As we head into the back half of the year, many teams are deep in Q4 planning. You are likely not only deciding where to place bets and how to make budgets work harder, but also how to balance short-term performance with long-term growth. In that process, top-of-funnel investment often ends up on the chopping block. It’s harder to measure, takes longer to pay off, and can feel risky when every dollar is under scrutiny. But the brands that commit to building awareness now are the ones that enter peak season with a warmer audience, stronger conversion rates, and a healthier path to growth.
At Rockerbox, we see this play out across hundreds of brands. The ones that invest in brand awareness early build a stronger foundation for conversion, retention, and efficiency later on. I recently sat down with Marc Viale, founder of Lab415 and a veteran growth leader, to unpack how brands, especially those looking to move beyond marketplaces, can build a smart, scalable top-of-funnel strategy.
For newer brands that aren’t yet a household name, marketplaces can feel like an easy win. Customers are already there ready to shop, and you don’t need to go find them. But there’s a tradeoff: you’re one of many, competing on price, and you’re not building direct relationships with your customers.
If you want long-term value, you have to create demand from scratch. That means telling your story, building recognition, and getting in front of people before they’re ready to buy. And timing matters. If your data shows it takes 30–60 days from first touch to purchase, you can’t wait until peak season to start. You need to start now, while inventory costs are lower and you have room to nurture.
The way people discover brands has changed and it’s still shifting. Meta and Google still have a role, but they aren’t the go-to discovery engines for Gen Z. Instead, we’re seeing growth in YouTube, CTV, podcasts, and influencers. Linear TV? Declining.
If you want to be discovered, you have to be where your audience already is. For younger consumers, that means leaning into content-driven, native-feeling placements in these emerging spaces. And with AI changing how search works, brand discovery will increasingly come from algorithmic recommendations. The brands that thrive will be the ones that build direct awareness and engagement before the algorithms decide who gets visibility.
Here’s the good news: you don’t need a million-dollar budget to test into awareness channels. There are placements starting around $55–65K through self-serve vendors, including CTV. The not-so-good news? The creative is what makes or breaks it.
Strong top-of-funnel creative does a few things well:
Weak creative? It’s vague, overly abstract, or tries too hard to be clever without telling people why they should care. You’re not just trying to look good, you’re trying to spark enough interest that people want to know more.
One of the biggest mistakes brands make is testing top-of-funnel for a short period, not seeing attributed conversions, and pulling the plug. That’s not how it works.
Top-of-funnel success often shows up in indirect ways first: traffic lifts, more people mentioning your brand in surveys, halo impact on other channels. Over time, you can layer in multi-touch attribution (MTA) to understand how awareness channels contribute to your overall customer journey, and use incrementality testing to see the true lift.
This is where Rockerbox shines, by bringing these approaches together in a unified measurement framework, we help you see the full value of your top-of-funnel investment so you can scale it with confidence.
If you want to grow a brand that lasts, you can’t live only at the bottom of the funnel. Start by knowing why awareness matters, understand how your customers discover brands, test into the right channels with creative that works, and measure what really counts.
Do those things, and you won’t have to choose between brand and performance - you can have both.
If you’re ready to see how Rockerbox can help you measure, optimize, and scale your awareness investment, book a demo with our team today.