Let’s talk about something no one in digital marketing wants to admit: Most full-funnel strategies are broken.
There, I said it.
In the world of digital marketing agencies, there are two
major camps:
First, you’ve got the awareness agencies – the ones that promise to get your brand in front of as many eyeballs as possible. They’ll deliver all the clicks and engagement you can handle, but when it comes to conversions, they often produce shallow results.
Second, there are the performance marketing agencies – the ones focused on the bottom of the funnel, offering and retargeting like there’s no tomorrow. The result? They catch those ready-to-buy customers, but they often miss the bigger picture.
These two camps don’t always play well together, and as a result, many businesses end up with an incomplete, inefficient strategy.
The Problem with Traditional Full-Funnel Marketing
Here’s the thing: Many agencies are still stuck on the idea of traditional full-funnel marketing. What do I mean by that? Well, picture this: You’re running social ads on Meta (Facebook and Instagram), and your agency suggests a campaign optimized for “Awareness” or “Reach.”
Sounds good, right? Get your brand out there. Build that awareness.
But when you look at what’s actually happening, things start to fall apart.
Here’s the typical scenario: You’re running a campaign with a CPM of, say, 2 CHF. With a 10,000 CHF budget, you get 5mio impressions. Fantastic, right? Well, hold on. Who exactly are these people?
Spoiler alert: You’re reaching the scroll-happy crowd. Meta’s algorithm is doing exactly what you asked – getting you the cheapest possible impressions. But it’s not doing what you need – getting you quality impressions from people who are actually interested in your product.
It’s like running a billboard campaign on a busy highway. Sure, a ton of people see it, but how many are paying attention?
And when you move to the next stage of the funnel – optimizing for traffic – the story doesn’t change much. Meta’s still serving your ads to the cheapest audience: the people who click on anything and everything, bots, and click-happy users who leave as quickly as they arrived.
You see the problem, right? Low costs, but also low quality. The numbers might look good on paper, but they’re not moving the needle where it counts – in your sales.
Why Performance Marketing Alone Doesn’t Cut It
On the other side of the coin, we have performance marketing. Now, don’t get me wrong: performance marketing is great. You’re optimizing for conversions and aiming for a direct ROI – spend 5 CHF today, get 15 CHF tomorrow.
But there’s a catch.
Performance marketing agencies focus on finding the lowest-hanging fruit – the people who are already at the bottom of the funnel, practically ready to buy. That’s awesome…until you run out of those people.
You’re fishing in a small lake and you’ve caught all the fish. The lake is empty, and now you’re spending more money to catch fewer people. The algorithm is working overtime to find someone – anyone – who might buy.
But here’s the truth: Most people don’t buy on the first click. They need time. They need to trust your brand. And most importantly, they need multiple touchpoints to make a decision.
If your entire strategy revolves around bottom-of-the-funnel offers, you’re leaving a lot of potential on the table. You’re not nurturing the people who need more time – and they’re the ones who will cost you more and more to reach as you go.
The Smart Approach: Why Not Both?
So, what’s the solution?
That’s where our ContentFlow Engine comes in. It’s a system we’ve developed to guide your potential customers through the entire journey – from the moment they first hear about your brand, to the moment they’re ready to buy (and beyond).
Here’s how it works:
1. Know Your Audience: We dig deep into your audience, competitors, and product to build a strategy that speaks directly to your customers’ needs.
2. Clean Up Your Tracking: Using advanced tracking, we filter out irrelevant traffic and leverage Meta’s AI to focus on data that drives real purchases.
3. Targeted Content for Every Stage: We create custom content, creatives, and landing pages tailored to each stage of customer awareness, ensuring every message hits home.
4. Smart Campaign Setup: Our AI-driven approach ensures campaigns work together, learning and improving at every step of the funnel.
5. Continuous Optimization: We constantly refine KPIs to lower costs, fill your funnel efficiently, and maximize your ROI.
Wrapping It Up: Don’t Settle for Less
So, what’s the takeaway here?
You need to keep your lake full of fresh fish while using AI to work smarter, not harder. By combining smart awareness strategies with effective performance marketing, you’ll not only save money, but also build stronger, more sustainable customer relationships.
With our ContentFlow Engine, you’ll always have a fresh pool of ready-to-convert customers, while nurturing new prospects along the way.
No more empty lakes. No more wasted spend. Just a smarter, more effective way to grow your business.