In performance marketing, how you spend your budget matters just as much as how much you spend.

Many marketers make the mistake of putting all their budget into direct response campaigns, hoping for instant conversions. But if you don’t invest in the full funnel — awareness, consideration, and conversion — you’ll eventually see diminishing returns, rising CPLs, and poor lead quality.

Over time, I’ve developed and tested what I call the 70-20-10 Rule — and it’s consistently helped me balance growth and efficiency across industries like immigration, real estate, and service-based businesses.

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🎯 What is the 70-20-10 Budget Rule?

It’s a simple but powerful framework to split your paid media budget:

• 70% → Conversion Campaigns (Bottom of Funnel)
• 20% → Consideration Campaigns (Mid Funnel)
• 10% → Awareness Campaigns (Top of Funnel)

This is not a fixed formula for everyone — but it’s a great starting point for lead generation-focused businesses where ROI is critical.

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🟩 70% – Conversion Campaigns

Goal: Drive high-quality leads that turn into actual customers.

This includes:

• Google Search Ads (Exact & Phrase Match for high-intent keywords)
• Meta Lead Ads (Retargeting warm traffic)
• Performance Max campaigns (when trained well with conversion signals)
• WhatsApp Click-to-Chat campaigns
• LinkedIn Lead Gen (for B2B or commercial buyers)

🛠 Why 70%?
Because this is where the revenue happens. If you’ve already got pixel data and proven audiences, these campaigns are your money makers.

🧠 KPIs to track:

• Cost Per Lead (CPL)
• Conversion Rate
• Lead Quality
• ROAS

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🟨 20% – Consideration Campaigns

Goal: Warm up users who’ve shown some interest but haven’t converted.

This includes:

• Facebook/Instagram Traffic campaigns
• YouTube Discovery & In-Stream (targeting intent-based audiences)
• Retargeting Website Visitors (who haven’t submitted forms)
• Catalog Ads showing saved or viewed properties (for real estate)

🛠 Why 20%?
These campaigns nurture and pre-qualify your audience. It’s the middle ground where users move from “just browsing” to “might take action soon.”

🧠 KPIs to track:

• CTR
• Cost Per Landing Page View
• Session Duration
• Funnel Drop-off Rates

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🟥 10% – Awareness Campaigns

Goal: Build brand recall and reach cold audiences.

This includes:

• YouTube Bumper & Awareness ads
• Meta Reach or Brand Awareness objective
• TikTok engagement ads
• Influencer amplification (e.g., Spark Ads)
• Display banners targeting lookalikes

🛠 Why 10%?
You can’t always rely on bottom-funnel campaigns to scale. Awareness builds long-term brand trust and feeds the funnel with new users.

🧠 KPIs to track:

• Impressions
• CPM
• Brand Lift (via surveys or assisted conversions)
• Video View % (for TikTok/YouTube)

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🔄 Why This Rule Works

Most businesses start and end with bottom-funnel ads. But if you don’t invest enough in the top and middle, your cost per lead will go up over time because your retargeting pool dries up.

With this 70-20-10 model:

• You stay conversion focused
• You keep the funnel healthy at every stage
• You balance short-term results with long-term growth

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📌 Final Tip: Adjust Based on Data

• Got great brand awareness already? Push 80% to conversion.
• Launching a new brand? Flip the model — 40% awareness, 30% middle, 30% bottom.
• Running a short-term promotion? Spike the conversion budget temporarily.

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Remember: Budget allocation isn’t static — it’s a lever you adjust based on performance, goals, and market behavior.

If you’ve been stuck with poor conversion rates, maybe it’s not the ad — maybe it’s your funnel strategy.