4 Actionable Reasons Why You Need a Paid Media Funnel
Key takeaways:
- A full-funnel marketing strategy follows the buyer from the top of the funnel to the bottom
- Every business can benefit from a full-funnel marketing strategy because no two customer journeys are the same
- This type of marketing strategy helps you reach new audiences, drive sales, boost consideration, and increase loyalty
- Full-funnel strategies are helpful because they ensure you don’t miss customers who enter the funnel at mid-journey (e.g. in the consideration stage)
It’s part of today’s marketing strategies to be as flexible as possible. If your customer base is like many, then discovery happens for them across multiple paid media channels at the same time. Leads may find your product from a radio ad placement, then Google it from their phones and click on an ad to learn more.
Not only do they find your product across channels but they also find you across the funnel. No two customers find your product with exactly the same journey. A potential buyer could be in the consideration stage already when they stumble upon your product, missing the awareness stage entirely.
Other buyers go through the stages in a linear way from awareness to decision. Both ways are valid (and common), so your full paid media funnel marketing strategy should account for every way a person could find your products.
That means you put equal focus on every stage of the buyer’s journey – not just the stage you think they’re most likely to latch onto your product. Your leads could find you at the very start of the journey, in the end, or somewhere in between, and you want to be able to find them no matter how non-linear the journey is.
What’s a Full paid media funnel marketing strategy?
A full paid media funnel marketing strategy is a framework for the customer journey. It’s usually separated into three or more stages. In a traditional linear funnel, you go through stages of trying to attract, engage, and delight your prospects until they decide to buy into your product or solution.
In reality, not every customer goes through the full funnel – they might land on your product while they’re in the final buying stage or somewhere in the middle. That’s why it’s so important to target the entire funnel in your strategy.
Know the top three funnels of every marketing strategy
There are different iterations of the marketing funnel to consider, like the flywheel. For now, we’ll consider the most popular version of the funnel. It includes three stages:
1. Awareness (top of the Funnel)
The top of the funnel (TOFU) is where potential leads first become aware of your brand in a linear lead cycle. Here, you’re targeting prospects that don’t yet know about your brand, product, or service, so you’ll focus on content that attracts them and shows them what you’re offering.
2. Consideration (middle of the funnel)
In the middle of the funnel (MOFU) stage, you’re aiming to earn the trust of prospects and set your brand apart by starting a relationship. This usually means engaging with personal connection – you might run ads that encourage the viewer to join an email list so you can reach out.
3. Decision (bottom of the funnel)
During the BOFU stage, you’re trying to capture leads by giving them good reasons to choose your brand. You’re encouraging the decision stage and delighting them with what you have to offer. Here, you might run ads with social proof – testimonials or influencer opinions can go a long way.
While this is not the only version of the funnel to consider, it’s the version that most marketers are most familiar with. Knowing the stages intimately allows you to have a flexible marketing strategy that targets audiences across the funnel.
Four reasons you need a full paid media funnel marketing strategy
You need a full paid media funnel marketing strategy because the benefits are too good to ignore. You can’t afford to put all your effort into the BOFU stage of the funnel because you’ll miss out on so many leads that don’t spend enough time in that part of the lead cycle. When you target every stage of the funnel, you can:
1. Reach new audiences
BOFU-focused strategies largely ignore bringing in green leads from new audiences, instead focusing on qualified leads who are in the decision-making stage. However, ignoring those new-to-your-product leads could prove to be a big mistake. A proportion of those green leads would be seriously interested in your product if they were exposed to it, so make sure your funnel targets those new audiences.
2. Drive sales
Did you know that 79% of marketing leads never convert to sales? That’s a huge proportion of sales that you could be missing out on.
Some of those unconverted sales could be the result of neglecting different stages of the sales funnel. Considering each stage of the funnel equally ensures that your agile funnel strategy targets everyone who could potentially buy in, ultimately snagging you more customers.
3. Boost consideration
Many linear funnel strategies target the TOFU or the BOFU over the middle of the funnel. That means the consideration stage gets largely neglected.
By targeting the middle stage equally as well as the other two, you’re ensuring that the consideration stage gets enough attention. The return is more trust with leads who are actively looking at their options.
4. Increase loyalty
It’s common knowledge that it’s more costly to gain a new customer than to retain an existing one. Targeting every funnel stage equally means you’re putting equal effort into delighting customers compared to attracting and engaging them. A delighted customer is a customer who’s likely to stick around – a customer acquisition cost that you only have to pay once.
Ask the experts about full-funnel marketing
If you’ve made it this far and still have questions about the full-funnel marketing strategy, then it’s time to consult the experts. It’s important for you to understand the strategy behind your brand’s success, and an expert can help answer your questions and get you up to speed.
Not only that, but an expert’s input can be useful when it comes to capturing your fair share of the market. With proprietary omnichannel media technology and a team of strategically-driven ad creatives on your side, we’ll help you reach the unrivaled visibility that you need to succeed.
Ask the Model B team your questions about full-funnel marketing – we’ll get you up to speed fast.