Posted by Gigi J.K
in Ai
in Ai
From Funnels to Pinballs: How ImpelHub Rewrites Growth Strategy for a Non-Linear World
TL;DR
Most growth playbooks still assume buyers move through a neat, linear funnel. In reality, they don’t. Modern buyers bounce between search, communities, AI tools, peers, content, and private conversations before they ever decide. Google calls this the Messy Middle. Rand Fishkin calls it the Pinball Funnel. Either way, the old funnel logic breaks down.
ImpelHub was built for this reality. Instead of forcing every business into the same model, it first identifies how buyers actually behave. Then it builds a custom growth playbook around that behavior using a flexible, modular system.
The result is a strategy that works with non-linear journeys rather than fighting them. Less guesswork. More clarity. And playbooks that reflect how people really buy today.
Key Takeaways
- Modern buyers do not follow linear funnels. They bounce across search, communities, content, AI tools, and peer conversations before making a decision.
- The “Messy Middle” and “Pinball Funnel” explain real buying behavior. Decisions are shaped through repeated exploration, evaluation, and trust-building, not step-by-step progression.
- Traditional growth playbooks fail because they assume predictability. Clean attribution, clear stages, and single-channel influence no longer reflect how people actually buy.
- ImpelHub identifies the right funnel before building the strategy. It first determines whether a business follows a traditional or non-linear journey, then designs the playbook accordingly.
- Effective growth strategies adapt to buyer behavior, not frameworks. By combining structured modules with flexible, context-driven logic, ImpelHub creates playbooks that work in the real world.
Table of Contents
- Why the Old Funnel Broke And Why Most Playbooks Fail Today
- The Two Models That Changed Everything: “Messy Middle” And “Pinball Funnel”
- Why ImpelHub Built a New System Entirely
- Step 1: Identify Your Funnel Type Using Behavioral Signals
- Step 2: Build the Strategy Using a Modern Playbook Structure
- Where ImpelHub Innovates Beyond Traditional Strategy
- Why This Pillar Matters: The Future of Playbooks Is Non-Linear
- Final Thoughts: Growth Strategy Finally Meets Reality
- Frequently Asked Questions
For years, marketers believed the buyer journey looked like a neat staircase. Someone discovers you. They show interest. They evaluate options. They convert. Slide-deck perfect.
But real buyers don’t behave like that anymore.
Today’s customers don’t move in steps. They move in swirls.
They don’t “progress.” They bounce.
They don’t follow a funnel. They pinball.
A single buyer might hear about your product in a Slack group, forget about it, rediscover it in a YouTube review, compare you on Google, check Reddit for complaints, ask ChatGPT to recommend alternatives, then finally buy after seeing your brand again in a friend’s feed.
Modern buying journeys are messy.
They’re non-linear.
And they break every traditional growth model.
This article explains why the old playbooks no longer work, what the new world requires, and how ImpelHub builds growth strategies designed for the way people actually buy today.
It’s also the central hub that connects two key components of the ImpelHub methodology:
- The Playbook Structure Tool → defines the “recipe” of a modern growth playbook.
- The Funnel Type Identification Tool → determines whether your business follows a Traditional or Pinball journey.
Let’s begin.
Why the Old Funnel Broke And Why Most Playbooks Fail Today
The traditional funnel worked… when the world was simpler.
People discovered products in predictable places.
Advertising channels were limited.
Attention was captive.
Brand trust was easier to control.
Today, everything changed:
- Attention is fragmented across dozens of platforms
- Buyers trust peers and communities more than brands
- Most research happens privately (in “dark social”)
- AI-powered search changes what people consider and when
- Influence happens asynchronously, not sequentially
- Journeys stretch across weeks or months, not hours
But most playbooks were written for a world that no longer exists.
They assume:
- Every buyer sees the same path
- Every stage is clearly defined
- Every touchpoint is trackable
- Every action can be attributed
- Every decision happens soon after discovery
In reality, none of this holds.
Your buyer may discover you on Monday.
Consider you on Thursday.
Forget you next week.
Return organically three weeks later.
Then convert after a single unexpected moment of trust.
And because traditional playbooks don’t account for this, teams often end up:
- Optimizing for the wrong channels
- Measuring the wrong signals
- Misreading delays as drop-offs
- Relying on guesswork when attribution fails
- Overinvesting in direct-response and underinvesting in influence
This is why modern strategy needs a modern operating system.
The Two Models That Changed Everything: “Messy Middle” And “Pinball Funnel”
1. Google’s “Messy Middle.”
In 2020, Google published one of the most important buying-behavior studies of our time.
Their finding was simple:
People do not move through buying stages in a straight line.
Instead, every modern buyer cycles through a chaotic loop of:
- exploration (discovering options)
- evaluation (judging them)
This loop continues until the buyer feels confident enough to choose.
It’s unpredictable.
It’s emotional.
It’s repetitive.
It’s heavily influenced by heuristics and biases like:
- social proof
- authority signals
- category shortcuts
- “power of free” bias
- brand familiarity and memory
This is the “Messy Middle.”
It’s not a funnel.
It’s a loop.
And most decisions are made inside that loop, not along a straight path.
2. Rand Fishkin’s “Pinball Funnel.”
In 2025, Rand Fishkin evolved this idea even further.
He introduced the Pinball Funnel, a metaphor for how buyers bounce around multiple touchpoints before making a decision.
Think: Reddit → Google → YouTube → ChatGPT → friend → newsletter → brand site → back to Google.
No sequence.
No predictability.
No stage boundaries.
No single “source of truth.”
The Pinball Funnel explains what marketers experience daily:
- conversions that appear “out of nowhere.”
- buyers who return weeks later
- attribution that looks wrong but isn’t
- content consumption that’s invisible
- influence happening outside analytics
The Pinball Funnel doesn’t replace the Messy Middle.
It describes the experience of navigating it.
And together, these models outline the real world your customers live in today.
Why ImpelHub Built a New System Entirely
If the journey is no longer linear, then the playbook cannot be linear either.
And if different businesses have different buyer behaviors, then every playbook must adapt to the shape of that journey.
That’s where ImpelHub enters.
ImpelHub doesn’t start by assuming a funnel.
It starts by diagnosing one.
Instead of forcing you into PLG or Demand Gen or Sales Acceleration or any single theory…
ImpelHub identifies what type of journey your buyers actually follow, then builds your strategy around it.
This happens in two steps:
Step 1: Identify Your Funnel Type Using Behavioral Signals
ImpelHub’s Funnel Type Identification Tool is a 10-question diagnostic that determines:
Does your business follow a Traditional Funnel… or a Pinball Funnel?
This distinction is critical.
Because:
- A Traditional Funnel rewards sequential messaging
- A Pinball Funnel rewards repeated, multi-platform influence
- A Traditional Funnel works when attribution is clear
- A Pinball Funnel works when attribution is fragmented
- A Traditional Funnel pushes buyers down
- A Pinball Funnel pulls them back repeatedly until they act
The diagnostic evaluates patterns across seven behavioral dimensions, such as:
- How many channels do buyers bounce across
- How clear attribution is
- Where discovery originates
- What trust signals do people rely on
- How long is the purchase lag is
- How often do people revisit content
- What your team reports about “untraceable conversions.”
If your journey hints toward chaos, external influence, private research, and repeated evaluation, ImpelHub identifies you as Pinball.
If your journey shows clear progression and step-based milestones, ImpelHub identifies you as Traditional.
The type of funnel you operate in shapes every decision you make next.
Step 2: Build the Strategy Using a Modern Playbook Structure
Once ImpelHub detects your funnel type, it uses your business context to generate a composite strategy, a playbook composed of 18 core growth playbooks.
This happens through the Playbook Structure Tool, which determines:
- What modules do you need
- How they should be sequenced
- Which constraints matter most
- Which growth levers offer the highest impact
- Which innovation plays a role in accelerating outcomes
- How the funnel type affects the architecture
Traditional journeys get more structured sequencing.
Pinball journeys get multi-threaded influence loops.
But the foundation of every playbook is the same:
A clear, logic-driven structure designed to create clarity, direction, and measurable steps.
Not all funnels behave the same.
Where ImpelHub Innovates Beyond Traditional Strategy
1. It turns context into architecture
Most strategies start with frameworks.
ImpelHub starts with context.
Your brand DNA, ICPs, constraints, goals, competition, and category shape the playbook, not intuition.
2. It blends human insight with deterministic scoring
ImpelHub resolves ambiguity with:
- logic trees
- behavioral scoring
- Impact × Innovation ratings
- evidence-backed prioritization
The result? No two playbooks ever look the same.
3. It aligns the plan to the buyer’s actual movement
If your buyer is pinballing… Your playbook must orchestrate influence across platforms.
If your buyer is linear… Your playbook must reduce friction across steps.
The strategy adapts to the journey, and not the other way around.
4. It shortens strategic cycles from months to days
Because it’s AI-assisted, expert-led, and context-first.
Leadership no longer spends weeks researching, debating, and guessing.
5. It creates clarity that teams can execute immediately
You don’t get a vague narrative.
You get a roadmap with:
- weekly milestones
- KPIs
- sequencing logic
- risk analysis
- countermeasures
- competitive playbooks
- content and channel frameworks
And because the funnel type is correct, execution feels natural, not forced.
Why This Pillar Matters: The Future of Playbooks Is Non-Linear
Most companies today are using playbooks built for a world where buyers behave predictably.
That world is gone.
We now live in an era where:
- Dark social shapes consideration
- AI shapes search
- Communities shape trust
- Content shapes awareness
- Timing is unpredictable
- Attribution is broken
- And influence is everywhere
Traditional funnels weren’t built for this.
Traditional playbooks weren’t built for this.
ImpelHub is.
The system recognizes that modern strategy requires flexibility without losing clarity, structure without rigidity, and speed without sacrificing intelligence.
This article is your entry point into that system.
Final Thoughts: Growth Strategy Finally Meets Reality
The modern buyer is chaotic.
The modern journey is unpredictable.
The modern decision-making loop is invisible.
But strategy doesn’t have to be confusing.
When you understand the true behavior behind your funnel…
When your playbook adapts to your buyer’s movement…
When your growth system uses context instead of assumptions…
That’s when growth stops being guesswork and becomes a repeatable, predictable engine.
ImpelHub doesn’t fight the chaos.
It builds a strategy around it.
And that’s the future of modern playbooks.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Can a business really have more than one type of funnel?
Yes. And honestly, most do.
Very few businesses have just one kind of buyer. A small self-serve product might convert quickly and follow a fairly linear path. A larger deal or enterprise buyer, on the other hand, might spend weeks bouncing between research, peers, communities, and internal discussions.
That’s why forcing a single funnel model across the entire business often creates friction. The smarter move is to recognize where structure helps and where flexibility matters more. ImpelHub is built to handle both, without turning your strategy into a patchwork.
If attribution is messy, how do you know what’s actually working?
This is one of the most common frustrations teams have.
When buyers move across private channels, communities, and AI tools, traditional attribution breaks down. That doesn’t mean nothing is working. It just means the signals are more subtle.
Instead of chasing perfect attribution, modern teams look for patterns. Are sales conversations getting easier? Are buyers arriving more informed? Are deals closing with less resistance? Those signals often tell you more about progress than a single metric ever could.
Does this mean performance marketing isn’t important anymore?
Not at all. Performance marketing still matters. It just can’t carry the entire strategy by itself.
In non-linear journeys, performance channels often work best as reinforcement. They catch buyers when they’re already close to a decision or bring them back after they’ve explored elsewhere. The mistake is expecting them to do all the heavy lifting on their own.
When performance marketing is placed inside a broader system, it becomes far more effective.
How long does it usually take to see results from a non-linear approach?
It depends on what you’re looking for.
Some results show up quickly. Teams gain clarity. Messaging improves. Conversations feel more aligned. Other outcomes, like revenue impact, take longer because trust and confidence take time to build.
The important thing to understand is that non-linear strategies tend to compound. What starts as better awareness and consideration often turns into stronger, more decisive buying behavior down the line.
How is this different from just “posting more content” or trying to be everywhere?
This is a really important distinction.
A pinball-style strategy is not about being everywhere or producing more content for the sake of it. That usually creates noise and burnout.
The difference is intention. Instead of doing more, you focus on the moments and places that actually influence decisions. You’re not trying to dominate every channel. You’re showing up consistently where trust is built and decisions are shaped.
It’s less about volume and more about relevance.
