The traditional marketing funnel is no longer aligned with modern buyer behavior
The way buyers make decisions today is different. They don’t follow a straight path from awareness to purchase anymore. They move independently, across multiple channels, sometimes starting in the middle or skipping steps entirely. People search, compare, and educate themselves before talking to anyone in marketing or sales. They don’t wait, they start where they want, on their timeline.
This changes everything. The old idea of guiding users step-by-step through a funnel doesn’t work anymore. The funnel assumes order. Today’s behavior is non-linear and unpredictable. Instead of reacting to brand prompts, customers act on their own signals. They use mobile, web, social, and offline tools as it suits them. That behavior makes linear models obsolete.
Many companies have reacted to this unpredictability by launching more campaigns. In 2023, marketing teams averaged 209 campaigns, a 30% increase over the previous year. B2C teams pushed out an average of 541. But more activity doesn’t mean better engagement. In fact, it often means less focus, more waste, and deteriorating performance. Doing more isn’t helping, because the approach itself is broken.
Executives need to understand that customers are now setting the pace and the path. Marketing that doesn’t follow this logic won’t convert or scale effectively. The strategy must change from managing a process to orchestrating a system. It’s not about pushing people through a funnel, it’s about stepping into their journey and staying relevant at each point.
Increased marketing activity has not necessarily translated into better performance
Throwing more campaigns at the problem hasn’t fixed it. It’s made it worse. Campaigns multiplied, channels diversified, but overall effectiveness declined. In 2023, 87% of marketing leaders reported serious performance issues. Nearly half had to abandon campaigns midway because results weren’t just low, they were non-existent across all stages of the journey.
Linear campaign design assumes a clear pathway: awareness, interest, decision, purchase. But buyers don’t walk that path anymore. They jump around. They may engage directly at the bottom of the funnel or disappear completely after showing initial interest. Traditional campaigns aren’t built for that kind of behavior.
If customers don’t follow your plan, performance drops. Stages get skipped. Metrics lose value. Engagement becomes hard to trace. Conversion becomes hard to optimize. Budgets suffer under undefined returns. Yet, leadership expectations continue to rise. In 2024, the average marketing budget dropped by 15%, while growth ambition from CEOs increased. The mismatch is obvious, and operational solutions like ‘more campaigns’ won’t solve it.
CMOs and their teams are working harder than ever, but the system they’re working within is outdated. The answer is clear: stop optimizing campaigns for a linear funnel. Start building systems that detect and respond to the actual paths buyers take. This requires less rigidity, more data fluency, and a shift toward adaptive strategies that adjust in real time. Not endless campaigns hoping something sticks.
Senior leadership is increasingly losing faith in traditional marketing’s contribution
There’s a serious breakdown between marketing and the rest of the executive team. CEOs and CFOs aren’t convinced marketing is delivering results that matter at the business level. They see activity. They don’t see impact. And that’s not skepticism, it’s a clarity problem.
According to a recent Gartner survey, only 34% of CEOs and CFOs agreed with their CMO on how marketing supports growth. Just 22% felt they clearly understood what marketing is accountable for. If the people who run the company don’t understand what marketing does beyond running campaigns, they won’t back its budget or long-term value.
This disconnect doesn’t just create tension. It reduces marketing’s ability to lead. When CMOs aren’t aligned cross-functionally, execution gets siloed. Priorities diverge. Metrics shift. And when over 50% of marketing organizations miss revenue goals, as they did last year, the trust that marketing can help drive core business outcomes drops fast.
Even when targets are met, perception lags. Only 45% of CMOs who hit all their goals were rated as exceeding expectations by their CEO or CFO. That’s a signal to change, not performance, but how value is defined and communicated. If marketing wants to lead growth, it has to take full ownership of business outcomes, not just campaign KPIs.
The solution isn’t new platforms or better reports. It’s strategic positioning. Marketing must make its role in driving revenue, product success, and customer experience undeniably clear to every executive in the room. That’s how you regain influence. Not with volume. With clarity.
CMOs must transition from operational campaign managers to strategic market-shapers
Marketing leaders who insist on running the show through process and output won’t meet the standard anymore. Running campaigns efficiently is not strategic leadership. That mindset assumes the market is stable, which it isn’t. Real growth today depends on visibility, agility, and foresight. That has to come from the CMO.
Gartner’s research draws a clear line between two types of CMOs. Operational CMOs manage teams, tools, and timelines. Market-shaper CMOs use data and insight to influence where the company is going. Only 11% of CMOs overall exceed executive expectations. But among market-shapers, that number jumps to 88%. That’s not marginal, it’s decisive.
Market-shapers outperform for a reason. They identify unmet needs before competitors see them. They connect trends to business opportunities. They don’t wait for executive input to define strategy, they help shape it. Companies led by these CMOs are over 2.6 times more likely to beat their annual revenue and profit goals.
This shift requires a full reorientation. CMOs must move beyond execution to become a visible part of the company’s core strategic brain. That means contributing to product innovation, driving demand ahead of the market curve, and providing real-time guidance rooted in customer intelligence, not generic sentiment analysis.
When marketing is ahead of the market, it drives confidence at the highest levels. That’s what CEOs want. Not more activity, more momentum. CMOs who can shape markets, not just operate in them, are the ones executives will follow.
Embedded artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a transformative force in marketing
AI is now deeply embedded into software. It’s no longer a separate feature. It’s built into the systems marketers already use, CRMs, communication platforms, campaign tools, customer apps. This isn’t a future trend. It’s already building momentum and increasing its footprint fast.
Gartner predicts that by 2026, more than 80% of enterprise software vendors will offer built-in generative AI, up from only 5% today. By 2025, nearly 43% of organizational AI use will be embedded, integrated directly into systems without requiring specialized development. That matters for CMOs. It means teams can work faster, decisions can be informed by data in real time, and personalization is not a manual task anymore. It’s automated and continuous.
This technology lets marketing scale personalized experiences on-demand. AI-generated emails, AI-assisted content, and dynamic presentations that shift based on buyer signals are no longer optional, they’re becoming the baseline. AI makes precision and speed standard at every touchpoint, especially in complex, self-directed customer journeys.
Executives should understand this isn’t just an operational upgrade, it’s a strategic advantage. When AI can respond to customer behavior instantly and adjust messages without bottlenecks, decision cycles shrink. Conversion improves. Teams free up time to focus on strategy while AI handles pattern recognition, testing, and iterative optimization behind the scenes.
What CMOs need to do now is integrate early. Use the embedded capabilities already in your stack. Treat AI less like a tool and more like an embedded system designed to elevate brand experience at scale. That’s what your customers, and your CEO, expect.
CMOs must adopt a new set of strategic actions to reposition marketing as a key driver of company growth
Running more campaigns won’t shift the perception, or reality, of marketing’s value. To lead growth, CMOs need to focus on four key actions that tie marketing directly to business performance.
First, clarify marketing’s role. Executives don’t need more detail; they need relevance. Make it clear what marketing will drive, what it won’t, and which outcomes can be measured. Simplify how marketing value is communicated. Remove ambiguity so the C-suite sees accountability and scope upfront.
Second, drive cross-functional alignment. Marketing can’t operate in isolation. It must connect tightly to product, sales, and innovation teams. If decisions do not support the company’s core growth strategies, like launching new products or expanding to new market segments, then activity becomes noise. Strategic alignment is how marketing earns credibility.
Third, embrace market-shaper behavior. This means investing in real customer insights before deciding strategy. Look at behavior trends, not just historical analytics. Add value through external awareness, not just internal performance metrics. Be the team that brings outside intelligence into the boardroom.
Fourth, make the most of embedded AI. Don’t wait for a full transformation. Use the tools already available to run tests, personalize outreach, and analyze campaigns at speed. Start small but start now. Early adoption will give your organization operating leverage others don’t have.
These actions shift marketing from a cost center to a growth center, from a support role to a strategic one. That’s where marketing belongs. Not chasing leads. Driving momentum.
Key executive takeaways
- The funnel no longer reflects real buyer behavior: Buyers now self-direct across digital and physical channels, often skipping traditional stages and engaging late, if at all; leaders should adapt strategies to align with this nonlinear journey.
- More campaigns don’t mean better results: Increasing campaign volume hasn’t improved performance, 87% of marketing leaders report issues, and nearly half cancel campaigns early; leaders must shift from quantity to customer-focused strategy.
- Executive confidence in marketing is eroding: Only 34% of CEOs and CFOs align with their CMO on growth contributions; CMOs must clearly define marketing’s value and align with business priorities to rebuild trust.
- Market-shaper CMOs deliver the most impact: CMOs who proactively shape demand and contribute to business strategy are 8x more likely to exceed executive expectations; prioritizing insights, foresight, and innovation is key to leading growth.
- Embedded AI is redefining marketing capabilities: With AI becoming foundational to software, CMOs should integrate AI-powered personalization and automation into core processes to improve responsiveness and scalability.
- CMOs must lead with strategy: Success now depends on clarifying marketing’s role, aligning cross-functionally, using real-time insights, and scaling with embedded AI, shifting marketing from campaign manager to growth engine.
