By Joanne Ng

For years, marketers could rely on a simple equation: if you could earn attention, you could influence consideration. Reach became the industry’s favourite currency, and entire strategies were built around acquiring more of it.

Today, that equation is breaking down.

If your content strategy is still built to win attention, you are preparing for a war that is already over.

Here is the uncomfortable part. Attention alone is no longer a competitive advantage. Between infinite feeds, algorithms that distribute for us, and AI tools producing content at close to no cost, the barriers to generating visibility are lower than they’ve ever been. You can buy reach for very little. You can engineer a hook that stops a scroll. Getting noticed and getting chosen are no longer the same thing.

A recent Google and MTM research found Australian shoppers using AI engage with almost three times as many touchpoints on their path to purchase as those who don’t, highlighting how discovery and decision-making are becoming increasingly fragmented.

Getting someone’s attention is easy. Earning a place on their shortlist is the hard part. Attention means someone noticed you. Intent means they are actively evaluating you and getting ready to choose. That is the part that counts.

The messy path to purchase

The tidy funnel on which we were all trained has been replaced by something far less linear, and far more interesting. Consider how people research a purchase today. They start with a vague question in Google. They watch a creator review nobody paid for. They lurk in a Reddit thread, trusting strangers more than any campaign we could run. They ask an AI tool to lay out their options. Then they return to search with a question far sharper than the one with which they began.

At every step, that person is leaving a trail of intent. The questions they ask. The comparisons they weigh. The communities they turn to. The way their language sharpens as they close in on a decision. Each one is a signal, telling you not that someone is watching, but what they are actually trying to work out.

The industry built entire strategies on ‘owning’ the path to purchase. That control was always more assumed than real, and today it’s gone entirely. Discovery is now scattered across search, social, creators, communities and AI, and it belongs to the customer, not to us. They are running their own research project, just as you and I do when we’re intent on buying something. 

The opportunity for marketers is not to interrupt that process. It is to understand it, contribute to it and become genuinely useful within it.

Where intent shows up

Intent doesn’t live on one channel. It’s scattered across the places people go when they’re trying to make a decision.

In social and creator content, intent often appears in the comments. People ask questions, seek reassurance and compare experiences with others who have already purchased.

In communities such as Reddit and Facebook groups, intent is often even more revealing. These are the questions consumers may never ask a brand directly, but still need answered before they commit.

In search, intent is explicit. People tell us exactly what they’re trying to understand, and their questions tend to become more specific as they move closer to a decision.

AI is becoming another place where intent reveals itself. Consumers are increasingly using AI tools to compare options, evaluate products and narrow their shortlist. The prompts they enter often reveal what matters most to them, whether that’s price, quality, performance or suitability for a particular need.

For marketers, these behaviours represent more than research channels. They are windows into customer intent. Together, they provide clues about what customers are trying to solve and what information they need before choosing a brand.

What I would do now

First, consider the questions customers ask before they buy. Every question is a signal of intent and an opportunity for a brand to be useful.

Second, look beyond impressions and engagement. Reach matters, but only if the content helps someone make a decision.

Third, think about discoverability, not just publishing. Make sure your expertise can be found across search, social, communities and AI-powered experiences.

For marketers, the challenge isn’t creating more attention-grabbing content. It’s understanding what customers are trying to achieve and helping them make a decision with confidence.

Attention is not worthless. You still have to be noticed to be considered. But I have come to see it as the price of entry, not the prize. 

For years, marketers competed to be seen. The next decade belongs to the brands that are useful at the moment of decision.

Joanne Ng is the executive director for Social Media at Havas Red Australia. 

Image: Supplied

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