By Emma Davey-Wood, Performance Managing Director at IDHL
As acquisition costs rise and decision journeys get longer, some of the assumptions performance marketing has relied on for years are no longer holding up. Even so, too many teams still treat brand as a soft metric, when in fact it has a direct impact on how efficiently performance works.
For years, performance marketing has been shaped by the last click. Part of the problem is that digital attribution trained marketers to overvalue what could be measured neatly at the bottom of the funnel.
The IPA Bellwether Report shows UK marketing budgets grew 7.3% in Q1 2026, while WARC’s Multiplier Effect found that integrating brand and performance can drive 90% higher revenue ROI. At the same time, online visit costs have risen 19% over two years, conversion rates are falling and lower-funnel measurement is becoming less reliable.
Signal loss, privacy changes and consent requirements have made attribution harder. In many cases, the issue is not that demand has disappeared, but that lower-funnel performance has become harder to see clearly.
This is not brand suddenly becoming important, it always was. What has changed is the pressure on performance to deliver in a market where lower-funnel measurement is less reliable, and customer journeys are more complex.
The decision is often made before the click
The tidy digital funnel no longer reflects how people behave because they do not move neatly from awareness to consideration to purchase. They compare options, get distracted, come back later, ask friends and spot something on social and search again later when the timing is right.
Nearly 23% of customers research products five or more times before buying, and performance alone cannot carry that weight. What has changed is not the number of touchpoints but the level of scrutiny. Today’s buyers are more selective as they check reviews, compare values and ultimately, ask – do I trust this brand?
Brand does some of its most important work before search ever begins, in the moments where familiarity, recommendation and trust are being built. Stronger brands often see higher engagement across social, display and native, as well as more branded search and direct traffic. By the time someone clicks, part of the decision has often already been made.
Creative is now carrying more of the load
Too many teams still expect one asset to do everything, everywhere, without thinking hard enough about the story, format or platform.
This matters more than ever as platforms are increasingly weighting creative as a primary driver of performance. In paid social especially, efficiency is no longer just about targeting or bid strategy. Better creative drives engagement, and that engagement improves how efficiently media performs.
The brands that truly understand their audience, from demographics to interests, are the ones most likely to cut through. My client Exodus Travel is a strong example, as their creatives reflect the personality and possibility of an Exodus adventure to shine through. In a crowded market, that kind of distinctiveness matters.
The strongest brand work is often the simplest. Most people are not giving ads their full attention, so clarity and recognisable cues matter more than overloaded messaging.
What to measure when last click is not enough
Brand still gets challenged because teams want immediate proof from one channel, but that view is too narrow. Instead, you need to look at a broader set of signals such as branded search growth, direct traffic, repeat visitors, engagement rates, brand lift and incrementality. These measurements give you a clearer picture of whether future performance is getting stronger.
I have seen this play out with a travel client where broader brand activity drove stronger recall, alongside 15 to 20% growth in branded search and similar year-on-year gains in direct and organic traffic. That is not brand working in isolation, it is brand making the rest of the mix work harder.
In B2B, the effect often shows up differently but just as clearly. Stronger brand familiarity can shorten sales cycles because prospects are not starting from zero on trust and credibility.
The human bit matters more, not less
Used well, AI can support production and adaptation. Used badly, it becomes a substitute for judgement, storytelling and a point of view.
Only 25% of people can correctly identify AI-generated images, yet more than 70% say they are concerned about trusting what they see. AI can help teams move faster, but it certainly cannot replace real storytelling or creative judgement.
Where efficiency really comes from
As acquisition costs rise, performance can no longer rely on targeting and optimisation alone. Longer decision journeys mean it now depends on stronger brand foundations, better creative and a full-funnel approach that builds demand before the click, not just captures it.
One of the biggest blockers is still structural, as brand and performance are too often split by budget, targets and ownership when they should be planned as part of the same system. That matters even more now as platforms are favouring creative and distinctiveness has a direct impact on efficiency.
Brand and performance should not compete for budget or credit, as in a tougher market they need each other more than ever. The teams that will do this best are the ones that stop treating brand as a nice-to-have, stop treating creative as secondary and plan around how decisions really get made. That is what makes performance more efficient now.
