The Challenge

Two similarly sized Chevrolet dealers were both investing $10,000 per month in Streaming TV, but their approaches were dramatically different. The question was which strategy: full-funnel or bottom-funnel - would yield better results.

The Test

One dealer, Dealer A, opted for a full-funnel strategy, building brand at the market level while also driving key outcomes through retargeting. The other, Dealer B, focused exclusively on a bottom-funnel strategy, using an in-market audience targeting layer and ignoring top- and middle-of-funnel shoppers. Both dealers used the same $10,000 monthly budget.

The Results

The full-funnel approach proved to be significantly more effective:

• Dealer A drove almost 3x more ad-attributed sales than Dealer B (100 vs. 38).
• 69% of Dealer A’s sales were ad-assisted, compared to just 23% for Dealer B.

Why It Worked

The full-funnel strategy allowed Dealer A to engage a wider audience, nurturing potential customers throughout their entire buying journey. By building brand awareness and then retargeting interested individuals, they were able to deliver more reach and ultimately, more sales. The bottom-funnel approach, in contrast, limited Dealer B to a smaller audience of people already in the market, missing the opportunity to influence shoppers earlier in the process.

The client's take: "These insights are a competitive advantage for us. We're focusing less on the click and conversion, and more on the creative and messaging - with even better ROI than before, it's crazy to say."

Bottom Line

The tale of two Chevy dealers shows that a full-funnel streaming strategy is more effective than a narrow, bottom-funnel one because it’s not just about reaching people who are ready to buy today, rather it's about building awareness with everyone qualified to do business with you (vs. pre-qualifying them based on a "in-market" audience alone).