Hold onto your dashboards, after interviewing two of the most brilliant performance marketers (Saif Alnasur and Mohamed Mokhtar), we’re serving up their unfiltered answers. To stomp out bias.

I’ve slipped in a mini CRM action item under each section, think of them as your next-step checklist for aligning acquisition and retention. Ready for a candid Q&A that turns siloed tactics into a true growth tag-team? Yalla! 

Section 1: Understanding Their Role & Perspective.

How would you describe the role of performance marketing in the overall growth strategy?

Saif Alnasur:  

• Performance marketing is the engine that drives demand at scale. It's responsible for acquiring high-intent users efficiently, but more importantly, for bringing in the right users - those who are likely to convert and stick around. It's not just about ROAS anymore. It's about contributing to a healthy, sustainable customer base that reinforces the brand. Paid ads are often the first touchpoint, so performance plays a huge role in shaping perception. Within a growth framework, the goal is not just to scale fast but to scale in a way that compounds over time and supports the long-term health of the business. The challenge now is balancing short-term results with long-term brand equity, and making sure every click also builds something lasting.

Mohamed Mokhtar:

• Performance marketing is how growth gets executed. It turns strategy into measurable outcomes. It’s not just about spending on ads. It’s about building a repeatable engine that drives acquisition, monetization, and feedback loops. In every project I’ve worked on, performance marketing has been at the center of the go-to-market effort. It's where creative, targeting, product, and analytics all come together to drive results.

What are the key KPIs you focus on daily or weekly?

Saif Alnasur:  

• Performance marketing is the engine that drives demand at scale. It's responsible for acquiring high-intent users efficiently, but more importantly, for bringing in the right users - those who are likely to convert and stick around. It's not just about ROAS anymore. It's about contributing to a healthy, sustainable customer base that reinforces the brand. Paid ads are often the first touchpoint, so performance plays a huge role in shaping perception. Within a growth framework, the goal is not just to scale fast but to scale in a way that compounds over time and supports the long-term health of the business. The challenge now is balancing short-term results with long-term brand equity, and making sure every click also builds something lasting.

Mohamed Mokhtar:

• Performance marketing is how growth gets executed. It turns strategy into measurable outcomes. It’s not just about spending on ads. It’s about building a repeatable engine that drives acquisition, monetization, and feedback loops. In every project I’ve worked on, performance marketing has been at the center of the go-to-market effort. It's where creative, targeting, product, and analytics all come together to drive results.

What are the key KPIs you focus on daily or weekly?

Saif Alnasur:  

• Top-line metrics like ROAS, CAC, and revenue are a given. But we also look closely at cost efficiency by channel, new vs. returning customer mix, and payback period. Those indicators give us a clearer view of whether we're scaling in the right direction - not just acquiring volume, but acquiring value. We're constantly asking: are we bringing in the kinds of customers that stick, engage, and drive repeat purchases?

Mohamed Mokhtar:

• It depends on the lifecycle stage we’re working on, but typically I look at:

1. Cost per in-app conversion, like form submissions or onboarding completions

2.  Conversion rates at each funnel stage

3.  LTV to CAC

4.  ROAS by platform

5.  Retention rates and monetization triggers

6. All of this is tracked through event-based analytics and passed into Meta, Google, Apple, and LinkedIn for optimization.

What do you wish more people understood about your work?

Saif Alnasur:  

• That performance isn't just levers and budgets. It's part creative, part strategy, part behavioral psychology. And it's incredibly fragile. Every element, from landing page speed to post-purchase communication, can affect outcomes. People tend to look at ads in isolation, but performance is just the visible tip of a much larger system. If product, UX, or lifecycle touch-points don’t align, even the best top-of-funnel work can collapse under its own weight. It’s not about getting someone to click - it’s about designing a path worth continuing.

Mohamed Mokhtar:

• That it’s not just traffic and ads. Performance marketing is about systems thinking. It connects creative, product flows, user psychology, and data. When someone sees a campaign that converts, they don’t see the six failed iterations that came before or the insights behind the audience targeting. Great performance marketing is deeply integrated with both the business and the product.

A CRM Marketer Comment: Performance marketing kicks off demand, but CRM fans that spark into lasting loyalty by syncing first-touch messaging with every step of the journey.

Section 2: Collaboration with CRM.

How often do you collaborate with CRM teams, and in what ways?

Saif Alnasur:  

• It’s constant. We align on promos, audience priorities, and key lifecycle moments. In a conventional growth setup, CRM and performance sit side by side - both working toward the same goals, just through different stages of the funnel. We rely on CRM insights to refine paid targeting, understand who's engaged or at risk of churning, and identify who’s most likely to convert or upgrade. That feedback loop is what keeps the growth engine running smoothly.

Mohamed Mokhtar:

• Ideally every week. We align on lifecycle stages, define triggers for reactivation, and make sure the messaging is consistent across paid and owned channels. For example, we’ve used CRM signals like incomplete form submissions to build retargeting audiences and re-engagement flows. That kind of collaboration helped reduce wasted spend and increase conversion rates.

Can you share a time when CRM and performance successfully worked together on a campaign?

Saif Alnasur:  

• During a recent mid-season sale, we ran a performance campaign targeting cold audiences while CRM reactivated lapsed users with tailored messaging. The overlap was intentional. When CRM re-engagement warmed up users, we launched retargeting ads to push them over the line. Conversion rates spiked compared to running either channel in isolation.

Mohamed Mokhtar:

• Yes. In one case, we shifted our strategy from install-based campaigns to lifecycle-based optimization. CRM helped identify users who dropped off mid-funnel, and we used that data to build retargeting campaigns and better lookalikes. That improved submission rates by over 20 percent and reduced cost per acquisition. In another case, aligning WhatsApp flows with CRM insights made a big difference in conversion quality.

Where do you see friction or overlap between CRM and performance, and how do you think we can solve that?

Saif Alnasur:  

• The biggest friction is around ownership of middle-funnel audiences. Both teams want to activate the same segments but often with different messages or timing. Attribution tends to amplify that tension. When a customer sees a paid ad, gets a CRM message, and then converts, it becomes a debate over who gets the credit - which is the wrong conversation.

  
  

• In a proper growth setup, CRM and performance aren’t competing channels. They’re part of the same system, working toward the same outcome. The real solution is to shift the focus from attribution to coordination. That means building joint strategies around audience planning, campaign sequencing, and shared success metrics. When both teams operate with a unified view of the user journey, attribution becomes less about ownership and more about impact.

Mohamed Mokhtar:

• The biggest challenge is usually pace. Performance teams move fast and iterate weekly, while CRM often works on longer timelines. To fix that, it helps to map the full user journey together, define who owns what stage, and run shared experiments with aligned goals. That approach tends to reduce friction and improve collaboration.

A CRM Marketer Comment: True alignment means sharing segments, triggers, and feedback loops, CRM data is the north star guiding smarter performance campaigns.

Section 3: Strategic Alignment.

How do you see the difference between short-term acquisition goals and long-term retention?

Saif Alnasur:  

• Short-term goals keep the lights on. Long-term retention builds the brand. You can’t scale profitably if you're constantly churning users - eventually, your acquisition efforts start feeling like a leaky bucket.

• Short-term acquisition is about speed and volume. It drives immediate results. Retention, on the other hand, compounds over time. It turns one-time buyers into loyal customers and gives your brand staying power.

• That’s why it's not enough to hit CAC or ROAS targets in isolation. Growth-minded teams know it’s about acquiring with intent. That means prioritizing users who are more likely to stick, engage, and convert again - not just once, but over time.

• Retention doesn’t begin post-purchase. It starts with the ad someone sees, the message that pulls them in, and the experience that follows. If there’s a disconnect between how someone is acquired and what the brand actually delivers, you’ve already lost them. The goal isn’t just to bring people in - it’s to do it in a way that makes long-term retention possible

Mohamed Mokhtar:

• Short-term goals are about generating velocity. Long-term retention creates value. Acquisition brings people into the funnel, but retention compounds their impact. In practice, that means building acquisition flows that transition smoothly into onboarding and re-engagement journeys. Performance lights the spark, and CRM sustains the fire.

How do you think CRM supports performance efforts beyond the point of acquisition?

Saif Alnasur:  

• CRM amplifies performance by improving payback speed and increasing the lifetime value of acquired users. Every email, push notification, or loyalty nudge makes your CAC more worthwhile. It’s like compounding interest on every dollar spent - the more touch-points that drive repeat behavior, the more profitable each acquisition becomes over time.

• But CRM’s impact isn’t just financial. It also helps performance stay smarter. By feeding back data on which users engage, churn, or convert again, CRM gives performance teams the insight they need to refine targeting, creative, and channel mix. It closes the loop.

• In a growth framework, CRM isn’t downstream from performance. It’s a partner in shaping customer quality, guiding acquisition strategy, and turning one-time buyers into high-value segments. The real win is when both teams are aligned not just on numbers, but on how to move people through the journey with consistency.

Mohamed Mokhtar:

• CRM closes the loop. It shows which leads actually convert, what behaviors predict churn, and where the user experience breaks down. That insight helps refine targeting, creative, and audience quality. It also helps performance teams prioritize the right segments and suppress the wrong ones.

Do you think both teams should align on shared KPIs, or is it better to keep them separate?

Saif Alnasur:  

• They need distinct KPIs but shared accountability. CRM shouldn’t be judged on retention in isolation, and performance shouldn’t be judged on acquisition without LTV. The shared KPI is customer quality. If that’s strong, both teams are doing their job.

• Customer quality bridges the gap - it forces performance to think beyond the click and CRM to think beyond churn. It also keeps both sides focused on the bigger picture: are we attracting the right people, and are we giving them a reason to stay? 

Mohamed Mokhtar:

• There should be a few shared KPIs like CAC, LTV, and retention rate. Beyond that, each team can have their own operational metrics. This balance allows everyone to stay focused while still rowing in the same direction. It also makes it easier to collaborate without stepping on each other’s responsibilities.

A CRM Marketer Comment: Weave CRM insights into your ads and onboarding so acquisition and retention aren’t at odds, but amplify each other.

Section 4: Growth Mindset

 In your opinion, what does sustainable growth look like?

Saif Alnasur:  

• Sustainable growth means you’re acquiring users faster than you're churning them, and doing so profitably. It means your LTV:CAC ratio isn’t a vanity metric - it’s backed by consistent post-purchase engagement, healthy margins, and a brand people want to come back to. Growth isn’t just about more. It’s about getting better.

Mohamed Mokhtar:

• It’s growth that compounds over time. Each campaign should make the next one smarter, cheaper, and more efficient. Sustainable growth means your acquisition channels don’t burn out, your retention improves, and your unit economics get better. That kind of growth usually comes from tight feedback loops, product-channel fit, and a culture of experimentation.

How do you balance scale and quality in your campaigns, and can CRM help with that?

Saif Alnasur:  

• You scale by learning who your best users are and finding more of them - not by chasing volume for the sake of it. CRM helps validate this by showing which audiences retain best, engage most, or have higher AOV. Those insights feed back into targeting and creative strategy.

Mohamed Mokhtar:

• You only scale what proves it can deliver value. Just because something has a low CPA doesn’t mean it’s worth scaling. CRM helps define what quality looks like,  whether that’s retention, revenue, or engagement. The stronger the connection between CRM signals and paid optimization, the easier it is to scale the right things without wasting budget.

What advice would you give CRM marketers to better align with performance goals?

Saif Alnasur:  

• Be data-driven, but also predictive. Don’t just respond to churn - anticipate it. Share early signals with performance so we’re not optimizing in separate directions. The more we can course correct together, the stronger the outcomes. And when possible, build retention loops from day one, not day 30. The earlier CRM shows up in the journey, the easier it is to turn a first-time customer into a long-term one.

Mohamed Mokhtar:

• Share insights early. Let us know what users are doing after acquisition. Flag drop-offs when they happen. Reflect Ad promises in your journeys. And most importantly, experiment with us. Some of the highest-performing campaigns I’ve worked on were the result of close collaboration between CRM and performance

A CRM Marketer Comment: Feed real-time engagement and churn signals back into performance experiments to turn one-off wins into sustainable growth.

Annnnnd cuuut! There you have it, straight from two performance pros. Now it’s on us CRM ppl to turn those nuggets into real-world wins: plug them into our data, sync up with performance, and build journeys people actually stick around for. Alignment is always a win win.

See you next Monday. Salam 👋🏼