The importance of full-funnel advertising strategies for lead generation

Generating leads is a key objective for many businesses, both in the B2B and B2C spaces, but achieving it effectively isn’t always straightforward. In today’s busy marketing landscape, it’s not enough to run isolated campaigns or rely on a single channel. People are exposed to more advertising messages than ever, and they’re taking longer, more complex journeys before deciding whether to engage with your business.

Despite the many ‘ready-made’ lead generation products on the market, good-quality leads do not come from a single strategy. Whether you’re a business school looking to attract high-potential MBA students or a financial services company generating MQLs for your sales team, ignoring the upper funnel will lead to low engagement and poor-quality leads.

A full-funnel strategy to garner high-quality and engaged leads is essential. Instead of focusing only on those ready to convert, it takes a broader approach, guiding your right-fit prospect from the first moment they hear about you right through to the point where they’re ready to act. In this article, we’ll explore why this matters, how it works and what to consider when building a strategy around it.

What do we mean by a full-funnel strategy?

At Fundamental Media, when we talk about a full-funnel advertising strategy, we’re referring to an approach that covers every stage of the prospect journey. These stages can be grouped into three distinct phases:

1. Awareness – making people aware of your brand, products or services. Your prospect may not even realise they are in the market for what you’re offering. This stage is essential for those in what we refer to as ‘Pre-Consideration’.
2. Engagement – this stage is also known as ‘Consideration’ and is vital for encouraging people to learn more, compare options and think about whether your offering meets their needs.
3. Conversion – motivating people to take a specific action, like requesting further information.

Rather than jumping straight to conversion tactics, a full-funnel strategy recognises that people don’t usually go from not knowing you exist to converting in one go. They need time to notice you, understand what you offer and trust you enough to take the next step.

Why focusing only on conversions can backfire

It’s tempting to aim straight for leads by pushing out ads with a clear call to action and a form to fill in. While these lower-funnel tactics are important, relying only on them can limit your results and, crucially, quality.

If we only advertise to people who are already looking to buy, we’re working with a smaller audience. We’re also competing with other businesses who are targeting the same people at the same point in their journey. This often leads to higher CPL and lower conversion rates because prospects haven’t had time to build trust or confidence in your business.

A full-funnel approach helps us reach more people, warm them up over time and reduce the pressure on the conversion stage. By the time they see your lead form or offer, they’re more likely to be familiar with your brand and more open to taking action.

Understanding the customer journey

Most decisions don’t happen in a straight line. People take different paths, bounce between stages and gather information from various sources before they act. Research suggests that it can take several interactions with a brand before someone’s ready to engage or buy.

A full-funnel strategy respects this journey. Instead of assuming one ad or message will do the job, it aims to build familiarity, provide useful information and answer questions along the way.

Why a full-funnel approach leads to better results

There are several reasons why a full-funnel strategy supports stronger lead generation:

1. See better-quality leads
Leads who’ve already seen your brand and engaged with your content tend to be more informed and interested. They’re not just filling in a form out of curiosity, they’re already partway through deciding whether you’re the right choice. This often leads to more productive conversations and higher conversion rates later on.

2. Reduce your long-term costs
While top-of-funnel campaigns can seem to have a higher capital cost at first, they build a pool of warm audiences that we can retarget further down the line. It’s usually cheaper and more effective to convert people who’ve already engaged with our advertising than to keep trying to convert cold audiences.

3. Build trust and credibility
When people see your brand consistently over time, in different contexts, it helps build trust. Even if they’re not ready to act straight away, they’re more likely to consider you when they are. This trust can also influence their willingness to share their details or commit to a conversation with your Sales or Admissions team.

4. You align with longer buying cycles
Fundamental Media works with industries where decisions take time, and that’s something that’s essential to respect. A full-funnel strategy helps to ensure that you stay visible and relevant throughout the process. This is especially important in B2B contexts, but it also applies to complex or high-value decisions such as MBAs and Executive Education.

How to build a full-funnel lead generation strategy

A successful full-funnel approach doesn’t happen by chance. It needs careful planning and alignment across your marketing efforts. Here are some key steps to consider:

1.      Set clear objectives and measures for each stage

Each stage of the funnel serves a different purpose, so it’s important to define what success looks like at each point and ensure that the ROI is measured on specific metrics. For example:

• Awareness stage – you might measure reach, impressions or video views.
• Consideration stage – focus on website visits, content engagement or time spent on site.
• Conversion stage – track sign-ups, form completions or enquiries.

If we only measure final conversions, we risk undervaluing the earlier stages that helped people get there.

2.      Tailor your messages to each stage

The same message won’t work equally well at every stage. People early in their journey might need an introduction or a reason to care. Those closer to conversion might need reassurance, proof or an incentive to act. A retargeting ad needs a very different message to an awareness ad, or our prospect will just feel like they’re being spammed.

When looking at your creative strategy, think about what questions or doubts people might have at each point. For example:

• At the awareness stage, focus on highlighting problems you solve or stories that make people take notice.
• In the consideration stage, share resources that help people evaluate their options, like guides, comparisons or expert insights. People buy people, so sharing case studies provides additional reassurance and starts to create excitement.
• At the conversion stage, make it easy to act with a clear CTA.

3.      Use the right channels for the right stages

Not every advertising channel works equally well at every stage. Depending on your brief, we might use broader platforms like display ads or social video for awareness, while reserving more targeted channels like paid search or RTB retargeting for conversion efforts.

For example:

• Awareness – social media ads, display campaigns, YouTube, podcasts
• Consideration – email marketing, webinars, content marketing, social infographics
• Conversion – paid search, display retargeting, social lead generation formats, landing pages with clear calls to action

By carefully planning our efforts across these stages, you avoid putting all your budget into last-click conversions and give people more chances to engage.

4.      Segment and retarget our audience pools

One of the strengths of a full-funnel strategy is the ability to move people from one stage to the next using data. For example, someone who’s watched most of your video ad might be ready to see a more detailed message. Someone who’s downloaded a whitepaper or program brochure might be ready for a conversation.

Using segmentation and retargeting allows us to show prospects more relevant messages based on what they’ve already done, rather than repeating the same ads or pushing offers too soon.

5.      Keep sales and marketing aligned

A full-funnel strategy works best when sales and marketing teams are working towards shared goals. A proper feedback loop is essential to make sure there’s agreement on what counts as a qualified lead, how leads are handed over and what happens next.

When both teams share insights and feedback, it’s easier to fine-tune the strategy and improve results over time.

Common mistakes to watch out for

Even with the best intentions, it’s easy to fall into certain traps. Some common pitfalls include:

• Putting all the focus on immediate conversions and neglecting earlier stages that build awareness and trust.
• Using the same message at every stage, leading to missed opportunities to move people forward.
• Abandoning early-stage efforts too soon because they don’t show instant results.
• Forgetting to track mid-funnel metrics like content engagement or time spent on site, which are useful indicators of interest.

By staying mindful of these risks, you’re more likely to build a balanced and sustainable approach.

Final thoughts

Lead generation isn’t just about getting contact details, it’s about guiding people through a journey that builds confidence and interest in what you offer. A full-funnel advertising strategy gives you the structure to do this effectively, reaching people at the right time with the right message.

By planning across the whole funnel, you’re setting yourself up not just to generate leads, but to generate better leads, with a higher chance of converting.

If you’re reviewing your current approach, a good first step is to map out where your existing campaigns fit into the funnel and identify any gaps. From there, you can start building a more joined-up strategy that supports prospects at every stage of their journey.