Rippling doesn't measure brand campaigns on direct-response metrics. Instead, creative top-of-funnel ads are designed to "implant a seed" of brand awareness. Success is measured by how these campaigns increase the efficiency and conversion rate of subsequent mid- and bottom-funnel ads shown to the same audience.
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At Rippling, content creation is not a standalone, organic-only activity. The core philosophy is that almost every piece of creative, from humorous videos to customer stories, is ultimately designed to be used as fuel for their paid media engine. This ensures that brand-building efforts are maximized for reach and have a measurable pathway to impact.
The brand's media strategy prioritizes top-of-funnel entertainment to build massive, broad awareness. This continually fills the pipeline with new audiences, which makes lower-funnel, conversion-focused tactics like retargeting cheaper and more effective than chasing a limited pool of in-market buyers.
Gap's Head of Digital argues that a lack of brand investment forces performance marketing to work harder and become less profitable. Strong brand relevance makes all other marketing efforts more efficient, creating a symbiotic relationship.
Brand campaigns reach the 95% of buyers not currently in-market. Instead of relying on vanity metrics, Square ties this investment to business outcomes by tracking the subsequent lift in organic traffic, which they've found converts better than paid channels.
The "How Italian Are You" series focused on community engagement, not immediate conversion. This top-of-funnel content created a brand-aware audience that was later retargeted with conversion-driven ads, proving brand-building can be more effective than constant sales pitches.
Stop viewing brand as a top-of-funnel activity. For elite companies, brand isn't a precursor to selling; it is the selling. It creates inbound demand that bypasses traditional conversion tactics like search ads or affiliate marketing, making it the most powerful and sustainable growth engine.
Instead of relying on vague brand metrics, Float measured the success of its billboard campaigns by observing the direct lift in its performance marketing. Demo requests, website visits, and even Google and LinkedIn ad performance all increased by 30-50% during and after the OOH flights.
Data reveals a 'doom loop' of diminishing returns for companies over-relying on performance marketing. Brand investment acts as a multiplier, improving conversion and efficiency. Campaigns that combine brand and performance see a 90% higher ROI, while performance marketing for a weak brand yields a negative 40% ROI.
In a world demanding short-term results, brand marketing isn't a separate luxury. It is a critical investment that builds top-of-funnel awareness, ensuring that lower-funnel performance tactics have a sufficient audience to convert and ultimately work harder.
The traditional "big idea" campaign model is broken. A modern approach starts in the mid-funnel with organic social content. Content that resonates with the algorithm and audience on merit then becomes the brief for both lower-funnel performance ads and upper-funnel brand campaigns, de-risking the entire process.
