How evolving consumer journeys are rewriting the rules of reach and impact
Opportunity in advertising has never been greater. Consumers are more connected, curious, and in control of how they engage with media. They’re discovering new products on social media, deepening interest through streaming platforms, and completing purchases across apps, search, and retail sites from hours to days after initial exposure.
For marketers, the challenge isn’t that the journey is chaotic. It’s that it’s dynamic. Consumers no longer move through the funnel in predictable steps. They shift between channels, devices, and mindsets in ways that traditional measurement models struggle to follow and optimize.
To meet this movement with precision, brands need more than broad reach. They need strategic alignment. The ones gaining ground are those that connect message with mindset, platform with purpose, and attention with action, across an increasingly nonlinear consumer journey.
DISQO’s State of Advertising 2025 report explores where that alignment is working and where it’s falling short in modern advertising strategies. This guide surfaces the most critical marketing trends shaping performance right now. It reveals how ads reach viewers, when discovery becomes intent, and what marketers must rethink to compete in a cross-platform world.
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Following the modern consumer journey from discovery to action
- Why seeing the full consumer journey requires smarter measurement
Why TV and social media lead ad recall
For all the talk about emerging advertising channels and shifting consumer behavior, two platforms remain central to how advertising reaches audiences: television and social media.
When consumers were asked where they remembered seeing or hearing ads in the past week, 63% pointed to TV and 60% to social media. These environments continue to anchor brand visibility, not because they’re familiar, but because they command attention at scale. TV offers immersive, lean-back moments while social media is always on, integrated into virtually every aspect of life.
Despite the clear dominance of TV, there’s a disconnect between consumer attention and advertiser investment:
- Only 12% of advertisers increased their spending on connected TV this year
- Just 7% increased spend on linear TV
- Meanwhile, 72% increased investment in social media
This disconnect reveals more than budget misalignment. It highlights a strategic gap in how visibility is valued. Brands are chasing new formats without fully capitalizing on the platforms that still shape meaningful brand perception at the top of the funnel.
Rethinking the role of foundational advertising channels
TV and social media serve different roles in the modern customer journey, but together, they form a powerful combination:
- TV builds credibility, storytelling depth, and cultural relevance
- Social drives frequency, interaction, and fast-moving discovery
- Both are high-recall, high-impact environments when used with intention
Instead of treating them as separate lanes, advertisers should be designing campaigns that use each to amplify the other. This means aligning creative formats, managing sequencing across touchpoints, and using measurement frameworks across channels beyond impression counts.
Why this matters now
With media consumption more fragmented than ever, understanding where consumers actually see ads is table stakes. The real advantage comes from aligning media spend with consumer attention, not just media trends. When brands underinvest in recall-rich environments like TV or fail to optimize for influence-driven platforms like social, they aren’t saving budget—they’re leaving impact on the table. Platforms rarely lose their power. But they require modern strategies to unlock it.
Following the modern consumer journey from discovery to action
Discovery and action are no longer part of a linear funnel. They are separate but closely related behaviors, often happening on different platforms, driven by different mindsets, and separated by hours, days, or even weeks.
People scroll past a product on social media, revisit it while watching streaming TV, and research it later through search or on a retailer’s site. These touchpoints are no longer sequential. They’re fluid, fast-moving, and shaped by context.
When asked where they’re most open to discovering new products:
- 45% of consumers pointed to social media
- 44% pointed to TV
- Search engines (37%) and websites (33%) followed closely behind
This split shows how consumers oscillate between passive exposure and active exploration. It’s not confined to one channel or format. The same product can be introduced casually through a scroll, then reconsidered hours later on a bigger screen. Discovery is contextual and layered. But discovery alone doesn’t drive performance. What matters is what happens next.
When consumers were asked where they discovered the last few products they engaged with, the results reflected both passive exposure and active intent:
- 39% social media
- 35% streaming TV and video
- 30% search engines
- 26% online retailers
It’s not just that discovery is everywhere. It’s that movement between platforms from interest to action is constant. And yet, most measurement systems aren’t built to reflect that.
Why the linear marketing funnel has changed
Consumers don’t move step by step. They shift between platforms, devices, and decisions in real time.
- 87% say they switch devices between research and purchase
- 60% say they’ve seen an ad on one platform and taken action on another
Despite this, only 58% of advertisers say they often account for cross-device behavior in their planning. Just 15% say they measure performance across platforms well. This disconnect is where strategy breaks down. Without visibility into how consumers actually move, brands optimize for impressions, not outcomes.
What the best brands are doing differently
Marketers leading in performance are rethinking how they map media to behavior. They understand that:
- Discovery is messy, but measurable
- Action can happen quickly or days later
- Influence travels across screens, not within silos
Rather than chasing attribution shortcuts, they build for continuity. They align creative, sequencing, and targeting around how people engage, not how platforms report. And they invest in measurement that captures what people see and what they do next. To succeed in today’s environment, brands must design for how people move, not how marketing models once said they should.
Why seeing the full consumer journey requires smarter measurement
Consumers today engage with media across a wide range of platforms. They might see a product on social media, research it later on a search engine, and complete a purchase on a retailer’s app or website. Understanding this behavior isn’t just helpful. It is foundational to effective strategy.
This shift creates a new challenge for marketers: understanding how each touchpoint contributes to overall impact. Despite this, many measurement frameworks still isolate platforms rather than integrate them.
How unified measurement closes the gap
Cross-platform measurement connects exposure to behavior. It shows how attention builds, where intent takes shape, and when action occurs. With the right visibility, marketers can:
- Track performance across the full funnel, not just the last click
- Sequence creative in ways that reflect how and where people engage
- Refine spend based on impact, not just impressions
- Understand the contribution of each platform to brand and performance goals
This level of visibility is essential for campaigns that aim to do more than reach audiences. It enables marketers to shape outcomes based on consumer engagement.
Leading with visibility
The most effective marketers center measurement systems around how people behave, not how platforms report. They are using connected insights to:
- Measure the cumulative impact of multi-platform exposure
- Understand consumer movement between devices and formats
- Replace fragmented attribution with a complete performance view
- Inform campaign design with behavioral data, not assumptions
As media behavior becomes more complex, clarity becomes more valuable. Brands investing in unified measurement are better equipped to adapt their strategies, prove ad effectiveness, and grow confidently.
How AI in marketing is reshaping product discovery
Artificial intelligence advertising solutions are starting to change how consumers find and evaluate products, but not all at once and not in the same way across audiences. While much of the conversation around AI is focused on speed and automation, its most valuable role in advertising may be more strategic: helping brands stay relevant in moments that matter.
Today, AI's role in product discovery is still emerging. According to DISQO’s State of Advertising report:
- Only 9% of consumers say AI plays a significant role in how they discover products
- 21% say it plays a moderate role
- 28% expect to use AI more in the coming year
These early signals point to a growing curiosity, especially among digital-first audiences. Gen Z and Millennials are more likely to describe AI as having an influence on how they explore and evaluate new offerings. While the current impact is limited, the trendline is clear—AI is becoming part of the discovery layer.
What this means for marketers
AI will not replace advertising strategies, but it will change discovery, content delivery, and consumer engagement. The shift is less about automation and more about adaptability. Successful marketers will use AI to:
- Refine targeting based on real-time intent signals
- Personalize creative in context-aware ways
- Support faster iteration of messaging across platforms
- Extract insights from behavioral patterns that are too complex and time-consuming for manual analysis
The upside is significant, but so are the expectations. Consumers are increasingly cautious about the use of AI personalization and discovery. They want relevance, not surveillance, and helpfulness, not intrusion.
Where AI creates an advantage
Marketers who lead with transparency and thoughtful integration will have the advantage. AI works best when it enhances experiences, not just optimizes delivery. Brands should approach it as a tool for responsiveness, not control.
The most strategic uses of AI in advertising will prioritize:
- Relevance over reach
- Responsiveness over rigidity
- Trust over novelty
As consumer expectations shift, marketers must keep up with AI and guide its application toward experiences that feel intelligent, useful, and aligned with real human behavior.
Redefining reach in a cross-platform world
The way consumers engage with advertising has evolved, but most strategies haven’t. Attention is earned across multiple platforms, intent is shaped through varied signals, and action often happens long after exposure.
The marketers who lead in this landscape see the full journey, measure what matters, and adapt their strategies to follow real behavior, not assumptions.
DISQO’s State of Advertising 2025 report offers the clarity to do exactly that. It combines consumer insight with real-world data to help advertisers build smarter, more measurable media strategies across the entire funnel.
Download the full report to explore the data, uncover the disconnects, and find your competitive edge.
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