Performance Marketing Unlocked

How has PPC and paid media evolved—and what skills do marketers need to thrive in an era of automation, AI, and emerging platforms? In this episode, PMW’s News Reporter Reem Makari speaks with Clotilde de La Noue, Acting Head of Digital and Performance Marketing at the Financial Times; Lydia Wigley, Paid Media Strategy Director at Croud; and Tom Chandler, Founder of The Digital Lighthouse. Togethe...

UK digital adspend is set to surpass £30bn in 2025 and the creator economy is now worth over £18bn globally, however, brands are failing to get the most out of their influencer partnerships, according to an expert. On this episode of the Performance Marketing Unlocked podcast, Caspar Lee, co-founder of Influencer and former YouTube mega-star (15:53), outlines the challenges facing creators today,...

What does a truly modern, data-led marketing strategy look like in a post-cookie, AI-powered world? In this episode, PMW’s News Reporter Reem Makari speaks with Jodie Millward, Agency Partnerships Lead UK at Linkby, and Noelle Runo, Head of International Marketing and Communications at Making Science. Both 30 Under 30 winners talk about why some data strategies feel outdated, how brands can get mo...

Retail media is one of the fastest growing channels in adland, with industries such as finance and travel among the latest joining the party – but will the retail media bubble eventually burst? On this episode of the Performance Marketing Unlocked podcast, Katrina Smart, VP of Digital Commerce at Mars United Commerce (15:14), uses her decade of experience in digital commerce to inform her take on...

SEO is a performance channel that has changed rapidly over the years, but are the old rules still relevant in a world that is impacted by AI and social media? In the first ever episode of Digital Disruptors, winners from this year’s 30 under 30 awards talk about the generational differences in SEO thinking, how AI impacts it, and the future of search beyond Google. PMW’s News Reporter Reem Makari...

As affiliate marketing evolves, brands need to ensure their programmes drive true incremental value – not just discount-driven sales. But with rising costs and increasing competition for top-tier affiliates, how can marketers ensure profitability while driving long-term customer growth? In part two of our sponsored Performance Marketing Unlocked podcast series, brought to you in partnership with R...

Connected TV (CTV), steaming, digital and online are some of the most commonly heard terms across adland... but what do they actually mean? According to two industry veterans, nothing. On this episode of the Performance Marketing Unlocked podcast, Wayne Butler, Head of Media Effectiveness at Sky Media and Nigel Walley, CEO at Decipher (20:18), argue that many of the terms and phrases often thrown...

On this special episode of the Performance Marketing Unlocked podcast, learn how to build an effective affiliate marketing strategy that can scale globally while maintaining local appeal. Recorded live on stage at PMW Unlocked 2025 and brought to you in partnership with Rakuten Advertising, PMW's Multimedia Editor Joseph Arthur and Rakuten Advertising's Senior Vice President of Advertising, EMEA,...

Les Binet, Dr Grace Kite, Sophie Miller and Calfreezy are just some of the marketing minds who graced the stage at PMW Unlocked 2025, captivating the thousands of attendees with insights, anecdotes and crucially, data. But what were they all talking about? On this episode of the Performance Marketing Unlocked podcast, the PMW editorial team (2:18) discuss the biggest lessons, surprises and themes...

"We don't have much option but to put prices up." Undoubtedly, both the current macro and micro-economic climates will have businesses and consumers tightening their respective purse strings. On this episode of the Performance Marketing Unlocked podcast, Helena Hudson, Founder of Real Eating Company (21:05), talks all things small business. From the inception of her own over two decades ago to the...

Just about every marketer has the Super Bowl circled on their calendars each year. Whether you're working with a brand that splurges on an £8.5m halftime ad slot or with a more modest organisation attempting to leverage the 120 million strong audience in real time, the opportunities are boundless... but unfortunately, so are the risks. On this episode of the Performance Marketing Unlocked podcast,...

Social media has changed in recent weeks. Fuelled by the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, TikTok's potential ban in the US and Meta's removal of fact checkers in the name of "free speech" has raised some eyebrows across the advertising industry. As a rapidly growing performance marketing channel, the implications of this social upheaval – particularly from a brand safety perspective – ar...

Google has been the King of Search since 1998 – but for how much longer can it retain the crown? Social platforms like TikTok and Instagram have become popular discovery tools and large language models like ChatGPT can serve as search engines in their own right, leaving Google to fight a war on several fronts to maintain its supposed search "monopoly". But with a looming TikTok ban in the US and M...

The year is almost over and you know what that means, it's time to look back on what was and throw out some hot takes for what's ahead. On the final episode of the Performance Marketing Unlocked podcast season 3, the entire PMW editorial team (1:51) is in the studio to talk about 2024's biggest surprises, 2025's most exciting trends, and assess the myriad of opportunities and threats facing adland...

Ongoing customer loyalty is widely agreed as being pivotal to any businesses long-term success, but how to best go about creating it is up for debate. On this episode of the Performance Marketing Unlocked podcast, Guy Meyers (28:29), Senior Director of Customer Success (Global) at Recurly, argues why – despite loyalty ultimately being an upper funnel, brand-building play – data is the most valuabl...

Where will retail media be 12 months from now? Will the UK market finally be as "mature" as the US? Will AI have upended the channel? And will the term itself still be common place? To answer these questions, PMW's Editor Robin Langford (25:00) joined host Joe at Retail Media Summit UK '24. Recorded on the ground at the event, Robin and Joe discuss the channel's top talking points and reveal their...

What's Google's AI innovation strategy? And how is it responding to social media's impact on the search landscape? On this episode of the Performance Marketing Unlocked podcast, Dyana Najdi (23:56), Managing Director for Google Advertising UKI – leading specialist teams who deliver AI-driven solutions for partners and customers – lifts the veil on how the tech giant strength-tests its AI output an...

Will AI help put an end to the agency vs in-house vs in-house agency debate? On this episode of the Performance Marketing Unlocked podcast, Lydia Hinchliff (16:18), Director of Strategy at performance marketing agency, Journey Further, argues why we shouldn't all throw caution to the wind and hop aboard the AI-train, believing instead that a human-driven, holistic approach to both breaking down ma...

What media platforms do marketers prefer to spend on? And using what channels? Perhaps more importantly, how do their preferences align with consumers? On this episode of the Performance Marketing Unlocked podcast, Gonca Bubani (13:04), Global Thought Leadership Director of Media at Kantar, unpacks their latest Media Reactions report, reviewing the findings in an attempt to determine whether or no...

Creating an identity on social media is becoming increasingly important for brands, and leveraging popular trends like 'Brat Summer' and 'Demure' can be a quick-fire way of making headway in this respect. But it doesn't come without risk, particularly when investing in influencers and creators to send a brand's message out into the world. On this episode of the Performance Marketing Unlocked podca...

Is audio advertising a viable performance marketing channel? The millions of Brits listening to music and podcasts everyday tell us there is certainly an active audience ready to be leveraged, but UK adspend indicates that marketers aren't yet sold on the medium. To convince them otherwise, this episode of the Performance Marketing Unlocked podcast features Ed Couchman (20:19), Head of Sales for t...

Maintaining brand safety in advertising is becoming increasingly difficult. From ensuring ads are placed within appropriate contexts to preventing wasted adspend caused by overzealous and outdated exclusion lists, modern digital advertising can be a minefield for publishers, advertisers, marketers and brands alike. And following news that X's lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers (WF...

Chrome will no longer be deprecating third-party cookies before H1 2025. Announced towards the end of last month, the news sent shockwaves through the industry, leaving marketers wondering exactly what the future of data collection is going to hold. Seeking to answer all the burning questions, this episode of the Performance Marketing Unlocked podcast features PMW's Premium Content Editor, Jyoti R...

From sifting through over 600 applicants for single executive jobs to trying to find diamonds in the rough to fill junior positions, it's been a difficult 12 months for the performance marketing workforce – but with the economy trending upwards, are conditions about to improve? This episode of the Performance Marketing Unlocked podcast features PMW's Premium Content Editor, Jyoti Rambhai (3:18), w...

PMW's Cannes Lions 2024 podcast miniseries concludes with this special, AI-focused mini-episode featuring Duncan Southgate, Senior Director, Creative and Media Solutions at Kantar. Recorded during day two of Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, the discussion centres around AI – particularly generative AI – and marketers' ever-changing relationship with the technology. Duncan joins host Joseph Art...