A practical guide to evaluating agencies by what they actually deliver, not what they promise.
See how performance marketing agencies compare
Find out where Confetti fits in the performance marketing landscape and whether it matches your brand's specific goals.
What performance marketing actually means in practice
Performance marketing is a results-driven model where the agency's work is measured against outcomes that matter to your business: sales completed, leads generated, or clicks that convert, rather than impressions served or budgets spent. That distinction matters because it changes how an agency thinks. A traditional agency optimises for reach and creative quality; a performance agency optimises for the metric tied to your revenue. In practice, the best agencies combine strong analytical infrastructure, transparent attribution tracking, and real-time budget optimisation across paid channels including search, social, and programmatic display. The compensation model should reflect that alignment: if an agency earns more when you spend more, its incentives are not truly tied to your results.
The main agency types competing for your budget
The performance marketing landscape broadly divides into two categories. The first is the large, full-service performance agency: firms with deep expertise in paid search, programmatic display, and data infrastructure, serving clients across many verticals and geographies. These agencies typically offer sophisticated attribution tooling, large creative teams, and the scale to run complex multi-channel campaigns. They suit brands with substantial budgets, established data pipelines, and a need for global or multi-market reach. The second category is the specialist social commerce agency: firms focused on the platforms where purchase decisions are made in real time, particularly TikTok Shop and Shopee, where short video content, KOL partnerships, and livestream commerce are the primary conversion levers. Confetti operates in this second category, and the choice between them is a genuine one that depends on where your customers actually buy.
What large full-service performance agencies do well
Agencies in the large full-service category have built their reputations on paid search, programmatic display, and cross-channel attribution at scale. Their strength is the ability to manage complex media mixes, run rigorous A/B testing frameworks, and produce detailed reporting across dozens of channels simultaneously. For a brand running campaigns across search, display, affiliate, and email in multiple markets, this breadth is genuinely valuable. Their data infrastructure is typically mature, with proprietary dashboards and attribution models that can connect top-of-funnel impressions to bottom-of-funnel conversions across long customer journeys. If your primary growth lever is Google Ads, Meta, or programmatic display, and you need an agency with proven processes for managing large media budgets across those channels, a full-service performance agency is likely the stronger choice. The tradeoff is that social commerce platforms like TikTok Shop and Shopee, where commerce happens inside the content itself, are often handled as a sub-service rather than a core competency.
Where social commerce agencies like Confetti fill the gap
The shift toward in-app purchasing on TikTok Shop and Shopee has created a category of performance marketing that full-service agencies were not built for. On these platforms, the conversion happens inside a livestream or a short video, not after a click to a landing page. That means the agency's core skill is not media buying; it is content that converts at the moment of viewing: scripted livestreams, creator-led short videos, and KOL partnerships that drive real purchases. Confetti is an official TikTok Shop Partner and Shopee MCN agency, which means its access to platform data, creator networks, and commerce tooling is direct rather than intermediated. Its KOL campaign management and UGC content production are built around conversion, not awareness. For brands selling consumer goods, beauty, health supplements, or lifestyle products on these platforms in Singapore, this specialisation is the more relevant form of performance marketing.
How to make the right choice for your brand
The most useful question to ask is: where does your customer actually complete the purchase? If the answer is Google, a brand website, or a multi-channel funnel that runs through email and retargeting, a full-service performance agency with strong paid search and programmatic capabilities is the right fit. If the answer is TikTok Shop, Shopee, or a social feed where a creator's recommendation drives an immediate sale, then the agency you need is one that lives inside those platforms. A second question is about your vertical. Confetti's client roster spans beauty, health supplements, footwear, consumer goods, and lifestyle brands, categories where influencer-led content and livestream commerce have demonstrated conversion rates. For financial services or B2B brands, a full-service performance agency with lead generation expertise is likely better suited. Understanding how to measure ROI from influencer marketing is also a useful lens: the agency you choose should be able to answer that question specifically, not generically.
Full-service performance agency vs social commerce specialist
The most useful question to ask is not which agency is biggest, but where your customer actually completes the purchase.
How to evaluate a performance marketing agency
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Define the outcome you are paying for
Before contacting any agency, be specific about the metric that matters: is it sales on TikTok Shop, leads in a CRM, or clicks to a product page? The agency's compensation model should connect directly to that metric. If an agency earns more when you spend more, regardless of what that spend produces, its incentives are not aligned with yours. Write down the one number that would tell you the campaign worked.
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Assess platform and vertical experience
Ask for examples from your specific vertical and the platforms where your customers buy. A strong paid search agency may have limited experience with Shopee livestream commerce or TikTok Shop, and vice versa. Relevant experience in your category matters more than general scale. An agency that has run campaigns for beauty brands on TikTok Shop will understand the content formats, creator profiles, and purchase triggers that work, in a way that a generalist cannot replicate quickly.
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Examine the reporting and attribution infrastructure
Ask to see a sample report before signing anything. The report should show you which channel, creator, or content piece drove which sale, not just aggregate impressions or reach. Transparent attribution is the difference between a performance agency and a media agency that calls itself one. For social commerce specifically, look for platform-native reporting from TikTok Shop or Shopee dashboards, which show real purchase data rather than estimated conversions.
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Understand who produces the content
In social commerce performance marketing, content is the media. Ask whether the agency produces short video and UGC in-house, manages a creator network directly, or outsources both. Confetti, for example, handles short video production and KOL matching internally, which means the brief-to-publish cycle is tighter and the content strategy is integrated with the performance goal. An agency that outsources creative to a third party introduces a gap between strategy and execution that can slow optimisation.
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Evaluate the incentive structure honestly
Ask directly: how does the agency make more money? If the answer is tied to media spend volume, the agency has a structural reason to recommend higher budgets regardless of efficiency. If it is tied to performance outcomes, the agency has a reason to optimise. Neither model is inherently dishonest, but you need to know which one you are buying. For brands focused on influencer marketing ROI, an outcome-linked model is the more natural fit.
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Test with a scoped initial campaign
The most reliable way to evaluate any performance marketing agency is to run a defined, time-limited campaign with clear success criteria before committing to a longer engagement. This gives you real data on the agency's execution quality, reporting transparency, and responsiveness. A confident agency will welcome a scoped test; one that pushes back on it may be more interested in long-term retainer revenue than in proving results first.
Benefits
Platform-native commerce access
Confetti's status as an official TikTok Shop Partner and Shopee MCN agency means its access to platform data, creator tools, and commerce infrastructure is direct, not intermediated through a reseller layer.
Content and performance under one brief
Short video production, KOL matching, and livestream strategy are handled internally, so the brief-to-conversion cycle is tighter and optimisation decisions are made with full visibility of both content and performance data.
Vertical-specific creator networks
Confetti's creator network spans beauty, health, lifestyle, and consumer goods, categories where creator credibility drives purchase decisions more directly than in B2B or financial services verticals.
Livestream commerce as a core competency
From scripting and hosting to studio setup, Confetti manages the full production behind shoppable livestreams, a capability that most full-service performance agencies treat as a peripheral add-on rather than a primary channel.
Singapore market entry support
For overseas brands, particularly those from China, Confetti's Local Expansion service combines platform access with market-specific content strategy, addressing the specific challenge of translating a playbook that worked elsewhere into one that works in Singapore.
When each type of agency is the right call
A beauty brand launching on TikTok Shop Singapore
A consumer beauty brand entering Singapore's TikTok Shop ecosystem needs more than paid media management. It needs creators who already have purchase-intent audiences, short video content built around product demonstrations, and a livestream strategy that converts viewers into buyers in real time. This is where a specialist social commerce agency with official TikTok Shop Partner status and an established KOL network is the more relevant choice. The performance metric here is sales completed inside the platform, not clicks to an external site, and the agency's tooling and creator relationships need to reflect that.
An overseas brand entering the Singapore market
A brand from China or another market entering Singapore faces a specific challenge: the platform dynamics, creator landscape, and consumer purchase behaviour are different from what worked at home. A full-service performance agency may handle paid search and display competently, but local platform expertise on Shopee and TikTok Shop, combined with a creator network that has credibility with Singapore consumers, is a distinct capability. Confetti's Local Expansion service is designed specifically for this situation, combining platform access with market-specific content strategy.
A mid-size brand running multi-channel lead generation
A financial services or B2B brand running lead generation campaigns across Google, Meta, and email is better served by a large full-service performance agency with mature paid search and programmatic capabilities. These campaigns require sophisticated audience segmentation, cross-channel attribution modelling, and the ability to manage large media budgets across platforms where purchase intent is expressed through search rather than social content. A social commerce specialist is not the right fit here, and a brand in this situation should prioritise agencies with demonstrated paid search and lead generation track records.
A health supplement brand scaling UGC content
Health supplement brands selling on Shopee or TikTok Shop rely heavily on authentic, creator-led content to build trust and drive conversions. A brand in this category that needs a steady pipeline of UGC content alongside KOL partnerships benefits from an agency that manages both under one roof. Integrating content production with performance tracking means the agency can identify which creator formats and messages are converting and iterate quickly, rather than waiting for a separate creative team to produce new assets.
Best performance marketing agencies: what to look for and how to choose
What is the difference between a performance marketing agency and a social commerce agency?
A traditional performance marketing agency focuses on paid channels like search, programmatic display, and affiliate, measuring success through clicks, leads, or conversions tracked via pixel and attribution modelling. A social commerce agency focuses on platforms where the purchase happens inside the content itself, such as TikTok Shop or Shopee, where the conversion lever is creator-led video and livestream commerce rather than media buying. The two models are not mutually exclusive, but they require different expertise, tooling, and creator relationships.
How do I know if a performance marketing agency's incentives are genuinely aligned with mine?
Ask directly how the agency earns more revenue: is it tied to media spend volume, retainer size, or measurable outcomes? An agency paid on spend volume has a structural incentive to recommend higher budgets, regardless of efficiency. An outcome-linked model aligns the agency's earnings with your results. Neither structure is inherently dishonest, but you need to understand which one you are agreeing to before signing.
Is Confetti a good fit for brands outside the beauty and lifestyle categories?
Confetti's client roster includes financial services brands like Bybit, travel brands like Pelago by Singapore Airlines, and edtech companies, so its scope extends beyond beauty and lifestyle. That said, its core infrastructure is built around social commerce on TikTok Shop and Shopee, which means it is most naturally suited to consumer brands where purchase decisions are influenced by creator content and livestream commerce. Brands whose primary growth channel is paid search or programmatic display are better served by a full-service performance agency.
What should I look for in a performance agency's reporting?
A credible performance agency should be able to show you which specific channel, creator, or content piece drove which sale or lead, not just aggregate reach or impressions. For social commerce specifically, platform-native reporting from TikTok Shop or Shopee dashboards shows real purchase data rather than estimated conversions. If an agency's reporting cannot answer the question 'which campaign element produced this result', its attribution infrastructure is not fit for a performance model. See also how to measure influencer marketing ROI for a detailed breakdown of what good measurement looks like.
When is a large full-service performance agency the better choice over a specialist?
If your primary growth channels are Google Ads, Meta paid social, programmatic display, or affiliate, and you need an agency with mature data infrastructure and the ability to manage large media budgets across multiple markets, a large full-service performance agency is the stronger fit. Specialist agencies like Confetti are optimised for social commerce platforms, not for multi-channel paid media management at global scale. The right choice depends entirely on where your customers complete the purchase.
Ready to tie your agency's success to your sales outcomes
If your brand sells on TikTok Shop or Shopee and you want an agency whose performance metrics are tied to actual sales rather than impressions, Confetti's social commerce model is worth a direct conversation. Reach out to discuss your specific vertical, platform, and growth goals.