Why Awareness Requires More investment than you think!

Google’s continued support of a full-funnel marketing strategy is widely promoted, and guess what … they only have a solution at each step of the way to help you achieve your marketing goals! What are the chances? Why are many media agencies still wed to this idea of feeding the funnel? It must work in theory? Nothing to do with committing a large amount of budget to a particular California-based media platform, I’m sure? How is that going to play out? I digress!

Media and marketing professionals recognize the emphasis on Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action (AIDA). However, it often overlooks the critical importance of scale at the awareness stage. In today’s post, I critique the idealized Google model. I argue that its emphasis on budget allocation across the funnel downplays the substantial investment needed. Such investment is essential to achieve sufficient reach and frequency. These elements are necessary to drive meaningful brand awareness, particularly for new entrants in competitive markets. We use the UK Scotch whisky market as a case study. This demonstrates that achieving impactful awareness requires significant investment. Such investment aligns more closely with an “always-on” brand-building strategy. Furthermore, we argue that focusing narrowly on search and PPC can be a flawed approach. Google-trained professionals often champion this. This approach neglects the fundamental role of broad-reach media. Broad-reach media is crucial for building brand recognition and driving long-term growth. We advocate for a return to evidence-based marketing principles, prioritizing reach and mental availability. 

The Google Funnel – An Idealized View?

The AIDA funnel is a cornerstone of modern marketing education. I have had to endure countless media presentations laboring this concept. It’s not just from Google, arguably the dominant force in digital advertising. (OK, Meta and Amazon, there is a post coming for you later.) Google heavily promotes this model, advocating for budget allocation across each stage. This approach suggests a linear progression, where consumers are systematically guided from unawareness to purchase. While conceptually appealing, this model often fails to adequately address the realities of brand building, especially the vital role of mass-reach awareness in fueling the rest of the funnel.

In my view, the Google funnel, as practically applied, suffers from several key limitations:

• Underestimation of Awareness Costs: The allocation approach rarely confronts the sheer volume of reach and frequency needed. Achieving genuine brand awareness is challenging, particularly for new brands entering established markets.
• Overemphasis on Digital Silos: The funnel often encourages a siloed approach. It prioritizes digital channels, such as search and PPC. This comes at the expense of broader and more impactful channels like TV or OOH advertising.
• The “Wrong End of the Telescope”: Professionals trained within the Google ecosystem often begin their approach at the bottom of the funnel. They focus on action first in their marketing strategy. They tend to neglect the crucial foundational work needed to build brand salience.
• Ignoring Mental Availability: The emphasis on conversion and direct response often overshadows the importance of building mental availability. This ensures the brand comes to mind easily in relevant buying situations.

Before we delve into Scotch Whisky, let’s just consider some basic mathematics. It’s the kind of basic maths you did at school, the type you used to tell yourself “when am I ever going to need this”. If you were off sick that day, just ask Microsoft Copilot. Consider the below calculations and replicate the units to a relatable figure. Sales volume, sales revenue, media investment, audience size. You can replace anything you like and the result is the same as your marketing efforts are concerned:

• Layer 1 (Bottom): Smallest slice, approximately 1.6% of the total volume. awareness d
• Layer 2: Approximately 10.9% of the total volume.
• Layer 3: Approximately 29.7% of the total volume.
• Layer 4 (Top): Largest slice, approximately 57.8% of the total volume.

So, what does this all mean? Say, the bottom sector (Action/ Sale) is allocated to 1.6% of total audience, the top section, awareness should be responsible for 57.8%. Lets equate this to cold hard cash! When your search team comes to you, they tell you what an amazing job they have done. They have driven 1,000 new customers this month for only $50,000 USD ($50 CPA). Be sure to ask them if we invested in driving awareness through media. If so, ask how much? It should be $1.81M assuming an equal triangle, and they always are equal in these hypothetical scenarios! So, to flesh out this model, $50K on Action would need, $340,625 to make the decisions , and Interest would require $928,125. The whole funnel would need an investment in media of over $3.125M. $3,125 CPA. Keep this in mind when we move through the rest of this post. i do tend to ramble on, so lets see if Microsoft Co-pilot can put this more succinctly for you …

Microsoft Copilot

What you’re (me, Dan Hills) pointing out here is an important principle in funnel economics, one that often goes underappreciated in media planning: the top of the funnel (Awareness) is where the lion’s share of investment is needed to drive meaningful results further down. Let’s break it down with the numbers you’ve provided:

• Action (1.6% of the audience): $50,000 spent here results in 1,000 new customers at a $50 CPA.
• Interest (10.9% of the audience): To sustain this funnel flow, the estimated investment required at this stage is $340,625.
• Desire (29.7% of the audience): This portion of the audience requires $928,125 in investment.
• Awareness (57.8% of the audience): To capture a broad enough audience and feed the funnel effectively, an estimated $2.8M–$1.8M is needed at the Awareness stage.

Total Funnel Investment:

Altogether, you’d be looking at a total funnel investment exceeding $4M to maintain balance and ensure the steady flow of qualified leads. At this scale, the overall CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) rises to around $4,000 when considering the entire funnel—a far cry from the isolated $50 CPA your search team highlights.

Key Point: A bottom-heavy focus on Action alone risks starving the funnel upstream. To truly scale, funds must flow into Awareness campaigns to broaden the audience, nurture Interest, and cultivate Desire. Without this, the funnel narrows prematurely, limiting long-term growth and sustainability.

Your example underscores the importance of robust media strategies that consider all funnel stages—not just Action—and illustrates why upper-funnel investments are critical for scalable success. It’s a compelling case for moving beyond short-term results and thinking holistically!

OK, thanks Microsoft Co-pilot. I will take it from here…

The UK Scotch Whisky Market: A Challenging Landscape

Lets put this into context, on a product and industry close to my heart. The UK Scotch whisky market is characterized by:

• High Brand Awareness: Established brands (e.g., Johnnie Walker, Glenfiddich, Macallan) enjoy significant brand awareness and strong mental availability.
• Fragmented Consumer Base: Consumers have diverse preferences, ranging from blended whiskies to single malts, with varying levels of knowledge and engagement. Not to mention they may like other spirits like rum, voka, gin … or they may like wine and beer equally, of even as a preference … forgive me Jonny Walker.
• Mature Market: Growth is incremental, and competition for market share is fierce.
• Regulatory Constraints: Limitations on alcohol advertising restrict certain channels and messaging.

Launching a new Scotch Whisky brand in this environment presents a significant challenge. Simply allocating a small percentage of budget to “awareness” within the Google funnel is unlikely to yield meaningful results.

The Awareness Imperative: Reach, Frequency, and Mental Availability

Ehrenberg-Bass Institute research underscores the critical importance of reach and frequency in building brand awareness (Sharp, 2010). A brand must reach a large proportion of the target audience multiple times to create and reinforce mental associations. Key principles include:

• Light Buyers: Most sales come from light buyers, not heavy users. Therefore, reaching a broad audience is more important than deeply engaging a small segment.
• Mental Availability: Brands grow by being easily recalled at the point of purchase. This requires consistent brand messaging across multiple channels to build strong mental associations.
• Distinctive Brand Assets: Creating unique brand elements (logo, colors, tagline) and consistently using them builds recognition quickly.

Dismantling the Funnel: Why Awareness Requires a Massive Investment in Reach

To demonstrate the inadequacy of a simple “funnel allocation” approach, consider the estimated investment needed to create meaningful awareness for a new Scotch whisky brand in the UK:

Assumptions:

• Target Audience: Adults aged 25-54 in the UK (approximately 25 million people).
• Desired Awareness Level: To achieve initial brand recognition and consideration, we aim for 20% prompted awareness within 12 months.

Estimated Investment:

To reach 25 million people frequently and create a 20% prompted awareness within 12 months, the following would be needed.

• Television Advertising: A TV schedule running across major UK channels for a sustained period (6-12 months) would be needed. This could cost upwards of £3-5 million for production and media spend.
• Out-of-Home (OOH): Strategic placement of billboards and transit advertising in key urban areas (London, Edinburgh, Manchester) would be needed. This could cost £500,000-£1 million.
• Print and Magazine Advertising: Targeted placements in relevant publications (lifestyle, men’s interest, travel) would be used. This could cost £200,000-£500,000.
• Digital Display Advertising: Running broad-reach display campaigns across relevant websites and platforms would be needed. This is where “search fundementals” fail. This part alone could cost £1 – 2 million.

Total Estimated Awareness Budget: £7-10 million.

Why This Matters:

This estimate highlights the significant investment required before any substantial activity in the “Interest,” “Decision,” or “Action” stages of the funnel. A smaller “awareness allocation,” as typically prescribed by the Google funnel model, simply won’t generate the necessary reach and frequency to build meaningful brand recognition and drive sales.

The Pitfalls of Bottom-Up Marketing: Ignoring the Broad View

Search and PPC professionals, often trained in the Google ecosystem, tend to approach marketing from a bottom-up perspective. They focus on capturing existing demand and optimizing conversions, neglecting the fundamental role of brand building in creating demand.

Turning off linear TV and OOH before investing in broad-reach digital awareness is a strategic mistake. These channels provide broad coverage and create brand salience, making search and PPC efforts more effective. When someone has seen your TV ad, the chances of them searching for you are much higher, and as a result, your search campaign will prove more effective. Ive covered this in my book, Media Mix Modelling, … other titles on the subject are available.

Return to Evidence-Based Marketing: Embracing Reach and Mental Availability

My friends at The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute’s research offers a more robust framework for brand building, emphasizing reach, frequency, and mental availability. This approach suggests:

• Prioritize Reach: Focus on reaching as many potential buyers as possible through broad-reach media.
• Reinforce Mental Availability: Consistently use distinctive brand assets to create strong mental associations.
• Embrace “Always-On” Marketing: Sustain brand-building efforts over the long term, rather than relying on short-term promotional campaigns.

OK, not necessarily my friends, but I have lived next door in Sydney and Melbourne. I have yet to visit Adelaide, although I have seen Professor Byron Sharp, author of How Brands Grow, discuss this in depth on a handful of occasions. Back to the focus of this blog …

Google’s Counter-arguments, Defuted (give me a shout if you want to defute my defusions)

Google argues that with audience demographic data, brands can reach specific cohorts, without the need for a mass reach.

Yes, demographic targeting exists, but to reach 20 million people, this is still very costly.

Google argues that marketing efficiency is improved through targeting and AI driven campaign, which results in savings. This is how brands justify smaller “Awareness” allocation.

AI does not compensate a weak message or a message that your target audience is not seeing. The reality is that a small campaign is even smaller if your brand is not known.

Google argues that brands in the early stages should begin with PPC and SEO, as it captures demand, which is then a basis to expand outwords.

Yes, and this is the problem, with this method alone, your campaign will not scale up. If you do not do reach at the top, everything else is reduced.

Beyond the Funnel: Building Brands for the Long Term

The Google funnel, while a useful framework, can be misleading if applied rigidly. Building brand awareness requires a significant investment in reach and frequency, particularly for new entrants in competitive markets like UK Scotch whisky.

Marketers must prioritize broad-reach media, embrace “always-on” brand building, and resist the temptation to focus solely on digital silos. By returning to evidence-based marketing principles, grounded in the work of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, brands can more effectively build awareness, drive mental availability, and achieve sustainable growth.

OK, that’s enough for a Monday morning. Stay tuned for more of my contrary views on the global media industry here … unless you are large holding group agency who may, or may not, have significant spending commitments with the big platforms aforementioned.

References:

• Sharp, B. (2010). How Brands Grow: What marketers don’t know. Oxford University Press.

Note: This paper provides a framework and estimated investment figures. A detailed marketing plan would require extensive market research, competitor analysis, and budget optimization. However, the core argument remains: building meaningful brand awareness requires a substantial, sustained investment in reach and frequency, far beyond what is typically envisioned within the Google funnel model.