The dark funnel exists. And it’s laughing at your KPIs

In B2B, everyone wants the same thing: concrete results, qualified prospects and campaigns that “perform” (ideally without costing a fortune). So we measure, adjust and optimize. We feed our dashboards as if they held the absolute truth.

But there’s a catch.

A large portion of buying decisions now happen off the radar.
No forms.
No pixels.
No trace in your CRM.

This phenomenon has a name: the dark funnel.

And while you’re scrutinizing your conversion rates down to the last pixel, it’s going about its business quietly, immeasurably and highly effectively.

What you don’t see in the marketing funnel (but that drives sales)

A prospect hears about you on a podcast. A colleague shares your article in a Teams chat. Someone mentions you in a meeting without ever clicking on anything. None of these interactions leaves a trace in your dashboards. Yet they strongly influence the buying decision, and often more than your latest PPC campaign.

These are signs of interest, credibility and influence… but they slip under the radar of your marketing performance tools. Not because they’re insignificant. Because they’re outside the system.

The obsession with measurement: reassuring but outdated

For a long time, the marketing KPI logic was simple: what we can measure has value. The rest? Too vague, too risky.

But today, the marketing funnel is no longer linear. And more importantly, much of it is invisible.

Buyers no longer fill out your forms. They don’t need your white paper to form an opinion. They move forward on their own, influenced by what they see, read and hear in the dark funnel. And your KPIs don’t capture that.

Selling to people you can’t see (yet)

Since you can’t measure everything, focus on what leaves a real mark. The kind that circulates in a Teams group, comes up in a team conversation or prompts someone to search your name on Google.

In the dark funnel, the brands that win are the ones that leave a useful imprint. And that imprint is built on three pillars.

Findability: content optimized for search engines and platforms your prospects use.

Credibility: consistent messaging, social proof and formats adapted to the context (newsletters, videos, testimonials).

Shareability: no barriers to entry. Content spreads better when you don’t require an email to access it.

But for this approach to work, the rules of measurement need to change. Because if your only indicators are “leads generated” or “conversion rate,” you’re missing what’s working in the shadows.

How to measure (a little better) the dark funnel

You can’t measure the dark funnel perfectly. But it leaves traces if you know where to look.

Here are a few concrete ideas to integrate into your marketing KPI strategy.

Direct traffic: If your visits increase without an active campaign, it’s often a sign of word-of-mouth or strong brand presence.

Brand searches: spikes in queries containing your company name speak volumes about your influence in the marketing funnel.

Customer feedback: During calls or demos, listen to what people say. “I saw your LinkedIn post” or “A colleague told me to contact you” are valuable signals.

Correlations: if a newsletter goes out and your traffic rises two days later, it’s not absolute proof—but it’s a good clue.

The goal isn’t to control everything. It’s to have enough indicators so you’re not flying blind.

What do we do with you

At Bang, we help you build a marketing performance strategy that reflects the real buying journey. Not the one you see in your dashboards. The one that happens in the dark funnel.

We start with an audit: content, performance, invisible signals.

1. We help you create resources that get noticed, remembered and shared.
2. We set up hybrid indicators that are flexible enough to capture what matters and solid sufficient to convince internally.

While your reports are looking elsewhere, your influence is working. Quietly. But surely.

Let’s talk about what your KPIs don’t see—and everything they underestimate.