[SOLVED] Growth Marketing vs Performance Marketing: What's Best

By Alexandra Kazakova
10 min READ | May 9 2025

​In a digital world where marketing buzzwords multiply faster than TikTok trends, “Growth Marketing” and “Performance Marketing” often get tossed around like they mean the same thing.

But here’s the fact: they’re not the same, and confusing them can waste your marketing efforts.

With nearly 47% of businesses lacking a digital marketing plan, understanding the difference is not just helpful; it is essential.

This article breaks down the key differences between growth and performance marketing, clears up common misconceptions, and offers actionable insights you can actually use.

Let’s dive in.

P.S. Ready to see real growth? Reach out to inBeat Agency and let our experts craft a marketing strategy tailored to your business.

TL;DR:

Growth marketing focuses on long-term, full-funnel strategies that drive sustainable business growth through experimentation, customer retention, and user engagement.

Performance marketing is short-term and results-driven, relying heavily on paid channels where marketers pay only for specific actions like clicks, leads, or sales.

Key differences:

• Growth marketing spans the entire customer journey (acquisition to referral).
• Performance marketing zeroes in on direct, measurable conversions and ROI.

Shared traits:

• Both aim to drive business growth.
• Both rely on data, testing, and measurable outcomes.

Metrics:

• Growth: CLV, retention, engagement, brand equity.
  Performance: CTR, CPA, ROAS, conversion rate.

Channels:

• Growth: SEO, content marketing, email nurturing, referrals.
• Performance: PPC, affiliate marketing, social media ads.

Costs:

• Growth channels generally cost less but take time to build.
• Performance channels deliver fast results but require higher ad spend.

Pros and cons:

• Growth: Long-term value, retention, lower churn—but slower results and complex tracking.
• Performance: Fast ROI, easy to scale—but can ignore retention and escalate in cost.

Real-world examples:

• Growth: Dropbox’s referral system, Airbnb’s Craigslist integration.
• Performance: Unroll.Me’s influencer campaign with inBeat, Helium’s App Store ads.

Best use cases:

• Use growth marketing for brand building, customer loyalty, and lifecycle engagement.
• Use performance marketing for immediate returns, product launches, or seasonal promotions.

Takeaway:

• You don’t have to choose one over the other—smart brands combine both for fast growth and lasting success.

What Is Growth Marketing?

Growth marketing is a data-driven, full-funnel approach focused on long-term business growth, not just quick wins.
It combines traditional marketing tactics with experimentation, user feedback, and ongoing optimization to attract, engage, and retain customers at every stage of their journey.

Rather than pouring budget into short-term campaigns, growth marketing zeroes in on sustainable strategies. It relies on rapid experimentation to uncover high-impact tactics.

A classic example is Dropbox’s referral program. By offering extra storage to users who invited friends, Dropbox increased its user base by 3900% in 15 months.

So, what about performance marketing?

What Is Performance Marketing?

Performance marketing is a results-driven approach where advertisers pay only when specific actions, such as clicks, leads, or sales, are achieved.

It relies heavily on:

• Paid ads (Google, Meta, TikTok, etc.)
• Affiliate and influencer partnerships
• Conversion rate optimization
• Retargeting campaigns

Companies allocate over 50% of their marketing budgets to paid channels. This reflects the rise of performance-driven tactics.

Search ads account for 40.9% of the global digital advertising market, underlining performance marketing channels’ dominance.

While growth marketing takes a long-term view, performance marketing focuses on immediate, measurable results.

But what similarities tie them together?

That brings us to the next point:

Performance Marketing and Growth Marketing: Similarities

As Proverve notes:

“Both strategies are designed to drive business growth and maximize the return on investment (ROI)”

They share common goals, such as revenue generation, customer acquisition, and utilizing data analytics for informed decision-making.

Both strategies employ scalable and repeatable processes, leveraging various marketing tools and platforms to achieve their objectives.

By focusing on outcomes, they enable businesses to track progress and optimize marketing efforts effectively.

Key Differences Between Growth and Performance Marketing

While their similarities show a clear overlap in goals and tactics, the distinctions between growth and performance marketing are equally important to understand:

Scope and Approach

Let’s break down how each marketing strategy actually works:

How Does Growth Marketing Work?

Growth marketing works by testing ideas across the entire customer lifecycle. It blends content marketing, email marketing, product tweaks, and user behavior insights.

The goal isn’t just conversion but retention and advocacy:

How Does Performance Marketing Work?

Unlike growth marketing, which aims for compounding returns, performance is direct and trackable from day one. It’s about short-term ROI through paid channels.

Creative testing, targeting, and optimization are ongoing. Everything ties back to conversions:

Metrics and KPIs

Now, let’s compare key metrics:

Growth Marketing Metrics

Growth marketing tracks metrics that reflect audience quality and depth of engagement.

Here’s what matters:

• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Measures revenue a business earns from a single customer over time.
• Retention rate: Tracks how many users stick around post-purchase.
• Engagement: Focuses on user interactions like shares, comments, and email opens.
• Brand equity: Gauges trust, loyalty, and recognition built through consistent experiences.

Performance Marketing Metrics

Performance marketing metrics focus on direct results and budget efficiency.

These numbers guide every campaign decision:

• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Shows how often users click your ads after seeing them.
• Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): Tracks how much you pay for each new customer.
• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Measures revenue earned for every dollar spent.
• Conversion Rate: Reflects the percentage of users who complete a desired action.

P.S. Not sure if your ad metrics are hitting the mark? Use inbeat.co’s free marketing calculators to quickly check your CTR, CPA, ROAS, and more; no sign-up, just instant clarity.

Channels and Budget Considerations

With metrics and KPIs clarified, let’s explore how channel and budget choices shape each strategy:

Growth Marketing Channels

Growth marketing leans on organic channels that build momentum over time.

Key channels include:​

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Enhances website visibility through keyword optimization and content creation. Monthly costs range from $1500 to $5,000, depending on the scope and expertise required.
• Content marketing: Involves creating valuable content like blogs, videos, and infographics to attract and engage the target audience. Monthly expenses can vary between $2,000 and $10,000, influenced by content complexity and production quality.
• Email nurturing: Focuses on sending personalized emails to guide leads through the sales funnel. Email marketing software costs range from $0 to $99 per month for up to 5,000 contacts, with prices increasing for larger lists. ​
• Referral programs: Encourage existing customers to refer new ones, often through incentives. Software solutions for managing referral programs start at approximately $95 per month. Additional costs include rewards for referrers and administrative time.

Wondering why your organic efforts aren’t turning into real growth? You might not need more channels, just the right team behind them. Explore our list of Top Growth Marketing Agencies that will skyrocket your growth and find a partner that knows how to turn strategy into momentum.

Performance Marketing Channels

Performance marketing relies on paid channels where every dollar spent ties directly to outcomes.

Typical costs include:

• Pay-Per-Click (PPC): Platforms like Google Ads and Microsoft Ads charge advertisers for each click on their ads. The average cost per click (CPC) ranges from $0.11 to $0.50, with monthly budgets typically between $100 and $10,000, depending on industry competitiveness and campaign scope.
• Affiliate marketing: In this model, businesses pay affiliates a commission for driving specific actions, such as sales or sign-ups. The average cost per acquisition (CPA) for affiliate marketing is approximately $60, making it a cost-effective strategy for customer acquisition.
• Social media advertising: Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn offer targeted advertising options. Average CPCs vary by platform: Facebook ranges from $0.50 to $2.00, Instagram from $0.70 to $1.00, and LinkedIn from $2.00 to $7.00.

P.S. Tired of pouring budget into paid channels without seeing consistent results? Finding the right partner can make all the difference. Check out our roundup of Top Performance Marketing Agencies to discover who’s actually driving ROI, not just clicks.

Now that you understand the core differences, let’s summarise the pros and cons of each approach:

Pros and Cons of Growth and Performance Marketing

Here’s a straightforward breakdown of the pros and cons of both strategies:

Growth Marketing vs. Performance Marketing: Case Studies

Now let’s explore some real-world examples of brands successfully deploying growth and performance marketing strategies:

Growth Marketing Case Studies

1. Airbnb: Craigslist Integration

Airbnb tapped into Craigslist’s audience by offering hosts an option to cross-post their listings automatically, reaching millions of potential users at no extra acquisition cost.

This hack scaled Airbnb’s user base from zero to millions within months, showcasing the power of organic experimentation.

It underlines how full-funnel, lifecycle-focused tactics can fuel sustainable growth without heavy ad spend.

2. Hotmail: Viral Tagline

Hotmail embedded “Get your free email at Hotmail” into every outgoing message, turning each user into a brand ambassador without extra effort.

This simple loop drove subscriber numbers from launch to over 8 million in just six months, proving that effortless sharing can beat big budgets.

It highlights how embedding growth hooks into core user experiences accelerates adoption through word-of-mouth.

1. Unroll.Me x inBeat - Influencer-Powered Performance Marketing

Unroll.me partnered with inBeat Agency to scale app installs through a performance-first strategy blending paid media and influencer content.

With over $3M in paid media budget, the campaign optimized distribution across social platforms while testing 40+ unique creative assets monthly.

Eight different creators were activated each cycle to maintain audience engagement and freshness.

The result: 7 million+ installs across Android and iOS - driven by data-backed targeting and real-time creative iteration at a highly competitive blended CPA.

2. Helium App Store Ads

Helium achieved 764% revenue growth through targeted Shopify App Store ads, driving over 10,000 installs and securing a 14x return on ad spend.

By focusing on high-intent keyword bids and refining creative based on real-time installation data, the team optimized budget allocation and maximized impact.

This example highlights performance marketing’s focus on tying every dollar spent to a specific outcome for rapid, quantifiable gains.

When to Use Growth Marketing or Performance Marketing?

Choosing between growth marketing and performance marketing depends on your goals and timing.

Startups focused on building awareness and loyalty might lean into growth marketing, such as a fintech app that rewards users who refer friends. In contrast, an online retailer running a holiday sale will often rely on performance marketing, using targeted ads to meet CPA goals quickly.

Many companies blend both, using performance tactics for acquisition while growth teams focus on retention, loyalty, and building a strong customer base over time.

Unlock Growth and Performance Together with inBeat

Growth marketing and performance marketing are not interchangeable. They serve different goals, but they complement each other when deployed in the right sequence.

Growth marketing prioritizes lifecycle engagement.

It looks beyond conversions and targets the full customer journey. You’re not chasing short-term gains; you’re building something that compounds.

Performance marketing is more direct.

It’s the right tool when you need instant results and measurable ROI. Every dollar you spend tracks back to an action.

Each approach has its limits when used alone - growth marketing requires time, while performance marketing may overlook long-term value.

When combined, growth and performance marketing deliver both speed and sustainability, making acquisition predictable, retention measurable, and loyalty scalable.

This isn’t about choosing sides.

It’s about knowing when to pull which lever - and how to align tactics with timing.

Your strategy shouldn’t rely on tradeoffs; growth and performance thrive together to build a brand that scales quickly and endures.

P.S. If you're ready to align growth and performance without compromise, inBeat Agency can help you get there. Our hybrid approach gives you fast wins and lasting momentum, backed by strategy, not guesswork.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are performance marketing and growth marketing the same?

No. Performance marketing focuses on short-term, trackable returns, think paid ads, measurable KPIs, and ROI. Whereas growth marketing takes a broader, long-term view that includes retention, experimentation, and product input to drive expansion across the entire funnel.

Is SEO part of performance marketing?
No. SEO is typically a long-term strategy focused on visibility and organic reach. Performance marketing revolves around trackable campaigns with direct cost-to-result relationships, such as paid ads or affiliate programs.

What does a growth marketer do?
They identify scalable acquisition opportunities, improve onboarding flows, reduce churn, and test tactics across product, sales, and marketing funnels. Their job blends analytics, creative thinking, and iterative testing to drive user expansion.

What is growth hacking?
It's a fast-paced, data-led approach that prioritizes rapid experimentation. The goal is to uncover efficient, low-cost tactics to accelerate traction. This mindset is especially common in early-stage startups trying to gain market share quickly.