Corporations often employ an advertising funnel strategy to convince people to buy a product. Therefore, a business may miss out on making significant sales if it’s not done well.
What is an Advertising Funnel Strategy?
The advertising funnel strategy is knowing the stages the customer goes through during his purchase journey and providing him with the appropriate content to persuade him or move to the next step in the funnel. Generally, it consists of three stages: awareness, consideration, and conversation.
In this article, we will discuss the advertising funnel strategy in-depth. To further understand, let’s break down each phase of an advertising funnel strategy.
Table of Contents
Explanation of Advertising Funnel Strategy
We’ll now jump right into how to create and put into practice an advertising funnel plan. Let’s take a look at it once more:
The advertising funnel involves knowing the stages a customer goes through when making a purchase and giving him the suitable material to ultimately persuade or move them to buy the product. The top of the advertising funnel attracts prospects, while the middle and bottom of the funnel enable marketers to assess and track their efforts to attract and convert prospects.
We’ll begin by breaking it down:
We can gather from the advertising funnel strategy definition that it has two main parts:
- Customer purchase journey
- Advertising funnel stages
In the following sections, we will describe these terms in greater detail.
Customer Purchase Journey
The customer purchase journey is all about customers’ behavior during the buying process. A customer goes through multiple stages before deciding to buy a product. Businesses reach out to customers to influence their choice. These moments when customers are open to influence are called touch points.
The goal is to trigger a customer to buy or try a product. This decision-making process is a cycle with four main phases. These include:
- Consideration
- Evaluation
- Closures
- Post-purchase
In the consideration phases, brand awareness can help a business have a higher chance of achieving a sale/conversion. Initially, when deciding to buy a product, customers will recall brands they are familiar with.
In the evaluation process, consumers weigh their options and narrow in on the brands they are considering. During the closure stage, consumers narrowed their search and decided which brand to purchase from.
Finally, the post-sale stage acts as a trial period where consumers decide if they’ll become loyal customers of a brand or repurchase the product. Customers’ satisfaction with the price and product functionality converts them into regular buyers.
Advertising funnel stages
The conventional funnel model follows a straight line when prospects convert. There are three main steps within the advertising funnel model. These are awareness, consideration, and conversion. We’ll delve into each stage in greater detail:
Awareness
Awareness is the top of the funnel(TOFU), and the key role of this stage is to attract customers to a product. The top of the funnel is crucial because this is when potential customers become more aware of your product.
As a result, this stage requires lots of marketing and communication to promote brand recognition. In some cases, customers do not yet know about the brand or product, so creating marketing and ad campaigns is necessary to pull consumers in.
To attract new customers and market your products or service, a business can:
- Create social media posts that promote your brand and products
- Design a landing page or infographics explaining your brand, products, and services to interested buyers or prospective customers.
- Use paid ads online, the radio, podcasts, billboards, etc., to reach your target market.
Consideration
Consideration lies at the middle of the funnel(MOFU) and mainly involves informing customers about a product or service. Once prospective buyers have meaningfully interacted with your brand- through email list subscriptions, following your business on social media, or webinar registration—they have entered the middle of the funnel.
At this stage, customers are open to the idea of buying or trying out your product. Though they may not have fully committed to the idea yet, they have nearly reached that point.
This stage helps interact with customers to earn their trust and loyalty. It is achieved through:
- Sharing case studies as well as comparing products or services
- Creating articles that inform and help customers by answering their questions or solving queries.
- Prompting guests and potential customers to participate in a survey to learn more about your brand or product.
- Designing landing pages that are specifically targeted and personalized for specific individuals.
Conversion
The last phase of the advertising funnel(BOFU) is about converting customers into regular and loyal buyers. By now, you have built a steady relationship with customers and aroused their curiosity, attention, and interest.
This final stage converts customers to commit to buying your products or service. It would be best if you gave them a good reason to believe that your brand or product is superior to that of competitors. It is done by:
- Sending email marketing campaigns, perhaps to remind customers to check out their cart.
- Offering guests free trials so they can try out your product or service beforehand. (A highly effective tactic if successfully implemented)
- Sharing positive customer reviews and testimonials encourages and builds trust with potential customers.
- Make how-to-articles that address queries and questions to eliminate any doubts prospective customers may have.
Why the Advertising Funnel Strategy is Important?
The advertising funnel is of great importance because it involves the psychology and behavior of customers during the purchase process. Sales are produced through conversion funnels, which record the customer’s journey from awareness to conversion. It can take the shape of making a purchase, filling out a form, joining a list, or another kind of micro-conversion.
Executing an advertising funnel strategy well is necessary as it can make or break a product launch. The method attracts not just one-time buyers but also loyal and repeat buyers. The advertising funnel benefits a business more in the long run and gives it a more significant market share.
The marketing department’s role is to promote the brand, products, and services well. A business may provide an excellent product, but if the marketing department fails its task, this could result in low sales and minimal profits. Therefore, the marketing department plays a vital role in developing an effective advertising strategy.
Advertising Funnel Examples
To better understand the advertising funnel, also referred to as the marketing funnel, we’ll go through 2 examples.
Netflix
The company uses a 2 step online marketing funnel model. It attracts leads and prospective clients to try their one-month free trial run. Then users are shown the different monthly subscription options.
After that, Netflix uses the email addresses of trial-run users, so they can follow up once someone is done with the free trial. Lastly, Netflix collects credit card information so that anyone who enters the funnel becomes a paying customer. Customers can cancel the subscription before the trial period is over.
Basecamp
It’s a great project management tool that helps remote workers to collaborate well. The company makes use of word-of-mouth marketing to build awareness. After that, they send leads to pages where users can explain their needs.
Basecamp makes it possible for customers to consider their product by showing simple pages that show product features. A testimonial page then confirms how good their products are, and the FAQs at the bottom increase their conversion rate as they show that they are willing to offer customers reasonable solutions.
Conclusion
The advertising funnel strategy is knowing the stages the customer goes through during his purchase journey and providing him with the appropriate content to persuade him or move to the next step in the funnel. Generally, it consists of three stages: awareness, consideration, and conversation.
Each stage in the advertising funnel strategy is crucial. It aids in successfully persuading a customer to buy your products and be converted into a loyal customer. The terms “marketing funnels” and “conversion funnels” are commonly used interchangeably, but it’s crucial to recognize their differences.
The reality is that real-world marketing funnels don’t usually operate straightforwardly. People don’t always enter a funnel from the top and move down it one step at a time till they emerge at the bottom as new clients. It’s essential to take note of this when designing or considering advertising funnel strategies.
Understanding the customer experience from awareness to conversion is crucial since the marketing funnel is nonlinear, just like people’s purchasing behavior. Read our article Why advertising is Effective to understand the importance of the advertising funnel.
