The Sales Multiplier You’re Ignoring: Why ToF Paid Media Drives Profit, Not Just Awareness

“Our ROAS looks fine – until growth stalls.”

If that line feels familiar, you’re not alone.

Too many brands treat top-of-funnel (ToF) as a luxury. Something “for later,” when budgets are bigger, or when growth feels more certain. But here’s the truth: skipping ToF doesn’t just save you money – it quietly caps your sales ceiling.

In 2024–2025, UK advertisers leaned hard into bottom-funnel, cutting “brand” spend when confidence wobbled. On paper, ROAS looked strong. But acquisition dried up, CPAs climbed, and growth engines sputtered.

The reason? ToF isn’t just about awareness. It’s the multiplier that feeds the entire funnel-creating branded demand, lowering acquisition costs, and driving the very sales most teams are chasing.

Why brands skip ToF (and why it feels logical at the time)

Before we dive into the upside, let’s validate the logic:

• Short-term revenue pressure. When confidence dips, budgets skew toward promotions and bottom-funnel wins. The IPA Bellwether shows this tilt every time the economy wobbles.

• Attribution bias. Platforms over-credit last-click and retargeting. ToF rarely shows up in platform ROAS, unless you run incrementality tests.

• Shrinking retargeting pools. Since iOS14.5, Meta admits retargeting audiences have shrunk. Brands double down on the remaining scraps instead of prospecting.

• “Search captures everything we need.” A persistent myth fuelled by eBay’s studies: search often captures loyal demand, not new.

• AI defaults optimise for the easy wins. Left unchecked, PMax and Advantage+ chase short-term signals, missing the compounding value of new audience discovery.

Understandable? Yes. Smart? No. Because avoiding ToF throttles sales.

Why ToF fuels sales (the evidence you can take to your CFO)

This isn’t “brand fluff.” The numbers are clear:

• Full-funnel beats mid+low alone. Adding upper-funnel to existing activity lifts ROI by ~13% on average (Think with Google).

• Advertising’s true profit lies up-funnel. Profit Ability 2 found ROI rises from 1.87x short-term to 4.11x when long-run effects are included. AV (TV + BVOD) drove over half of all advertising-generated profit in the UK.

• Branded demand compounds. Share of Search is a predictive proxy for market share. More brand searches = cheaper conversions tomorrow.

• Video sparks measurable conversion. Google’s Brand/Search/Conversion Lift frameworks show causal uplifts in both branded search and sales after exposure.

• You’re under-crediting ToF. Practitioners see incremental sales show up in lift/geo tests long before they appear in click-stream attribution.

Put bluntly: ToF is not “brand spend” – it’s sales fuel.

The causal chain: ToF → demand → cheaper CAC → revenue

Here’s how it plays out:

1. ToF ads spark awareness and consideration.

2. That boosts Share of Search and brand recall.

3. More people Google your brand, click your PPC, or enter your funnel warmer.

4. Your branded CPC/CPA drops while overall conversion volume rises.

It’s the marketing equivalent of priming the pump – yet many brands stop feeding it.

How to run ToF in 2025 (without wasting budget)

Meta

• Use Reach, Awareness or Video View objectives.

• Layer in Conversion Lift to prove incremental sales.

• Keep Advantage+ Sales running, but feed it new demand.

YouTube

• Run Video Reach/View campaigns.

• Add Brand Lift + Search Lift + Conversion Lift to prove impact.

TikTok

• Treat it like Meta Awareness: broad interest + creative-led.

• Test with geo holdouts or MMM.

• Leverage cheap CPMs while they last .

Creative

• Bold, emotion-led hooks.

• Product in the first 2–3 seconds.

• Rotate 6–10 assets per audience.

• Cap frequency at 2–4 per week.

Budgets

• Mature brands: start with 60/40 brand vs activation.

• Growth teams: ring-fence 20–30% for upper-funnel.

Measurement that convinces finance

Forget platform ROAS. Use proof frameworks:

• Meta Conversion Lift → incremental purchases.

• Google Brand/Search/Conversion Lift → causal brand/search uplifts.

• Geo holdouts → multi-channel impact.

• MMM/econometrics → sustained ROI (per Profit Ability 2).

Operational KPIs to track:

• Leading: incremental reach, ad recall, aided awareness.

• Bridge: Share of Search (weekly).

• Commercial: branded CPC, new-to-file customers, blended CAC, revenue lift from tests.

Objections you’ll hear (and how to squash them)

• “We can’t afford ToF.” You can’t afford not to. Profit Ability 2: £4.11 ROI per £1 when long-term effects included. Start with 20–30%.

• “We tried awareness; ROAS tanked.” Platform ROAS under-credits by design. Run lift or geo tests. Google shows ~13% ROI gains from full-funnel.

• “Search + retargeting is enough.” Shrinking pools + finite loyal demand = decline. ToF builds new demand.

• “Video is brand, not sales.” Wrong. Video drives immediate and sustained ROI. Lift frameworks prove it.

The 90-day ToF challenge

Here’s your action plan:

• Commit 20–30% of budget to ToF for 90 days, dial back for maintenance.

• Pre-register a lift test with Meta/Google.

• Track Share of Search weekly.

• Align reporting with finance on profit, not platform ROAS.

• Rotate 6–10 creative assets; cap frequency.

Do this, and you’ll not only see incremental sales-you’ll prove the case to finance, lock in future budgets, and avoid the growth stall that’s plaguing your competitors.

Final word

The brands winning in 2025 aren’t the ones squeezing the last drops out of retargeting. They’re the ones fueling fresh demand with disciplined ToF investment.

If your growth has stalled, your KPI’s are climbing, or you’re ready to shake things up and unlock ads like you saw in 2020 – then drop us a message we’d be happy to chat.

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