Why customer journeys are becoming harder to plan around

At StackAdapt Connect Manchester, our Director of Client Performance, Kyle Brogan, joined a panel exploring where brands are placing their bets for the second half of 2026.

The agenda covered familiar themes: AI adoption, social commerce, CTV, attribution, and Q4 planning. But the conversation kept returning to the same challenge: customer behavior is changing faster than how teams organize, measure, and optimize marketing.

An audience poll showed this change: almost every hand went up when asked if they had used ChatGPT for work that week. The response was similar when asked who used it instead of Google. 

Discovery habits have shifted. The bigger question is whether planning, measurement, and investment decisions are evolving fast enough to keep up.

That was the thread throughout the discussion, reflecting exactly what we’re seeing in client conversations, too. Less focus should be on reacting to new channels and more on adapting to how customers discover and choose.

Visibility shouldn’t be channel-led

Visibility goes beyond channel performance. It still matters, but should be viewed alongside presence, credibility, and whether a brand appears in the moments that count.

As Kyle explained:

“Plans are evolving beyond individual channel strategies. We’re having more talks on visibility, influence, and how brands appear across different environments, helping clients navigate beyond those silos.”

That shifts what success looks like. Visibility can no longer be seen as created in one place and converted in another.

Customers rarely discover, research, and decide in one place. Someone might see a brand through an AI response, again via media, compare options elsewhere, and then convert later. 

That's why last-click measurement leaves bigger blind spots than before, giving an incomplete view of what influenced the decision.

Measurement is moving beyond single-source attribution

As customer journeys fragment, we can’t depend on single-source measurement.

With discovery, consideration, and conversion happening across different environments, it’s harder to explain growth through one channel or report.

This makes understanding contribution more useful than assigning all credit to one source. 

Kyle summed up the challenge:

“There’s no silver bullet. The important questions are: did we reach our intended audience, move customers closer to a decision, and ultimately deliver profitable growth?”

Brand lift studies, search lift, assisted conversions, platform signals, and first-party data all help build a broader picture. None explain performance alone; the goal is to understand what mix of activity created it.

Ben Barker, Head of Digital at Vega Comms, reinforced this:

“You need as many different pieces of evidence as possible and combine them… Metrics alone mean little.”

Referral traffic from ChatGPT is a good example. Alone, it’s interesting but limited. Combined with broader signals, it helps explain whether visibility is driving action.

Planning is starting earlier

One decision now affects multiple channels, so planning begins earlier than campaign launch to compensate.

Product feeds are one example. Historically, they may have been just a shopping input. Now, the same data supports paid activity, organic shopping, and visibility in new discovery environments.

This means decisions once within one team now impact multiple purchase paths. Instead of each channel delivering its own outcome, planning focuses on shared inputs that make all channels perform better.

Testing earlier, building more budget flexibility, and reducing rigid channel ownership are key when customer journeys are unpredictable.

Growth is evaluated differently

Growth is harder to explain on a multi-channel journey, yet success reviews often happen in silos.

Consider customer acquisition cost in relation to lifetime value – not just cost to get a click or conversion, but the cost to acquire a valuable customer after all contributing activity.

This changes how success is measured. The question isn’t ‘Which channel delivered this conversion?’, but rather ‘What activity mix created a valuable customer?’.

Channel expertise remains important, but unlocking growth is easier when marketing is assessed against business outcomes – acquisition, retention, and customer value – rather than isolated channel reports.

For IDHL, integrated thinking adds value. Search, media, data, UX, analytics, and tech all affect how customers find and choose. Seeing these together provides a fuller growth picture and helps focus investment where it counts.

Continue the conversation with IDHL

The themes at StackAdapt Connect reflect questions we discuss with clients daily:

• How do you stay visible when discovery is more fragmented?
• How do you measure influence, not just conversion?
• How do you plan around customer behavior rather than channel boundaries?

If these questions arise in your organization, we'd love to talk. Get in touch with our team today.