Sales Funnel
The sales funnel is the model that describes the journey a person takes from first brand contact to becoming a customer. Traditionally divided into top (discovery), middle (consideration) and bottom (decision), each stage has different content, offers and metrics. On social media, feeding the whole funnel is what sustains predictable growth.
What is a Sales Funnel?
Sales funnel is the visual model representing a person's journey from first brand contact through purchase (and, in modern models, through loyalty and advocacy). The funnel shape reflects reality: many enter the top, few reach the bottom.
On social media, the funnel matters especially because each format and each campaign serves a stage better.
Funnel stages
Top of funnel (TOFU)
- Goal: get discovered, generate awareness
- Audience: doesn't know the brand, maybe not even the problem
- Content: Reels, viral videos, broad tips, entertainment
- Metrics: reach, views, new followers
Middle of funnel (MOFU)
- Goal: educate, show authority, drive consideration
- Audience: knows the brand, is researching
- Content: educational carousels, lives, case studies, comparisons
- Metrics: saves, profile clicks, leads captured
Bottom of funnel (BOFU)
- Goal: convert
- Audience: ready to decide
- Content: offer, testimonial, demo, guarantee
- Metrics: conversion, ROAS, CPA
Funnel applied to paid media
- Top: traffic or views campaign with viral creatives. Low CPM, broad reach
- Middle: engagement or traffic campaign to a blog/educational landing. Lookalike of engagers
- Bottom: conversion optimized for purchase/lead. Retargeting and lookalike of buyers
Practical example
Fashion e-commerce over 30 days with R$ 60k investment:
| Stage | Budget | Metric | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top | R$ 24k (40%) | Reach | 820k people, +6,200 followers |
| Middle | R$ 18k (30%) | Engagement + leads | 2,400 leads, 38k site clicks |
| Bottom | R$ 18k (30%) | Purchase | 520 sales, ROAS 6.4 |
Bottom of funnel had very high ROAS because the top fed it with warm audiences. Cutting the top "because ROAS is low" would kill the bottom in 2 to 3 weeks.
Common mistakes
- Investing 100% in bottom of funnel (burns out fast)
- Investing 100% in top (doesn't convert, makes media look broken)
- Measuring top with bottom metrics (high CPA at top is normal)
- Not differentiating content by stage (same post trying to sell to someone who doesn't even know you)
Related terms
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