Essay
Buying Moments Beat Personas
The same person behaves differently in different buying situations. Personas miss this.
Marketing teams spend significant effort developing buyer personas. "Sarah the Suburban Mom." "Technical Tom." Detailed profiles with demographics, psychographics, pain points, and behaviors. The logic is that understanding your ideal customer helps you create better marketing.
There is a problem with this approach. The same person is a different buyer in different situations. The persona is a fiction that obscures what actually matters: the buying moment.
The Situation Shapes Behavior
Consider a homeowner who needs plumbing work. On Monday, they notice a slow drain. They think "I should get that looked at sometime." They are in research mode. They might search "why is my drain slow" or "drain cleaning tips."
On Saturday, a pipe bursts. Water is flooding their basement. They search "emergency plumber near me" or just call the first number they can find.
Same person. Same demographic profile. Completely different buying behavior. The persona did not change. The situation did.
Category Entry Points capture this reality. CEPs are the situations and needs that trigger category consideration. The buying moment, not the buyer profile, determines behavior.
Why Personas Mislead
Personas create several problems:
They imply stability. Personas are static. "Sarah always values X." But buyers are dynamic. Their priorities change based on situation, urgency, context, and mood.
They encourage over-targeting. If you have defined personas, you try to target them specifically. This can narrow reach and miss the light buyers who drive growth. Market share research shows growth comes from reaching more buyers, not from more precisely targeting a narrow segment.
They conflate correlation with causation. Your best customers might share certain demographics, but that does not mean those demographics caused them to buy. The buying moment triggered the purchase, not the persona.
They create false confidence. Detailed personas feel like customer understanding. They substitute for actually observing buying behavior. The personas might be completely wrong, but they look authoritative.
Moments Over Demographics
Instead of personas, focus on buying moments:
Emergency moments. Something broke. There is urgency. The buyer wants speed and availability, not price comparison. Be findable and responsive.
Research moments. The buyer is gathering information. They are not ready to buy. They want content that helps them understand options. Do not push for conversion.
Comparison moments. The buyer has decided to act but is comparing options. They want specifics: pricing, reviews, differentiation. Make comparison easy.
Trigger moments. Something prompted consideration. A life change, a problem, a recommendation. Understanding triggers helps you be present when they occur.
Implications for Google Ads
Understanding buying moments transforms keyword strategy. Instead of targeting "homeowner demographics," target the moments:
- Emergency queries: "24 hour plumber," "emergency drain service"
- Research queries: "why is my water heater making noise," "signs you need new plumbing"
- Comparison queries: "best plumber near me," "plumber reviews [city]"
- Trigger queries: "moving into new house plumber inspection," "remodel bathroom contractor"
Each moment type requires different ad copy, landing pages, and follow-up. The emergency buyer needs phone number prominence. The researcher needs helpful content. The comparison shopper needs reviews and differentiation.
Most Google Ads fail because they target keywords without understanding the buying moment behind them. The same keyword can represent different moments: "plumber near me" from an emergency buyer and from someone planning a renovation are very different searches despite identical words.
Building Mental Availability for Moments
Mental availability is about being the brand that comes to mind in buying situations. Notice: situations, not demographics. You build mental availability by linking your brand to relevant buying moments.
This changes marketing strategy. Instead of "reach Sarah the Suburban Mom," think "be mentally available when someone has a plumbing emergency." Different goal, different tactics.
Broad reach matters because you cannot predict who will enter which buying moment. The future emergency buyer might be anyone. Being mentally available requires exposure to the full potential buying population, not just a narrow persona segment.
The Research Support
Marketing science supports this shift from personas to moments. The Ehrenberg-Bass research on Category Entry Points shows that buyers enter categories through specific situations and needs. Understanding and covering these CEPs is more predictive of brand growth than demographic targeting.
The research also shows that brands have similar customer profiles. If you compared the demographics of Coca-Cola and Pepsi buyers, they would look nearly identical. What differentiates brands is not who buys them but when they come to mind and are available for purchase.
Practical Application
To shift from personas to moments:
Map your CEPs. What situations trigger someone to need what you sell? List as many as you can. Group them by type: emergencies, planned needs, triggers, occasions.
Research how each moment searches. What do people in each moment type into Google? What language do they use? What do they click?
Design for each moment. Create landing pages that address specific moments. Write ad copy that speaks to the moment. Build follow-up sequences appropriate to urgency level.
Measure by moment. Track performance by moment type, not by demographic. Which moments convert best? Which have the highest value? Allocate resources accordingly.