocRarely
Incrementality & holdout tests✓NeverNever
Audience expansion planned✓Broad & hopeGuesswork
Landing pages & CRO included✓Extra costRarely
Budget moved to what earns it✓Fixed splitsHabit
Reported against your own revenueMonthlyPlatform numbersPlatform numbers
Coordinated with SEO & email✓Separate teamsAd-hoc
No long lock-in contractsMonthly6–12 mo lock-inN/A
Get a free paid media audit →

12 reasons growing brands move their paid media to a specialist. See the difference for yourself →

06
Measurement

If the platforms disagree with your accounts, believe your accounts

We reconcile platform-reported performance against actual revenue and report the gap rather than hiding it.

OverviewQueriesPagesLast 90 days
Paid performance
All channels blended — rolling 90 days
LIVE · synced 2h ago
This periodPrevious period
MetricTrendvs targetNow
Blended ROAS4.8x
CAC−38%
Incremental71%
Creative win46%
Wasted spend−91%
▲4.8x blended ROAS vs 2.1x at start
Source: Google Ads · GA4 · CRM

Blended CAC

Total paid spend divided by total new customers — the figure that cannot be inflated by attribution windows.

Blended ROAS

All paid spend against actual revenue from your own system, not the sum of what each platform claims.

Incremental lift

Holdout-tested contribution, so you know what spend genuinely caused rather than what it was near.

Creative performance curve

How each asset decays with frequency, driving retirement decisions before efficiency collapses.

Marginal CAC by segment

What the next customer costs as audiences expand — the number that tells you where scaling stops being efficient.

07
The engagement

Our Performance Marketing process: four stages, repeated every month

Fix measurement, cut waste, then scale — scaling before the first two multiplies the problem.

  1. 01

    Fix measurement

    Server-side tracking, deduplication and blended reporting built before any optimisation. You get an honest baseline, which is frequently lower than the platforms were claiming.

    Trustworthy numbers
  2. 02

    Cut the waste

    Overlapping audiences, fatigued creative, non-converting placements and branded-search overspend removed. This usually funds the rest of the programme by itself.

    Same results, lower spend
  3. 03

    Test creative systematically

    A standing programme with defined win conditions, run at volumes that reach significance, with retirement rules for decaying assets.

    A compounding creative library
  4. 04

    Scale & verify

    Audience expansion sequenced against marginal CAC, with periodic holdout tests to confirm incrementality as spend grows.

    Efficient, verified scale
Outcomes

The targets we set for paid engagements

Targets we plan against for ecommerce, SaaS, lead-generation and multi-location clients after six months.

  • 4.8×Blended ROASFrom 2.1× at start
  • −38%Blended CACSame or higher volume
  • 71%Spend verified incrementalHoldout tested
  • −91%Identified wasted spendRemoved in first 60 days

Targets rather than best cases. The largest early gains almost always come from cutting waste rather than improving performance — which means results are biggest on accounts that have been running unaudited for a long time. These are planning targets rather than a record of past client averages; we agree a realistic range against your own baseline before an engagement starts.

09
Questions

Performance Marketing FAQs: the questions we get asked most

Direct answers on attribution, scaling and what paid can realistically deliver.

Why do your numbers look worse than the platform dashboards?+

Because platform dashboards over-credit themselves. Each network counts conversions its pixel touched, so running three channels means the same order gets claimed multiple times. We report blended CAC and ROAS against revenue in your own system, which is almost always a lower number and the only one that reflects what actually happened.

What is incrementality testing and why does it matter?+

It is running a holdout — withholding ads from a matched geography or audience — to see what happens without the spend. It matters because some conversions occur regardless, particularly on branded search and retargeting. Without it you cannot distinguish spend that caused revenue from spend that was merely present when revenue happened.

Should we be bidding on our own brand name?+

Sometimes, and it is worth testing rather than assuming. If competitors bid on your brand, defending it is usually justified. If nobody does and you rank first organically, much of that spend may be buying clicks you would get free. A geo holdout answers it in a few weeks, and the answer varies by market.

How do we scale without CAC exploding?+

By expanding audiences deliberately rather than raising budgets on existing ones. Cheapest segments exhaust first, so simply spending more against the same targeting buys progressively worse traffic. We sequence expansion and track marginal CAC, so you can see exactly where efficient scaling stops.

Is creative really more important than targeting?+

On most platforms now, yes. Automated bidding and placement handle much of what used to be manual targeting work, which means creative is where the remaining performance difference lives. Accounts with systematic creative testing routinely outperform accounts with more sophisticated targeting and static assets.

Will you manage all our channels or just one?+

Preferably all paid, because the value comes from allocating between them against one target. Managing a single channel in isolation means optimising to its self-reported numbers, which is the problem we are trying to solve. We can work alongside another agency on a different channel, but blended targets need someone seeing the whole picture.

How long before we see improvement?+

Waste reduction shows within the first thirty to sixty days and frequently funds the engagement by itself. Creative testing produces compounding gains from month two or three. Incrementality testing needs a few weeks per test to reach significance, so a full picture typically takes a quarter.

Next step

Ready to know what your paid spend actually earns?

We will audit your tracking, reconcile platform-reported conversions against your real revenue, and show you where budget is going that does not produce.

Free paid account audit
Attribution reconciliation
Wasted spend analysis
Blended target model
Your paid engineChannels on target
Always on
  • Google AdsLive
  • Meta AdsLive
  • LinkedIn AdsLive
  • Creative testsLive
  • IncrementalityBuilding
Blended ROAS4.8×from 2.1× at start
Blended CAC−38%same or higher volume
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