When you’re working on ideas to stabilize brand success and increase sales, you might think more social media ads are the savior. However, increasing your ad budget doesn’t automatically solve the reason consumers aren’t buying. The key remains a full-funnel paid media strategy for FMCG.
Sometimes the problem is limited awareness. Sometimes shoppers know the product but don’t understand why they should choose it. In other cases, the product is already familiar but isn’t available where or when the shopper wants it.
Many FMCG brands respond by pushing harder on conversion campaigns. But paid media works differently when the product still needs to earn familiarity, consideration, or trial.
At FMCG360, we offer comprehensive paid media services that cover all the aspects and stages of the funnel. From awareness and consideration to trial and conversion, we produce and promote suitable media formats through different social media platforms.
Full-Funnel Paid Media Strategy for FMCG to Identify Where the Shopping Journey Breaks
Before adjusting your ad plan and budget, you need to identify gaps in the consumer journey. With this knowledge, you can understand the problem and adjust your messaging and ad content selection accordingly.
When working with clients, we analyze their paid social media performance and audience response to unveil the point where consumers stop progressing toward purchase.
With each case, we ask these five questions:
1- Are You Paying to Reach People Who Don’t Know the Product?
This is where most brands make a common mistake of assuming all ads must create awareness. While awareness is a major milestone for many campaigns, it’s not the sole purpose.
You can use awareness campaigns or another full-funnel paid media strategy for FMCG if you are already an established brand launching a new product. New brands entering the GCC or MENA markets for the first time will definitely need this type of campaign.
Skipping to conversion campaigns will be like asking too much from an audience. These audiences have not yet developed enough familiarity with the product.
At this point, we design campaigns that clearly answer these questions:
- What is the product?
- What category does it belong to?
- What is its USP?
- When can consumers use it?
For St. Dalfour Arabia awareness campaigns, our main focus is on increasing followers. We use content and visual assets to introduce a product that is different from traditional jams.
Want to see how we approached St. Dalfour Arabia’s paid media strategy? Check out our detailed St. Dalfour Arabia case study to see how we translated the product’s differentiators into consumer-focused campaign messaging.
2- Is there a Reason Stopping Audiences from buying?
In some cases, the audience already knows the product and understands what it offers, but something is still preventing them from choosing it. This is where paid media needs to move beyond recognition and give consumers a stronger reason to consider the product. Your creative and other visual assets need to communicate with the audience to convince them of this product or this offer in particular.
That’s why your production and full-funnel paid media strategy for FMCG needs to clearly answer the common question: why should I buy this product? The answer can be associated with a unique flavor, convenient usage, better value within a pack, suitability for dietary preferences, etc.
3-Does the Product Need a Stronger Reason to Try?
In many cases, FMCG consumers become familiar with a product and like what it offers. However, they remain stuck at this point and don’t move any further. The trial phase can give them a small nudge when standing confused at Panda or Carrefour shelves.
In this case, paid media can encourage confused consumers through first-time purchase incentives, value pack offers, and sampling campaigns.
Take the example of what Al Safi Danone in KSA did for their flavored milk Safio. The brand launched a campaign in 2016 to face a declining market share. They used paid Facebook teasers to introduce their personalized packaging featuring popular boys’ and girls’ names in Saudi Arabia.
4- Is Demand Met with Availability Within Full-Funnel Paid Media Strategy for FMCG
From our extended experience in various campaigns in MENA, the consumer’s journey ends without purchase because they can’t find the product. Imagine spending money and effort on awareness and consideration, but all this goes to waste because of a logistics problem.
If you’re spending to create demand in Riyadh, but the SKU isn’t adequately distributed across the retailers or Q-commerce platforms relevant to that audience, the media campaign may be creating interest that the shopper cannot easily act on.
To avoid this abrupt journey, you need to coordinate both digital marketing efforts and distribution reality simultaneously.
5- Are You Following the Usual Funnel Split?
We come across FMCG brands in MENA that follow the rule of an equal 30/40/30 funnel split. In reality, this won’t be in every brand’s best interest. A universal percentage of budget that belongs to awareness, consideration, or conversion can backfire. In many cases, your brand can introduce a new beverage flavor with a unique profile. This usually calls for more investment in discovery and education. For that reason, allocation arrangements should reflect the brand’s actual commercial problem.
A full-funnel paid media strategy for FMCG is not about pushing every consumer toward conversion or dividing your budget according to a fixed formula. It starts with identifying where the shopping journey breaks. From there, you can use the right message, format, and level of investment.
When you design a comprehensive shopping funnel experience, paid media can support the consumer journey from introduction to purchase.
Not sure where your paid media strategy is losing potential customers? Contact us to book a free consultation with FMCG360 experts to identify gaps across your funnel and understand where your media investment can have a stronger commercial impact.
