12. What Is the Value of "Top of Funnel" Advertising?
Summary
Mark and Mike evaluate the relative benefits of upper-funnel awareness and lower-funnel targeting in the advertising mix of mattress brands and retailers – examining industry data from Somnigroup’s March 2026 Investor Presentation as a backdrop for the conversation.
Click here to check out the Imagine.io Mattress Builder mentioned in this episode!
Key Take-Aways
Lower-funnel efficiency depends on brand awareness more than marketers admit. Search advertising works best when consumers already recognize and trust the brand. Without that familiarity, brands may struggle to compete for clicks, while familiar companies capture much of the existing demand.
The right marketing funnel mix depends on a brand’s market position, not ideology. The best allocation depends on scale, distribution, brand familiarity, and how much demand a company can realistically capture once awareness has been created.
A shift toward lower-funnel advertising can be a symptom of declining brand-building investment. When companies focus primarily on consumers who are already shopping, they may improve short-term efficiency while doing less to create new interest in the category. Over time, this can leave the industry dependent on existing demand and contribute to declining unit sales.
The real battleground is category value, not just conversion. Effective advertising should make a mattress feel like a premium, problem-solving purchase rather than a commodity. Connecting mattresses to cooling, comfort, recovery, and better mornings can increase pricing power, reduce substitution based solely on price, and give consumers stronger reasons to choose one brand over another.
For mattresses, demand creation is primarily about accelerating existing demand rather than creating entirely new demand. Unlike products that consumers purchase regularly, mattresses are finite replacement products. Upper-funnel marketing can shorten the replacement cycle and increase willingness to pay.
Show Notes
Shout-outs (in no particular order): Avocado, Nectar Sleep, Tempur-Pedic
References: Somnigroup Investor Day March 4, 2026, Dog Surfing