What is a marketing funnel? How they work, stages, and examples

In this guide, you’ll find details on every stage of the marketing funnel, and how Amazon Ads can help marketers maximize results with a full-funnel advertising approach.

A marketing funnel is the purchase cycle consumers go through from awareness to loyalty. The marketing funnel concept has been around for over 100 years, and its purpose is to easily categorize major milestones along the shopping journey, from awareness to consideration, to decision, then loyalty.

There is no universally accepted version of the funnel, with varied explanations including three, four, or five or more steps consumers go through in their shopping journey. We’ll outline a four-stage marketing funnel below, including the stages of awareness, consideration, conversion, and loyalty.

Brand awareness is familiarity with a brand, which could include knowledge of its name, messaging, tone and style, values, and culture. Brand awareness begins with consumer research, and involves attracting customers to a brand and helping them recognize and remember it. The goal is to keep the brand top of mind by employing relevant customer touch points along the path to purchase.

To drive awareness, brands want to get in front of consumers where they are. This could include television—both linear and streaming TV—digital advertising, audio ads, social media campaigns, content marketing, and more. 84% of shoppers begin their online product searches on digital channels that aren’t a brand’s owned website, so these touch points have become increasingly important.¹

The objective at the end of the awareness phase is for your brand to stay top of mind for customers, so that when the time comes for them to make a purchase, they think of you.

The goal of consideration marketing is increasing the likelihood that consumers will consider a certain brand and its products when shopping. Marketing messages should address a pain point, highlight an interest, or answer a question for consumers. At this stage, customers are trying to get to know a brand and discover what differentiates it from similar brands. Brands should educate and inform customers in the consideration phase to help them understand how your product or solution meets their need.

Examples of mid-funnel consideration marketing solutions might include positive customer reviews, customer testimonials and case studies, and webinars. Amazon Ads offers solutions for this stage like Sponsored Brands and video and display ads through the Amazon DSP. These ad products help create touch points when customers may be actively browsing and researching products to buy.

The goal of the conversion stage is to encourage shoppers to purchase a product or service because they believe the brand they’ve chosen is the right solution to their problem or meets their need. Also referred to as the “decision” or “purchase” phase, this step is a brand’s opportunity to invest in a strategy that will help them stand out in their category and differentiate themselves from peer products. This phase is where a well-detailed website product page is important, as well as creating an exceptional customer service experience to inspire customer confidence in their buying decisions.

Conversion can be a relatively easy stage of the funnel to measure, because you can often track which ad click led directly to a purchase. However, it's important to remember that customer interactions in the previous two stages directly influence whether customers ultimately convert.

Brands can foster loyalty by providing a seamless purchase experience and delivering a quality product or service. By following up and nurturing connections with consumers after purchase, brands can stay top of mind for shoppers.

Positive interactions during and after the purchase stage can help influence whether a shopper becomes a repeat customer. Without a plan for fostering customer loyalty, brands may find that many customers make a single purchase and move on. On average, it costs a brand five times more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one,² which is why some marketers also call this phase the “engagement” stage. To build loyalty, it’s important to continue engaging with customers who have invested in your brand’s products or services.

Effective engagement marketing, such as email nurture campaigns, social media activations, and loyalty programs can be impactful when it comes to building brand loyalty with customers. At the end of this stage, the goal is that you’ve earned loyal, satisfied customers who become brand advocates and lifelong customers.

Sponsored ads help advertisers of all sizes create brand affinity, increase sales, and stand out to shoppers both on and off Amazon. With a self-service interface, advertisers can set up campaigns in just a few minutes and control their costs. Sponsored Products, with its highly visible ad placements and diverse campaign optimization options, helps elevate product discoverability and sell products efficiently on the Amazon store. Sponsored Brands promotes brand discovery and consideration by using static and video brand creatives in the shopper journey, increasing traffic to a Brand Store or product detail page. Brand Stores offer a free way for brands to educate, convert, and build long-term relationships with shoppers by featuring their product portfolio and telling their brand story. These solutions enable brands to grow by connecting with new customers and inspiring current customers to keep coming back.

Display ads solutions from Amazon Ads offer diverse options for advertisers. Sponsored Display, designed for advertisers of any size and budget, creates campaigns for specific business goals, whether or not they sell on Amazon. It uses machine learning and dynamically optimized creatives to help discover, reach, and engage audiences across their digital journey—from Amazon's inventory and product pages to properties like Twitch and IMDb, and third-party sites. Amazon DSP allows advertisers to programmatically scale advertising, engaging audiences across devices and formats, including audio, display, online video, Streaming TV, and physical store advertising. Device ads, incorporating display and video creatives, run on Amazon devices like Fire TV, Fire tablet, and Echo Show, as well as services like Prime Video, delivering high-impact, immersive, and natively integrated ad experiences that facilitate customer engagement and action.

Video ad solutions from Amazon Ads offer multiple ways to engage audiences through compelling video content. Sponsored TV enables businesses of any size to reach audiences on streaming services with no minimum spend, while Streaming TV ads deliver full-screen, non-skippable video content across premium entertainment channels. Prime Video ads allow brands to align with premium movies, shows, Amazon Originals, and live sports across 10 locales, reaching engaged streaming audiences. Sponsored Brands video helps drive brand recognition at the top of search results and product detail pages, while Sponsored Display video helps reach customers across their purchase journey. Amazon Live provides a unique livestream experience combining storytelling, social interactivity, and real-time shopping capabilities. Through these solutions, advertisers can effectively engage audiences across different touchpoints using Amazon's first-party shopping and streaming signals.

If you’d like additional support and guidance, reach out to request services managed by Amazon Ads. Budget minimums apply.