What is a funnel?
The journey a potential customer takes from first contact (awareness) to purchase and loyalty.
More details
The marketing funnel visualises how people go from not knowing you to becoming a customer. At the top (awareness) it is about reach and recognition. In the middle (consideration) the customer compares options. At the bottom (conversion) they make a decision. Good marketing serves every stage: you need awareness campaigns to fill the funnel, and conversion campaigns to get something out of it.
For example…
Duolingo fills the funnel with organic traffic through SEO pages about "learn Spanish for free" (awareness), push notifications and gamification for daily use (consideration), and a frictionless upgrade to Duolingo Plus at the moment a user reaches a streak (conversion). Every stage is deliberately designed around the psychology of the learning user.
Where it goes wrong
The funnel is often used to describe a process that supposedly runs in a straight line. In reality people jump back and forth: they look around, disappear for months, and come back through a completely different channel. The model is useful for seeing where the leak is, not for pretending everyone follows the same route.
On top of that, the middle stage gets too little attention as a rule. Most brands have content to stand out and content to sell, but nothing that removes doubt, while that is where most buyers drop out.
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