For the better part of two decades, performance marketing has been built on a simple hierarchy, clicks at the top, views somewhere below, and everything else trailing behind.
That hierarchy is collapsing.
What we’re seeing now, and what’s increasingly landing with clients, is a fundamental shift away from a click-based, last-touch worldview toward one where the view becomes the primary metric. Not as a proxy. Not as a guarantee. But as the moment where value either is created… or isn’t.
This is not a cosmetic change. It’s a rewrite.
The view is no longer a freebie
Historically, impressions and views were treated as cheap abundance, the warm up act before the “real” performance started. If someone didn’t click, the exposure barely counted.
That logic no longer holds.
In an AI-mediated media environment, the view is the outcome. AI systems aren’t designed to deliver clicks, in fact quite the opposite. They summarise, answer, recommend and decide on the user’s behalf. In many cases, they remove the click entirely.
So when a brand shows up now, it has one primary job: make the exposure count.
A view isn’t guaranteed to land.
A view isn’t guaranteed to be noticed.
And crucially, a view isn’t guaranteed to be remembered.
Which is exactly why it matters more than ever.
Performance is being re-defined (Whether we like it or not)
Let’s be honest: this shift is uncomfortable.
It means unpicking some of the core tenets performance marketers have relied on for so long – attribution models, last-touch certainty, and the comforting clarity of “what drove the conversion.”
But change is happening regardless of whether the industry feels ready. AI is reshaping discovery, decision-making, and attention itself. And performance marketing has to follow, and fast.
Yes, there’s a halo effect from exposure, there always has been. But the opportunity now is to go deeper and be more precise.
I’d be genuinely surprised if by 2027 we aren’t routinely measuring recall and salience as part of standard digital performance reporting. Not as brand fluff, but as indicators of whether a view actually did its job.
This is the agency opportunity
For agencies, this moment is both a risk and a massive opportunity.
Clients know something has shifted. They feel the cracks forming in old models, even if they can’t always articulate what comes next. There’s a real need for partners who can help them navigate uncertainty, from redefining success metrics to designing creative that earns attention rather than assumes it.
There’s also, bluntly, a commercial upside. Helping clients re-tool measurement frameworks, rethink creative effectiveness, and test new approaches to performance in an AI-shaped ecosystem is not a side project. It is core strategic work.
But it does require a leap.
A step into the unknown.
A willingness to admit that the old playbook doesn’t fully apply.
And the confidence to help clients build a new one in real time.
Performance marketing isn’t dying, it’s growing up. And the agencies that succeed next will be the ones brave enough to stop optimising for clicks… and start optimising for impact.
If you’d like to discuss how this shift is changing performance marketing and how our team of experts can support you and your brand, please get in touch.
