MiQ says marketing funnel no longer matches consumers

MiQ has published research arguing that the traditional marketing funnel no longer reflects consumer behaviour. The study combines analysis of 53 million households with a survey of more than 4,000 consumers.

The report, titled From Funnel to Flexibility, argues that people now move between watching, browsing and buying in fast, often unpredictable ways. It found that 87% of consumers switch between digital activities at least once an hour, while 42% said their path to purchase feels entirely random.

The findings describe a media environment in which several activities happen at once across multiple screens. The research found that 91% of consumers use a second device while watching television, and 22% actively research products linked to what they are watching.

It also suggests that brand discovery is no longer limited to moments when people are actively shopping. The study found that 69% of consumers discover brands they like even when they are not looking to buy.

AI tools and social platforms also featured heavily in the results. The research found that 45% of consumers now use AI chatbots while shopping, while 72% of consumers under 34 have made a purchase inside a social app.

MiQ also surveyed 600 marketing professionals and found a gap between consumer behaviour and how many advertisers measure campaigns. Just 43% of marketers said they felt confident in their measurement, with fragmented screens and supply paths identified as major obstacles.

Another challenge is the stop-start nature of online shopping. The study found that 71% of consumers get distracted during research and return to a purchase only when prompted again, complicating retargeting strategies.

Changing Journeys

The report draws on proprietary data from MiQ's Sigma platform, as well as consumer and advertiser surveys conducted across Australia, Canada, the UK and the US. MiQ said it analysed 700 trillion signals across 53 million households over a seven-day period, tracking device usage and how often people used two devices within 30 minutes.

MiQ argues that these patterns weaken the idea of a linear route from awareness to purchase. Instead, it says marketers need a more flexible model that reflects shifting consumer states throughout the day.

Jordan Bitterman, Global Chief Marketing Officer at MiQ, described the shift in consumer behaviour. "Couches have become the new storefronts as consumers move from screen to screen, almost in the same breath," he said.

"Today, a full customer journey can conceivably take place in hours or minutes instead of weeks or days. To keep up, marketers must shift from rigid funnels to flexible frameworks. This isn't just a planning shift for marketers, but a mandate for the adtech industry to move beyond channel silos toward systems that unify data, intelligence, and activation, so every investment is accountable to both brand and business outcomes," Bitterman said.

Platform Push

MiQ linked the findings to Sigma, its advertising technology platform, which it said maps what consumers are watching, browsing and buying. According to the company, the platform has been used in more than 13,000 campaigns for more than 1,200 advertisers across the open web and large closed platforms over the past 12 months.

MiQ also said Sigma had delivered gains in reach, efficiency and speed across sectors including consumer goods, retail, travel and political campaigns. In media and entertainment and automotive, it said some campaigns had produced triple-digit improvements in conversion performance, with some clients seeing eight times more conversions and more than 50% lower cost per acquisition compared with standard programmatic methods.

Moe Chughtai, Global VP of Strategy & Partnerships at MiQ, said the pace of decision-making had compressed sharply as consumers moved between television, mobile and social platforms. "The funnel was built for a world where the customer journey is linear. Today a consumer can see an ad on CTV, price-check the product on their phone, and buy it on social - all before the next commercial break," he said.

"With Sigma and our Advanced Media Solutions, we're giving clients one intelligence layer to orchestrate every screen and signal with the data depth, AI, and transparency modern marketers expect so every impression truly counts," Chughtai said.