By: Marjorie Vizethann, CEO and Co-Founder, Alpine Analytix
Imagine investing all your money in a single, high-risk stock. You might get lucky with a quick win, but you're certainly not building a stable, long-term financial future. Running your Google Ads account with only bottom-of-funnel campaigns is a similar gamble. You might see some immediate conversions, but you're missing out on the significant potential of nurturing prospects through their entire journey.
Why is a full funnel approach so important? It allows you to connect with potential customers at every stage of their decision-making process. By building awareness, establishing trust, and providing valuable information, you guide them smoothly towards becoming loyal customers. This holistic strategy leads to more sustainable and ultimately more profitable growth for your business through Google Ads.
In article post, I'll walk you through the fundamentals of building a successful full funnel strategy in Google Ads, covering:
Understanding the three key stages of the marketing funnel and what happens at each.
Identifying the most effective Google Ads campaign types to utilize at each stage of the funnel.
The crucial step of aligning your marketing goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with each funnel stage for accurate performance measurement.
Think of your Google Ads strategy as building a well-diversified investment portfolio. Each campaign type plays a specific role in achieving your overall financial goals.Â
The marketing funnel visualizes the journey a potential customer takes from initial awareness to final purchase. Understanding these stages is crucial for tailoring your Google Ads efforts:
Top of the Funnel (Awareness): This is the widest part of the funnel, where your primary goal is to reach a broad audience and make them aware of your brand, products, or services. You're essentially introducing yourself to potential customers who may not even know they have a need yet.
Middle of the Funnel (Consideration/Education): Here, the audience is more engaged and actively seeking solutions. Your goal is to educate them about your offerings, build trust, and position yourself as a valuable resource. You're nurturing leads and providing the information they need to move closer to a decision.
Bottom of the Funnel (Conversion): This is the narrowest part of the funnel, where you focus on converting qualified leads into paying customers. These individuals are actively looking to make a purchase, and your campaigns should focus on clear calls to action and removing any barriers to conversion.
Let's consider "Nutrition Academy," a fictional company that offers online nutrition coaching courses and certifications. Their objective is to use Google Ads to achieve profitable growth. We'll follow Sarah, an aspiring nutrition coach who represents their ideal customer. We know Sarah enjoys meditation videos, participates in virtual fitness classes, and is always looking for new plant-based recipes. Here's how a full funnel Google Ads strategy could guide her:
Attract (Top of Funnel): Recognizing Sarah's interest in plant-based cuisine, Nutrition Academy could utilize Google Discover campaigns. These ads, appearing in her personalized feed with appealing recipe visuals and a link to a relevant blog post on their website, subtly introduce her to the brand and establish them as a source of valuable information.
Educate (Middle of Funnel): To build trust and provide more in-depth information, Nutrition Academy could serve Sarah YouTube video ads featuring testimonials from successful program graduates. These videos can address common questions and showcase the program's benefits. The landing page linked from the video could offer a free, downloadable FAQ guide, providing further value and capturing her interest.
Convert (Bottom of Funnel): Later in her journey, when Sarah actively searches on Google for flexible online nutrition programs (perhaps due to her busy schedule), Nutrition Academy can target her with highly relevant responsive search ads. The ad copy could emphasize the program's flexibility and its completion time of under six months. Because Sarah has already been exposed to the brand and received valuable information, she's more likely to trust Nutrition Academy and enroll in their course.
A common mistake is applying the same performance metrics, like Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), across all funnel stages. This doesn't accurately reflect the different objectives of each stage.
Top of the Funnel (Awareness): The primary goal isn't immediate conversions, so focus on engagement metrics. Track metrics like scroll depth on landing pages, the number of video views, and the time users spend on your site. These indicate whether your campaigns are successfully capturing attention and generating initial interest.
Middle of the Funnel (Consideration/Education): Here, lead generation becomes a key objective. Relevant KPIs include the cost per download of valuable resources (like the FAQ guide in our example) or the cost per email address captured through lead magnet offers.
Bottom of the Funnel (Conversion): This is where your traditional revenue-focused metrics come into play. Track your conversion rate, cost per acquisition (CPA), and ultimately, your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).
Establishing a clear measurement framework, aligned with the specific goals of each funnel stage, is crucial for accurately evaluating the performance of your Google Ads strategy and making informed optimization decisions. By thinking strategically about each stage of the funnel and using the right Google Ads tools and metrics, you can move beyond simply hoping for conversions and build a predictable, profitable customer acquisition engine.
Marjorie Vizethann is the CEO and Co-Founder of Alpine Analytix. She helps health, wellness, and fitness brands turn Google Ads into their most profitable paid acquisition channel.
You can find her on LinkedIn