The ultimate guide to performance marketing | Timothy Davis (Shopify)

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Timothy Davis has led performance marketing for all of Shopify for the past 2.5 years, and as a consultant has helped companies like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Redfin, and Eventbrite kickstart and scale their performance marketing teams. In every one of those cases, he got them so performant at paid growth that they significantly scale spend and investment in these channels. In our conversation, we cover:• When and how to start investing in performance marketing• Common mistakes companies make with paid ads• How to build and structure a performance marketing team• How to get your creatives performing better• Strategies for optimizing workflows and team efficiency• How AI will change performance marketing• Much more

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Find the transcript and references at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/performance-marketing-timothy-davis

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Where to find Timothy Davis:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothypatrickdavis/

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Timothy’s background

(02:31) Understanding performance marketing

(06:31) The importance of paid search

(08:39) Identifying growth potential

(09:54) Case studies: Hairstory and Ipsy

(12:22) Experimenting with new platforms

(18:57) Choosing the right platforms

(20:23) LinkedIn for B2B marketing

(27:56) When to start investing in paid growth

(33:33) Common mistakes in performance marketing

(37:41) Working with agencies and consultants

(40:36) Hiring for performance marketing

(47:33) Metrics that matter

(54:43) Competitor analysis and CPC insights

(56:15) Custom reports and data visualization

(56:38) Understanding impression and click share

(59:10) True competition metrics

(01:02:14) Attribution and incrementality

(01:08:52) Building a performance marketing team

(01:10:53) Creative and ad copy collaboration

(01:15:48) Managing workload and hiring strategy

(01:20:52) Training and onboarding new hires

(01:24:41) Impact of ATT on performance marketing

(01:25:56) The power of creative in ads

(01:29:47) Using AI in performance marketing

(01:37:16) Lightning round

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Referenced:

• Shopify: https://www.shopify.com/

• What Is Performance Marketing?: https://www.shopify.com/blog/performance-marketing

• Google AI: https://ai.google/

• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/

• Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/

• Booking.com: https://www.booking.com/

• Credit Karma: https://www.creditkarma.com/

• Hairstory: https://hairstory.com/

• Google Display Network: https://www.semrush.com/blog/google-display-network/

• SoftLayer Becomes Part of IBM’s SmartCloud: https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/deals/softlayer-becomes-part-of-ibm-s-smartcloud

• Coca-Cola Freestyle: https://www.coca-colafreestyle.com/

• Monday.com: https://monday.com/

• How to sell your ideas and rise within your company | Casey Winters, Eventbrite: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-sell-your-ideas-and-rise-within

• Thinking beyond frameworks | Casey Winters (Pinterest, Eventbrite, Airbnb, Tinder, Canva, Reddit, Grubhub): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/thinking-beyond-frameworks-casey

• The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—But Some Don’t: https://www.amazon.com/Signal-Noise-Many-Predictions-Fail-but/dp/0143125087

• Courtney Wenneborg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cwenneborg/

• PPC Hero: https://www.ppchero.com/

• Another Deep Dive into Auction Insights, by Jacob Brown: https://www.ppchero.com/another-deep-dive-into-auction-insights/

•Multitouch: https://multitouch.app/

• What is time decay attribution?: https://growthmethod.com/what-is-time-decay-attribution/

• Linear: https://linear.app/

• Consumer Heterogeneity and Paid Search Effectiveness: A Large-Scale Field Experiment: https://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/stadelis/BNT_ECMA_rev.pdf

• ADT: https://www.adt.com/

• Shopify Bursts: https://focus.business/blog/shopify-bursts/

• The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter: https://www.amazon.com/First-90-Days-Strategies-Expanded/dp/1422188612

• Kat Nguyen on Shopify: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katngy/

• Dollar Shave Club ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUG9qYTJMsI

• The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living: https://www.amazon.com/Daily-Stoic-Meditations-Wisdom-Perseverance/dp/0735211736

• Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck—Why Some Thrive Despite Them All: https://www.amazon.com/Great-Choice-Uncertainty-Luck-Why-Despite/dp/0062120999

• X-Men ’97 on Disney+: https://www.disneyplus.com/series/x-men-97/vc1XIz90ZNH5

• RRR on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81476453

• The Playlist on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81186296

• Welcome to Wrexham on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/welcome-to-wrexham-c6906d50-d06c-40d1-a57c-1885d9dc2fef

• The Billion Dollar Code on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81074012

• Magic Mind: https://magicmind.com/

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

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