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There’s an uncomfortable truth at the heart of marketing: the traditional funnel model should have been retired by now.
Originally developed in 1898 by Elias St. Elmo Lewis, the funnel was designed to explain a simple, predictable buyer journey — from Attention to Interest to Desire to Action. In an era of slower communication, fewer products, and more deliberate decision-making, it made perfect sense. But today’s consumers behave nothing like those of the past, and yet, the funnel continues to dominate marketing conversations and strategies.
In 2025, buyers move from discovery to purchase in ways that are fragmented, impulsive, and increasingly unpredictable. One moment a user is scrolling through YouTube Shorts or Instagram, the next they are making a purchase without any traditional "consideration phase" at all. Research from companies like Google and McKinsey acknowledges this shift, describing the buying journey as “messy” rather than linear. Consumers no longer follow a neat progression through stages. They zig-zag across touchpoints, often making purchase decisions based on emotion, convenience, or serendipity rather than any structured funnel logic.
Despite this, marketers continue to organize their strategies, reporting, and budgets around funnel terminology: top, middle, and bottom. Awareness, consideration, conversion. Even new technologies, tools, and attribution models — which clearly demonstrate chaotic, non-linear behavior — are retrofitted into funnel stages. The persistence of the funnel is not about accuracy; it’s about economics.
Breaking the journey into separate stages allows agencies, platforms, and vendors to offer segmented solutions for each "part" of the funnel. There is a business incentive to keep awareness campaigns, lead generation initiatives, and conversion optimization efforts separate — because each can be sold as a distinct service. If the journey were seen as a unified, fluid process, much of this segmentation (and the associated billing structures) would collapse.
Tech platforms also benefit from maintaining the illusion of linearity. Most major advertising tools still allow — or encourage — campaign objectives to be categorized by funnel stages. Awareness ads, consideration ads, conversion ads. A clear structure makes buying media feel straightforward, even if real consumer behavior is far more complex.
When marketers ask why there isn’t a universal dashboard that seamlessly tracks all activity across touchpoints and platforms, they are often told it is "too difficult." In truth, the technical barriers are no longer insurmountable. Integration is possible; what’s harder is giving up the fragmented ecosystem that supports multiple tools, multiple vendors, and multiple billing opportunities. True transparency — one clear view of the full customer journey — would expose just how much duplication and inefficiency is baked into current marketing processes.
The continued reliance on funnel language also speaks to a broader desire for order. In a landscape where consumer attention is volatile and decision-making is increasingly irrational, the funnel provides a comforting framework. It offers marketers and clients alike a sense of predictability, a way to measure performance in familiar terms. Even when the data points elsewhere, the metaphor remains powerful.
However, the longer marketers cling to outdated models, the more they risk falling behind the realities of consumer behavior. Real-world buying journeys today resemble a web, a loop, or a constellation of micro-moments rather than a straight descent through a funnel. Discovery and conversion are often compressed into a single action. Engagement might happen post-purchase, or not at all. Linear nurturing paths are the exception, not the rule.
None of this is to say that stages of engagement — raising awareness, driving consideration, prompting action — are irrelevant. But treating them as sequential and universal steps, rather than fluid, overlapping possibilities, limits marketing effectiveness. It frames strategy around a past reality, not the present one.
The marketing funnel served its purpose for more than a century. It provided structure in a world that needed it. But today's world demands something different: models that embrace nonlinearity, strategies that acknowledge unpredictability, and measurement systems that reflect the true complexity of decision-making.
The question is no longer whether the funnel still accurately describes how people buy. It clearly does not. The real question is whether the industry is ready to let go of a familiar but outdated story — and start building a new one.
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