The marketing funnel remains a foundational framework for understanding the customer journey from awareness to purchase. But the model faces unprecedented disruption. Generative AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT and Perplexity now bypass traditional discovery channels, while younger consumers increasingly treat TikTok and Instagram as search engines. All told, two-thirds (66.6%) of US consumers use social for search, per a March EMARKETER survey. Marketers who rely on the linear funnel model risk misallocating budgets and missing where their audiences actually discover and evaluate products.
What is a marketing funnel?
A marketing funnel is a framework that maps the stages a consumer moves through from initial awareness to purchase and loyalty. The traditional model progresses linearly: awareness at the top, consideration in the middle, and conversion at the bottom, followed by retention and advocacy.
The funnel helps marketers allocate resources and messaging to each stage. Top-of-funnel tactics like social media marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) build awareness; mid-funnel content plays like email nurture campaigns and webinars deepen engagement; bottom-of-funnel efforts like product demos and personalized offers drive conversion. Post-purchase engagement through loyalty programs and advocacy completes the cycle.
Why are marketers questioning the traditional funnel model?
The linear funnel assumes consumers progress predictably through stages. Research shows they do not. Google's "messy middle" research identified that buyers loop between exploration and evaluation repeatedly, consulting multiple channels before purchasing.
Three factors accelerate this shift:
- Channel fragmentation. For big-ticket purchases, over half of shoppers check four or more channels before buying, according to Salsify.
- Generational divergence. 73% of Gen Zers discover products primarily on social media; 61% of Gen Xers discover in physical stores, per Salsify.
- AI disruption. Generative AI tools answer queries, and in some cases provide buying options, without sending users to brand websites. This compresses the discovery and consideration phases into a single interaction.
How is generative AI changing product discovery?
Generative AI chatbots and tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews answer user queries directly instead of pointing users to websites to find answers. This shifts discovery from search engine results pages to AI-generated summaries, and genAI-powered browsers like ChatGPT Atlas.
The impact on traditional SEO is stark. Only 8% of ChatGPT's citations come from URLs in Google's top 10 organic results for the same query, according to Ahrefs research cited by EMARKETER. Perplexity surfaces top Google links just 28.6% of the time. AI tools lean heavily on community-driven sources: Reddit accounts for 40.1% of all generative AI citations worldwide, per Semrush, followed by Wikipedia at 26.3% and YouTube at 23.5%.
How does social search affect the marketing funnel?
Social platforms now function as search engines, particularly for younger demographics. Nearly 40% of Gen Z uses TikTok and Instagram instead of Google for search, according to Google's own internal research.
This behavior compresses the funnel. Discovery, consideration, and purchase can occur within a single platform session. For brands, social search demands content optimized for video-first discovery rather than text-based SEO. The shift also means that traditional search rankings matter less when audiences bypass Google entirely.