The advertising flywheel is a series of consumer-centered actions that build momentum, generating customer acquisition, sales and revenue. 

How Does An Advertising Flywheel Build Momentum?

An explainer article in Marketing Land, notes that Hubspot CEO Brian Halligan, “sees the customer as the lynchpin, with the flywheel itself divided into three equal segments, each representing stages along the customer journey: attract, engage and delight. Each area creates energy and passes it along to the next, with the delight phase feeding back into attract.” Amazon, a retailer that’s been successfully implementing what they call the “virtuous cycle” since 2001, puts growth at the center of their flywheel (see illustration) with “customer experience” the driver. In a “virtuous” cycle, or flywheel, every action lifts up and improves every aspect of the business. 

All of the segments of the flywheel work together, gathering momentum collectively. A company might have an umbrella flywheel and individual flywheels for separate business units, clients or KPIs. A push is any advertising, sales or customer engagement strategy that pushes the flywheel forward. Flywheel enthusiasts argue that actions big and small are equally important to a flywheel gaining traction. The Marketing Land explainer describes the synergistic theory behind a flywheel: “The energy, leads and revenue created by marketing efforts is not due to any single channel, piece of content, or campaign; it’s a cumulative effect. And once it really gets going, a good marketing campaign keeps spinning. It generates energy.”

How Important Is Customer Centricity For Flywheel Momentum?

Data and analytics are essential to staying customer-centric. Amazon for example, uses their data to understand and satisfy customer intent. Meeting customer needs and wants drives sales, builds loyalty and onward the wheel rolls. Without customer data, achieving customer “delight” is less likely, and the wheel won’t keep moving forward. 

How Does The Flywheel Benefit Advertisers?

A well-executed flywheel strategy that leverages multiple consumer touchpoints and signals can harness better advertising, increased sales and stronger brand loyalty, boosting the velocity of flywheel evolutions, which benefits consumers and advertisers alike.

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