Amazon advertising funnels and, more specifically, full-funnel advertising strategies help Marketplace sellers reach their customers at every stage of the customer journey.
If you’ve ever wondered how Amazon advertising funnels work and how to use them to build a more profitable brand, that’s exactly what we’re discussing today.
By the end of this article, you’ll understand the different marketing stages, discover how customer journies work, visualize the funnel process for driving sales, and develop a profitable Amazon advertising strategy for your brand.
So let’s jump into the basics of Amazon advertising funnels, describe the various marketing stages, and outline the most effective top, middle, and bottom-of-the-funnel strategies.
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What is Full-Funnel Amazon Advertising?
Full-funnel advertising involves creating an integrated marketing plan to reach potential customers at every stage of the buying journey.
The ideal advertising strategy follows a comprehensive marketing approach to drive more sales, increase brand awareness, and encourage repeat purchases from loyal customers.
By utilizing a marketing funnel strategy, businesses can attract large quantities of prospective shoppers through non-traditional customer journeys.
Full-funnel marketing strategy performs best when advertisers promote their brand and products everywhere prospective customers can discover, learn, and purchase from your brand.
This includes Amazon Advertising, organic search results, influencer campaigns, email marketing, and social media ads.
That way, your brand is top of mind in your category, and customers have multiple opportunities to shop for your products.
By building an Amazon funnel, businesses can capitalize on their entire customer journey and optimize sales and growth on Amazon.
Where It Begins — With The Customer Journey
To understand full-funnel advertising, you must first examine the customer journey and identify the marketing stages all buyers go through to purchase a product or service.
The customer journey involves awareness, consideration, conversion, and loyalty phases. As an advertiser, you aim to advertise to prospective customers based on their buyer stage.
You’ll advertise specific messages to an audience at each stage and guide them along the buyer’s journey to eventually purchase your product.
Let’s briefly discuss how the buyer’s journey works and how you can use Amazon advertising to push customers through each marketing stage.
The Awareness Stage
The awareness stage is the first step of the customer journey. It’s when potential customers become aware of your brand, product, or service.
This stage increases brand visibility and creates early interest in your product.
The Consideration Stage
After customers become aware of your product, they enter the consideration phase. Here, shoppers evaluate what you offer and compare it to competing products or services.
This stage concerns educating potential customers on why your business’s product or service is the best option.
The Conversion Stage
At the conversion stage, shoppers have likely already decided they want your product and will click through to complete the purchase.
This stage aims to reduce the chance of customers being distracted or losing interest before completing the purchase.
The Loyalty Stage
Repeat customers cost less to acquire and are more likely to become brand advocates. Therefore, you want as many customers as possible to reach the loyalty stage.
The loyalty phase targets current customers with personalized offers, promotions, and rewards that encourage them to purchase from you again.
It’s A Non-Linear Journey
Although you would imagine that all product purchases began at the consideration phase and ended at the loyalty stage, the reality is a bit more complex.
In fact, there usually isn’t a straightforward linear customer journey for most brands. Every path someone could take is unique and highly dependent on the marketing channels you use to promote your brand.
Many shoppers don’t follow the same path when shopping for products—they jump between stages or enter the customer journey at any step.
That’s why businesses must create a full-funnel marketing strategy that meets shoppers wherever they are in their journey and helps them move closer to a purchase.
Amazon Marketing Funnel Strategy
Here’s some positive news, while the way a buyer transitions through the buyer’s journey is complex, Amazon marketing funnels are straightforward, only requiring a team to implement.
Sure, there are an unlimited number to adjust Amazon’s advertising performance, and if you did it non-stop by yourself, it would take a lot of time.
But the funnel strategy is straightforward and designed to have a low effort-high reward outcome. Each stage requires targeted messaging and tailored creative to lead customers down the buyer’s journey to generate repeat sales.
As more audiences become aware of your brand, they travel through your funnel until the only ones that remain are loyal customers.
Therefore, your prospect list gets smaller as individuals transition to the next step in your funnel. Some percentage won’t transition, but the rest will move down to the next stage.
By implementing an Amazon marketing funnel strategy, you can help move customers through each stage and maximize the number of loyal customers you have.
This results in greater brand recognition and customer loyalty, leading to higher revenue. Amazon Ads help you achieve this by targeting the right audience with the right message at the right time.
Full-Funnel Amazon Advertising Stages
So, how do you create a full-funnel Amazon advertising strategy? First, you must identify the customer journey stages and determine how to approach each stage.
Top of the Funnel: Attraction & Awareness
At the top of the funnel, the goal is to make potential customers aware of your product or service. This is the most significant section of the funnel and includes the following:
- Digital advertising
- Search engine advertising
- Social media content
- Content (traditional media & online)
On Amazon, it includes:
- Brand stories
- Amazon posts
- A+ content
- Amazon DSP
- OTT (over-the-top)
Any “ads” for people in the awareness stage should be designed to build curiosity and encourage customers to explore your product or service.
Middle of the Funnel: Consideration & Decision
Next, the middle of the funnel is where customers start to form opinions about your products.
Here, they are considering their options and making decisions. Build a brand and differentiate yourself from competitors using the following:
- Brand websites
- Product pages
- Pricing analysis
- Reviews and ratings
- Stock availability
Even the most minor details are pivotal in how prospective clients discover more about what you provide. The goal is to stand out from competitors and reach shoppers where they learn information about your product.
On Amazon, this includes using the following methods:
- Amazon Sponsored Products Ads
- Amazon DSP Ads
- Sponsored Brand Video
- OTT (over-the-top)
This funnel section should encourage customers to take the next step and convert.
Bottom of the Funnel: Drive Purchase & Loyalty
At the bottom of the funnel, you want to meet shoppers where they buy and turn new customers into loyal ones.
Techniques like seller optimization, personalized content, and purchase enablement make this possible.
Tools that drive purchases and loyalty include:
- Product & Image Accuracy
- Emails & Promotions
- Customer Support
On Amazon, you should use the following ad types:
- Sponsored Products
- Sponsored Display
- Amazon DSP
Your advertising goals all come together during this last step. As your company grows, you expand your advertising to broader keywords and shopping queries that help you locate new people, widening your funnel.
The Five Steps of Building Your Full-Funnel Amazon Advertising Strategy
Get ready to build your full-funnel Amazon marketing strategy using techniques that bring awareness, consideration, and sales to your brand. Here are the five steps:
Step 1: Start With Your Top Of Funnel Strategies
Bringing awareness to your brand within the Amazon ecosystem involves three key strategies: brand stories, posts, and A+ content.
It’s easy as a new seller to overlook the power of content marketing, but it’s a critical piece of your Amazon advertising strategy.
Review posts and stories on mobile devices to research how brands in your category promote their products.
Then, plan an A+ content strategy that keeps your listings unique and engaging, especially for products customers reorder frequently.
Step 2: Promote Where Shoppers Are
This section of the funnel should focus on increasing the visibility of your products with online shoppers. After building your top-of-funnel strategy, start using ads to generate sales.
Fine-tuning your Amazon advertising strategy to target prospective customers where they buy products sets a foundation to grow brand profitability.
A lot goes into adequately managing on-site Amazon ads, including keywords, targeting settings, bids, and ad copy.
Work with an experienced Amazon agency to design campaigns that align with your brand objectives and budget.
Step 3: Form A Niche
How can you sell more products in your category and gain brand recognition on Amazon? Start by forming a niche.
Amazon has various ad types that you can use to reach specific audiences, and each form of advertising fits into different parts of the funnel.
Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products are great at creating brand awareness, whereas Sponsored Display Ads can help you reach shoppers considering your product.
These ads can target shoppers along their journey to purchase, helping you bridge the gap between your brand and prospective customers.
Step 4: Gain Consideration
Gaining consideration with Amazon’s ecosystem means getting in front of prospective customers as they search for products. This is where you need to get creative and differentiate your brand from competitors.
While these ad types are great for targeting shoppers, they are also perfect for jumping into your competitors’ funnel.
Use Amazon DSP Ads to bid on keyword searches and display off-site ads discussing your competitors’ products. These ads go to your brand and product pages, and it’s an excellent way to boost consideration.
In addition, Sponsored Brands Video Ads are perfect for targeting shoppers exploring products in your category. Over-the-top ads (OTT) are perfect for targeting shoppers watching their favorite shows on streaming services.
Although the attention and consideration-generating ads might not convert like the ads you build in step two, they go a long way to differentiating your brand, building awareness, and showcasing what makes it unique.
Step 5: Build Awareness
With a solid funnel foundation set up, it’s time to expand your reach to build awareness. This funnel stage aims to cast a wide net to grab the attention of shoppers unaware of your brand.
You can do a lot to build awareness of your brand, but within the Amazon ecosystem, it involves audio, OTT, and DSP advertising.
Audio ads on streaming services and podcasts are perfect for reaching shoppers daily. OTT ads let you target viewers as they watch their favorite shows or movies. DSP ads also allow brands to reach shoppers searching for similar products off-site.
By incorporating all of these types of ads into your funnel, you can build strong brand awareness and recognition across the Amazon ecosystem.
What’s Next?
Building a full-funnel Amazon advertising strategy effectively ensures you reach customers at every stage of their journey.
By taking the time to implement the overall Amazon marketing funnel, you’ll generate more attention and sales for your brand and products.
Rather than having someone purchase your brand’s products and fail to interact with your business again, you can build a relationship with shoppers and keep them returning for more.
Once your funnel is in place, it’s essential to maintain and adjust it accordingly. You should regularly review the results of your campaigns, fine-tune your targeting settings, and measure the success of your efforts.
With the right help from an Amazon advertising agency, you can promote your brand on every channel that shoppers use to search for and purchase products on Amazon.
Use this guide as a starting point to build campaigns and begin driving more sales today.
