Martech capabilities are increasing but marketers are making less use of them. Just 42% of marketers say they are utilizing all the capabilities of their martech stack, according to a new report from Gartner.
That’s a 16% drop from 2020, when 58% said they were maximizing their stacks’ capabilities.
Dig deeper: The secret to building a useful martech stack
Researchers say this decline has been caused by increased martech function of individual solutions, hiring problems and the increasingly complicated environment of marketing technology overall.
- 30% said it was because of significant amount of overlap among marketing technology solutions
- 28% difficulty identifying and recruiting talent to drive adoption/utilization
- 27% complexity/sprawl of the marketing technology ecosystem
“Despite turbulent budgets in previous years and current economic headwinds, tech investments are a priority for CMOs and proving their ROI is more crucial than ever,” Benjamin Bloom, VP Analyst in the Gartner Marketing practice, said in a statement. “Yet the challenges associated with martech underutilization, such as new business models and disrupted customer journeys, are making it difficult for marketers to demonstrate technology’s value.”
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Gartner surveyed 324 marketers in May and June 2022 to determine the state of marketing technology acquisition, adoption and use.
When it comes to exploring new advertising channels, audio/podcast leads the way with 40% saying they are trying out technologies to support it. It was closely followed by streaming TV/CTV (38%), the metaverse (37%) and in-game (36%).
Why we care. We’re all in favor of technology that lets marketers do more complex, sophisticated work, but it still has to be easy to use. Also, it seems that many “platforms” are now expanding far beyond their traditional roles. Does your CRM also handle DAM?
About The Author
Constantine von Hoffman is managing editor of MarTech. A veteran journalist, Con has covered business, finance, marketing and tech for CBSNews.com, Brandweek, CMO, and Inc. He has been city editor of the Boston Herald, news producer at NPR, and has written for Harvard Business Review, Boston Magazine, Sierra, and many other publications. He has also been a professional stand-up comedian, given talks at anime and gaming conventions on everything from My Neighbor Totoro to the history of dice and boardgames, and is author of the magical realist novel John Henry the Revelator. He lives in Boston with his wife, Jennifer, and either too many or too few dogs.
