Today’s complex Martech landscape

May 12, 2022

Mike Baranowski
The martech landscape is vast with many solutions available. But, it’s important to note that making the data work for your company and being able to get that single viewpoint of your data are key to finding success with these solutions.

Today’s Martech Landscape

The landscape for Martech (marketing technology) has continued to evolve as new technologies have been developed to solve complex business problems. For example, new media platforms and technologies like TikTok, Twitch, and the metaverse have continued to challenge the status quo as marketing leaders add to their Martech stack in an effort to ensure marketing efforts remain current. 

Today’s marketers are hungry for compelling insights generated from the technologies they continue to adopt. Many have noted that the insights generated from martech solutions have played a vital role in continuous growth. According to Gartner, 76% of marketers now base their decisions on data analytics. In today’s evolving and increasingly complex marketing landscape, strong marketing analytics is vital to improving the effectiveness of marketing initiatives and measuring ROI. For example, businesses that are employing data-driven personalization delivered 5-8x times the ROI on marketing spend, according to Invesp. This further underscores the role Martech solutions are playing to help marketers connect data to business decisions.

According to Martech, the number of marketing tech platforms has grown by 4,600% in the last decade alone. But is adding to your Martech stack really going to help you move the needle? Are all tools created equally? In today’s day and age, we understand that complex business decisions cannot be made lightly and there must be compelling data to back up any decision made. But what are the most important aspects a marketer should consider when determining whether to add to their technology toolset? Here are two things to consider:

1. Deriving actionable insights from datasets

Being able to make data-informed decisions is at the forefront of every marketing leader’s mind these days. Many continue to ask themselves, “while I have access to data, could the data from a martech tool lead to better solutions?”

Many of today’s Martech solutions toute the same things: 

  • The reports they build are up to date, with every piece of data included
  • The speed in collecting the data and reporting on it isn’t just a key benefit – it’s a core contributor to remarkable insights
  • Data is consistent and accurate

This is all important and access to this kind of information will certainly help push your brand to the next level. But is it enough? Are you really getting all that you need?

At Collective Measures, we’ve learned that Martech solutions can be incredible tools to gather large datasets. But having all the data at your fingertips and distilling insights from the information are two separate things. Having access to compelling numbers is impressive. But, having a person who can navigate the information provided from Martech and explain insights gleaned from the data is imperative. 

We know first-hand that businesses collect a lot of data. Understanding how to use your data to reach your business goals? This is where Collective Measures excels. Our team of data engineers, analysts, and media experts dive into the data to surface the key details you need. Our partnerships are built on making your dollars go further, which is why our team of data analysts and engineers are not only integrated into each of our teams, but also why they built Practix, our proprietary intelligence engine. 

Practix bridges the gap between this complex data and technology to deliver compelling insights with the most consistent and accurate data. Every KPI can be reported, every metric can be tracked, any model can be built, and any report can be customized and delivered right to your inbox. But the best part? Practix isn’t just a tool. Rather, it gives you the best of both worlds – best in class technology coupled with data and media experts all so you can make faster, smarter, and more informed business decisions.

2. A Single View Of Your Data

Tools can help automate tasks that help increase efficiency. But trying to connect disparate datasets from different tools can create inefficiencies. Obtaining a single view of your data is incredibly strenuous, and there are usually huge limitations and challenges that come with trying to create a snapshot of all of your organization’s data. In our eyes, this might be the single biggest problem within Martech today.

But Practix is different because it actually enables that single viewpoint of your data. How? Practix has the ability to connect to hundreds of data sources, including the most popular advertising, analytics, SEO, and CRM platforms. It is managed and maintained by our in-house team of data engineers, who ensure client data is continuously delivered to our cloud analytics solution; this means data is accessible in real-time by our analysts and media execution teams. 

But we don’t stop there. Our custom integration points with media platforms also allow us to send offline conversions back into ad platforms. In other words: clients can share critical offline or custom business data that we can integrate alongside digital performance metrics, adding an additional layer of context to both reporting and campaign optimization. Custom data commonly includes datasets like POS transactions, customer data, coupon or loyalty program performance, and other store information. And as a result of these data integrations, voila. A single view of data is created. 

What Marketers Need to Know?

Needless to say, navigating today’s Martech landscape is increasingly complicated. But here’s the catch: to ensure you are getting the most out of your Martech stack, you need more than just the technology. Equally important is having access to a team of people who understand the data, how it interacts, and where it intersects. This context will allow you to find those actionable insights In reports, and with the right integration points, the ability to give media campaigns new signals to optimize against. Ultimately, this combination of people and technology will remove the friction created by siloed data and make sure your data actually works for – and not against – you.