What is full-funnel marketing? Creating a funnel strategy

It’s important to consider shoppers at all levels of the marketing funnel, since they can often have different wants or needs. The top of the marketing funnel represents shoppers in the awareness stage, and the bottom of the funnel represents shoppers in the purchasing stage.

Upper-funnel marketing refers to strategies to build brand awareness. For example, many TV commercials are designed to build awareness among audiences who may not have a need for the product yet. Mid-funnel marketing strategies typically focus on building consideration and standing out in your category. For example, blog content can help differentiate a product from others in its category. Lower-funnel marketing drives purchase among shoppers who show potential to buy. For example, remarketing ads with calls-to-action like “Buy now” can bring shoppers closer to the point of purchase. A full-funnel marketing strategy simultaneously builds awareness, consideration and purchase.

The marketing funnel is a helpful framework for engaging audiences. At the same time, customer journeys and funnels aren’t interchangeable concepts. Funnels are linear, but customer journeys rarely move directly from awareness to consideration to purchase.

Let’s put this in context.

Imagine a hypothetical soap company called Suds and two hypothetical customer journeys. The first customer is watching Fire TV, a media player that turns any TV into a smart TV, when they see a commercial for Suds’ “Surf and Sea” soap for men. They are out of soap and love surfing, so pause Fire TV and open the Amazon mobile app, typing “surf soap” into the discovery bar. They click on Suds’ Sponsored Products ad and start reading reviews, but get distracted when their friend calls to ask about surfing this weekend. They pause Fire TV to take the call. After they hang up, they notice clouds outside the window, so they check their favourite weather website and are relieved to see sunny skies forecast for the weekend. They then notice a Sponsored Display ad for Suds’ “Surf and Sea” soap on the weather page and remember why they pulled out their phone in the first place. The ad brings them back to the Suds “Surf and Sea” product detail page. They are embarrassed about having come so close to running out of soap and want to ensure it doesn’t happen again, so they click “Subscribe & Save” and return to watching Fire TV.

• It’s fast. When the commercial starts, they are not yet aware of Suds. By the end of the commercial, they are a repeat customer (assuming they continue their subscription).
• It’s multichannel. When the customer grabs their phone while watching the commercial, it is almost as if they are in the awareness and consideration stages simultaneously.
• It’s not linear. They skip certain stages of the marketing funnel when they opt to subscribe before even unboxing and trying the product.

On the other hand, a different customer might have a totally different customer journey. Let’s say they notice the near-empty soap container and decide to take matters into their own hands. They might type “men’s soap” into the discovery bar on Amazon and start browsing the category for soap that has good customer reviews and fast shipping. They might discover Suds through an ad on another soap brand’s product detail page, then click on the ad to read reviews about whether customers like the “Surf and Sea” scent too, and visit Suds’s Store to learn more about their environmentally sustainable packaging.

In this case, the customer enters the funnel in the consideration stage. They know they need soap, and prefer products that are branded for men. They narrow the category, and Suds successfully stands out among peer products.

In other words, while the funnel is a helpful framework to ensure you’re reaching customers across potential paths to purchase, few customer journeys can mirror the funnel – and no two journeys can be exactly the same.

Shoppers can enter the funnel at any stage, or seemingly skip stages. Nevertheless, in each of these two examples, Suds can attribute the conversions to a full-funnel advertising strategy that encompasses awareness, consideration and conversion.

If Suds focuses exclusively on driving conversion by investing in Sponsored Products ads and bidding on branded shopping queries, the brand may fail to reach shoppers whose shopping journeys start in the awareness and consideration stages.

If Suds focuses exclusively on driving consideration by investing in strategies such as Sponsored Display product targeting, the brand may reach shoppers who are browsing the category, but miss shoppers who are not in the aisle.

If Suds focuses exclusively on building awareness through streaming TV advertising via Fire TV, the brand may reach audiences who see their Fire TV ad, but miss an opportunity to engage audiences entering in the consideration stage. And they may fail to sustain the engagement with shoppers unless they pair their upper-funnel campaign with lower-funnel tactics such as the remarketing ads that bring them back to the product detail page.

You may not be able to predict the steps shoppers take before buying your product, but a full-funnel approach is a good framework for a customer engagement strategy that helps you meet customers where they are.

We always recommend starting with the bottom of the funnel and working your way upward when building a full-funnel strategy. For example, before you pay to promote a product, check to ensure your product’s detail page is free of spelling errors and content mistakes, and has enough images, reviews and ratings to stack up against other products in your category, and you’re presenting the Featured Offer. We call this A+ Content within retail readiness.

Tip: Another fast (and free) way to make your products retail-ready is through the free branded content that Amazon Ads offers, like Posts and Stores. Stores is a destination for extending your brand and promoting discovery. Posts is an opportunity to educate customers about your products through compelling lifestyle imagery.

Once you’ve optimized your product detail pages for conversion, start experimenting with tactics to help drive purchases. For example, we recommend Sponsored Products ads that reach shoppers using branded search terms indicating high intent (e.g. “Suds surf soap”) or remarketing to audiences who have viewed your product detail page using Sponsored Display.

Tip: Remarketing ads appear anywhere customers spend their time, making this tactic a great way to stay top of mind. As your total potential remarketing audience depends on the size of the audience that has viewed your product detail page, consider remarketing following key buying periods such as Prime Day and the holiday season, when your product detail pages may have seen increased page views.

Once your products are retail-ready and optimized for conversion, we recommend investing in ad types that can help you stand out in your category and differentiate your brand from peer products. We call this owning your aisle. For example, a soap company might use Sponsored Display product targeting to reach shoppers browsing relevant categories (e.g. soap), similar products (e.g. peer soap bands) or complementary products (e.g. shampoo).

Tip: If you have a newly launched product, you might even want to use product targeting to run placements on your own product pages to help make shoppers aware of your new releases.

Once you’re confident you’re owning your aisle, we recommend increasing consideration with products like video and display ads through the Amazon DSP and Sponsored Brands. At this stage, consider bidding on broader shopping queries (e.g. “soap”) and reaching in-market audiences. In-market audiences are audiences whose shopping patterns suggest that they may be interested in your product.

Tip: Consider using Sponsored Brands to drive traffic to your Store page to educate shoppers in the consideration stage about your brand’s story and products.

The final step to a full-funnel campaign is building awareness. Amazon DSP can help you scale your reach across multiple channels (including display, audio and over-the-top video) without sacrificing relevance. Using the Amazon Ads audience builder, you can define audiences based on lifestyle (e.g. Jeep enthusiasts), streaming preferences (e.g. recently streamed the movie Soul Surfer on Prime Video) and look-alike audiences (e.g. Amazon Fresh look-alikes).

Tip: Consider combining audio and Streaming TV ads to reach audiences beyond the screen and at home.

1. Reach new audiences

If you think homing in solely on branding is the best way to grow new-to-brand sales, think again. Few shoppers convert to purchase immediately. Pairing upper-funnel and lower-funnel tactics can help your brand stay top of mind.

2. Increase consideration

We have a variety of products – from Sponsored Brands to Streaming TV (STV) ads – that are designed to help increase consideration and help brands differentiate their products from peer products in their category. Also, brand-building tactics can be part of a balanced marketing strategy. Combine upper- and lower-funnel marketing in your marketing strategy, for example, by using a combination of Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands.

3. Drive sales

Many advertisers believe performance marketing is the best way to drive sales, but a full-funnel approach can be more effective. Expanding your strategy beyond the purchasing stage of the funnel can help you proactively engage new shoppers and help drive more sales in the long term.

4. Build loyalty

Some marketers view loyalty as a separate stage of the funnel, but investing in a full-funnel strategy, rather than pursuing brand loyalty as a separate tactic, can help to set your brand up for repeat purchases. If you’re trying to grow customer lifetime value, a full-funnel approach may help you build the trust that underpins customer longevity.

Learn more about how to drive full-funnel advertising impact.

If you have limited experience, contact us to request services managed by Amazon Ads. Budget minimums apply.