What Is Bottom of Funnel BOFU? Ultimate Marketing Dictionary

bottom of funnel

Upper funnel builds visibility and fills the pipeline, and lower funnel captures high-intent visitors and drives conversions. Prospects here expect detailed insights about features, benefits, and comparisons before moving to purchase. Smart marketers know that guiding users from first touch to final conversion and beyond delivers stronger results across the board. According to a survey, 64% of marketers say content marketing is most effective at the top of the funnel.

bottom of funnel

All those resources go to waste if that’s your end goal. And that’s not an accident, that’s by design. Most leads won’t make it here, and that’s ok. And those solutions can be provided by you. These are people who have identified a problem and are looking for solutions. People in the top of the funnel are new to your business.

Targeting transactional and commercial keywords helps you reach people who are ready to buy or are comparing solutions. Many SaaS companies, including Semrush, provide free trials and personalized demos to support this stage. At the bottom of the funnel, people want to see exactly how a product or service works. Then use platforms like Google Ads or Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) to show follow-up ads to those visitors. These ads can appear when those same users browse other websites, scroll through social media, or use search engines.

Website visitors receive reminders. Story features deepen relationships. Interactive elements explored through participation-driving engagement mechanisms enhance connection. Facebook supports community building. 5.66B users enable global scale. Retargeting reconnects interested users.

Product Alternatives

Keeping a close watch on how well your bottom-funnel content is performing is an indispensable strategy. KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are qualitative figures that evaluate the high and low-performing aspects of your business. At the top and middle-funnel, you may have had multiple CTAs centered around lead generation and lead nurturing.

Customer Testimonials and Case Studies

41% of customers prefer live chat over phone and email support. That’s where great customer service can be an asset for your business. When prospects are at a critical moment in the buyer’s journey, they may have questions that need to be answered before they’re ready to invest. Don’t forget to post content that keeps you consistently on the minds of customers who are already interested in your product or services.

bottom of funnel

For this client, we targeted the topic “dyslexia private schools.” That’s a more specific query than “best private schools.” It has a smaller audience and smaller search volume, but it’s been a major driver of conversions for our client. These are queries that add a word or two that make them more specific to a particular feature, use case, or customer type. That’s still far higher than typical top of funnel content, but their posts targeting general DAM keywords convert at 3%, 6%, and even 15%. Based on our conversations with their sales team, we wrote a BOFU post on storing video assets, a specific use case within their broader product. Many companies build content to promote these offerings, and while these keywords don’t usually convert as well as your main category keywords, they still can drive leads. Not every variation will convert equally, but category keywords consistently convert at 3–5% or higher across our clients.

They are so intrigued they start reading and can't seem to stop. MOFU, or the middle of the funnel, occurs when prospects are past awareness and actively considering solutions. Even simple cart‑abandonment email reminders can lift conversion rates by 10.7%, recovering lost sales and improving ROI. Casper, a mattress brand, ran retargeting campaigns on Facebook that showed customer testimonials to recent site visitors. For example, Hurom used lower funnel content like countdown banners and time-sensitive offers during its Black Friday campaign by offering up to $200 off with a real-time timer. You create content that focuses more on the product or service and sells it to the lead.

Free Customer Journey Template

We’ve noticed this is actually extremely common, and we think it happens because most writers — and now most AI tools — don’t have deep enough knowledge of the product or customer to write anything original. If the content itself is generic or surface level (for example a very basic listicle of top software in a category) it risks you (a) not ranking and (b) not impressing or converting visitors that do land. We’ve seen this with clients whose content is now showing up in AI search results for prompts we never could have predicted. Outside of speaking directly with customers, this is the fastest way to identify topics that resonate with potential buyers and naturally position your product as the solution. The goal is to understand the details of the product, the ideal customer personas, and most importantly, the specific pain points that the product solves.

bottom of funnel

Email and SMS Are the Most Underused Revenue Channels in Healthcare

Instead of targeting various behavioral criteria (e.g. multiple web page visits or ad clicks), focus on one at a time. You can adjust those criteria within LinkedIn’s targeting features. You might feel tempted to narrow down your audience to seniority, specific employers, or location on top of job titles, but that can drive costs up. What if you shared a marketing campaign that featured competitor comparisons and limited-time offers to people who have never heard of your brand? As for how to target each funnel effectively and craft tailor-made content?

bottom of funnel

Leads often start coming in when you’re ranking on the first page for high buying-intent keywords and they really start flowing when you’re ranking in the top three positions. And, more specifically, it’s important to track leads by post (or by ad). But as you move bottom of funnel down the funnel, it’s no longer about pure volume but rather about the quality of those visitors from a sales perspective — i.e., leads. (Social media marketing isn’t where our expertise lies, however, it’s worth looking into further if you have a B2C business.)

To identify keyword gaps (where competitors rank but you don't), use the Keyword Gap tool. We can also dive into specific channels to get a better idea of how Zara drives traffic to its site. Understanding your competitors' traffic acquisition channels reveals where they invest most heavily to attract customers which helps you prioritize your budget toward proven channels. Identifying companies that convert the most customers ensures you're learning from proven success rather than copying ineffective strategies.

We love this carousel ad because it gives Shopify multiple opportunities to speak to their audience’s pain points. You want to stand out from competitors because this audience is inches away from converting. “Messaging that includes demos, competitor comparison charts, customer stories, case studies, and testimonials will be most helpful here for building trust,” Derse says. This is your moment to put your most persuasive foot forward with bottom-of-the-funnel content.