Awareness¶
The Awareness stage is the very top of the AAARRR funnel—the moment when a potential customer first learns that your product, brand, or solution even exists. At this point, they may not know who you are, what you offer, or even that they have a problem worth solving. Your job during this stage is to create intrigue and visibility. This is where marketing meets storytelling: you're introducing your product like a character in a movie—what's its purpose, and why should anyone care?
Awareness can be driven through a variety of channels such as SEO, social media, public relations, podcast interviews, thought leadership content, events, and paid media. The goal is to place your product in front of the right audiences and make a memorable first impression. But here's the kicker—since this stage is hard to measure and doesn’t tie directly to revenue, it’s often under-prioritized despite being mission-critical.
Key metrics to track in this stage might include impressions, website traffic, branded search volume, social engagement, and media mentions. Tools like Google Analytics, social listening platforms, and media monitoring software can help gauge your performance.
In essence, Awareness is about planting the seed—helping people realize there’s a better way, and hinting that your product might be it.
Related KPIs¶
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Aided Brand Recall (Survey-Based) | Aided Brand Recall measures the percentage of respondents who recognize your brand when prompted with a list of competitors. It helps assess brand awareness and marketing effectiveness. |
| Brand Awareness Lift | Brand Awareness Lift measures the percentage increase in the number of people who are aware of your brand before and after a specific campaign or time period. It helps assess the impact of marketing efforts on brand visibility. |
| Brand Mentions | Brand Mentions measures the number of times your brand name is referenced across public or private channels (e.g., social media, forums, press, communities) within a specific timeframe. It helps gauge brand visibility and word-of-mouth momentum. |
| Brand Recall Score in ICP Surveys | Brand Recall Score in ICP Surveys measures the percentage of ideal customer profile (ICP) respondents who remember your brand, either unaided or aided. It helps assess brand strength and category awareness among target buyers. |
| Branded Search Volume | Branded Search Volume measures the number of search queries containing your company or product name over a defined period. It helps assess brand awareness and intent-to-engage from both new and returning audiences. |
| Branded Search Volume Growth | Branded Search Volume Growth measures the percentage increase or decrease in branded search queries over a set period. It helps track brand momentum and marketing effectiveness over time. |
| Content Engagement | Content Engagement measures the level of interaction, interest, and value that users derive from content. It encompasses metrics like time spent on content, shares, comments, likes, click-throughs, and other forms of interaction that signal user involvement. |
| Content ROI | Content ROI measures the return on investment generated by content marketing initiatives. It evaluates how much revenue or value your content delivers relative to the costs involved in creating and distributing it. |
| Cost per Aware ICP Account | Cost Per Aware ICP Account measures the average cost to generate awareness from an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) account. It helps evaluate the efficiency of brand and demand activities focused on your most valuable target accounts. |
| Cost Per Aware Visitor | Cost Per Aware Visitor (CPAV) measures the cost to bring a visitor to your site or product who demonstrates brand awareness, such as through branded search or direct traffic. It helps evaluate brand-driven demand efficiency. |
| Direct Traffic Growth | Direct Traffic Growth measures the percentage increase in website visits that originate from users entering the URL directly. It helps assess brand awareness, recall, and loyalty. |
| Engaged Unique Visitors | Engaged Unique Visitors measures the number of distinct visitors who meet a defined engagement threshold within a set period. It helps track the volume of high-quality traffic interacting meaningfully with your product, website, or content. |
| Engagement Rate from Buying Personas | Engagement Rate from Buying Personas measures the percentage of your total visitors or users who belong to your defined buyer personas and meet engagement criteria. It helps assess whether your GTM strategy is attracting and resonating with decision-makers. |
| Engagement Rate on Awareness Campaigns | Engagement Rate on Awareness Campaigns measures the percentage of users exposed to an awareness campaign who then take a meaningful action. It helps assess whether top-of-funnel messaging and creative drive attention and interest. |
| Engagement-to-Awareness Cost Efficiency | Engagement-to-Awareness Cost Efficiency measures the cost required to generate one meaningful engagement per awareness campaign impression. It helps assess how efficiently top-of-funnel investments convert into audience interaction. |
| First-time Visitors to Product Page | First-time Visitors to Product Page measures the number of unique users who visit your product page for the first time in a given period. It helps track new interest and early funnel awareness. |
| Inbound Lead Volume | Inbound Lead Volume measures the number of leads generated through inbound channels over a given time period. It helps quantify how effectively content, campaigns, and organic traffic attract prospects. |
| Influencer and Advocate Mentions | Influencer and Advocate Mentions measures the number of times your brand, product, or content is mentioned organically by influencers, advocates, or industry voices across digital platforms. It helps gauge brand reach and community buzz. |
| Intent Signal Volume (3rd-party) | Intent Signal Volume (3rd-party) measures the number of buying intent signals collected from external sources (e.g., Bombora, G2, media partners) over a defined time period. It helps quantify market interest beyond owned channels. |
| Likes, Shares, Comments | Likes: A basic interaction indicating approval, enjoyment, or agreement with a post or piece of content. |
| Shares: When users repost content to their own network, amplifying its reach and demonstrating strong resonance. | |
| Comments: User-generated responses to content, reflecting deeper engagement and encouraging conversation. | |
| Newsletter Subscription Growth | Newsletter Subscription Growth measures the increase in net newsletter subscribers over a given period. It helps track interest in long-form content and audience-building performance. |
| Open Rate | Open Rate measures the percentage of email recipients who open an email out of the total emails delivered. It evaluates the effectiveness of your email subject lines, timing, and sender reputation in enticing recipients to open your email. |
| Organic Acquisition Rate | Organic Acquisition Rate measures the percentage of new users or customers acquired through unpaid channels, such as SEO, content, social shares, or direct traffic. It helps quantify inbound performance and CAC efficiency. |
| Organic Content Shares | Organic Content Shares measures the number of times your content is shared across social platforms, email, or dark social—without paid promotion. It helps track virality and audience resonance. |
| Organic Search Traffic Growth | Organic Search Traffic Growth measures the change in website sessions originating from unpaid search engine results over time. It helps track SEO performance and discoverability. |
| Page Views | Page Views refers to the total number of times a specific webpage is loaded or viewed by users. It counts every instance of a page being loaded, regardless of whether it’s the same user viewing the page multiple times. |
| Post-Video Brand Recall Lift | Post-Video Brand Recall Lift measures the increase in brand recall among viewers after watching a specific video campaign, compared to a control or pre-exposure baseline. It helps quantify the brand impact of video content. |
| Reach to ICP % | Reach to ICP % measures the percentage of your total marketing or campaign reach that falls within your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). It helps assess targeting precision and audience quality. |
| Referral Traffic from 3rd-Party Sources | Referral Traffic from 3rd-Party Sources measures the volume of web or app traffic that arrives via referral links from external domains—not including paid or organic search. It helps assess brand reach, ecosystem influence, and external referral traction. |
| Return Visitor Rate to Product Pages | Return Visitor Rate to Product Pages measures the percentage of visitors who return to your product-related pages after an initial visit within a defined timeframe. It helps track sustained interest and buying intent across the marketing and sales funnel. |
| Sales Call Brand Mention Rate | Sales Call Brand Mention Rate measures the percentage of sales calls where prospects mention your brand, product, or company unprompted. It helps assess brand recall and the influence of pre-funnel exposure. |
| Scroll Depth | Scroll Depth measures how far users scroll down a webpage or piece of digital content. It provides insight into how much of the content users engage with and whether they reach critical sections, such as calls to action (CTAs) or key information. |
| Sentiment Analysis (Sales + Social) | Sentiment Analysis (Sales + Social) measures the tone (positive, neutral, negative) of feedback and conversations related to your brand across sales call transcripts and social media platforms. It helps track brand perception, objection patterns, and positioning effectiveness. |
| SEO Traffic Growth Rate | SEO Traffic Growth Rate measures the rate of change in organic search traffic to your website over a defined time period. It helps track the effectiveness of your SEO strategy and content discoverability. |
| Share of Voice vs. Competitors (By Channel) | Share of Voice (SOV) vs. Competitors (By Channel) measures your brand’s visibility as a percentage of total market conversations, mentions, or impressions compared to key competitors — segmented by specific marketing or communication channels. |
| Share Rate Among ICPs | Share Rate Among ICPs measures the percentage of Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) users who share your content, product, or referral links. It helps quantify advocacy and resonance within your most strategically important audience. |
| Social Engagement from Target Accounts | Social Engagement from Target Accounts measures the number or percentage of social interactions (likes, shares, comments, follows, mentions) that come from accounts on your target account list. It helps assess brand awareness, content resonance, and early-stage intent within your ICP. |
| Social Shares | Social Shares measures the total number of times your content, product pages, or brand assets are shared across social media platforms. It helps quantify reach, resonance, and advocacy behavior. |
| Spam Complaints | Spam Complaints measure the number of recipients who mark your email as spam or junk after receiving it. This metric reflects how well your emails align with recipient expectations and can significantly impact your sender reputation. |
| Time on Page | Time on Page measures the average amount of time users spend on a single webpage. It reflects how engaging or relevant the content on that page is to visitors. |
| Top Funnel Conversion Rate by Channel | Top Funnel Conversion Rate by Channel measures the percentage of visitors or leads from each marketing or acquisition channel that complete a desired top-of-funnel action (e.g., sign-up, demo request, content download). It helps assess channel effectiveness at converting attention into engagement. |
| Traffic Growth from Sales-Aligned Channels | Traffic Growth from Sales-Aligned Channels measures the increase in website or product traffic from channels that are strategically aligned with sales efforts—such as outbound campaigns, ABM programs, partner co-marketing, or SDR-driven events. It helps track top-of-funnel momentum that supports revenue teams. |
| Unique Page Views | Unique Page Views measures the number of distinct users who view a specific page on your website during a given timeframe, regardless of how many times they visit that page. Each user is counted only once per session, offering a more accurate representation of unique audience size. |
| Webinar Registrations / Attendance | Webinar Registrations / Attendance measures the percentage of webinar registrants who actually attend the event live. It helps assess the effectiveness of webinar promotion, topic relevance, and engagement follow-through. |