With 60% of the Google search assignments without clicks, Kipp Bodnar from HubSpot explains why the marketing funnel was broken and what comes next
What happens: HubSpot has declared the traditional marketing funnel dead and “walking marketing” launches: a new framework that is designed for an era in which 60% of the Google search assignments ends without clicking and AI offers answers directly.
Why this matters: Because buyers receive information from AI overviews instead of visiting websites, companies fundamentally need different strategies to reach customers who no longer follow predictable paths to buy.
The marketing playbook that has built countless companies in the past two decades has just become outdated.
Hubspot, the company that pioneered incoming marketing in 2006, has officially declared the traditional marketing funnel broken. On inbound 2025, their flagship conference, they revealed something completely different: running marketing, a framework that is designed for a world where customers are increasingly never visiting your website.
The figures tell the story strongly. With 60% of the Google search assignments that now end without a click, buyers receive their answers directly from AI overviews and large language models instead of clicking on business websites. For companies that have built up their growth strategies around stimulating traffic to ownership channels, this means a fundamental shift in how marketing should work.
“The old marketing funnel assumed that customers would come to you. They visit your website, read your blog and convert your conditions,” said Kipp Bodnar, Chief Marketing Officer at Hubspot. “Now the funnel is not flows and the old Playbook is broken. Walking marketing is fundamentally different. It meets customers wherever they are, AI uses to personalize every message on a scale and turns every interaction into a learning option that makes the loop stronger.”
The funnel stops streams
The traditional marketing funnel was based on a linear progression: consciousness, consideration, decision. Companies created content, optimized for searching and waiting for prospects to find them. This approach then actively worked for information and clicked on websites.
That behavior has changed fundamentally. AI-driven search results now offer extensive answers without users having to visit multiple websites. Social platforms such as Tiktok and Reddit have become primary discovery channels. Buyers do research through a conversation with AI assistants instead of browsing company websites.
For the 260,000 companies worldwide with the help of the HubSpot platform, this shift demanded a completely new approach. The company’s reaction is Loop Marketing, built around four interconnected phases that acknowledge how modern buyers actually behave.
Loop replaces linearly
The walking marketing market leaves the linear funnel for a cyclical approach:
Explicitly Focuses on defining brand identity before AI is implemented. “Your brand identity and in -depth customer understand are what great content separate from generic content,” emphasizes the framework. Performance is measured by content speed and creation costs instead of traditional awareness statistics.
Tailor uses united customer data to personalize messages on a scale. This includes everything from CRM records and call transcripts to website -behavior patterns. Success here is measured by click frequencies via channels.
Strengthen Distributes content over different channels where buyers actually spend time, including platforms where AI provides answers. Performance statistics are expanding further than traditional channels to include AI -visibility, share of the voice in AI reactions and citation rates.
To develop Replaces long campaignecycli with real -time iteration. Instead of six -month campaigns, companies use AI to constantly measure, predict and adapt. Success is measured by the lead quality and the speed of experiments.
“When people and AI work together in the loop, companies grow in days instead of months, creating deeper connections with messages that personally manufactured, feel lower acquisition costs through smarter targeting and continuous improvement as AI learns of each interaction,” Bodnar explained.
AI Teammates arrive
To support this new methodology, HubSpot has announced more than 200 AI-driven product updates, including specialized AI agents designed to work as integrated team members instead of self-containing tools.
The data agent examines and answers adjusted questions by analyzing CRM data, calls, e -mails, documents and web information. It can discover new customer insights and automatically update the smart CRM system.
Customer agent deals with front-office functions through multiple channels, switching between answering questions, qualifying leads and solving problems. With the help of CRM data for personalized answers, it automatically dissolves more than 65% of the conversations.
Breeze Assistant works in HubSpot, browsers and mobile apps to streamline daily tasks. It remembers preferences, creates brand content, conducts research and is preparing for meetings with company insights.
Adapted assistants can be trained on specific business processes and requirements, while the new Breeze Marketplace offers in advance built -in agents for specific business functions.
Connected data wins
The effectiveness of these AI systems strongly depends on data integration: a critical factor that many companies struggle with.
“Australian companies know that they have to adopt AI, but the real challenge is to make it work for their business results,” said Kat Warboys, senior marketing director, APAC. “Our research shows that companies with connected systems have seven times more likely to achieve a successful AI implementation and six times more chance of performing considerably better than performing colleagues.”
This challenge for data integration reflects broader trends in the industry. The global AI in the marketing market will reach US $ 47.32 billion in 2025, an increase in US $ 12.05 billion in 2020, which represents an enormous annual growth rate of 36.6%, with 88% of marketers now relating to AI in their daily activities. Nab Sme Business Insights – What does Australian Business expect in 2025? (Q4 2024) Business research and insights
The shift from traditional fungi to loop -based marketing represents more than a tactical adjustment. It acknowledges that the behavior of customers has changed fundamentally and companies must adjust their full approach to growth instead of just adding AI tools to existing processes.
For companies that still work with traditional funnel thinking, the message of HubSpot is clear: the old Playbook is not only less effective: it works actively against how customers actually behave in 2025.
“Our new products are designed to split these barriers, help companies easily connect their data, improve the customer experience and accelerate growth,” Warboys noted.
The question for business leaders is not whether they should accept AI-driven marketing approaches, but how quickly they can leave linear thinking for the cyclical, AI-integrated strategies that match how their customers actually discover, evaluate and buy today.
To see: hubspot.com/loop-marketing
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