The everyday notion of promoting assumes a easy path. A client 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 really 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 will possibly enable you 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.
The iceberg funnel idea in advertising
The iceberg funnel is a advertising and gross sales metaphor used to explain how solely a small portion of person actions and floor metrics are seen, whereas nearly all 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, buddies, household, social media, communities, weblog posts, model mentions. Each motion earlier than the person immediately interacts together with your model
For example, Skyle, a 22-year-old faculty pupil, is in big bank card debt.
Late at night time, she’s scrolling Reddit threads on pupil finance, studying nameless tales, browsing Quora for recommendation, and watching YouTube movies about “how she will 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 won’t even remember that such options exist
- Skyle solely wants beneficial info, presumably even free options
And he or she 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 anticipate a result in click on earlier than going full thrust into the conversion course of. You don’t care about what she has achieved earlier than as long as she results in your funnel.”
“The drawback of that is that you just’re not the one one establishing these so-called lead traps. It’s a contest of who has probably the most advert funds and may obtain the best attain. Ultimately, out of 100 leads, you may find yourself with solely two or lower than a dozen, or perhaps nothing,” Stanislav provides.
Sensible manufacturers, then again, 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 the direction of the title that helped even when she wasn’t seeking 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 infrequently untapped. Let’s divide the hidden funnel into 4 sections to know higher:
- Pre-click consciousness section
That is the place individuals understand they’ve a drawback, 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 degree of your iceberg funnel.
Right here, they begin searching for options by way of peer suggestions and fascinating in group discussions. In some unspecified time in the future, they could come throughout your model a number of instances, maybe on serps, social media, or by way of a reference by ChatGPT, and this progressively shapes their notion.
Your potential clients sift by way of 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.
After a number of untracked exposures and delicate trust-building moments, they’re lastly prepared to interact. They’ve fashioned a psychological listing of appropriate options, containing you and some different rivals should you’re fortunate. Their remaining choice to click on or not hinges on a number of components, however the very important one entails the connection they’ve fashioned together with your model. If none, you’re possible out.
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Why does the hidden funnel matter for acquisition?
Simply as we defined earlier than, a lot of the decision-making course of for each person is unconscious. Your splendid buyer goes silo with their analysis and desperately searching 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 funnel, your model floats on the prime 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, should you reap the benefits of the entire funnel, you’ll be capable 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 should you don’t, you’ll should:
- Compete on advert spend as an alternative of belief
- Battle 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 searching for options or click on.
- Map actual search intent, not simply key phrases
Chasing high-volume key phrases with out context is a dropping recreation. As an alternative, discover the why behind every question. Are they confused, simply looking, or able to take motion? To do this, it’s essential to 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 individuals speak about their issues. Take note of emotion, confusion, and phrasing. These are indicators for intent. Tailor your content material and key phrases to deal with them.
You also needs to conduct competitor evaluation to determine methods through which different websites are concentrating on clients and what serps are deeming to be most relevant to the search intent of every question. Then, modify your content material entrance together with your analysis insights.
- Embed your model in communities that matter
In accordance with a research performed 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 certainly grown larger, indicating that persons are extra comfy sharing private issues on-line and forming genuine connections.
This additionally means your potential clients will likely be there to share issues, complain a few services or products, request assist, and so forth. While you present up with related solutions at this stage, your acquisition course of is half achieved.
To do this, discover private and non-private on-line teams your viewers is extra more likely to be on and be part of. For example, early-stage SaaS founders could also be lively in communities corresponding to Indie Hackers, the SaaS Progress Hacks Fb group, or area of interest Slack channels like Site visitors Suppose Tank or RevGenius.
Community, reply questions, present options, and supply beneficial steering to ascertain your self as an authority. No have to pitch at this stage, not 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’ll be able to progressively mix every information with a pitch.
- Mine boards and opinions for person knowledge and contribution
Identical to teams, boards are a floor to mine person habits, place your model as a information, and be as helpful as potential to your viewers. A very powerful is person 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 need to use this perception to optimize your campaigns and content material, whereas additionally contributing to those boards to make sure our model stays on the prime of their minds.
Standard examples of boards to leverage embody Reddit threads, Quora, and Stack Overflow, that are significantly helpful for builders.
Evaluation websites are additionally magic. They typically comprise customers’ unfiltered considerations and worries. So, search for your rivals on evaluation platforms like G2, Capterra, or industry-specific evaluation websites and see what perplexes their audiences.
- Construct content material for every stage of the iceberg funnel
The iceberg funnel will not be synonymous with the standard advertising funnel, however they work hand in hand. Prime of the funnel (TOFU) and Center of the funnel (MOFU) deal with the submerged a part of your iceberg funnel, whereas Backside of the funnel (BOFU) focuses on the seen side.
You must guarantee to construct content material for every stage, particularly for the TOFU stage. TOFU educates and informs, which is ideal for guiding your viewers after they want tutorial and suggestive steering.
To maximise content material visibility, share excerpts of those posts in your boards, teams, on-line communities, and social feeds.
- Leverage GEO for additional visibility
A number of years in the past, Google and Bing have been the go-to choices for locating solutions. Nevertheless, that has modified because the 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 entails queries about why, how, when, and the place.
The perfect 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 having the ability to slot your model into that listing and seem each time a person is searching for solutions or options.
Not only for software suggestions. ChatGPT now supplies references to supply web sites when requested a query. Customers can click on these references to go to the web site and ensure extra particulars immediately. So, in case your web site finally ends up changing into a reference, that’s visitors and leads for you.
The method of positioning your model for these AI instruments is known as 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, growing your probabilities of being seen as a reliable reference
Lastly, monitor how your content material seems in AI-generated solutions and replace it usually to remain related and visual.
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Wrapping up
90% of acquisitions happen earlier than shoppers click on. They’ve made up their thoughts on which model to buy from. Which means 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 do 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 evaluation websites to see what shoppers take into consideration your rivals. The insights will enable you tailor your marketing campaign to focus on leads within the submerged funnel. Construct content material for each stage of your advertising, particularly TOFU. Lastly, make the most of GEO to seize a share of GenAI visitors and leads.
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