Daniel Fox

Funnels have served us well in marketing. They’ve given us structure, helped us map out journeys, and made it easier to explain plans to stakeholders. But as customer behaviour evolves, it’s worth asking: are funnels still the best way to understand how people buy? In many cases, the answer might be “not always.” Buyers today don’t move in straight lines; they come in sideways, loop back, and sometimes leap straight to purchase. That reality challenges the tidy, linear model many of us still rely on.

Let’s get one thing straight: funnels aren’t evil. The AIDA model is a proven classic for a reason. But like many classics, it’s also being overplayed. Too many marketers shaping campaigns around imagined buyer journeys that look tidy in slides, but bear no resemblance to the chaos of actual human decision-making. People don’t buy like that anymore. And truth be told, maybe they never really did.

Funnels are for Marketers, not Customers

Most funnels aren’t built around customer behaviour, they’re built around our content plans. A person opens an email, clicks a link, visits a landing page, downloads a PDF. Tick, tick, tick.

Great – on to the next stage of the funnel.

But here’s the problem: these “stages” are based on assumptions, not real behaviour. We often retrospectively fit content into funnel stages, rather than building marketing around genuine customer insight. It’s like throwing spaghetti at a wall and pretending we meant for it to land in the shape of Jesus.

And while we’re at it, who decided that opening an email equals “awareness”? Or that downloading a whitepaper means “consideration”? That’s post-rationalisation of an action to suit our own goals.

Buyers don’t follow a flowchart

Customers today jump between channels, loop back, ghost you for weeks, reappear out of nowhere, and make buying decisions based on a conversation they had in a pub.

They stop and restart the buying process, they switch decision-makers halfway through and can be influenced by a LinkedIn post, a podcast, or a WhatsApp from a mate. Trying to shove all that into a tidy funnel is impossible.

Our job as marketers is to show up where and when it matters, not force people through a sequence we’ve pre-approved.

Funnels cripple creative thinking

I worry that funnels limit our imagination.

When marketing is built around funnel stages, we start obsessing over the wrong things. “What’s our MOFU asset?” “Do we have enough TOFU content?” Instead of focusing on what the customer needs to hear, we focus on ticking boxes on a flowchart or making sure each stage is ‘full’ of content.

Messaging becomes mechanical. Campaigns become predictable. And the customer is off, buying from someone who understood their intent better than we did.

Intent Over Sequence

The future of effective marketing was never about mapping out perfect buyer journeys. It’s about understanding buyer intent and building flexible strategies around that.

You don’t need to know exactly where someone is in a journey. You need to know:

• What they care about right now.
• What’s driving their decision.
• What barrier is stopping them.

Intent is the compass. It points us to the message, the medium, and the moment that matters.

This approach allows for loops, delays, jumps, peer influence and spontaneous decisions.

In short: it accommodates reality.

What should we do instead?

Here’s a more pragmatic approach:

1. Build for flexibility. Create modular messaging and content that can plug into multiple entry points, not just a single sequence.
2. Use real data, not imaginary journeys. Don’t assume – observe. Use behavioural data to understand how people actually engage and where intent spikes. If you don’t have sufficient data, then speak to buyers about how they work and what they’re doing.
3. Stop worshipping process. Funnels are helpful frameworks. But if they’re dictating your entire marketing plan, you’ve lost the plot.
4. Meet people where they are. Don’t expect them to walk your prescribed path. Your job is to be present, relevant, and useful, whenever and wherever they drop in.

Funnels Are Useful Tools, Not Marketing Strategy

Let’s be clear: I’m not saying abandon funnels entirely. Like AIDA, they can still help structure thinking, especially in scenarios with longer B2B sales cycles.

But let’s not pretend the funnel is some universal truth. It’s a model. That’s it.

Marketing is about understanding people, not dragging them through a process.

So next time someone shows you a beautifully designed funnel diagram, ask a simple question: “Is this how customers actually buy, or just how we wish they would?”