The Flaw in the Click Economy
For decades, clicks have been the default currency of digital advertising. Every campaign was measured by them. Every dashboard optimized around them. Did someone click? How much did it cost? Where did they land? But let’s be honest: clicks were always a shallow proxy. They measure movement, not meaning. In the next era of advertising, clicks won’t matter. Conversations will.
When a user clicks an ad today, here’s what really happens:
They’re pulled out of their experience.
They’re dropped onto a landing page that often feels disconnected.
They lose momentum — and so does the brand.
Advertisers spend billions optimizing for this fragile handoff, knowing full well that most of the people they paid to acquire get lost along the way.
Clicks, at best, capture curiosity. But they don’t capture depth.
The Rise of Conversational Journeys
AI is rewiring how people discover, learn, and decide. Increasingly, the funnel is collapsing into the chat itself.
Instead of interrupting users and forcing them elsewhere, brands can now live inside the conversation:
Educate: A skincare brand can explain ingredients, routines, and benefits directly in chat, turning awareness into understanding.
Engage: A travel company can inspire a user with destination ideas, refine preferences, and build an itinerary in real time.
Enable Purchase: A retailer can guide a shopper from “What’s the best running shoe for flat feet?” to checkout, without breaking the flow.
This isn’t about “click → land → drop-off.” It’s about stay → learn → trust → act.
Advertising as Demand Cultivation
The true breakthrough here is that advertising is no longer just about capturing demand. It’s about cultivating it.
Deeper Education: Ads can serve as mini-tutors, giving customers the context they need to make confident decisions.
Stronger Relationships: By staying in the chat, brands can build trust in the very moment intent is expressed.
Future Conversion: Even if the user doesn’t buy today, they leave with awareness, clarity, and preference — primed to purchase when the time is right.
This is where advertising becomes less about extracting attention and more about earning it.
Rethinking Performance & ROAS
In this new model, performance isn’t measured by who clicked away. It’s measured by who stayed engaged.
Attention as Currency: How long did the brand hold presence in the conversation?
Engagement Depth: Did the user ask follow-ups, explore options, compare features?
Conversion Readiness: Did the experience move them closer to purchase, even if the sale happens later?
Clicks are a blunt metric. Attention and engagement are truer proxies for ROAS.
The Future of Advertising Lives in Conversations
We are moving into an era where the most valuable ads won’t send people away — they’ll keep them present. Where the best-performing brands won’t chase clicks, but cultivate relationships in real time.
The future of advertising isn’t about moving users elsewhere. It’s about meeting them where they are, staying with them longer, and guiding them deeper into the funnel until they’re ready to act.
Clicks won’t matter. Conversations will. And the brands that understand this shift first will own the future of advertising.
