What it is
The classic marketing funnel has 4-5 stages: Awareness (people first hear about you) → Consideration (people evaluate vs alternatives) → Conversion (people buy) → Retention (people buy again) → Advocacy (people refer others).
Which channels work at which stage:
Awareness: SEO content, Meta Ads, podcast sponsorships, PR, influencer content
Consideration: Comparison content, case studies, webinars, demos, email nurture
Conversion: Google Search Ads (high intent), retargeting, landing-page optimization
Retention: Email and SMS flows, loyalty programs, account-based outreach
Advocacy: Referral programs, customer-success outreach, review campaigns
Most businesses over-invest in conversion (paid ads) and under-invest in awareness and retention. The brands compounding fastest are running all 5 stages simultaneously.
Real example
An e-commerce brand maps their funnel: 10K visitors/month (awareness) → 2K product-page views (consideration) → 200 cart adds → 80 purchases → 30 repeat purchases over 12 months. They identify the biggest leak (10% cart-to-purchase rate) and focus CRO efforts there.
How Apex Marketings uses this
Our marketing strategists work with this concept daily. Learn more about the related service: Digital Marketing Strategy, or get a free consultation on how this applies to your business.
Ready to talk? Book a free 30-minute consultation with Apex Marketings, or request a project quote.