Forget everything you thought you knew about the linear customer journey. The predictable, step-by-step marketing funnel that has guided strategy for decades has lost its relevance. We are in a new era, driven by a once-in-a-lifetime transformation in consumer behavior and the unstoppable rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI). For Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs), this is a crucial turning point. The "Summer Essentials 2025" guide from Think with Google is not your average beach read; it's a strategic roadmap for leaders who want to shape the future of marketing.
The New Reality: The 'Predictably Unpredictable' Consumer
Today's consumer journey is anything but linear. People move fluidly and often simultaneously across.
searching, streaming, scrolling, and shopping. These "4S behaviors," as Google and BCG have termed them, have fundamentally reshaped how we discover and engage with brands. A journey that starts on a smartphone during a commute can move to a laptop at work, and resume on a connected TV in the evening, all while simultaneously scrolling through social media.
Clearly, the old funnel model forces a simplification that leads to misguided strategies and irrelevant messages.
The Solution: Influence Maps
Instead of the funnel, Google introduces the concept of "influence maps". This flexible framework doesn't focus on forced stages but on the factors that truly influence consumer decisions:
- Attention: The level of attention a consumer gives at any given moment.
- Relevance: The relevance of the content to the consumer's specific needs.
- Trust: The consumer's degree of trust in the touchpoint or platform.
By mapping these factors for different customer personas, marketers can deploy their messaging and resources precisely where they will have the most impact, whether that's through a YouTube ad, a Google search, or an in-store interaction.
The Future of Advertising Is Now
The AI-fueled future of advertising isn't coming—it's already here. Google is pioneering innovations that are fundamentally changing how we advertise:
- AI-Powered Discovery: Search is evolving from simply providing information to delivering intelligence. AI Overviews in Search deliver comprehensive, contextual answers to complex questions, leading to more and deeper queries.
- Multimodal Understanding: Intent is no longer limited to text. With tools like Google Lens (25 billion monthly searches) and the new virtual "Try On" feature for apparel, consumers can search with images, voice, and even gestures. This provides a wealth of new intent signals for marketers.
- Agentic Action: Soon, AI agents will be able to autonomously execute tasks for consumers, like finding the best price for a product and securely completing the purchase on their behalf. This reduces friction and significantly boosts sales.
''Try On'-functie en AI-overzichten in Google Zoeken.
Scaling Your Success: Build Your AI Flywheel
Only 19% of companies are considered AI leaders. To close the gap between experimentation and impact, brands must embed AI across four interconnected marketing functions to create an "AI flywheel"
- Media & Personalization: Use AI to instantly improve media plans, flexibly allocate budgets across channels, and continually optimize for the right audience. Lululemon, for example, saw an 8% boost in ROAS by overhauling its shopping campaigns with AI.
- Creative & Content: Deploy AI across the entire creative lifecycle, from brainstorming to producing highly relevant, personalized assets. Marketers report a ~6X increase in creative asset volume by adopting AI.
- Measurement & Insights: Apply AI to optimize in real-time, automating insights, reporting, and forecasting. Combine Marketing Mix Models (MMM), data-driven attribution, and incrementality testing for a complete picture of what's truly working.
- People & Process: Success with AI isn't just a tech challenge; it's a human one. Invest in AI talent, training, and create a "magic circle" of cross-functional advocates across your organization. H&R Block saw a 24% spike in AI marketing tool usage after implementing a focused training sprint.
Creators as Strategic Partners: The New Cultural Epicenter
In a world inundated with choices, authentic connection is paramount. Creators have become pivotal in this pursuit. They are no longer a "nice to have," but core strategic partners who shape culture and build deep, loyal communities.
YouTube is the new TV. People now watch over 1 billion hours of YouTube on their TV screens daily. Creators move seamlessly across long-form video, Shorts, livestreams, and podcasts, offering brands unparalleled reach and flexibility.
Crucially, creators build trust and drive purchase decisions. A staggering 81% of U.S. viewers agree that YouTube creator content helps them research and discover products, a figure that surpasses other social media platforms. Samsung's partnership with MrBeast for the Galaxy S24 launch is a prime example, generating 25 million impressions in under 72 hours and a significant lift in brand searches.
How Google AI Overview Works. Digitalique.
Your Action Plan: Future-Ready with AI Essentials 2.0
The time to act is now. Google's updated
AI Essentials 2.0 framework provides a clear guide to future-proof your organization. Focus on three core areas:
- AI Data Strength: Connect your first-party data to unlock new signals for performance and measure true incrementality with experiments.
- AI Content Strength: Create high-quality, user-focused content and assets with tools like Asset Studio and explore creator partnerships.
- AI Performance Strength: Harness the Power Pack—the next generation of AI-powered campaign solutions like Performance Max, AI Max for Search, and Demand Gen—to drive next-level performance in this new, multimodal era.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) over AI
As you delve into the AI marketing revolution, many questions naturally arise. To help you move forward with confidence, we've gathered answers to some of the most common questions that can help you better understand it.
Is the traditional marketing funnel really dead?
Is the traditional marketing funnel really dead? Yes, the report states that a linear funnel no longer reflects how consumers make decisions. Today's consumer journey is nonlinear, with people moving fluidly across searching, streaming, scrolling, and shopping. Forcing this journey into a funnel can misguide strategy. The recommended alternative is using "influence maps," which focus on influencing consumers based on attention, relevance, and trust.
How can my business start using AI in marketing?
How can my business start using AI in marketing? A great way to start is by testing and adopting AI-powered campaigns for faster results. The document advises focusing on the "Google Ads AI Essentials 2.0" framework as a clear guide. This includes building strength in three areas: AI Data (connecting your first-party data), AI Content (generating creative assets), and AI Performance. The "Power Pack," featuring solutions like Performance Max, is specifically designed to help businesses harness AI for top-tier performance.
Why are creators considered 'strategic partners' and not just an ad channel?
Why are creators considered 'strategic partners' and not just an ad channel? Creators are considered strategic partners because they are pivotal for establishing authentic connections with consumers through culture and communities. They build deep loyalty and trust with their audiences, which is rarely found in traditional media. Their influence extends beyond reach; 81% of U.S. viewers agree that YouTube creators help them research and discover products. Brands that partner with them strategically tap into their strength as trusted storytellers and sales drivers who can shape culture, not just follow it.
What is the 'Power Pack' mentioned in the action plan?
What is the 'Power Pack' mentioned in the action plan? The Power Pack is Google's next generation of AI-powered campaign solutions. It's described as the "engine that will drive next-level performance across Search and YouTube". The Power Pack is built for the new era of Search and multimodal experiences and consists of three key components:
Performance Max, AI Max for Search campaigns, and Demand Gen.
The shift in consumer behavior is permanent, AI is accelerating exponentially, and creators are reshaping the cultural agenda. The marketing funnel is a relic of the past. The future belongs to the CMOs who embrace the complexity of the modern consumer, invest fully in an integrated AI strategy, and harness the power of authentic creator partnerships. The question is no longer.
About Digitalique.nl
The future of marketing is complex, but your strategy doesn't have to be. At Digitalique.nl, we help forward-thinking brands harness the power of AI and data to connect with the 'predictably unpredictable' consumer. From implementing AI agents and building high-performance campaigns with the Google Power Pack to forging strategic creator partnerships – we are your guide in the new marketing landscape.
Ready to move beyond the funnel and drive real growth?
Contact us today for a strategy session