What Is a Brand Funnel? Stages, Strategies, & How to Optimize...

A brand funnel maps the exact path customers take—from the moment they discover your brand to the point they buy and become loyal fans. Each stage builds awareness, interest, and trust, helping businesses convert first-time visitors into repeat customers.

The Importance of Brand Funnels

A brand funnel acts like a health check for your business. Its real power lies in showing where you’re losing potential customers and how your performance stacks up against competitors.

For example, if awareness and consideration are strong but purchases drop sharply, the issue may lie in trust factors—like reviews, final messaging, or packaging. On the other hand, if the funnel is flat (lots of awareness but low conversion), it signals a need to improve targeting or messaging to turn visibility into action.

By studying the shape of the funnel, businesses can diagnose problems early, identify the exact stage where customers fall off, and invest in the right fixes.

At ZeroCostLift, we use funnel analysis not just to measure numbers—but to spot leaks, fix gaps, and design strategies that turn attention into sales and loyalty.

1. Awareness
Awareness measures how many people in your target market recognize your brand. It’s the starting point of the funnel and sets the stage for everything else. Strong awareness gives you a competitive edge and opens the door for future consideration.

2. Consideration
Consideration looks at how many people who are aware of your brand would actually think about buying from you. It reflects how well your products or services align with consumer needs. While it doesn’t guarantee purchase, it signals how your brand is perceived in the market.

3. Purchase
The purchase stage tracks how many people chose your brand over competitors and bought at least once. At this point, customers have compared options and decided your offering was the best fit.

4. Loyalty
Loyalty shows how many buyers come back for repeat purchases. It reflects positive customer experiences—driven not only by product quality but also by checkout, delivery, and customer support. The stronger these touchpoints, the higher your repeat business.

5. Advocacy
Advocacy is the ultimate level of the funnel—when loyal customers become brand promoters. They recommend your brand to peers, friends, or colleagues because they genuinely believe in it. Smart brands encourage advocacy through strong experiences, referral programs, and communication that rewards customers for sharing their positive experiences.

At ZeroCostLift, we utilize these funnel stages to identify where brands are thriving and where they’re leaking—and then develop strategies that convert awareness into advocacy.

 Best Practices for a Brand Funnel Survey

Brand funnel surveys are designed to map customer behavior across each stage of the purchase journey—from awareness to recent purchase. These surveys typically start with questions about brand awareness (e.g., “Which brands have you heard of?”) and move toward consideration, purchase, and recent usage (e.g., “Which brands have you purchased in the last 3 months?”).

For example:

• Which of the following soft drink brands have you heard of?
• Which have you considered buying?
• Which have you purchased?
• Which have you purchased in the last 3 months?

By structuring questions this way, businesses can uncover market trends, consumer preferences, and competitive gaps.

🔑 Best practice: Avoid overwhelming respondents with long brand lists. Keeping surveys focused ensures higher accuracy and better insights.

At ZeroCostLift, we use funnel surveys not just to collect data—but to build strategic insights that drive decisions on awareness campaigns, conversion strategies, and loyalty programs.

A Marketing Funnel is more than numbers—it’s your brand’s health report.

A marketing funnel shows how effectively a brand guides customers through their journey—awareness, consideration, purchase, repeat, and loyalty. It’s more than just tracking conversions; it reveals where your brand stands today and where growth opportunities lie.

At ZeroCostLift, we connect funnel analysis with the Brand Love Curve—moving customers from unknown to indifferent, to like, love, and finally becoming a beloved brand.

Indifferent brands → Weak funnels with low awareness, minimal purchases, and no loyalty.

Liked brands → Strong sales but weak emotional connection, meaning loyalty is fragile.

Loved brands → The strongest funnels, backed by repeat purchases and deep loyalty.

This framework is key to building strategy, spotting gaps, and shaping marketing plans that turn first-time buyers into lifelong advocates.

Marketing funnel...

Every brand needs to track its funnel—it’s like checking your brand’s health report. Just as blood pressure or cholesterol reveal your body’s condition, the funnel reveals how well customers move through their buying journey.

A classic funnel measures awareness, consideration, purchase, repeat, and loyalty. At minimum, tracking awareness, purchase, and repeat gives a solid pulse of your brand. But the real insight comes from ratios—how effectively you move customers from one stage to the next.

At ZeroCostLift, we link funnel strength with the Brand Love Curve. The wider and healthier your funnel, the stronger the connection with your audience—turning casual buyers into loyal advocates.

Marketing funnel analysis

A marketing funnel analysis using absolute scores

When running a marketing funnel analysis, start with absolute scores. These scores show where your brand stands at each stage—awareness, familiarity, consideration, purchase, repeat, and loyalty. Compare them against last year’s data, competitors, or category benchmarks to spot strengths and gaps.

The next step is to look at ratios—how efficiently your brand converts customers from one stage to the next. To calculate ratios, divide the score at one stage by the score from the stage above it. For example, if awareness is 93% and familiarity is 87%, the ratio is 94%, meaning 94% of people who are aware also recognize your brand.

Finally, lay out both absolute scores and ratios side by side for easier comparison. This not only highlights your brand’s performance but also makes competitor analysis clearer. For instance, comparing Gray’s Cookies to Devon’s shows ratios of 94%, 94%, 77%, 25%, and 12%—revealing exactly where one brand outperforms the other in moving consumers down the funnel.

The Marketing funnel analysis should use ratios

Once you’ve mapped absolute scores and ratios, the next step is to identify ratio gaps. This is done by subtracting a competitor’s ratio from your own. For example, if your brand converts 94% from awareness to familiarity and the competitor converts 98%, the gap is -4%—showing they’re stronger at this stage.

By laying out ratio gaps across the funnel, you can instantly see where your brand is outperforming or falling behind. These gaps reveal how effectively you move customers from awareness all the way to loyalty.

The real value comes from the strategic story behind the numbers. In the example, both brands perform similarly at the top of the funnel, but Gray’s falls behind with major gaps (-23% and -51%) in repeat and loyalty. Insights like this spotlight exactly where the brand must improve and shape the focus of the next marketing plan.

Stages of the purchase journey

Unknown stage → New brands start invisible. Without compelling messages, consumers simply walk past. At this stage, the priority is getting noticed and cutting through market clutter.

Indifferent stage → Consumers see the brand as a commodity, like fruit or vegetables. They’ll buy when it’s on sale, but switch back the moment it’s not. To survive here, a brand must be better, different, or cheaper—otherwise, the investment is wasted.

Like it stage → This is where business momentum begins. Consumers view the brand as a logical, functional choice, but without an emotional connection, purchases remain random. Many brands stuck here focus only on performance, forgetting that emotion drives loyalty.

ZeroCostLift helps brands move beyond “indifference” and “like it” by building strategies that combine performance + emotional triggers—the foundation for reaching the “love it” stage.

As brands move into the “love it” stage, consumers form a deeper emotional bond. They choose the brand as a favorite part of their day and weave it into their routines. The key rule here: consumers must love your brand before you can say you love them back. To strengthen this stage, brands should actively show appreciation, reward loyalty, and nurture the connection with their most engaged fans.

At the “beloved” stage, a brand becomes iconic. Here, consumers see it as part of their identity—a personal choice they proudly display, whether it’s something they hold, wear, or share. Beloved brands don’t just sell products; they create magical experiences that inspire fans to advocate, defend, and promote the brand on their own.

ZeroCostLift helps brands move from liked to loved to beloved by designing funnel strategies that build not just sales, but lasting emotional connections.