What the latest CMO Survey tells us about MarTech over the next five years, plus actions MarTech leaders can take starting right now

According to the latest CMO Survey* spending on marketing technology (MarTech) is increasing. But marketers aren’t clear about how to maximize the tools they’re purchasing. The survey, conducted in Fall 2024, includes insights from 260 participants across 15 for-profit industries. Of the respondents, over 97% held a position of VP-level or above.

Here’s what we learned:

• By 2029, marketing technology budgets will increase 67% — from less than 20% currently allocated across marketing spend to over 33%.
• 75% of companies use marketing technology tools and/or systems to assist in their marketing activities. In healthcare, this number stands at 80%.
• Yet there’s a confidence gap — with 54.9% reporting the MarTech tools they utilize are underperforming based on what they’d expect.

Companies are spending the money and investing in the tech. They are trying to parse through the data available on dashboards. But they aren’t seeing the return. Not in the way they feel they should.

There’s a disconnect, and that disconnect is creating a risk. Budgets are going up, for now and the foreseeable next five years. That means the learning curve needs to level out, and it needs to level out fast. Otherwise, CFOs will quickly figure out that the spend isn’t justifiable.

Connecting the dots in the marketing technology disconnect

Integration is one of the biggest challenges companies face, according to the survey. How do you take this technology and allow it to speak to, and inform, other systems and other platforms within the company? Technology should be a tool, after all.

As someone who works in MarTech, connecting the dots is a favorite pastime of mine. To avoid sunk costs in your spend, companies must adhere to a digital-first philosophy with three key components:

• Cross-functional collaboration
• Data-driven decision making
• Continuous improvement

If any are missing, none work like they should. If you lack cross-functional collaboration, you’ll create processes in which the left hand isn’t talking to the right hand. If you’re unable to manage projects in an agile manner, you’ll fail to adjust strategies in real-time.

Addressing the confidence gap in MarTech

The CMO Survey shows there’s a confidence gap related to MarTech. About 55% of companies surveyed said the tool or technology isn’t performing to their liking. And marketers only leverage a fraction (40%) of their MarTech capabilities.

How do you course correct for this?

Utilize data to monitor performance

When you use data-driven decision making to inform project planning, execution, and optimization, you’re able to continuously monitor performance metrics and adjust strategies. If what you’re trying isn’t working, retool it. Don’t wait until the end of the campaign. Adjust during the campaign.

It’s your spend. Don’t waste it. Maximize it.

Embrace a culture of continuous improvement

Solicit feedback, conduct post-project reviews, and identify lessons learned to refine your processes and enhance project outcomes. After your campaign ends, conduct meetings on lessons learned and provide recommendations for future campaigns. But before you do any of this, there’s an area we need to address.

Good old-fashioned training

Whether you work with an external marketing agency or through an in-house team, it’s vital designated team members get the training required to become well-versed experts with the platforms you invest in.

These individuals need to understand how the tool works, from its basic functions to most advanced; its reporting features; and ways to integrate it with other tools in the suite, and in your marketing plan organically. This ensures three things:

• Effective utilization
• Collaboration
• Integration

Remember: integration was one of the single biggest challenges found in The CMO Survey.

But even with the proper training, there’s another issue we need to address: feature creep.

Don’t buy what you don’t need

What good is a tool if you don’t know how to use it? Perhaps worse, what if the tool is feature-rich to the point of being overkill? Think of the modern dishwasher. Feature creep is written all over it. Buttons galore. It has everything you need, but mostly a lot of what you don’t. It’s entirely possible modern dishwashers are capable of time travel, but all you or I need are clean dishes.

When it comes to MarTech, companies experience feature creep more than they may be aware. It mirrors our everyday life in the tech we use: from washing machines to car displays to the phones in our pockets. Options abound, but where’s the operating manual to make sense of it all?

If marketers are properly trained, feature-rich isn’t a bad thing. Quite the opposite. But don’t invest in features you know how to use but won’t.

Key takeaways and next steps

Investing in MarTech means investing in the tools you need and will use, ensuring feature-rich does not equate to feature creep. It means training marketers properly to make full use of the tools at hand, from basic features to a tool or platform’s most advanced options. This informed approach allows you to:

• Drive marketing initiatives
• Optimize customer experiences, and
• Achieve organizational goals

Understanding this will maximize your ROI in MarTech spend while narrowing the confidence gap. Because no matter the tool, knowing how to leverage its features is essential.

* The CMO Survey is directed by Professor Christine Moorman of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and co-sponsored by Fuqua, Deloitte LLP, and the American Marketing Association.

Unlock Health is the largest and most awarded marketing and advertising agency exclusively focused on U.S. healthcare providers. Deep expertise in the business of healthcare allows our full-service agency to blend bold creative with data-driven insights to connect consumers with care and make great work easier for our clients.