How To Get Better Results from TOFU Content—With Just 15% of Your Ad Budget

If you're creating Top-of-Funnel (TOFU) content just to keep up with your competitors—without strategic intent—close this tab. Exit your browser. Log off your device. Shut it down.

ToFu content isn’t a checkbox. It’s a critical part of your sales funnel.

Why? Because it speaks to the largest audience in your market: the unaware and the unconvinced.

If you're not using ToFu content to guide people from “I don’t even know I have a problem” to “I need a solution now,” you’ll be stuck targeting the exact same buyers all 50 of your competitors are also chasing.

And what’s the outcome of that?

• Your cost per lead stays painfully high.
• Your pipeline stalls in a “scale limbo,” bouncing +/- 3% month over month.
• Your brand never becomes more than just another vendor.

Want to become a thought leader? Want to expand your market size and pipeline? 

ToFu content makes it happen.

Why Doesn’t ToFu Content Get The Respect It Deserves?

Even businesses that understand the value of TOFU content—how it builds awareness, drives education, and opens the door to long-term growth—still hesitate to prioritize it. 

And they definitely don’t want to spend ad dollars promoting it.

Why? 

Because when the pressure is on to drive immediate ROI, TOFU content feels like a long game. 

CFOs, founders, and RevOps teams want direct attribution. They want to see exactly how each ad dollar converts into revenue—now, not months from now.

The typical organic ToFu content lifecycle goes something like this: You publish a smart blog post. It’s well-written, maybe even SEO-optimized. It gets some clicks through Google. You share it on LinkedIn. A few coworkers like it. Your cousin leaves a heart emoji.

And then… silence.

That’s your content: full of potential, but never truly activated.

Without amplification—paid distribution that gets your message in front of real people—your content never has a chance to work. It flatlines.

TOFU content needs a jolt. A push. A little paid fuel to spark the fire.

How Paid Promotion Accelerates Your Funnel

Paid ads aren’t just for leads and conversions. They're for scale.

Yes, you should spend the bulk of your ad budget on converting warm leads. But if you're serious about growth, carve out a slice—say 10–15%—for TOFU promotion.

Run ads that boost existing content or create awareness-stage creatives. Target broad audiences in your ICP. These people aren’t searching for solutions yet, but they’re living with the problems you solve.

Here’s what happens:

• They see your blog, video, or guide.
• They start thinking differently.
• They hit that first “aha” moment.

That’s funnel movement. That’s scale. That’s how you turn strangers into prospects.

How to Promote TOFU Content the Smart Way

Start with a simple campaign on LinkedIn or Meta—wherever your audience lives.

Then, follow these steps:

1. Choose your content: Use existing TOFU blogs, videos, or guides.
   
2. Create your audience: Broad targeting, refined by interests, geography, or lookalikes.
   
3. Set your budget: Allocate 10–15% of your total ad spend.
   
4. Launch and learn: Monitor engagement. See what resonates.
   
5. Retarget: Build an audience of content viewers and engage them later with BOFU ads.

You’ll quickly discover what topics actually land. No more guessing based on likes or impressions. Now you’ve got real data to inform your strategy—and the momentum to scale it.

More Reach. Better Leads. Lower Costs

Top-of-funnel content can educate, inspire, and build trust. But people still need to see it. 

That’s why you shouldn’t be afraid to put a little bit of paid budget behind your TOFU content. It isn't about vanity metrics or hoping it "goes viral." It’s about getting strategic content in front of the right people before they’re in buying mode. That way, when they are, they already trust your brand.

Here’s what happens when you invest in TOFU:

• You lower your cost per lead by warming up cold audiences before they see a sales message.
• You expand your market reach, bringing in people who didn’t even know they had a problem until they saw your content.
• You speed up the sales cycle, because prospects have already been educated and influenced by your brand.
• You get real performance data on your content—so you know what resonates and what to double down on.

Content alone isn’t going to scale your funnel. But ToFu content with boosted distribution can expand your market and your pipeline.