Picture this: You swipe right on someone cute on Hinge, but you’re busy and don’t message them immediately. Three weeks later, your friend mentions they know someone perfect for you—turns out it’s the same person from the app. You finally go on that date, but was it because of Hinge or your friend’s recommendation?
This is exactly what happens with your marketing campaigns. And if you’re only looking at direct conversions, you’re missing the real magic.
The frustrating scenario every marketer knows
You run a Facebook awareness campaign for your new product. The creative is solid. The targeting feels right. But Facebook reports mediocre results—maybe 2x ROAS if you’re lucky.
Your boss questions the spend: “Why are we wasting money on campaigns that barely break even?”
But then you notice something weird. Your Google Ads conversion campaigns start performing better. Organic search traffic ticks up. People are typing your brand name directly into the URL bar. If you sell on Amazon, those sales start climbing too.
Your awareness campaign isn’t failing. You’re just not connecting the dots. Awareness campaigns are like planting seeds that grow in someone else’s garden.
The first law of marketing
Spending at the top of the funnel drives awareness, which can manifest at the bottom of the funnel as well as in direct and organic traffic.
When you make people aware of your brand, they don’t just convert immediately—they start showing up everywhere else too.
We see awareness spend showing up for our clients in dozens of ways, but here are three that may sound familiar:
Your awareness campaigns are feeding your conversion machine
Your TikTok ad introduces someone to your brand, but they don’t buy immediately. Two weeks later, they see your retargeting ad and think “Oh yeah, I remember them!” Or they search for your product category and click your Google ad because your brand feels familiar now.
Your awareness spend is literally feeding your conversion campaigns.
The direct traffic mystery solved
Ever notice how your “direct traffic” and “organic search” seem to spike after you run big awareness campaigns?
That’s not a coincidence.
Someone sees your Instagram ad but doesn’t click because they’re in the middle of something. Later, they’re telling a friend about a problem they have. They remember your brand name and Google it directly. Or they type your website URL straight into their browser because your brand stuck in their mind.
This is word-of-mouth in the digital age, and your awareness dollars are making it happen.
The branded search goldmine
Here’s a scenario that happens thousands of times a day: Your YouTube pre-roll ad reaches someone who’s trying to watch a video about cats. They don’t click because, well, cats are more important right now.
But your brand name gets filed away in their mental Rolodex.
Weeks later, they need what you sell and search “[your brand name] + [product]” on Google.
If you’re not tracking branded search volume alongside your awareness campaigns, you’re basically judging a movie by watching only the first five minutes.
Why this should keep you up at night (in a good way)
Most marketing platforms only show you direct attribution. They can’t connect these dots for you—or maybe they just won’t. Either way, this leads to one of the most expensive mistakes in marketing: cutting awareness spend that’s actually your highest performer.
While you’re second-guessing your awareness campaigns, your competitors who understand this law are building massive competitive moats. They’re capturing customers at every stage because they see the full picture of what their top-of-funnel spend actually does.
Those “underperforming” awareness campaigns you’ve been questioning? They might be delivering 3x, 4x, or even 5x the returns you think they are. You’re just not seeing where all that value is landing.
Picture having that visibility. Imagine walking into your next budget meeting knowing exactly how your awareness spend ripples through every part of your funnel. Think about the confidence you’d have scaling the campaigns that are secretly your biggest revenue drivers.
The cruel irony? Brands that don’t understand this law end up stuck in a conversion-only death spiral, wondering why their customer acquisition costs keep climbing while their competition seems to effortlessly capture market share.
The missing piece of your marketing puzzle
This is exactly why we built our MMM to track what we call “halo effects”—the spillover impact of your awareness campaigns on organic traffic, direct traffic, and branded search.
Because here’s the truth: your top-of-funnel spend is probably your hardest-working dollar. You just need to know where to look.
When you can see these connections clearly, everything changes. You stop cutting campaigns that seem weak but are actually feeding your entire ecosystem. You start scaling the awareness efforts that create compound returns across every channel.
Understanding Law #1—that spending at the top of the funnel shows up in many different ways across your channels—is just the beginning, though. Because if you’re not spending enough at the top of the funnel, you won’t have a bottom of the funnel to optimize
If you’ve seen this law in play, come share your insights with us and fellow marketers on LinkedIn.
Next week, we’ll dive into Law #2 and why your awareness budget might be the most important line item in your entire marketing plan.
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