Here’s a shorter article for “Awareness Isn't a Vanity Metric—Here's How It Feeds ROAS” (ideal for LinkedIn, blog, or newsletter):
In the performance-obsessed world of digital advertising, awareness often gets dismissed as a "nice-to-have." After all, you can’t retarget an impression, and CPMs don’t show up in ROAS reports. But that thinking is outdated—and expensive.
The truth is: awareness drives performance, and ignoring it limits your scale and efficiency.
Here’s how top-of-funnel efforts actually feed return on ad spend (ROAS):
Familiar brands convert better. Users exposed to your brand before seeing a direct-response ad are more likely to click, trust, and buy. That means lower CPAs and stronger conversion rates down the line.
No awareness means no warm audience. CTV, video, and high-impact display ads build pools of engaged users who are primed for conversion when hit with the right message later.
Performance campaigns eventually hit saturation. When you’ve harvested the easy wins, brand equity is what keeps performance afloat in competitive or cold markets.
Awareness isn’t a soft metric—it’s a multiplier. Treat it like a performance lever, not a branding checkbox. The brands winning in 2025 are the ones blending attention + action, not choosing one over the other.