How Marketers Can Benefit From Using Bottom-of-Funnel Data As Input To Top-Of-Funnel Activities

(and why they should care)

As explained before, Growth Loops can be more helpful than Funnels as they allow for the output of the Loop to be used as an input back into the Loop).

Now, we will see how data flows throughout the Growth Loop so the bottom-of-funnel data (such as conversion) can be retrofitted into the top-of-funnel activities to help decrease costs of acquisition or conversion, increase customer engagement and to help marketers further understand marketing attribution.

Even though Growth Loops may be more useful to guide marketers and unify the different teams involved towards shared goals, we should still leverage the concept of Customer Funnels to understand data capture and its flow (hence we will use top and bottom-of-funnel as references). Here, we will reference customer data only.

To leverage bottom-of-funnel metrics at the top of the funnel, we need to use data from the output of the Loop to improve its input (bottom-of-funnel data will stand for the output, while top-of-funnel activities will receive this output as an input). Although more technical colleagues will be heavily involved, it is the Marketer who benefits the most. Marketers should not only have working knowledge of how this flow of data works, but also be involved in these conversations to better assess how this impact both overall customer experience as well as their own day-to-day activities.

How the Data Flows from Bottom-of-Funnel output back into Top-of-Funnel as an input (thus feeding a Growth Loop)

Here is an example of a Growth Loop but now noting the flow of customer data throughout it, from top to bottom and to back to the top again:

1.??? New/Returning Customers For new customers, the first attributes and behavior data points captured, via acquisition channels such as website, app registration or form submission, are sent to the customer database we see at the center.

For returning customers, their existing data is already in the customer database. Also, this is where the First Touch data is collected for attribution purposes, via UTM campaign tracking tag.

2.??? Customer Data Enrichment For new customers, this means making sure you have collected the minimum set of data for activation (email address, phone number, marketing opt-in consent). Through activation such as initial email communication, data can start being enriched.

For returning customers, this means collecting additional information about customers, which will be used to further personalize communications with them moving forward. This data is collected via different digital channels used to engage with customer (email, website, social presence, etc). “Middle-of-funnel” attribution data is also collected via UTM tracking tags. All data should make its way back to the customer database at the center.

3.??? Customer Conversion Data Conversion data can take many forms, depending on business model and more. It can include sales (online and off), qualified leads generated, quality time spent on app, form sign-ups, etc. Non-conversion data will also be collected here (cart or journey abandonments). This data can come from different sources, including those outside the channels used in previous steps of the Loop). This also means conversion data can lag in time. In these cases, you can use a proxy metric at this step (until you get the actual conversion data), so data moves through the Loop into the next step without further delays.

4.??? Inputs for “Top of Funnel” Activities (or even to help move customers through the Loop) Here we see the greatest benefits to Marketers of this approach: conversion data can be used to create more segmented audience for campaigns for acquisition of new customers. It can also help push customers through the Loop (re-targeting for cart abandonment, for instance). If can even create predictive proprietary algorithms that helps identify which customers are more likely to covert in which channel, etc

Ensuring Bottom-of-Funnel Data is used as input into Top-of-Funnel Activities helps marketers in significant ways:

a.??? It can help decrease the cost per acquisition/action – you can use top of funnel activities to help you segment a new campaign for instance think of creating look-a-like audiences based on data of customers who have indeed converted), instead of starting with a broader, not yet qualified audience. You can also use this same data to create exclusion lists, thus avoiding spending marketing dollars with customers that have already converted

b.??? It can allow for more targeted, customized top of funnel approach in campaigns, as it allows for a different message for those who have already converted versus those who have started the process but have yet to convert (like shopping cart abandonment in an ecommerce use case. As mentioned before).? It makes it easier to meet the customer where they are in their purchase process, including acting for non-conversion (such as journey or cart abandonment, disengagement, etc).

c.??? It can also offer more insights into attribution, as both first and last touch are captured as well as everything in between. Since attribution data comes from UTM tracking tags, Marketers can have a huge impact on helping with attribution tracking. Attribution data can be valuable when defining which role each one of your channels play throughout the customer journey or buying cycle, as well as pointing out where the customer experience may be broken.

Depending on your martech stack the use of bottom-of-funnel metrics as an input into top-of-funnel activities can happen in different ways, including automatically where this data can be periodically passed from one platform to another (let’s say from your customer database back to the paid media publisher, done with security and privacy for all customer data). This way, your top-of-funnel activities will always have updated data without any recurring manual work, which is the optimal setup. If your martech stack does not allow for this type of automated data connection, Marketers can still make this connectivity happen by working with the appropriate stakeholders and establish the best processes to periodically send data from one platform to another (while ensuring these processes are also done safely and securely when it comes to customer data).

(and edited version of this article has been published by Martech.org)

?

?

?

?

?