Throw away the traditional marketing funnel. Long gone are the days of linear marketing paths taking your customer from awareness to consideration to purchase. Today’s consumers are creating their own paths through unique and unpredictable moments on their devices. No two customer journeys look the same. Each Is unique. Even under the same category, the path to purchase can take many different shapes, and marketers need to be prepared to adapt to a journey that could reach hundreds of digital touchpoints.

Consider a few different customer journeys that could occur across various verticals:

1. Andrew is participating in online body-building forums when he gets served an ad for protein powder. This gets him considering new supplements he can use to maximize the effects of his workouts. He heads to Google to begin his search. While Andrew follows a typical consumer journey, moving from awareness to consideration to purchase, he conducts a ton of different searches along the way, looking for different types of protein supplements, specific retailers and even shipping logistics before eventually going to the store to purchase.

2. Max needs a new pair of skinny jeans. Through his quick, initial research, he finds a few brands that he likes but he wants to see which one holds up when doing a deeper dive. Max looks to Google Search and YouTube to find product reviews and determine which brand most closely meets his criteria. The brand with the best customer reviews ultimately wins the sale.

3. Kelly is big on upfront research. She doesn’t make any decision without obsessive research beforehand. During her search for a new shampoo that could give her hair some added bounce, her journey widens and narrows as she not only considers a few brands, but entirely different categories. During her research, she comes across a color-protecting shampoo – something she hadn’t previously considered. She now turns to Google Search to learn more about color-protecting shampoos. She eventually narrows her search to a few brands that help with both bounce and color-protection, and reads online reviews before making an online purchase.

Regardless of how they get there or how long it takes, consumers expect to be assisted along their entire path to purchase, and marketers need to build marketing plans that allow them to be present. Because consumers can take multiple paths to purchase, it is also more critical than ever to be able to measure and fully understand the impact of your media touchpoints along a consumer journey. Automation can help. Successful brands serve the immediate needs of customers by delivering them fast and frictionless experiences. Machine learning, paired with data-driven attribution reporting, can help advertisers understand and predict the intent of searches and find connections between a business’ goals and the research habits of their customers.