The standard notion of promoting assumes a easy path. A shopper feels a necessity, searches for an answer, instantly finds and clicks your advert, and converts. However that’s solely the tip of the funnel. The seen half. What truly drives acquisition occurs lengthy earlier than that click on ever happens.
Earlier than anybody lands in your website, they’ve been silently researching, evaluating, asking round, and forming opinions. They’re studying boards, scanning opinions, lurking in remark sections, and watching how your model (and your rivals) present up when nobody’s actively promoting.
That is the hidden a part of the iceberg funnel, and optimizing for it could actually show you how to earn belief earlier and place your model because the pure selection when customers are lastly able to act.
Let’s see how the iceberg idea works and how one can maximize it.
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The iceberg funnel idea in advertising and marketing
The iceberg funnel is a advertising and marketing and gross sales metaphor used to explain how solely a small portion of consumer actions and floor metrics are seen, whereas the vast majority of their habits earlier than taking these actions stays hidden behind the scenes.
Seen: Web site visits, clicks, advert conversions, sign-ups. Often the measurable stuff
Hidden: Boards, mates, household, social media, communities, weblog posts, model mentions. Each motion earlier than the consumer immediately interacts along with your model
As an illustration, Skyle, a 22-year-old faculty pupil, is in big bank card debt.
Late at evening, she’s scrolling Reddit threads on pupil finance, studying nameless tales, browsing Quora for recommendation, and watching YouTube movies about “how she will be able to bypass, scale back, or scale her debt.”
That is the place acquisition begins.
Proper now, she’s not testing advertisements from manufacturers positioning themselves as debt answer suppliers
She may not even bear in mind that such options exist
Skyle solely wants worthwhile data, presumably even free options
And she or he expects you to indicate up.
Stanislav Khilobochenko, VP of Buyer Companies at Clario, says, “Unsurprisingly, most entrepreneurs take a again seat right here. Some set a lead entice—the place you merely watch for a result in click on earlier than going full thrust into the conversion course of. You don’t care about what she has executed earlier than as long as she results in your funnel.”
“The drawback of that is that you simply’re not the one one organising these so-called lead traps. It’s a contest of who has probably the most advert funds and may obtain the best attain. In the long run, out of 100 leads, you may find yourself with solely two or lower than a dozen, or possibly nothing,” Stanislav provides.
Good manufacturers, however, win Skyle’s belief even earlier than she’s prepared, or whereas the funnel continues to be submerged.
They present up with sincere solutions, helpful content material on debt aid applications, and empathy, not aesthetic banners, on on-line communities.
They contribute to discussion board questions on budgeting and monetary administration on Quora and Reddit.
This continues till she’s able to decide. And by then, she’s more likely to lean in direction of the title that helped even when she wasn’t trying to “pay.”
Victor Iryniuk, Communication Supervisor for NetHunt CRM, solutions Quora questions
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The hidden a part of each iceberg funnel
Within the iceberg idea, solely 10-20% of your funnel is seen. The remaining 80-90% is hidden and sometimes untapped. Let’s divide the hidden funnel into 4 sections to grasp higher:
Pre-click consciousness section
That is the place folks understand they’ve an issue, begin researching the severity of the problem, and hunt down others who face related challenges. They ask their family and friends and go to social media platforms to debate their wants. These actions subtly stay on the base stage of your iceberg funnel.
Oblique Influences
Right here, they begin on the lookout for options by peer suggestions and interesting in group discussions. Sooner or later, they might come throughout your model a number of occasions, maybe on engines like google, social media, or by a reference by ChatGPT, and this regularly shapes their notion.
Untracked touchpoints
Your potential clients sift by opinions, YouTube movies, exterior weblog posts mentioning your model, on-line boards, product comparisons, and testimonials. These touchpoints are outdoors your monitoring capability, and that makes it troublesome to leverage them successfully.
Conversion readiness
After a number of untracked exposures and delicate trust-building moments, they’re lastly prepared to have interaction. They’ve fashioned a psychological listing of appropriate options, containing you and some different rivals in the event you’re fortunate. Their last choice to click on or not hinges on a number of elements, however the very important one includes the connection they’ve fashioned along with your model. If none, you’re probably out.
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Why does the hidden funnel matter for acquisition?
Simply as we defined earlier than, many of the decision-making course of for each consumer is unconscious. Your very best buyer goes silo with their analysis and desperately on the lookout for options. They find yourself exploring a number of choices alongside the way in which, and their decision-making course of turns into much more difficult.
While you step in at this second, you grow to be their knight in shiny armor. Even earlier than they attain the shopping for stage of a typical advertising and marketing funnel, your model floats on the high of their thoughts, and so they’ve decided already. When the necessity arises, they discover it simpler to decide on you over rivals.
At a look, in the event you reap the benefits of the entire funnel, you’ll have the ability to:
Affect shopping for selections earlier than customers actively store
Construct belief whereas rivals are nonetheless chasing clicks
Keep top-of-mind when it’s lastly time to decide on
And in the event you don’t, you’ll must:
Compete on advert spend as a substitute of belief
Struggle for consideration when the choice is already made
Accept scraps in a crowded, late-stage funnel
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6 methods to maximise your funnel
Most entrepreneurs and gross sales groups optimize their funnel post-click. What you’re doing is the reverse. You begin proper from the submerged a part of the funnel—the second your viewers has an issue, and even earlier than they begin on the lookout for options or click on.
Map actual search intent, not simply key phrases
Chasing high-volume key phrases with out context is a dropping sport. As a substitute, discover the why behind every question. Are they confused, simply looking, or able to take motion? To try this, it is advisable begin with exploring first, not web optimization instruments.
Hang around on Reddit, Quora, area of interest Fb teams, Twitter threads, and boards the place your target market congregates. Search for how folks speak about their issues. Take note of emotion, confusion, and phrasing. These are alerts for intent. Tailor your content material and key phrases to handle them.
You also needs to conduct competitor evaluation to determine methods during which different websites are focusing on clients and what engines like google are deeming to be most relevant to the search intent of every question. Then, modify your content material entrance along with your analysis insights.
Embed your model in communities that matter
Based on a examine carried out by GWI, the variety of web customers taking part in on-line communities elevated from 72% to 76% between 2017 and 2019. The determine has absolutely grown increased, indicating that individuals are extra snug sharing private issues on-line and forming genuine connections.
This additionally means your potential clients might be there to share issues, complain a couple of services or products, request assist, and so forth. While you present up with related solutions at this stage, your acquisition course of is half executed.
To try this, discover private and non-private on-line teams your viewers is extra more likely to be on and be part of. As an illustration, early-stage SaaS founders could also be lively in communities similar to Indie Hackers, the SaaS Progress Hacks Fb group, or area of interest Slack channels like Visitors Assume Tank or RevGenius.
Community, reply questions, present options, and provide worthwhile steerage to ascertain your self as an authority. No have to pitch at this stage, no less than till you’re seen as a dependable supply. By the aspect, your profile ought to speak about your product or model—that’s sufficient cue for them to know what you do.
Over time, you possibly can regularly mix every information with a pitch.
Mine boards and opinions for consumer knowledge and contribution
Identical to teams, boards are a floor to mine consumer habits, place your model as a information, and be as helpful as potential to your viewers. A very powerful is consumer habits and intent. With typical viewers analysis, you’ll solely scratch the floor, getting demographics, roles, or pursuits.
However in boards, you see what they really say, what they battle with, how they ask for assist, and what options they belief. You should utilize this perception to optimize your campaigns and content material, whereas additionally contributing to those boards to make sure our model stays on the high of their minds.
In style examples of boards to leverage embody Reddit threads, Quora, and Stack Overflow, that are significantly helpful for builders.
Evaluate websites are additionally magic. They usually include customers’ unfiltered considerations and worries. So, search for your rivals on assessment platforms like G2, Capterra, or industry-specific assessment websites and see what perplexes their audiences.
Construct content material for every stage of the iceberg funnel
The iceberg funnel shouldn’t be synonymous with the standard advertising and marketing funnel, however they work hand in hand. Prime of the funnel (TOFU) and Center of the funnel (MOFU) tackle the submerged a part of your iceberg funnel, whereas Backside of the funnel (BOFU) focuses on the seen facet.
It is best to guarantee to construct content material for every stage, particularly for the TOFU stage. TOFU educates and informs, which is ideal for guiding your viewers once they want educational and suggestive steerage.
To maximise content material visibility, share excerpts of those posts in your boards, teams, on-line communities, and social feeds.
Leverage GEO for further visibility
A number of years in the past, Google and Bing had been the go-to choices for locating solutions. Nonetheless, that has modified for the reason that emergence of ChatGPT. As of Q1 in 2025, ChatGPT had over 367 million customers and greater than 5.2 billion month-to-month visits. A good portion of those visits includes queries about why, how, when, and the place.
Supply
The most effective half is that a few of these generative instruments now have direct web entry. So, when customers ask questions like, “What’s the best suited B2B software program to make use of?”, it comes with a real-time listing of appropriate manufacturers or options. And that is a part of the hidden iceberg funnel, the untracked touchpoints.
Now think about with the ability to slot your model into that listing and seem each time a consumer is on the lookout for solutions or options.
Not only for software suggestions. ChatGPT now offers references to supply web sites when requested a query. Customers can click on these references to go to the web site and make sure extra particulars immediately. So, in case your web site finally ends up changing into a reference, that’s site visitors and leads for you.
The method of positioning your model for these AI instruments is named Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). To do it:
Publish authoritative, useful content material that solutions particular, high-intent questions clearly and concisely
Construction your content material semantically utilizing correct headings, bullet factors, and schema markup to assist AI perceive it
Use pure language that mimics how customers ask questions, not simply keyword-stuffed phrases
Cite credible sources and hyperlink out when related, rising your probabilities of being seen as a reliable reference
Lastly, monitor how your content material seems in AI-generated solutions and replace it often to remain related and visual.
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Wrapping up
90% of acquisitions happen earlier than customers click on. They’ve made up their thoughts on which model to buy from. Meaning manufacturers specializing in post-click earlier than turning their conversion wheel threat lacking out. If you happen to reap the benefits of the hidden funnel, you find yourself changing into your potential clients’ first go-to.
To try this, map actual search intent, not simply key phrases. Embed your model in communities, community, work together, and supply useful options. Place your self as a information, not a pitch, on boards like Quora and Reddit.
Leverage assessment websites to see what customers take into consideration your rivals. The insights will show you how to tailor your marketing campaign to focus on leads within the submerged funnel. Construct content material for each stage of your advertising and marketing, particularly TOFU. Lastly, make the most of GEO to seize a share of GenAI site visitors and leads.
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The publish The Iceberg Funnel: Why 90% of Acquisitions Occur earlier than the Click on appeared first on StartupNation.
