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2.1How people buy now
The funnel isn’t a line any more. People move between four behaviours, in any order, often on the same screen in the same minute. Google and BCG call them the 4S: Stream, Scroll, Search and Shop. We add one layer: the creator’s role in each.
| What it is | The job it does | Creator’s role | Judge it on | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stream | Long-form watching: YouTube, lives, podcasts | Mental availability in depth. Belief. | Their story | Brand segment reach and viewing |
| Scroll | The endless feed: TikTok, Reels, Shorts | Mental availability at scale. Getting noticed. | Their world | Resonance, unique reach |
| Search | Active looking: typed, spoken, visual, AI answers | Validation. Being the answer. | Their word | Branded search lift, being found, search traffic to the site |
| Shop | The moment of buying, online or in store | Physical availability. Easy to buy. | Their access | Attributable sales, conversion |
Three habits to change
- Brief for the behaviour, not the platform.Name the behaviour in the brief: stream, scroll, search or shop. The platform follows from it.
- Never judge one behaviour with another's numbers.It’s the most common way good creator work gets cancelled. A Stream post will always look weak on Scroll numbers.
- Look beyond the loudest one.Most plans buy Scroll and hope the other three happen by themselves.
Stream: where belief is built
Attention here is given, not caught. People choose to watch, and they stay. You get minutes instead of seconds.
- Time to explain, not just announce.A product can be shown working. That’s very hard in six seconds.
- The brand can sit inside the story.Instead of interrupting, which is why it gets remembered rather than skipped.
- Low frequency, high depth.Judge it on what people remember and believe, not on views.
Scroll: where you get noticed
Fast, passive and ruthless. The feed decides who sees the post, and it decides in about two seconds.
- Brand in the first two seconds.Only 61% of creator ads manage it, against 89% of brand-made ads.
- Waves, not one-offs.A single post is judged alone and mostly ignored.
- Reach here is rented.It stops the day you stop posting or paying. Nothing compounds on its own.
Search: where intent shows up
The only behaviour where people tell you what they want. They’ve stopped scrolling and started asking.
- Your post becomes the answer.Someone searches weeks later, and the creator’s video is what they find.
- It keeps working, for free.Scroll reach stops when the budget does. Search reach doesn’t.
- Machines read words.Captions, on-screen text, and what the creator says out loud are what gets indexed.
Shop: where it's won or lost
Creator content creates the urge to buy. The checkout is where that urge dies.
- Shop isn't one place.A shoppable post, a marketplace, a WhatsApp order and a shelf are all Shop.
- Walk the path yourself.On a phone, on mobile data, before spending anything. Count the taps. Find where it breaks.