How to split budget across awareness, consideration, and conversion

Generic advice on funnel-stage budget splits (a common example is roughly even thirds across awareness, consideration, and conversion) ignores that the right ratio depends heavily on how much of your funnel is already full. A brand with strong existing demand and weak conversion needs a very different split than a new entrant nobody has heard of.

Start by diagnosing where the funnel is actually leaking using your own data: is traffic low, is traffic present but not engaging, or is engagement present but not converting? Whichever stage shows the steepest drop-off usually deserves the next incremental pound of budget, not a fixed proportional share.

Revisit the split on a schedule, not just when something visibly breaks. Funnel shape changes as campaigns mature, competitors move, and seasonality shifts, and a budget split that was right in Q1 can be meaningfully wrong by Q3.