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Today’s marketers are no strangers to full-funnel marketing, but once you introduce the term “performance,” marketers aren’t always on the same page.
Performance marketing is often misunderstood as something that only happens at the bottom of the funnel. Marketers ask, “Are we driving conversions? Are we testing enough? Optimizing enough?” That’s great stuff, but if it’s the only thing we’re focusing on, then we’re missing out on a bigger idea of what performance marketing can and should be.
We should take a wide-angle view and say that performance spans every stage of the funnel, top to bottom. Honestly, what’s the point of a high conversion rate at the bottom if your audience is hitting roadblocks at the top or middle?
I’m not suggesting full-funnel performance is easy, but it’s possible—and every company can and should do it. Your customers don’t care what part of the funnel they’re in. For them, it’s all one experience. That’s how brands should see it, too.
So, if you’re struggling to align multiple touchpoints, channels, and messages via a seamless, connected journey that’s automated and data-fueled, here’s some advice.
First, consider your ecosystem
Building the marketing engine that makes full-funnel performance media possible and successful should always be a top priority. Brands must make sure they understand how their data, content, channels, touchpoints, and technology are connecting and driving a consistent, personalized experience that never breaks—a dynamic journey from awareness to the site or landing page.
And we should underline the word consistency. It includes technical consistency, such as digital-first branding and modern design system approaches, as well as qualitative consistency, such as ensuring your owned channels look and work as well as your paid channels.
Having terrific paid ads that drive to a poorly designed page is like picking your customers up in a luxury car and dropping them at some nondescript pub.
Know everything about your audience
First, nail the basics. Lean into data, research, automation, and customer insight platforms to gain a deep understanding of your audience, but don’t stop there.
Find a way to access powerful audience orchestration platforms, real-time behavioral data, and predictive analytics to identify how, where, and when to reach your customers, and what’s nurturing each audience segment through every stage of the funnel.
For example, a new customer who just learned about a brand will need different messaging than a loyal customer who is about to make a repeat purchase—even if they belong to the same overall audience group.
Anticipate those distinctions by implementing and activating a comprehensive level of audience understanding, from awareness to conversion.
Map channels to funnel stages
Not every channel is equally effective at every funnel stage. Social media might work better for top-of-the-funnel brand awareness, whereas email campaigns or retargeting ads may perform best in the mid- and bottom-funnel stages.
That’s where your channel mapping strategy comes into play. Use it to define which channels drive engagement at each stage. And, as you collect data on channel performance, don’t be afraid to revise!
Quality will always be your superpower
When we talk about performance, we’re usually talking on a structural level, trying to understand which strategies and tools will help us shorten the funnel and optimize for the best results. But if we truly care about performance, we need to care about what truly performs: beautiful, immersive, engaging, thoughtfully designed content and experiences.
And though you should be mixing human craft and generative AI solutions and automation by now, you can’t abandon quality. There’s a difference between saving time and taking shortcuts.
From their creative layer to their activation layer, the world’s best brands remain the best by never compromising on quality. Apple, Nike, and BMW don’t have time for ugly display banners, and they don’t tolerate disconnected channels. They understand that martech and adtech solutions can give them scale and personalization, but that doesn’t mean they let elegance, intrigue, and joyfulness fall by the wayside.
And finally, measure more and measure better
Use advanced attribution modeling to understand how every touchpoint affects the final conversion.
You need to understand how top-funnel ads contribute to bottom-funnel conversions, which lets you optimize your spend for the entire journey (and optimally reinvest what you save for incremental ROI).
If you know that a social ad contributes to, let’s say, 30% of a user’s decision to purchase, then you’ve got an attribution model that can give you a clearer picture of which channels to prioritize in your budget.
In addition, bring your data team into the heart of the work. If you’re using “atomic” or element-level design systems, figure out how to tag your design elements as granularly as you can. The level of detailed performance data you can collect will be game-changing for the entire funnel.
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Performance marketing is a big topic, and there’s always more to say. But let me end with this: You won’t build a perfect ecosystem or super-high-performing funnel in a day. But let that be your North Star. Invest in it. And if you want to know which brands have made that investment, they’re easy to spot—they’re the ones winning in their categories.
More Resources on Marketing Performance
Brand Marketing vs. Performance Marketing: Finding the Right Balance
Nine Ways to Cut the Fat From Your Performance Marketing Programs
Close the Marketing Performance Gap: How to Start Delivering on the Most Important Metrics
Managing Marketing Performance: The Role of Data, Analytics and Metrics
