Customer Journey simply explained
Figuratively speaking, the customer journey describes the path that a customer takes to arrive at a purchase decision. This “journey of the customer” could begin, for example, with a click on an advertising banner and end with the person placing a product in the shopping cart on the corresponding website.
In online marketing, the customer journey has long been more than a theoretical construct: it can be measured and controlled. Modern tracking technologies help to make the decision-making process of a potential customer visible.
The phases of the customer journey
In theory, the customer journey can be divided into different phases. The first points of contact (= touchpoints) with a brand or a company represent the beginning of the “customer journey.” But before the customer is convinced to buy a product in a shop or to book a service, further touchpoints are probably still needed.
The phases of the customer journey are typically based on the traditional AIDA model from the marketing literature:
- A stands for Attention
- I stands for Interest
- D stands for Desire
- A stands for Action
This means the customer must first learn about an offer and become aware of it (Attention). After that, their fundamental interest (Interest) must first be aroused and later a genuine desire (Desire) must be generated. Then it is very likely that the customer decides on a purchase (Action).
In some cases, the phases “Interest” and “Desire” are also combined and referred to as the “Consideration” phase. In this approach, however, two further aspects that only occur after the purchase are usually also considered: “Retention” and “Advocacy.”
A successful customer journey goes beyond the purchase: it produces a loyal customer who can be activated again and again and who remains faithful to the company. In the best case, they even recommend the offer to others.
In general: the more expensive a product is, the longer the customer journey and the more detailed the examination of the individual phases (and any intermediate steps) should be. Spontaneous purchases are rather rare here.
There are also customer journeys that are geared toward a big deal (e.g. when buying a car or in B2B business), and then again there are customer journeys where the main point is not to lose existing customers to the competition (e.g. with delivery services).
In addition to AIDA, there are further phase models, in particular the See-Think-Do-Care model developed by Google, or rather Avinash Kaushik, in 2013. It is intended specifically for online marketing and assigns content and measures to four phases: See (the largest possible relevant target group), Think (emerging purchase interest), Do (concrete purchase intention), and Care (nurturing existing customers after the purchase).
The B2B and the B2C customer journey differ significantly: the B2B journey is longer, usually proceeds in loops rather than linearly, and involves several decision-makers (multi-stakeholder, or buying center). This noticeably influences content, touchpoints, and measurement.
Example of a customer journey
The somewhat abstract theory behind the customer journey can be brought to life quite easily using a practical example – you do not need any degree in online marketing for that. Let's simply imagine that a person is looking for a home fitness device.
First of all, this person saw a report on television about how regular exercise is healthy. Therefore, they want to look out for ways to get fit. In doing so, the person hits upon the idea of integrating a fitness device into their own four walls.
In the Google search, the person enters “Which fitness device should I buy?” and then reads an editorial article in a fitness magazine. Since this magazine is financed through advertising, the customer sees various ads from sports equipment manufacturers. They click on one of these ads and arrive at the manufacturer's shop. There, however, they find that the device is indeed interesting, but a bit too expensive.
A few days later, the person sees an ad on Facebook from the same manufacturer, advertising a 50% discount on a similar fitness device that has now become a discontinued model. Thereupon the still somewhat undecided person researches test reports on the device and finds that it received good reviews.
Via a price comparison, they determine that the 50% offer is in fact the best price at which the device can currently be acquired and finally decide to buy.
In this short customer journey there was quite a whole series of different touchpoints. Some of them were controllable and others were not, as the following table shows:
| Touchpoint | Im Beispiel unter Kontrolle? | Kontrollierbar? |
|---|---|---|
| Bericht im Fernsehen | Nein | Teilweise. Eigene Inhalte mit entsprechendem Informationsgehalt produzieren. |
| Google Suche | Nein | Teilweise. Ziel sollte es sein, zu wichtigen Fragen der Kunden den passenden Content anzubieten. Dann ist die Chance größer, dass man in der Google-Suche angezeigt wird. |
| Werbeanzeige (Website) | Ja | Ja. Man sollte genau einstellen, welche Werbemittel man auf welchen Seiten platzieren möchte, um die passende Zielgruppe anzusprechen. |
| Werbeanzeige (Facebook) | Ja | Ja. Man kann bei Facebook ganz genau einstellen, wer eine Werbeanzeige sehen soll. Unter anderem ist das hier angewandte „Retargeting“ eine Möglichkeit, um ehemalige Besucher erneut zu kontaktieren. |
| Testberichte | Nein | Teilweise. Man sollte zumindest sicherstellen, dass das eigene Produkt im Internet bewertet werden kann. Was dann genau geschrieben wird, kann man natürlich nicht beeinflussen. |
| Preisvergleich | Nein | Teilweise. Hier kann man nur dafür sorgen, dass der User durch eine absurde Preispolitik (z. B. deutliche Preisdifferenzen auf verschiedenen Marktplätzen) nicht verwirrt wird. |
Customer Journey Mapping
In customer journey mapping, a concrete map arises from phases and touchpoints:
First define buyer personas, then list the touchpoints per phase (as in the table above), mark expectations and weak points per point of contact, and capture the whole thing visually in a tool such as Miro or Canva (this is of course also possible with ChatGPT or Gemini).
Analysis of the customer journey
On the internet, (almost) every touchpoint with potential customers can be measured. Technologies such as the Meta pixel make it possible for user behavior to be analyzed very well.
Also very useful in this context is the tool Google Analytics, which, for example, provides insight into which path users take on the website and on which pages many users bounce. These “dead ends” of the customer journey should definitely be tackled.
Attention! The security settings on the website must prevent users from being “tracked” against their will.
The customer journey is overall a very complex topic, and analyses are often only possible in partial areas. Often you reach a point at which various theories can be developed.
Example: Should the “Buy now” button be red or rather black?
To verify these theories, you should fall back on test tools (e.g. VWO, Optimizely, or the testing functions integrated into GA4), with which you can, among other things, test different design variants live on your website. One part of the users gets to see variant A and another part is shown variant B. The better alternative ultimately earns its place in the customer journey.
A further challenge in analyzing the customer journey is, moreover, the measurement of the relevance of individual touchpoints. The last touchpoint (e.g. the click on a link in the newsletter) is, of course, the decisive one for ultimately triggering the purchase. But why did the person subscribe to the newsletter in the first place? And what can it be attributed to that the person learned about the brand at all?
It is often not trivial to find out which sections of the customer journey have which significance. The goal has to be to make optimizations piece by piece and to verify success comprehensively via previously defined metrics (e.g. the advertising-cost-to-revenue ratio).
Concrete KPIs and attribution models are suitable for measuring the customer journey. In addition to the advertising-cost-to-revenue ratio, these include the conversion rate per touchpoint and the customer lifetime value. Above all, attribution models (last-click versus multi-touch, or data-driven attribution) show what significance an individual touchpoint actually has.
Quellen
SEO & GEO check
Want more visibility – in search engines and AI answers?
We analyse your potential and show concrete next steps. Free and non-binding.