Why More Visibility Doesn’t Always Lead to More Sales
The path from interest to purchase has changed considerably over the last several years.
In 2020, Google’s consumer insights team published research on what it calls the “messy middle” of the customer journey. The study, developed with behavioral science expert Phil Barden, found that people rarely move in a straight line from interest to purchase. Instead, they spend time exploring options, comparing alternatives, reading reviews, and evaluating information before deciding to take the next step.
The number of interactions is not always the problem. In some cases, the experience itself becomes the obstacle. A confusing website, a broken link, a booking system that doesn’t work properly, or a process that asks for too much too soon can turn what should have been a straightforward experience into a frustrating one.
As a result, businesses sometimes assume they need more visibility, when in reality the issue may have less to do with attracting attention and more to do with what people experience after they arrive.
TL;DR
- More visibility doesn’t always lead to more sales.
- Small interruptions, like broken links, confusing forms, or poor mobile experiences, can influence whether someone moves forward.
- Every interaction contributes to the customer journey, and together those touch points shape the overall experience.
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Improving what happens after someone arrives can have a greater impact than simply creating more visibility.
The Customer Journey Isn’t Linear
One of the more interesting aspects of the modern customer journey is that people rarely experience it as a series of individual touch points.
Nobody thinks about how many times they have encountered a business before making a decision, nor do they consciously keep track of every interaction along the way.
The modern customer journey does not unfold as a neat sequence of touch points. Very little attention is given to the number of interactions involved because gathering information before making a decision has become part of everyday life.
What tends to stand out are the moments when something that should have been simple becomes unexpectedly complicated. A link leads somewhere unexpected. A booking system fails to work properly. A form asks for more information than seems necessary.
Individually, these inconveniences may seem insignificant. Yet they can interrupt what had been a relatively straightforward experience and influence whether someone decides to continue or look elsewhere.
What Is a Touch Point?
A touch point is any interaction that happens before someone decides to move forward. An advertisement, a website visit, a review, an email, or even a recommendation from a friend can all contribute pieces of information along the way.
Touch points can include:
- Seeing a social media post
- Visiting a website
- Reading online reviews
- Receiving an email
- Asking a friend for a recommendation
- Returning later to compare options
These interactions do not always unfold over weeks or months. Several of them can happen within a surprisingly short period of time. Someone may see an advertisement, search for the company, read reviews, visit the website, and leave without taking action. By the end of the day, they may have encountered the brand numerous times without ever giving much thought to how many interactions actually took place.
The focus is not on the number of touch points. It is on making a decision.
What Interruptions Look Like
Sometimes the problem has nothing to do with the product itself. The interest is there, the offer makes sense, and the marketing has done its job. What changes is the experience that follows.
The easiest way to understand this is to look at what happens from the other side of the screen.
Someone sees an advertisement for a sweatshirt they genuinely like and decides to click. Instead of arriving at the product page, they land on the homepage and are left searching for the item themselves. Some will make the effort, but others will simply close the tab and move on.
Situations like this can show up in different ways:
- A link in a social profile that leads to the wrong page.
- A booking tool that works perfectly on a desktop but becomes frustrating on a phone.
- A contact form that never confirms that a message was received.
- A checkout process that asks for more information than seems necessary.
- A website that loads slowly enough that visitors leave before it finishes.
Different examples, same outcome. Something that should have been simple becomes more complicated than expected.
What Multiple Interactions Are Supposed to Do
Multiple interactions are not a sign that something is wrong. A website visit, an email, a review, a social post, or a search result may all contribute different pieces of information over time. Individually, none of these interactions need to produce an immediate result.
Their purpose is not to force a decision, but to provide information and answer questions over time. Together, they help maintain continuity while allowing decisions to develop naturally.
The problem begins when those interactions stop serving that purpose. Instead of adding information, they introduce confusion. Instead of making the next step easier to understand, they make it more difficult to find. A touch point that should have supported the process becomes another obstacle, and the effect is cumulative.
One inconvenience may not matter very much, but repeated interruptions can gradually change the experience.
What Happens After the Click
Creating visibility and creating a smooth experience are not always the same thing.
A business may be publishing great content and running successful campaigns, while something as simple as a broken link, a confusing booking process, or a frustrating mobile experience quietly works against those efforts.
Tasks such as reviewing forms, testing links, or revisiting the overall user experience rarely attract much attention. They are not the parts of marketing that people get excited about. Yet improvements in those areas can sometimes have a greater impact than another campaign or another round of content.
Building something new is often more appealing than maintaining what already exists. That does not make it more important.
