July 11, 2025
Here's a truth that might sting: Most companies are optimising the wrong 10% of their marketing funnel while completely ignoring the 90% that actually drives decisions.
I was on a call last week with a SaaS founder who was absolutely furious about their annual ad spend. "We're getting clicks," he said, "but our customer acquisition costs keep climbing, and conversion rates are tanking."
Here's what I found when we dug into their data: 67% of their "direct" and "organic" traffic was actually influenced by paid brand campaigns that weren't getting any credit in their attribution model. They were about to cut the very campaigns driving their best customers.
This isn't unusual. I see this pattern constantly, teams fighting over attribution while missing the bigger picture of how their efforts actually work together.
Here's what's working: Companies that stop treating brand and performance as separate functions see marketing efficiency gains of up to 30% and revenue growth of up to 10% without increasing their budget.
Walk into most marketing departments and you'll see the same setup:
Team Brand sits in one corner, creating beautiful campaigns focused on "awareness." They measure success through surveys and vanity metrics.
Team Performance sits in another corner, obsessing over conversion rates and last-click attribution. They measure success through immediate sales.
The problem? They're essentially fighting over the same customers while completely missing how their work amplifies each other.
Here's the reality most companies ignore:
When teams operate in silos, you get three expensive problems:
Monday.com nailed this integration, and their results speak for themselves. In 2022, when most companies cut performance budgets, they increased theirs. But they didn't just buy more ads.
What they did:
The results: They scaled from $10M to $500M in annual revenue over five years while maintaining sustainable acquisition costs.
The key insight: Their "performance" success was actually powered by sophisticated brand-performance integration.
Forget linear funnels. Today's customer journeys look more like spaghetti than neat diagrams. Here's what actually happens:
Stage 1: Problem Unaware (95% of your market)Most people have pain points but haven't connected them to solution categories yet. This is where brand building creates future demand.
Stage 2: Problem Aware (3% of your market)
People know they have a problem and are exploring solutions. Here's where you position your brand as the obvious choice while capturing intent.
Stage 3: Solution Shopping (1.5% of your market)Active comparison of specific vendors. Remove friction and prove value through social proof and case studies.
Stage 4: Purchase Ready (0.5% of your market)Ready to buy, comparing final details. Focus on confidence and minimal friction.
If you're only marketing to the bottom 2% of your market, you're fighting over scraps while competitors build relationships with the 98% who will buy eventually.
Phase 1: Fix Your Attribution (Week 1-2)
Start by understanding what's actually driving your sales. Log into Google Analytics 4 and compare your last 30 days using last-click versus data-driven attribution. You'll probably be shocked at the difference.
Interview 5-10 recent customers about their full journey. Ask:
Most customers remember brand interactions your analytics completely missed.
Phase 2: Create Unified Customer Understanding (Week 3-4)
Stop having separate personas for brand and performance—you're targeting the same humans.
Instead of generic descriptions, create specific profiles like: "Sarah Chen, Operations Director at a 150-person startup. Discovered us through a LinkedIn thought leadership post about remote team productivity. Downloaded our ROI calculator after searching 'project management ROI.' Attended our webinar before starting a free trial."
Phase 3: Build Sequential Campaigns (Week 5-8)
Here's where the magic happens. Instead of separate brand and performance campaigns, create sequences:
Week 1: LinkedIn article about "The Hidden Cost of Bad Project Management" (brand awareness)↓Week 2: Retarget readers with video testimonial about ROI improvements (consideration)
↓Week 3: Retarget viewers with valuable tool or resource (lead capture)↓Week 4: Email sequence leading to demo request (conversion)
Budget this as 40% initial content promotion, 25% retargeting, 35% conversion campaigns.
Phase 4: Measure What Actually Matters (Week 9-12)
Stop using last-click attribution and start tracking:
Forget cookie-cutter advice. Your optimal split depends on your specific situation:
Early-stage companies (Under $1M budget): 85% Performance, 15% BrandYou need immediate pipeline and proof of concept. Focus brand investment on LinkedIn thought leadership and SEO content.
Growth-stage businesses ($1M-5M budget): 65% Performance, 35% Brand
Scale proven channels while building category awareness through webinars, industry reports, and strategic content.
Mature companies ($5M+ budget): 55% Performance, 45% BrandDefend market position while maintaining growth through comprehensive brand building and sophisticated performance optimization.
Adjust based on your industry:
Essential foundation (Under $50K budget):Google Analytics 4, HubSpot or Mailchimp, Facebook Creative Hub, Google Data Studio
Growth stage ($50K-200K budget):Add Ruler Analytics for attribution, HubSpot Professional for automation, Unbounce for testing
Enterprise ($200K+ budget):Custom attribution solutions, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Adobe Creative Suite, advanced analytics platforms
Start simple and upgrade only when you consistently hit measurement limits. Most companies over-buy technology and under-invest in implementation.
Zenni Optical had the classic attribution problem—Google Ads got 100% credit while expensive brand campaigns seemed worthless. They were about to cut brand budget to fund more Google Ads.
Instead, they implemented multi-touch attribution and discovered $1.5M in previously "hidden" brand-driven revenue. They reduced Google Ads spend by 30% while maintaining total revenue and increased customer lifetime value by 45%.
The lesson: Their "best performing" Google Ads were capturing demand created by their "worst performing" brand campaigns.
Day 1: Compare your attribution models in Google Analytics 4. Look at last-click versus data-driven attribution for the past 30 days.
Day 2: Call five recent customers and map their actual journey from first awareness to purchase.
Day 3: Audit your top three competitors' brand strategies. What content are they creating? Where are they advertising?
Day 4: Create one educational piece about your customers' biggest problem. Promote it with 80% of your weekly ad spend, then retarget engaged viewers with your best conversion ad.
Day 5: Set up brand-assisted conversion tracking. Create an audience of people who engaged with brand content, then track when they convert through performance channels.
Your attribution is broken if:
Your campaigns need integration if:
Your organisation needs alignment if:
AI-powered attribution will solve cross-device, cross-channel tracking challenges. Privacy-first integration will require sophisticated first-party data strategies. Real-time optimisation will automatically adjust messaging based on customer journey stages.
The companies starting integration now will have massive advantages when these technologies mature.
The choice is straightforward. Continue optimising the bottom 10% of your funnel, or start building relationships with the 90% of your market that will buy eventually.
If you're a CMO or Marketing Director: Schedule alignment meetings between brand and performance teams. Implement one integrated campaign this month as proof of concept.
If you're a CEO or Business Owner: Review your attribution reports—they're probably wrong. Ask your marketing team to explain how brand and performance work together.
If you're a Marketing Manager: Start tracking brand-assisted conversions manually. Propose one integrated campaign to leadership.
The question isn't whether to integrate brand and performance marketing—it's how quickly you can start.
Most companies will keep fighting over attribution while missing the bigger opportunity. The companies that stop the internal competition and start building unified customer experiences will capture disproportionate market share.
Here's what's working right now: Stop treating brand and performance as separate functions. Start treating them as two parts of the same customer relationship strategy.
The data is clear, the examples are proven, and the framework is actionable. The only question left is whether you'll implement it before your competitors do.
