Going full tilt with full-funnel

January 13, 2023Grainne O’Reilly

A White man with long blonde hair preparing to descend down a skateboard ramp on a pink and blue skateboard.

A full-funnel media strategy is most effective for maximizing results on Pinterest. The proof? When a customer sees ads across the funnel—awareness, consideration and conversion—conversion rates are 3x higher than when ads are seen for just one objective.1

The journey from “I love this!” to “add to cart” is rarely linear. These days, it can actually take as many as 14 touchpoints with a shopper to close the deal.2 

What does this mean for advertisers? It's increasingly important to connect with customers at every stage of the customer purchase journey. To ultimately make the sale, brands must find a way to nudge customers across many different platforms and devices.  

Easier said than done, right? That’s where Pinterest can help. People come to Pinterest already wanting to buy something—but not necessarily from a specific brand. In fact, 97% of the top searches on our platform are unbranded.3

People on Pinterest are constantly browsing, discovering and, yes, shopping! That “full-funnel” activity allows advertisers to build a more holistic approach to their campaigns. It also reduces reliance on last-click, because brands can target customers earlier in their journey, when they're still open to discovering new brands. 

Split the funnel into three distinct media objectives

At Pinterest, we have solutions for every campaign goal. We break the purchase funnel into three distinct objectives: awareness, consideration and conversions. This helps you to target customers at different stages of the funnel from discovery to action. 

A full-funnel media strategy is the most effective way to keep your brand top of mind across the purchase journey. It lets you connect with customers not just when they’re in discovery mode, but also when they're ready to take action. When a customer sees ads on Pinterest from across the funnel—across awareness, consideration and conversion objectives—conversion rates are 3x higher.1

Spotlight: Michaels gets full-strength out of full-funnel

Michaels is just one of many brands who have used full-funnel campaigns to boost their results. Looking to grow sales and foot traffic, crafting retailer Michaels used a full-funnel media strategy for a recent holiday campaign. Awareness and consideration ads showcased Michaels as a destination for holiday decor. They also ran ads featuring products and with strong CTAs that drove conversions. 


By combining upper and lower funnel objectives, Michaels’ holiday campaign led to results that really sparkled: a 120% incremental lift in store visits and over a $12 platform return on ad spend (ROAS).4

Make full-funnel pay off for your brand

Follow these steps to maximize performance and stay top of mind for shoppers across the customer journey:

  1. Experiment with multiple objectives: Advertisers who take a full-funnel approach may see more success than those who hone in on a single media objective. By adopting more than one objective, advertisers have seen up to a 57% improvement in sales lift.5 Adopting this strategy can help drive more opportunities and incremental revenue for your business.

  2. Diversify your media across the funnel: A broad media approach helps you from overspending on the lower funnel. If you’re focused only on conversion, you may forgo reaching new customers further up the funnel.  

  3. Take a holistic approach to measurement: By linking your upper funnel brand building and acquisition efforts to lower funnel performance activity, you can holistically measure, plan, buy and optimize your media. This will help you better understand the impact of your full-funnel campaign. It will also hold your entire media investment accountable to overall business outcomes like incremental revenue and ROAS.