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In our space, a lot of the conversations lean toward full-funnel strategies or upper-funnel tactics. While these topics are not only buzzworthy but also key to growth, for brands focused on driving conversions and maximizing return on ad spend, bottom-of-funnel (BOF) advertising is where a lot of the magic happens.
So today we’re going to narrow down our focus on this critical stage of the funnel.
At the recent Commerce Media Brand Summit in Atlanta, Ross Walker, Acadia’s Director of Retail Media, led an in-depth workshop on all things bottom-of-the-funnel—what’s changing, why it matters more than ever, and how brands can optimize this foundational stage of the funnel.
In this blog post, we’ll break down the key takeaways from the session, explore how brands are shifting their budget allocations, and share the tactical BOF strategies that separate high-performing campaigns from the rest.
What is Bottom-of-Funnel Advertising?
At its core, BOF encompasses any activity with the goal of converting a customer. Whether it’s securing a first-time purchase or fostering customer loyalty, BOF campaigns prioritize conversion rate, cost per acquisition (CPA), customer acquisition cost (CAC), and return on ad spend (ROAS).
A clear distinction exists between BOF and upper-funnel efforts: targeting. If a customer has searched for your brand, visited your product detail page, or previously purchased your product, they are in the BOF.
If they haven’t engaged with your brand yet, but are actively browsing your category, they are still also in the bottom of the funnel. On retail media platforms, even non-branded searches with strong purchase intent (such as searching for "chips" rather than "Lays chips") can qualify as BOF.
What Are the KPIs That Define Success at BOF?
Leading Indicators (Early Performance Signals):
These metrics predict future success and help optimize campaigns in real-time.
- CTR (Click-Through Rate)
- CPC (Cost per Click)
- Impression Share
- Share of Voice
Lagging Indicators (Outcome-Focused KPIs):
These metrics measure actual business impact and long-term success.
- ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
- CVR (Conversion Rate)
- New to Brand
- Incremental Sales
- Market Share
The Shift in Budget Allocation
A significant trend in recent years has been the shift in budget away from loyalty-based tactics toward BOF acquisition strategies. While retargeting existing customers once dominated digital ad spend, brands are now focusing more on converting potential buyers who have signaled intent but have not yet purchased.
Historically, brands allocated 35% or more of their budgets to branded search terms or retargeting past purchasers. Today, some brands allocate as little as 5% to loyalty campaigns and 10-15% to defensive keyword targeting, preferring instead to invest in demand capture and first-time customer acquisition.
Brands are focusing on:
- Retargeting PDP visitors who didn’t convert
- Capturing in-market shoppers searching for category-relevant terms
- Moving beyond simple branded keyword defense to competitive conquesting
The shift away from heavy loyalty-based spending reflects a growing focus on incrementality. While branded search and loyalty retargeting still play a role, brands are realizing that a broader BOF approach is necessary to drive meaningful growth.
Your Toolkit for Maximizing ROI - 4 Essential Tactics for Bottom-of-Funnel Success
Maximizing bottom-of-funnel performance requires precision. These four essential tactics will help brands make the most of their BOF campaigns, ensuring that every marketing dollar works harder and smarter.
1. ALIGN PAID SEARCH WITH PEAK SHOPPING HOURS
Dayparting, or controlling ad spend based on the day of the week and time of day, is a powerful yet often overlooked strategy. Many brands mistakenly focus solely on hour parting—adjusting bids throughout the day—while ignoring broader patterns in consumer purchasing behavior across the week.
Dayparting has become a critical optimization lever for BOF strategies. Brands that analyze performance trends often find:
- Stronger conversion rates on specific days of the week (e.g., weekends may perform better for some products).
- Higher ROAS at specific times of the day, often later in the evening when competition has depleted budgets.
An advanced tactic involves deliberately pausing campaigns in the early hours of the day and launching in the late afternoon or evening when CPCs tend to drop and competition is lower.
Additionally, some brands deploy strategies where they save budget until later in the day, knowing competitors will have exhausted their spend early.
💡 Tips:
- Analyze past performance data to identify peak shopping hours and days.
- Shift budgets to align with high-conversion periods while conserving spend during low-traffic times.
- Experiment with holding back the budget early in the day to capitalize on lower CPCs later in the evening when competitors have depleted their spend.
2. ALIGN PAID SEARCH AND ORGANIC MARKETING STRATEGY
A seamless integration between paid and organic efforts is crucial in BOF strategies. Brands that fail to align their product listings with key search terms risk losing organic ranking and paid ad efficiency. A strong synergy ensures that paid advertising efforts are amplifying, not competing with, organic discoverability.
Long-tail, non-branded keywords play a significant role in bottom-of-funnel performance. For example, if a consumer searches for “dill pickle ruffled chips” and a brand’s product title or description lacks those exact terms, the chances of conversion decrease significantly. Ensuring product listings are optimized for relevant, high-intent keywords improves both organic visibility and paid ad efficiency.
💡 Tips:
- Regularly audit product titles, bullet points, and descriptions to ensure alignment with high-intent search queries.
- Use paid advertising data to identify top-performing keywords and incorporate them into organic content.
- Implement a keyword strategy that prioritizes conversion-driving search terms rather than broader branding phrases.
- Regularly audit keyword relevance across both paid and organic placements.
3. CRAFT COMPELLING SHORT-FORM VIDEOS
Video advertising has traditionally been associated with upper-funnel brand awareness campaigns, but its impact on BOF conversions is growing. Unlike generic branding videos, BOF video content should highlight product features, unique benefits, and clear reasons to purchase.
At Acadia, we’ve seen firsthand the effectiveness of vertical video formats, particularly for mobile users. Vertical videos drive higher click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates, as they are more engaging and tailored for mobile-first experiences.
💡 Tips:
- Use vertical video formats to improve engagement and CTR, especially on mobile placements.
- Focus BOF videos on product benefits, unique ingredients, or features rather than broad brand storytelling.
- Focus on showing, not telling. Don’t include audio or subtitles.
- Test different video creatives and formats to determine what resonates most with in-market consumers.
- Less is more: Use quick cuts and don’t go over 20 seconds.
4. MASTER AI-POWERED BIDDING TECHNIQUES
AI-driven optimization is transforming BOF bidding and budget allocation, helping brands balance efficiency with scalability. However, AI should be viewed as a supplement rather than a replacement for strategic oversight.
The most effective brands use AI to manage the baseline performance of their lower-priority ASINs while manually optimizing their top-performing products. This approach allows AI to handle large-scale, rule-based adjustments while human expertise fine-tunes high-impact opportunities.
At Acadia, we've found that AI-driven bid and keyword harvesting management can achieve 85-90% accuracy in hitting targets—more than sufficient for allocating stable, mature campaigns.
💡 Tips:
- Use AI to manage broad campaign optimizations while focusing manual efforts on the top 20% of high-revenue ASINs.
- Set clear KPIs for AI-driven campaigns, ensuring they align with overall profitability goals.
- Continuously monitor AI-driven optimizations to ensure they remain aligned with business objectives and seasonality shifts.
Final Thoughts
Despite the growing emphasis on full-funnel strategies, bottom-of-funnel tactics remain critical for converting high-intent shoppers. By refining day-parting strategies, aligning paid and organic efforts, leveraging video effectively, and optimizing AI-driven bidding, brands can maximize conversions while maintaining efficiency. The future of BOF advertising is all about precision—ensuring every dollar is spent on the highest-converting opportunities.
Give It a Listen
You can tune in for the full discussion with Ross Walker on the Ecommerce Braintrust hosted by Julie Spear and Jordan Ripley.
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