Performance Marketing Agency
"Truth is found in simplicity. Not in the multiplicity and confusion of things."
The Death of the Performance Marketing Agency?
Performance media buying feels unavoidable. Facebook Meta, Google, and Amazon receive 74% of all digital ad spend, and 47% of all advertising spend globally. Performance Marketing Agencies exist to help brands navigate these complex platforms (1). But with a low barrier to entry, little agency differentiation, and growing reliance on built-in AI optimization within these platforms, it begs the question: Are performance marketing agencies actually necessary?
Here are the top 3 Performance Media Agency fails that we see, and our perspective on how, when, and why to avoid them when evaluating performance marketing agencies.
1. Top Performance Media Agency Fails
It's impossible to please all people all of the time. But performance media firms try anyway. Working in a market of so few ultra-entrenched performance media platforms (Google, Meta, and Amazon - the leading retail media network and growing ad behemoth), these firms often fall prey to 3 fatal "fails":
- Unclear role: Is the job of an agency to babysit machines, or to use technology toward a higher purpose? Should compensation be a factor of the spend "under management"? Or does this create a disincentive to slim cost-per-acquisition over time?
- Overdependence on automation - true that Google, Amazon, and Meta own some of the most sophisticated AI on the planet. But these platforms are designed - with algorithms, artificial and actual intelligence - to maximize your tolerance for spend, rationing their performance and goal delivery to maximize their ability to monetize their audience. The machines are not your friends.
- The Hammer Problem - "If all you have is a hammer, every job is a nail." Performance is simply more than just paid performance media. It's building the funnel to build a business. It's growing audiences. It's optimizing the site and sales experience.
Read on for our point of view on how, when, and why to evaluate performance marketing agencies.
2. What Even is "Performance Media?"
The magic of performance media lies in the automated, market-based ability to buy media from many sources via centralized platforms. Performance media buying opens up a world of possibilities for video and CTV, digital display, programmatic audio ads, retail media, and search integrations. Theoretically, performance media helps global brands buy higher quality media, not just greater volume.
However many of these benefits are theoretical. For all the promises of reach and responsiveness and pay-per-performance efficiency, performance media agency pitfalls abound. Platform-side inventory controls and SSPs work hard to improve ad revenue yields, driving costs upward for advertisers.
This is why performance marketing agencies exist: to act as a necessary hedge against the growing costs and diminishing effectiveness of standardized paid media campaigns.
3. Performance Marketing Agencies + Red Flags
Many brands don’t realize that “Certified Partner Network” badges often require minimal analytical training, mandatory spend thresholds, and incentives tied to increasing platform budgets. And on Meta and Google, most “optimizations” conveniently point to one thing: higher spend, not demonstrably better efficiency.
Marketers should be skeptical of claims that any single platform’s algorithm or dataset is inherently superior. No one—not even Google or Meta—owns the entire ecosystem. Single-platform buys limit reach and insight, and "flat CPM" from managed DSPs often signal undisclosed arbitrage or hidden fees.
New advertisers should also be cautious when testing AI-driven tools like Google’s Performance Max. PMax consolidates all tactics into one opaque campaign, reducing transparency and often cannibalizing other efforts. While it may drive short-term volume, it restricts visibility into what’s actually working—undermining long-term efficiency and control.
At Criterion Global, we integrate performance marketing with business-side intelligence to prioritize profitable customer acquisition—not just conversions. By combining sales data, profitability, and cost-of-goods insights, we help brands grow lifetime value and make smarter, long-term investment decisions.
In a world of “walled garden” platforms, we deliver results for consumer-facing brands as disparate as Fast Fashion, where trends change instantly and production must scale to meet demand - to Global Hospitality, where pricing must adjust competitively and dynamically on a day-to-day basis.
4. Free Matrix: How to Vet a Performance Marketing Agency:
Performance media buying relies on automated algorithms to target, bid, and optimize—but algorithms are only as good as the rules they’re given. Without experienced planning to set strategy, measurement, and guardrails, performance media simply accelerates wasted spend or pushes shortsighted tactics, like over-investing at the bottom of the funnel. (Should you put 100% of your budget into retargeting? Only if your goal is to win zero new customers.)
In media—as in everything—failing to plan is planning to fail. Below is our free, no-signup Matrix Criteria for marketers evaluating a performance marketing agency:
- How do you structure your payment model, and what fees are involved? (Percentage of media spend, a flat fee, or performance-based compensation, etc.)?
- Can you provide examples of how your payment structure aligns with your philosophy on customer acquisition? How do you ensure that your incentives are aligned with driving successful outcomes for our business?
- How do you approach customer acquisition strategies, and what methodologies do you use to target and engage our ideal audience? Can you share case studies demonstrating your success in customer acquisition for similar audiences, business models, or tactics relevant to our business?
- What is your approach to measurement, given "walled gardens", in light of our performance marketing needs? What level of transparency can we expect in terms of campaign performance and spend?
- How do you manage relationships with major platforms, such as Google, Facebook, or other key advertising platforms? Can you outline your process for staying up-to-date with platform changes, updates, and best practices? Do you, or have you in the past 3 years, received any incentive from any platform for growing client ad spend?
- How do you handle media buying and optimization across different platforms? Do you have a proprietary technology stack, or do you leverage third-party tools to optimize our campaigns effectively?
- Can you explain your strategy for ensuring brand safety and combating ad fraud across major platforms? How do you proactively monitor and address potential risks to our brand reputation?
- How do you foster open communication and collaboration between our team and yours? What level of involvement can we expect in campaign planning, strategy development, and ongoing performance reviews?
Performance Media Models
- Platform and market analyses
- Ad tech selection consulting
- A la carte strategy, and/or
- A la carte implementation
Data Strategy and Benefits
- Data onboarding management
- GDPR-compliant workflows
- Conquesting strategies
- Location + population modeling
Media Buying Transparency
- Private marketplace deals
- Brand safety best practices
- API-based log file access
- Clear management model
Performance Marketing Agency Framework
- Programmatic + performance media expertise
- Cost, workflow transparency
- Ad tech, visualization integrations
- Aligned incentives