performance marketing 2026 from A to Z
18 chapters, about 25,000 words. Read in two hours, apply for a year.
This is not a “buy traffic from a blogger and sell an infogypsy training manual” course. It's compressed product of eight years of work with performance in Russia: Gaming, E-com, Fintech, MedTech. From budget 50,000 ₽ per month at the start up to 124,000,000 ₽ turnover EZ KATKA. Thousands of leaked advertising tests and a couple of dozen survivors who keep clients' businesses afloat even now.
Performance marketing is not about “setting up Direct.” This is a bunch of four layers: unit economics → channels → creatives → analytics. One layer is broken - the money is burning and no “new strategy” will help. This guide goes through all four layers without theoretical fit.
Who is it useful for: a marketer who wants to grow from a “campaign setter” into performance lead. Small business that is tired of paying agencies and wants figure it out yourself. Startup up to the first 100 clients. CMO who assembled the team and we need a common language. Teachers who need a structured framework.
Who is not useful: those who are looking for “secret techniques” and magic buttons. Here only formulas, benchmarks, checklists and stories about how we broke something. None “The neural network writes you 100 ads a day and you earn a million”: guide ends with a chapter about “when performance doesn’t work” - there are more such situations, what you want to believe.
table of contents
- 01Introduction: what is performance and who needs itWhat is performance marketing, how does it differ from branding, who needs it and who is strictly contraindicated.
- 02Metrics: CPL, CPA, CAC, ROAS, LTVMain performance metrics: formulas, typical values for niches, when which metric becomes the main one.
- 03Russian Channels 2026: Yandex Direct, VK Ads, Telegram, OKWhat works in Russian performance in 2026. Comparison table for CPC, reach and audience type.
- 04Yandex Direct: from scratch to the first campaignDirect account without filler: search vs YAN, manual bids vs auto strategies 2026, negative keywords, audiences, retargeting.
- 05VK Ads: new account, formats, audiencesNew VK Ads vs old MyTarget. Universal placement, point formats, look-alike in VK.
- 06Telegram Ads: sponsored placements and official accountOfficial Telegram Ads with a threshold of €2M, seeding via Telega.in, ORD and ERID marking.
- 07Retargeting: pixels, audiences, frequencyYa.Metrica and VK pixels, segmentation by events, frequency cap, what to do when iOS cuts cookies.
- 08Look-alike, segments, exceptionsHow to build LAL by customers and visitors, custom audiences vs lookalike, exceptions for existing customers.
- 09Creatives and A/B tests8x CTR difference between the best and worst creative. A/B test structure, sufficient volume for significance.
- 10Landing: first screen, offer, CTALanding page structure with 4-7% conversion. Five common mistakes that cut your conversion rate in half.
- 11Analytics: GA4, Metrica, attributionGA4 + Ya.Metrika why both, last-click vs data-driven, offline conversions and a long customer path.
- 12Budget: how to calculate it, how to defend it to the CEO“Ceiling” formula through LTV and payback, budget protection to management, 60/30/10 layout.
- 13Media plan and flyingMedia plan template, flights and seasonality, when to change the budget during the quarter.
- 14Contractor: how to choose and not loseAgency vs freelancer, selection checklist, red flags in the brief and in the contract.
- 15Common mistakes in performance 2026Top 10 mistakes: wide audience, lack of UTM, no attribution, no LAL, no retargeting and others.
- 16AI tools for performance marketers 2026ChatGPT for creative copywriting, n8n for automation, Claude Code for landing pages and bots.
- 17When performance doesn't work: 5 scenariosFive scenarios when advertising is useless: no PMF, long cycle, weak front office, bad channel, negative unit economics.
- 18What's next: next stepsChecklist for the first 30 days, which calculators to use, which blog articles to read next.
what to do after the guide
If you would like to discuss application to your specific case, I have an open free 30 minute meeting. Without presentations and sales: you show the funnel, We look where it flows, I give out hypotheses. Next - either you do it yourself, or take me to work.