Sales Funnels vs. Marketing Funnels: What’s the Difference?

Advertising

Sales and marketing funnels may share the same end goal (driving more revenue), but they don’t play the same role in getting there. For modern brands, growth depends on how well those two functions work together, especially as digital channels create more ways to reach, engage, and convert customers. And with performance tools like CTV advertising giving marketers more measurable ways to influence business outcomes, understanding where the sales function ends and marketing begins matters more than ever.

That’s why it’s so important to know how each function supports the customer journey and where confusion between the two can slow your strategy down. When your teams are aligned, your messaging gets sharper, your handoffs get smoother, and your path to growth gets a whole lot more efficient.

In this article, we’ll cover the core differences between sales funnels and marketing funnels, and some important tips to bring them into alignment.

What Is a Marketing Funnel?

The marketing funnel happens before the sales funnel even comes into play. It consists of all the activities you do to build awareness of your brand and attract people to the sales funnel. Funnel building helps generate interest, promote your brand, and build your reputation. 

Stages of a Marketing Funnel

A marketing funnel has four stages: 

1. Awareness: This stage involves targeted marketing and ad campaigns that attract customers to your brand. 
2. Consideration: At this stage, you’re building relationships and creating a positive brand image with the potential customers you attracted in the Awareness stage. 
3. Conversion: At this stage, a potential customer may become a qualified lead. You might direct them to your website to make a purchase or hand them off to your sales team. 
4. Loyalty: Much like the loyalty stage in the sales funnel, this involves building a reputation that keeps customers coming back. 

Activities of a Marketing Funnel

Marketing activities vary based on which stage a customer is in the funnel. You need to stand out from the competition to appeal to customers at the top of the marketing funnel. You can do so by knowing your target market and getting creative with your ads. 

Customers at the top of the funnel either don’t know much about your brand or don’t know it at all. You can overcome this hurdle by doing market research and creating ads that highlight the benefits of your products as part of a demand generation initiative. 

Top-of-the-funnel activities include search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, social media engagement, and other marketing activities aimed at building awareness. 

To engage customers at the conversion and loyalty stages, you need more targeted content that speaks specifically to their needs. At these stages, consider content marketing, targeted ads, and nurturing campaigns designed to keep you at the top of customers’ minds. 

What Is a Sales Funnel?

A sales funnel is a visual representation of your customer’s buying journey. To enter the sales funnel, your prospective customer has to become aware of your business and do some preliminary research on your brand. At this stage, they know they might need your product or service, and they’re starting to evaluate their options on a deeper level. 

• Learn more about the benefits of a sales funnel.

Stages of a Sales Funnel

There are five sales funnel stages:

1. Awareness: When your marketing and branding efforts are successful, a qualified lead enters the sales funnel. At this stage, they’re familiar with your brand, but they might not be aware of all the benefits you bring to the table and how you can meet their needs. 
2. Interest: At this stage, a potential customer is learning more about your brand and how you can solve their problems. They may be conducting competitive research during this stage. 
3. Decision: Prospects at the decision stage are on the hook. They understand how your company can benefit them and may still be doing further research on pricing and other options. 
4. Action: Prospects at the action stage are ready to make a purchase. At this stage, you can expect prospects to convert. Even if they don’t, you might be able to recapture them later. 
5. Loyalty: Customers who have purchased from you enter the loyalty stage. They might keep buying from you or recommend your business to others. 

Activities of a Sales Funnel

Once you’ve qualified leads from your marketing efforts and determined that they’re interested in making a purchase, you can use various strategies to push a prospect toward a sale. These vary based on whether the prospect is at the top of the funnel, in the middle, or at the bottom. 

• Top-of-the-Funnel (aka ToFu)
  
  Your goal? Develop brand awareness beyond initial marketing familiarity and build a relationship with the prospect. During the awareness and interest stages, you should be sharing information with the prospect and answering questions. At these stages, your goal is to highlight how you can solve a customer’s pain points better than the competition.
  
  For example, if you’re in the business of selling cars, a prospect at the top of the funnel knows they need a car now, or they’re planning on buying one in the near future. They know about your brand and its reputation but don’t know much beyond that. 
  
  Top-of-the-funnel activities include sharing videos and other types of content, inviting a prospect to attend a webinar, or sitting down with them for an informational meeting. 

• Middle-of-the-Funnel (aka MoFu)
  
  At this stage, a prospect trusts you and is evaluating your brand against others. Consider conducting nurture campaigns to warm up a cold lead, or more targeted information based on the prospect’s needs. Perhaps even a product demonstration to try out your product or service?
  
  In our car-shopping example, this is the stage where a prospect would visit multiple dealerships to get a feel for different car features. They will likely take some cars out for a test drive. 

• Bottom-of-the-Funnel (aka BoFu)
  
  Your prospect is ready to make a purchase. At this stage, you’d share information about why your product is better than others. You would also start negotiating prices. Our car shopper would likely ask you how your car aligns with their needs and potentially make an offer. 
  
  Once you’ve successfully converted a prospect into a customer, stay in touch with them through loyalty programs, social media, and/or email newsletters to keep the relationship alive and encourage future purchases. As a car dealer, you might check in to see how the customer likes their car or offer free oil changes for a limited time to nurture the relationship.

Sales Funnel vs. Marketing Funnel

Simply put, the main difference between the two boils down to each funnel’s end goal. With the marketing funnel, your goal is to cast a wide net and draw potential customers to your brand. Meanwhile, your sales funnel goal is to convert prospects into customers.

Importance of Aligning Both Funnels

Today’s buyers do more independent research than ever before, and they’re navigating a noisier landscape with every passing year. The average American sees between 4,000 and 10,000 ads per day, and customers today are less likely to respond to a hard sell. 

By aligning your sales and marketing funnels and creating a full-funnel marketing strategy, you can develop a better understanding of leads and potential customers at all stages. You can also tailor your messaging to communicate how your business will meet their needs. 

Give your sales and marketing teams room to operate holistically, as this also provides cross-functional learning opportunities. A salesperson sharing notes from a pitch might offer insights into pain points the marketing team hadn’t previously considered. The marketing team can then offer the sales team information on what types of content generate the most interest, helping the sales team craft personalized sales pitches. 

How CTV Advertising Can Keep Your Funnel Full

Looking to bridge the gap between your marketing funnel and sales funnel? MNTN Performance TV turns Connected TV into a revenue-driving channel, ensuring your ads do more than just generate awareness—they drive real, measurable conversions. Here’s how our platform helps:

• Automated Optimization: AI-powered adjustments ensure your campaigns continuously improve to maximize conversions.
• Verified Visits™ Attribution: Track the exact impact of your streaming ads with precision, so you know which impressions lead to action.
• MNTN Matched: AI-driven audience targeting connects your brand with high-intent consumers ready to move down the funnel.
• Creative-as-a-Subscription™: Scalable, high-quality ad production keeps your creative fresh and aligned with every stage of your funnel.
• Real-Time Reporting: Granular insights let you optimize for both brand awareness and direct response, bridging marketing and sales.

With MNTN’s self-serve software, your CTV ads don’t just engage—they convert. Sign up today.

Marketing Funnel vs. Sales Funnel: Final Thoughts

Marketing and sales funnels may work together, but they have different objectives. A marketing funnel helps you locate the right customers and attract them to your brand, whereas a sales funnel helps you build relationships with people who already know you to show them why your brand is right for them. 

By aligning both funnels, your sales and marketing teams can successfully convert more customers, getting you to those big goals: increase your sales, increase your revenue, and ultimately, grow your business.