PPC Foundations: The Buying Funnel, Part 1: Funnel Structure

Question 1

What is the buying Funnel?

Answer 1

The buying funnel is a series of steps a consumer goes through before making a purchasing decision

 The actions in each stage of the funnel are different for different types of businesses or products

Question 2

What are the steps of the buying funnel?

Answer 2

The buying funnel/buying cycle/decision making funnel:

1. Awareness: Product is introduced to the customer
2. Interest: Customer finds out how the product may benefit them
3. Learn: Customer researches the product and learns more about it
4. Shop: Customer searches for the best way to buy the product and makes final decisions about purchasing
5. Buy: Customer purchases the product
6. Post buy: Review lifetime customer retention and value, provide support

 Not every product will include all stages of the funnel o Every product and service is different

Question 3

Discuss the consumers’ progression through buying funnel.

Answer 3

Each stage could include a single search or many searches

 Awareness and interest stages are not commonly search-based stages, display and other ad types appeal to these stages of the buying funnel

 Users can move through multiple stages of the buying funnel after a single search if a website is oriented properly and if the product is appropriate

 It’s important to understand how your customers move through each stage of your buying funnel o Knowing how they move through your particular funnel helps you provide the right advertisements, content, and interactions for each stage

Question 4

Discuss features vs benefits at the respective stapes of the buying funnel.

Answer 4

For businesses, each step of the funnel is either focused on benefits or features:

1. Awareness (benefit)
2. Interest (benefit)
3. Learn (feature & benefit)
4. Shop (feature)
5. Buy (benefit)

Question 5

Discuss Ad Landing page in relation to the buying funnel.

Answer 5

Landing pages should match the stage of the buying funnel o The stage of the buying funnel can be determined from the search query

 Landing pages for each stage of the buying funnel should focus on doing different things for the customers:

o Awareness: Piques interest

o Interest: Shows why you need this

o Learn: How to, white papers, newsletters, buying guides

o Shop: Category/forms

o Buy: Convert right now

Question 6

How should you go about choosing Ad content or types?

Answer 6

 The content should match the stage of the funnel

o i.e. If someone searches for a category of products, bring them to category page o i.e. if someone searches for a specific product, bring them to a product page

 Choose keywords that target a particular section in the funnel

o This increases the chances of moving the customer to the next stage in the funnel

o i.e. If you want to target people ready to buy, use keywords like “buy” or “purchase”

o i.e. If you want to target people in the interest section of the funnel, use words like “best” “top”

o i.e. If you want to target people in the learning section, use specific keywords related to the product

Question 7

What does maintain scent through the purchase process mean?

Answer 7

Maintain scent throughout the purchase process o Remind users why they are moving through the process

o The incentive and offer should be maintained throughout the process

 Give the user options

o If the user is unable to find the exact product, the consumer should have other options to convert

Question 8

What stage of the funnel does Display work well?

Answer 8

Image and video ads work well for awareness and interest stages of the funnel – higher recall rate than text ads o Text ads have a low recall rate, especially if the user is not already aware of the company, product, or service