2 November 2026
Awareness is the moment a potential customer first learns your business exists. They have a problem or a want, but they do not yet know you can help. This guide covers stage 1 of our 12-stage customer journey.
What your customer is thinking at the Awareness stage
“I have a problem, and I am not sure who can fix it.”
Your goal at this stage
Get the right people to notice you at the right time, without paying to reach people who will never buy.
What to do
- Describe your ideal customer in one sentence: who they are, where they are and what they search for.
- Pick two or three channels where those people already spend time, such as Google, Facebook, Instagram or local groups.
- Set up your Google Business Profile, so local searches show your name, reviews and opening hours.
- Publish useful content that answers the questions customers ask before they buy.
- Use paid ads to widen your reach once you know which message earns clicks.
Common mistakes
- Trying to reach everyone, which wastes budget on people who will never buy.
- Talking about yourself instead of the customer’s problem.
- Running ads without tracking, so you cannot tell what worked.
How to measure it
- Reach and impressions: how many people saw you.
- Click-through rate (CTR): the share of people who saw an ad or listing and clicked it.
- Website visitors by source: where your traffic comes from.
- Branded searches: people searching for your business name.
Click-through rate matters most at this point. Read our guide to CTR and how it works with conversion rate.
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Where this fits in the journey
Next: stage 2, Interest. You can also see all twelve stages together in the full customer journey guide.
Why the Awareness stage matters
Getting the Awareness stage right means the right people discover you before they discover someone else. First, fix the biggest gap. Then test again, so every improvement carries through to the next stage.
You can book a free consultation to talk through your own journey, or browse our services. We say it how it is, and we are happy to help without any pressure.
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