How Gen Z is Redefining the Marketing Funnel

Mapping digital natives' fragmented, emotional, and fast-moving path to purchase 

Over the last decade, the consumer journey has evolved from a predictable, linear process into a dynamic, omnichannel experience shaped by speed, saturation, and personalization. What once followed awareness to consideration to purchase with logical order and deliberate pacing has become something else entirely: fast, nonlinear, platform-agnostic, and culturally wired. 

So, while no two consumers are the same, Gen Z has emerged as the most disruptive force in this landscape, not just as participants but as accelerators. Born into connectivity and raised on platforms that adapt to their every swipe, they operate with a sense of digital fluency that turns traditional models upside down. They don’t follow funnels or wait for messaging. They're naturally always-on, sparked when content aligns, when value is clear, and when brands show up where they belong.

This generation discovers products before they declare intent. They subconsciously consider options, influenced by creators, algorithms, and organic moments. While their actions can be immediate or prolonged, their journey is rarely direct. It’s layered, fluid, and shaped by context more than category. They expect advertising to match the pace and texture of their lives, and they move on quickly when it doesn’t.

The following article unpacks exactly how Gen Z is reshaping the rules of engagement and architecture of the modern marketing funnel. Grounded in person-level behavioral data from direct consumers, it reveals the signals that drive discovery, influence consideration, and trigger action across platforms. 

Product discovery starts in the feed

The starting point of the customer journey has shifted. Once triggered by deliberate intent, discovery is now sparked by proximity, presence, and platform design. Gen Z doesn’t always begin their path to purchase with a question or a clear need. They encounter products through the content they consume, inside the ecosystems they move through daily.

More than half of Gen Z say they are most open to discovering new products on social media, and 39% of Gen Z actually discovered their last new product there, the highest of any generation. While at times coincidental, their attention is more cultivated by algorithms, surfaced through familiar creators, and framed by the tone and pace of their feeds. This means discovery unfolds through rhythm and repetition, rather than transactional prompts, layered into entertainment, conversation, and aesthetic alignment.

Channels, touchpoints, and influencers

In this environment, influencers often serve as filters, turning cultural relevance into trusted recommendations when they make sense within the campaign context. Because Gen Z pays attention to who is delivering the message and why, alignment matters more than popularity, and credibility breaks down quickly when the messenger feels disconnected from the product or platform they’re appearing on.

At the same time, short-form video brings momentum by delivering product touchpoints that build familiarity over time and across platforms. Streaming environments add narrative weight, layering exposure with emotion, tone, and repetition that feels organic to the viewing experience. Together, these formats create a compounding effect where consideration begins forming long before they search a brand out directly. 

While search and retail still play a role, that often comes later in the journey. These channels confirm decisions that are already in motion, validating impressions that have been shaped elsewhere. The transaction may happen on a brand site or a marketplace, but the journey toward that outcome often begins in a different context entirely,  long before the brand realizes that consumer attention is in play.

What drives discovery for Gen Z:

• Social platforms often act as the first point of exposure
  Algorithms prioritize content that reflects personal taste, behaviors, and community.
• Creators introduce products through narrative, not interruption
  Trust is built through tone, familiarity, and cultural fluency.
• Short-form and streaming amplify frequency across channels
  Discovery feels natural because repetition is embedded in the flow of content.
• Search and commerce platforms finalize decisions, not initiate them
  Action becomes measurable only after influence has already taken hold.
  
  

For Gen Z, discovery is embedded, flowing through ecosystems designed to anticipate preference. Brands that wait for declared intent are responding too late. To shape consideration, they should already be present where attention begins, not where it ends.

What makes advertising effective for Gen Z

Gen Z doesn’t reject advertising outright, but they quickly disengage from anything that feels misaligned with the pace, tone, or context of the content they’ve chosen to consume. Their responses are shaped less by format and more by how well a brand understands the creative language of the environment it’s entering.

Thirty-five percent of Gen Z say the ads they remember most are either funny or emotionally resonant. Not because they are louder or more polished, but because they deliver a feeling that fits the moment and reflects their culture. This means humor, tone, and timing act as cues for credibility, and when a brand strikes that balance, it earns attention that doesn’t have to be forced. 

That attention, however, must translate into action. Gen Z is more likely to respond when an ad includes limited-time offers, product demos, and clear benefit explanations. This provides the kind of immediate, tangible value that moves them from interest to intent. 

Conversely, repetition without purpose has the opposite effect. Only 10% say repeated exposure increases their likelihood to consider a product, while 37% say irrelevant or poorly placed ads make them less likely to engage. Not because they inherently dislike frequency, but because repetition without variation reveals a lack of insight into how and where the message should evolve.

Brand equity and contextual affinity 

Expanding on how they see and form brand opinions, a significant 77% of Gen Z say they are more likely to consider a brand that advertises in content they enjoy. For them, placement and brand association aren’t secondary concerns but central to how an ad is interpreted. When a message appears inside content that reflects the viewer’s identity or interests, mirroring the emotional tone and narrative style of the platform it runs on, it gains a level of legitimacy that other targeting strategies struggle to replicate.

What Gen Z responds to in advertising:

• Creative that understands emotional timing and cultural context
  Messages must feel like part of the moment, not an interruption to it.
• Repetition that builds with intention, not noise
  Reuse without refinement loses impact and signals disconnection.
• Placement that enhances credibility through alignment
  Ads perform best when they belong to the environment they live in.
  
  

For Gen Z, relevance isn’t a surface-level detail but a function of presence, voice, and timing. Successful brands understand how every element of the experience, from tone to placement to frequency, contributes to whether an ad is accepted, ignored, or rejected entirely.

The new funnel is fluid, but measurable

The marketing funnel hasn’t disappeared, but for Gen Z, it no longer follows a sequence that can be mapped with legacy logic. Their journey from exposure to action unfolds in fragments, shaped by context and compressed by time. It moves across screens, switches between channels, and operates with an immediacy that renders old models of attribution incomplete.

• Sixty-two percent of Gen Z say they’ve purchased a product on a platform different from where they saw the ad.
  
• Nineteen percent say they always switch devices before converting.  In many cases, the creative that sparks interest and the touchpoint that closes the sale are separated by hours, platforms, and devices. One ad plants the signal and another collects the credit, so without visibility across the full journey, the story gets lost.

Despite this reality, many brands still rely on siloed reporting and last-touch attribution with platform-level KPIs telling only part of the story. They highlight what’s easy to track and ignore what actually influences behavior. In Gen Z’s world, influence doesn’t flow in a line. It stacks, builds, and compounds, often in spaces that fall outside the reach of conventional measurement.

• Forty-three percent of Gen Z say they’ve made a purchase immediately after seeing an ad.
  
• Another 35% say they acted within hours, and 26% waited a day or two.
  This demands real-time measurement that captures both the trigger and the tail. Without person-level visibility into when and where those decisions happen, brands are left guessing what worked and why.
  
  

Gen Z rebuilt the funnel: What does this mean for your measurement? 

Despite the shifting nature of consumer behavior, the need to understand the modern path to purchase has never been more urgent. While Gen Z moves with speed and complexity, the signals are there for brands that know how to follow them. When every moment carries meaning, every touchpoint carries weight, the real question is whether you can see it. 

With person-level brand and performance incrementality measurement, the guesswork disappears, the gaps close, and the entire journey comes into focus. At DISQO, we help brands move precisely to track what matters with confidence and act on what’s real because marketing that moves people starts with measurement that keeps up.