Every marketing funnel model, compared

AIDA is the original marketing funnel, describing the four mental steps a buyer moves through: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. More than a century old, it remains the skeleton under almost every funnel model that followed.

Attention ·Interest ·Desire ·Action

The marketing funnel is the standard model of how strangers become customers, narrowing through awareness, consideration, conversion, and retention. Each stage filters the one before it, which is why marketers talk in terms of top, middle, and bottom of funnel.

Awareness ·Consideration ·Conversion ·Retention

AARRR, or Pirate Metrics, is a metric-first growth funnel built for startups: Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue. Each letter is a number to instrument and improve, which makes it less a marketing model than a measurement framework for the whole business.

Acquisition ·Activation ·Retention ·Referral ·Revenue

The 5 A’s model the modern customer path as Aware, Appeal, Ask, Act, and Advocate. Its insight is that the journey no longer ends at purchase: in a connected market, advocacy loops back to influence the next buyer’s awareness.

Aware ·Appeal ·Ask ·Act ·Advocate

The bowtie funnel draws the classic funnel and then mirrors it: a second, widening funnel for everything after the sale. By giving onboarding, retention, and expansion the same weight as acquisition, it fixes the oldest flaw in funnel thinking, that the model ends at the signature.

Acquire ·Convert ·Onboard ·Expand ·Advocate

The flywheel replaces the funnel’s linear dead end with a loop. Its three phases, attract, engage, and delight, treat customers not as the output of the process but as the force that powers the next turn, since delighted customers attract the next ones.

Attract ·Engage ·Delight

A growth loop is a closed system where the output of one cycle becomes the input of the next: a new user produces content, a referral, or revenue that brings the next user. Loops compound, where funnels run once and stop, which is why durable growth is usually a loop, not a campaign.

Input ·Action ·Output

The customer lifecycle models the entire relationship as five stages: awareness, consideration, conversion, retention, and advocacy. Unlike a pure acquisition funnel, it treats the post-purchase stages as the main event, which is why it is the backbone of lifecycle and CRM marketing.

Awareness ·Consideration ·Conversion ·Retention ·Advocacy

The demand generation funnel is the operational model this site runs: eight working stages from positioning to advocacy, each with its own plays, metrics, and channels. It is the bowtie made concrete, and it has its own walkthrough.

Position → Activate ·Onboard → Advocate