Awareness Benchmarks
Awareness Benchmarks — Miles Mortensen (ISOM)
Audience awareness staging (Schwartz five stages) mapped to content + offer benchmarks. Where the audience currently sits on the awareness spectrum, what content meets them there, and what each competitor is doing at each stage.
Purpose
Different audiences need different content depending on awareness stage. A pure top-of-funnel cold audience won't buy on a sales page; a most-aware audience doesn't need another pain-point reel. This section catalogues what works at each stage for this client's category, so creative gets matched to the right stage instead of repeating one stage over and over.
How to populate
Sources to mine:
- Schwartz's 5 awareness stages framework
- Avatars (which stage do most buyers currently sit at?)
- Competitors Offerings (which stages do competitors over-serve / under-serve?)
- Client's own funnel data (open rates, click rates, conversion rates per stage)
- Meta Ad Library + reference examples per stage
What good looks like: for each of the 5 stages, the section captures the dominant content shape, example creative from the category, and the typical conversion benchmark. Identifies which stage is the highest-leverage opportunity for the client.
Update: per campaign. Stages don't shift quickly, but examples and benchmarks refresh.
The Five Awareness Stages
| Stage | Definition | Audience State |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Unaware | Doesn't know they have a problem | Largest pool, hardest to convert |
| 2. Problem Aware | Knows the problem, doesn't know solutions | Pain-content territory |
| 3. Solution Aware | Knows solutions exist, doesn't know yours | Education + differentiation territory |
| 4. Product Aware | Knows your product, hasn't bought | Objection-handling + offer territory |
| 5. Most Aware | Knows + ready to buy | Urgency + offer territory |
Where the audience currently sits
| Stage | % of audience (estimated) | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Unaware | [TO POPULATE] | |
| Problem Aware | ||
| Solution Aware | ||
| Product Aware | ||
| Most Aware |
Highest-leverage stage to target right now: [TO POPULATE]
Why: [TO POPULATE]
Per-Stage Benchmark Content
Stage 1: Unaware
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Dominant content shape | [TO POPULATE] |
| Example creative (link) | [TO POPULATE] |
| Competitor doing this well | [TO POPULATE] |
| Typical CTR / engagement | [TO POPULATE] |
| What to do for this client | [TO POPULATE] |
Stage 2: Problem Aware
[Same fields.]
Stage 3: Solution Aware
[Same fields.]
Stage 4: Product Aware
[Same fields.]
Stage 5: Most Aware
[Same fields.]
Stage Funnel Conversion Benchmarks
Conversion rates between stages, where data exists.
| Transition | Benchmark | Client's actual | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| LM opt-in (Unaware → Problem Aware) | [TO POPULATE] | ||
| LM → email open | |||
| Email → LP click | |||
| LP → checkout | |||
| Checkout → purchase |
Related
- Dossier Index
- Avatars
- Angles & Formats — angle taxonomy includes awareness-stage notes
- Top Performers Ad Analysis
- Funnel Links — for conversion benchmarks