Marketers, don’t forget to measure the messy middle of the customer journey
By Sarah Chan, impact.com
The old marketing funnel of awareness > interest > desire > action still shows up in planning decks, but it no longer describes how most people actually shop. Consumers now move back and forth between creator content, reviews, communities, and other trusted sources as they compare options and look for assurance that what they’re choosing is the best option.
If performance marketing is to keep pace, it needs to get much better at understanding that messy middle, where consideration is formed long before a conversion shows up in a report.
Follow the real route to purchase
It’s more than a change in channels – it’s the way people blend channels together, moving between sources of information before they decide what to do next. This is most evident in the consideration phase, because this is the point where people stop taking brand claims at face value and start looking for proof they feel they can trust.
This middle stage used to be easier to ignore. But today, it’s where much of the real decision-making happens, as consumers want context before they act. The numbers point the same way – 89% of people trust personal recommendations over ads, and 70% of Gen Z and Millennials won’t trust a brand without doing their own research.
That’s one reason creators have become so influential. They help brands show up in a more human way, at the point where someone is still working out what to believe. The human touch, or a story element, mean much more to today’s consumers, which is why creator content can shape buying decisions long before a conversion appears in a report.
Bring creators and affiliates into the same model
For years, brands treated creators and affiliates as if they belonged to different worlds. Creators were there to spark discovery and relevance, while affiliates were expected to turn intent into a sale. That separation left a large gap in the middle, where influence was real, but hard to reward properly and even harder to scale.
The shift now is towards a more unified partnership model, where brands can work with creators to nurture potential customers, while still applying the accountability that made affiliate marketing so successful in the first place. Different partner types can support different parts of the funnel, and should be rewarded accordingly. That matters because the middle of the journey is often where influence is strongest, even when old reporting models struggle to recognise it.
This shift also depends on better programme design. The creator programme of leading travel search engine Skyscanner is a good illustration. As a travel search engine, it needs a commission model that does not only focus on the last step before conversion, but one that supports the full user journey from discovery.
The programme, launched in 2024, brings creators onboard with a structured playbook to integrate Skyscanner naturally into ongoing content, with clear guidance on affiliate mechanics and brand principles, while preserving their creative freedom. The creators also receive regular communications, travel and data insights, product updates, and monthly challenges, which helps keep the programme informed, competitive, profitable, and scalable.
Measure the signals before the booking
Once you have pulled creators and affiliates into one system, the next job is measurement. If brands only ask which partner closed the sale, they’ll keep undervaluing the touchpoints that created intent in the first place. Brands need to study patterns of influence across the partnership mix, rather than fixate on whichever partner happened to capture the final click. This approach makes particular sense in travel, where intent often shows up before a booking ever happens, and where redirect signals can tell you something meaningful about consideration.
It sounds abstract until you look at how one of these programmes is actually run. At Skyscanner, performance is monitored continuously, creators are segmented by results beyond the last click, creator campaigns are refined towards higher-intent formats, call-to-action placement is improved, and support is tailored by market and historical performance over time. The payment model matters here as well. A hybrid structure that blends revenue share with fixed payout supports content creation while maintaining all important links between intent and conversion. This gives creators a commercially realistic model, while giving the brand room to scale without forcing every contribution into the same box.
The results are strong, and they are also specific. Since 2024, the number of active creators in the Skyscanner programme has increased by 64%, creator-driven traffic has risen by 200%, conversion rates have improved by 33%, and revenue generated per creator has increased by 155%. These figures serve as a good reminder that the consideration phase shouldn’t sit outside of performance logic.
“What started as a collaboration initiative has become a performance engine — the Skyscanner Creator Programme now plays a key role in how we drive qualified traffic, scale and grow affiliate revenue through creators and connect the entire funnel of our marketing mix – it’s a power engine that is just getting started,” said Julie, Senior Marketing Manager at Skyscanner for the programme.
Performance marketing doesn’t need to choose between creator energy and affiliate discipline. It needs a better way to connect them, so brands can influence discovery, strengthen consideration, and still hold activity to account. When that happens, the messy middle stops being a blind spot and starts becoming one of the most valuable parts of the journey.
Also published in: Modern Retail
