funnel framework
The Marketing Funnel: Stages, Model & How It Works
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.
By The Marketinque TeamReviewed June 2026
Where it comes from
A direct descendant of AIDA, the funnel metaphor was formalized through the 20th century and is now the default shared language for how demand converts.
The stages
- Awareness. Buyers first encounter your category or brand.
- Consideration. They actively evaluate options, including yours.
- Conversion. Qualified interest becomes a customer.
- Retention. Customers stay, expand, and advocate.
When to use it
Use the generic funnel as a shared vocabulary across a team, and to map content and offers to the awareness, consideration, and decision stages (TOFU, MOFU, BOFU). Reach for a more operational model when you need to actually run and instrument the work.
How it maps to the marketinque funnel
Our funnel is a more operational expansion of this one: it splits the vague awareness-to-conversion arc into positioning, attract, capture, nurture, and activate, then keeps going past conversion into onboard, retain, and advocate.
Related frameworks
Sources
- E. St. Elmo Lewis, The AIDA model (1898)
- McKinsey & Company, The consumer decision journey (2009)
Compiled by The Marketinque Team to our editorial standards.
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