By: Tami Jennings
With increased market pressure, it’s tempting to allocate the majority of your media budget toward lower-funnel tactics like paid search to generate quick wins.
While this approach might seem logical, it overlooks a fundamental aspect of consumer behavior: consideration and mental availability. If your brand isn’t on a potential customer’s radar before they’re ready to buy, you’re already at a disadvantage.
The Consumer Decision Journey: It Takes Time
Many brands underestimate the time it takes for a customer to make a purchase decision. Depending on the industry, the consideration process can take weeks or even months, and rarely happens after a single interaction.
On average, it takes seven to 10 touch points before a customer converts. These interactions can include:
- Seeing a social media ad or organic post
- Reading a blog or watching a video
- Receiving a recommendation from a friend or influencer
- Visiting your website multiple times
- Seeing a retargeting ad
- Reading customer reviews
- Signing up for an email list and receiving follow-ups
Without a strong brand presence across multiple channels, customers may never reach the final step: purchasing.
Quality Over Quantity: The Right Customers Matter
By investing in a balanced mix of awareness-building, engagement and conversion tactics, you attract the right customers who genuinely connect with your brand, which leads to:
- Loyal customers who share positive experiences and provide testimonials.
- Higher lifetime value, driving growth through referrals and reducing customer acquisition costs.
- Consistent, long-term sales giving your business stability, making it easier to plan and grow for the future.
Final Thoughts
Yes, building brand awareness takes time, but the payoff is worth it.
When you invest in the entire customer journey, not just the final conversion, you create a steady pipeline of high-quality customers who trust, choose, and advocate for your brand.
Instead of asking, “How can we get more conversions right now?” the better question is:
“How can we build a brand that people want to buy from — today and in the future?”
