The way most people approach advertising is as if all the funnels are doing the same job. They choose a format, they set a budget, and they leave it up to chance. Because, after all, the person who knows nothing about your brand needs something entirely different from the person who has been to your site three times – but hasn’t converted.
An advertising strategy respects funnel stages and pays special attention to how to connect each stage as people gravitate toward your offer.
The Three Major Stages
A funnel can be broken into three stages: awareness (top), consideration (middle) and conversion (bottom). At the top, you’re introducing yourself to strangers. In the middle, you’re confirming awareness at least, and working to engage. At the bottom, you’re ready to make a sale.
The problem is that most people don’t think differently across each stage. They use the same message and format for all three, projecting the same ad to cold traffic as they would a warm audience. It fails because the questions that need to be answered across each stage are intrinsically different.
“What is this?” “Why do I care?” “Why should I do this now?”
Top of Funnel: Introduction
At this stage, your goal is simple – get your name and information out there. You’re not closing anyone. You’re just trying to make a mark so they remember you later.
Therefore, display ads are appropriate to cast wide nets across millions of sites. Keep the creative simple – your brand name, what you do, one reason to remember you. Don’t bore them with five bullet points and a call to action that requires them to act immediately.
The mistake made here is trying to force sales. Remember that you’re speaking to people that don’t know you from Adam. You haven’t earned their trust yet so there’s no way they’re handing over their credit card. Your goal is simply to be remembered.
This stage can also benefit from video ads if you have something visual to represent your brand, product or service, and even then keep it brief – fifteen seconds of one solid idea trumps a minute of coverage that nobody watches through.
When it comes to the budget, expect this will be the largest spread. You’re casting a wide net where per action will cost your far more than the retargeting campaigns and that’s okay because you’re building your audience toward the next stages.
Middle of Funnel: The Case
Now you’re talking to people who at least have some idea of who you are or what you’re offering. They may have clicked through your site once, but haven’t signed up yet. They may have viewed a video or read an article. But they haven’t decided if they care.
This is when you get slightly more specific – a great time for native ads which let you tell a longer story without being seen as an intrusive ad. Explain benefits, customer results, or share objections that are given content’s worth over an ad’s interruptive approach.
Retargeting also becomes critical here because someone visited your pricing page without subscribing? Show them a comparison chart or customer testimonials. Someone looked at a category? Put your best sellers in front of them with reviews.
Appropriate creative includes acknowledging that this isn’t their first go around with you. “Still thinking it over?”, “See why 10,000 customers chose us” work better than seeing the same generic brand name effort that didn’t resonate the first time.
Middle of funnel can benefit from a pops ad network as well – they’re already browsing something relevant and you’re introducing them in an interruptive way, but just enough to not be annoying in response.
Also important here: if someone spent five minutes on your site they’re warmer than someone who left after ten seconds – segment accordingly and give different creative based on how engaged they actually were.
Bottom of Funnel: The Close
This is where you sell! You’re talking to those who have been on multiple times and even left things in their carts or signed up for free trials. They’re close but need that extra effort from you.
Now you can be aggressive with creative like “Get 20% off this week only,” or “Start your free trial in under two minutes.” Take away friction and create urgency as well as obvious next steps.
Bottom of funnel can benefit from search ads because someone’s actively searching for solutions they’ve been considering which means they’re already in decision mode. Display retargeting becomes critical here as well – be the only thing that people see for a while until they either convert or even more, let it be known they’re opting out.
You can offer larger budget implications down here, too, because conversion rates will naturally be much higher. These people are qualified with clear interest – higher cost per click is worth it when conversion compels.
What works: sequential retargeting where messaging changes based on time. Day one – “Thanks for checking us out.” Day three – “Here’s what makes us different.” Day seven – “This offer expires soon.” You’re not repeating yourself every time they open something new; instead you’re pushing them forward.
Making Them Work Together
The beauty of connecting all three stages is that top of funnel gets you into retargeting audiences. Middle funnel warms those people up for bottom opportunities – it’s a system instead of separate random campaigns.
When tracking how people go from stage to stage, if you see tons of clicks but nobody moves into consideration, there’s a landing page problem – or an issue with what was presented as first value. If people are getting into consideration and not converting, there might be issues with proof points or offers.
Most platforms allow custom audiences based on behaviors – use them! Someone who watched 75% of your video is different than someone who only watched 10%. Someone who went through three blogs is warmer than someone who only saw your homepage.
When it comes to budget allocation for up front dollars, start here 50/30/20 with time divided accordingly – 50% toward top of funnel to build awareness efforts and tested value; 30% for those putting in the hard work but who still need some persuasion; 20% for those ready to go who need one last push (which makes sense based on time).
The Actual Outcome
It may seem complicated but funnel strategy isn’t hard – it just takes an awareness beyond one campaign at a time. Different messages and different approaches at different stages mean that it’s easy when you tailor change.
Plus, with follow through on track for how people get through the funnel, it’s even easier to blend stages so people aren’t fighting for one specific audience but are respected where they are.
Brands that get it right won’t waste dollars showing bottom of funnel conversion ads to cold traffic nor bore warm audiences with generic awareness messaging – they’ll see where someone falls in their journey and speak accordingly.
Therefore, map out what each stage means ahead of time – and how you’ll recognize somebody goes from awareness to consideration – and then final conversion – and how you’ll successfully campaign reach all three efforts. What does awareness look like? What behaviors determine someone’s gone to consideration? What shows they’re ready? The sooner they’re met where they are with appropriate messaging and staged effort, the sooner they’ll get there themselves.
