Six Things WA Marketers Took Away from Funnel Vision 2025

Over 200 Perth marketers packed the Duxton Ballroom to hear Google and Bonfire dissect the real shape of today’s customer journey. A full house. A sharp agenda. A room ready to rewrite the rules.

Attention is fractured. Acquisition costs keep rising. AI is reshaping search and media in real time. The classic funnel is broken. At Funnel Vision, we brought fresh Google data together with Bonfire’s media-first strategy so WA marketers can design for non-linear journeys with confidence.

Six Themes That Reframed Strategy

• Let media lead creative. Insights from placement should guide the idea, not chase it.
• First-party data drives performance. Own the signal to close the loop between spend and return.
• Channel fit matters more than channel count. Every platform needs a data-backed reason to be there.
• AI Overviews are already shifting the SERP. Organic visibility is fluid. Check it weekly.
• Consumer behaviour falls into four habits: people stream, scroll, search, and shop, not in any set order.
• Good strategy is informed, not expensive. Rigour beats grandiosity, every time.

Arshad Mirza, Head of Partners & Agencies AUNZ at Google, flew from Sydney to Perth for Funnel Vision 2025.

What Google Had to Say

Arshad Mirza, Google’s Head of Partners & Agencies AUNZ, traced three seismic shifts in marketing: first the internet, then mobile, now AI. This new wave is already changing how we plan campaigns, interpret results and influence outcomes.

He made the case for campaign models like Performance Max and Broad Match—setups that outperform silos, so long as they’re fuelled with live signals and tailored creative. He also shared fresh benchmarks showing the revenue impact of pairing durable measurement with real-time modelling.

At the heart of marketing there’s always going to be people, there’s always going to be emotions, there’s always going to be storytelling; and AI is going to help us deliver that at a faster pace. – Arshad Mirza, Head of Partners & Agencies AUNZ at Google

Matthew Elshaw, Bonfire’s Head of Media Strategy, spoke about how marketers can use first-party data to make sense of non-linear buyer journeys.

What Bonfire’s Playbook Looks Like

Where and When Should Shape What

Sarah Salameh, Bonfire’s SEO Manager, introduced a new analytics tool revealing when and where brands appear in Google’s AI Overviews. Until now, this space was invisible to marketers.

With this data, teams can now fine-tune the content shown in AI-generated results. It’s a small shift with outsized effects on search performance and a crucial step toward owning the evolving SERP.

Flip the Funnel: Let Media Shape the Creative

Matt Elshaw, Head of Media Strategy, flipped the traditional campaign model on its head. Rather than building creative first, he urged marketers to begin with platform behaviours.

By mapping message, timing and format to real moments in the journey, we build assets made to fit. Not forced to stretch. Results follow when strategy meets context.

Six Things You Can Do This Week

1. Start creative ideation with media insights.
2. Audit your first-party data collection. Patch the gaps.
3. Build seed audiences before briefing your next campaign.
4. Track AI Overview placements weekly to spot changes early.
5. Tie every KPI to business outcomes, not platform metrics.
6. Re-forecast budgets every quarter to keep them honest.

Over 200 Perth marketers attended Funnel Vision at the Duxton Hotel.

What’s Next?

Funnel Vision is done, but mastering today’s fluid customer journeys is ongoing work. We’ll keep publishing more data, sharper strategies and practical takes to help Australian marketers evolve with confidence.

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