The Post-Click Journey: Why CMOs Must Think Beyond
In today's competitive digital environment, brands are spending resources crafting ads that will resonate with their audience and optimizing media spend to make every dollar count. However, one critical piece of the puzzle is often overlooked: The post-click journey for consumers. Securing a click is just the beginning — the real opportunity lies in what happens in the consumer experience. If brands fail to deliver an engaging, seamless and relevant experience after the click, they risk losing potential customers and diminishing the impact of their media spend.
CMOs need to shift their focus beyond just getting consumers to their website, landing page or PDP. Instead, they must prioritize the full journey, ensuring that every touchpoint post-click is optimized for engagement, relevance and conversion. Every touchpoint a consumer has with a brand will shape their relationship and determine if they will continue to engage. Here's why the post-click journey matters and how brands can improve it.
Engaging Content Holds Consumer Attention
Once a consumer clicks, the expectation is set. They expect to find an experience that aligns with the promise made in the ad itself. If the experience they have post click is irrelevant, poorly designed or lacking in substance, they will bounce — often within seconds.
CMOs must ensure that destinations contain engaging, high-quality content tailored to the audience's needs. This means dynamic visuals, informative text and an intuitive layout or navigation that guides users toward the next step. Personalization also plays a key role — leveraging first-party data to serve relevant content based on user behavior can significantly increase engagement and conversion rates.
Brand Relationship Through Website Experience
A seamless, user-friendly website experience is critical for keeping consumers engaged. A Google study found that 53% of mobile users abandon sites that take longer than three seconds to load. Slow load times, poor navigation and unresponsive designs are deal-breakers in a fast-paced digital environment.
Ensuring that landing pages and websites are optimized for speed, mobile friendliness and user experience is important not only for the consumer experience, but also the ability to be found on the SERP. A/B testing different layouts, reducing unnecessary page elements, compressing images and streamlining checkout processes can all contribute to a smoother journey.
Creating a Connected Experience
Too often brands treat digital marketing as a series of isolated touchpoints rather than a cohesive journey. Consumers don’t think in terms of campaigns; they experience brands holistically. The experience doesn't only occur on the website or retailer, and every interaction needs to be an entry point to engaging. That's why sequential messaging — where ads and content are strategically aligned across multiple touchpoints —matters.
By leveraging retargeting strategies and customer journey mapping, brands can deliver messages that evolve based on consumer interactions. For example, if a user clicks on a product ad but doesn't purchase, follow-up ads could showcase reviews, testimonials or a limited-time discount to encourage conversion. Utilizing the data from the content they interacted with to deliver an experience that will make sense to consumers will keep them engaged with a brand.
Social Media for Ongoing Engagement
The post-click journey extends beyond the brand’s website. Social media platforms provide an opportunity to re-engage users and reinforce messaging through organic content, influencer partnerships and community interactions. A study by Sprout Social found that 78% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand after a positive social media experience.
CMOs should ensure that social channels are integrated into the post-click strategy, leveraging retargeting ads, user-generated content and direct interactions to keep potential customers engaged after they leave the site.
Making Every Click Count
Media engagement strategies must align with post-click experiences to ensure consistency. If an ad promises a specific value proposition, the landing page should reinforce that message. Creating confusion by not tying the ad to the destination will risk losing trust, increasing bounce rates — or worse — ending the consumer-brand relationship altogether.
In an era where customer expectations are higher than ever, brands cannot afford to focus solely on driving clicks. The real impact comes from what happens after the click — how brands engage, guide and convert consumers through a well-thought-out post-click journey.
CMOs who embrace this holistic approach will see better engagement, higher conversion rates and a stronger ROI on their digital media investments. By prioritizing engaging content, seamless website experiences, strategic messaging and ongoing social interactions, brands can turn clicks into lasting customer relationships.
About the Author
Tim Hurd is VP of Media at Goodway Group. With more than 15 years of experience in digital media and marketing, Hurd is a strategy and planning leader who delivers guidance, insights and solutions to clients across various industries and channels.
