The Omnichannel Flywheel: How Marketers Escape Performance Decay

Channels fade. Systems scale.

In his now-iconic post The Law of Shitty Clickthroughs, Andrew Chen said what most performance marketers already felt: Every digital marketing channel decays over time. What worked at 78% CTR in 1994 barely scrapes 0.05% now.

The point? Once something works, it stops working. The game is to find the next edge—before it gets crowded. And he's right. But let's not ignore the obvious: 0.05% CTR is embarrassingly low.

If that doesn't raise alarms in your team? You don't have a channel problem. You have a creative one. A message one. Maybe even a team one. Because that's not "channel decay." That's a warning sign.

Here's the twist: Clickthrough decay isn't the end. It's the starting gun for your flywheel. This is a strategy successfully implemented in previous ventures and isn't a magic bullet but wins out over time, every time.

What Is a Full Funnel Flywheel?

Funnels are linear. Flywheels loop. Most teams still run funnels like it's 2015. But buyers don't move linearly. They wander. They bounce. They ghost you and come back weeks later.

So you need a growth loop to capture the unique behaviour of humans. They absorb noise. They turn passive impressions into active memory.

• Paid ads spark curiosity
• Content provides depth
• SEO captures intent
• Retargeting reinforces
• Brand ties it all together

Forget about which channel wins (in the macro anyway). Stack them to compound.

A Flywheel In Motion

They see your ad: "Turn cold leads into booked calls. No extra reps." No click. But it lands.

Later, they're knee-deep in CRM hell. Pipeline's dry. Leads feel dead. So they Google: "How to re-engage old leads in HubSpot"

Your blog shows up: "Why 70% of your dormant leads aren't dead—just ignored" They read it. The ad pops back into memory.

Then retargeting kicks in: "How Flyweel helped a solar company recover $187K from untouched leads" Now it clicks.

That's not a funnel. That's a flywheel.

Why Most Teams Plateau

Here's the pattern: Ads work. CPMs rise. CTRs fall. CAC spikes. Panic sets in. Budget increases.

Paid scales linearly. Flywheels scale exponentially.

Organic sticks. Content compounds. Brand gets there before the ad does. Eventually, spend plateaus—but growth doesn't. That's the loop working as designed.

You Don't Win by Competing. You Win by Framing the Game.

Outspend the incumbents? Good luck. They've got armies—SEO, content, backlinks, podcasts, brand recall. You don't beat that by playing harder. You change the game.

Start by framing the problem in your terms:

• Name the pain, clearly
• Use your customer's language
• Build the system around that insight

You're not trying to be "better." You're making something finally make sense. And then: SEO clicks. Ads convert. Content gains momentum.

You're not just ranking. You're the reason they search in the first place. This isn't "positioning." It's distribution.

Frame It Right, Show Up Everywhere

Search has shifted. People aren't just Googling anymore. They're asking GPT. Perplexity. Claude.

"How do I tie ad spend to pipeline in a service business?"
"What's the best way to track Facebook leads through to revenue?"

If you framed the problem well—and your language is in the ecosystem—you don't just show up. You're the answer. No keyword war. No SEO arms race.

You get surfaced by AI—because your message is clear, specific, and timely. That's the next edge. And most haven't clocked it yet.

The Full Funnel Flywheel: The Playbook

Where the Flywheel Hits Hardest

This works best where chaos reigns:

• Big ad budgets under pressure
• Attribution full of holes
• Sales waiting on "better leads"
• Marketing not fully trusted

If you've got spend but no signal? If the team's busy but results feel disconnected? This is the bridge.

Because when the flywheel spins: Campaigns connect. Prospects show up warmer. CAC evens out. Brand carries real weight.

You stop chasing efficiency. You start compounding it.

How You'll Know It's Working

You'll see the signs clearly:

• People say "I've seen you everywhere"
• Branded search goes up—no spend needed
• Sales cycles shrink
• Ad fatigue slows
• CAC stabilises (or drops)

While others panic-refresh dashboards and rewrite copy—you're building leverage.