The top challenges to growth are now centered around data and measurement, so we must understand the state of data and analytics infrastructures within marketing organizations. When asked to assess the state of their marketing organization’s data and analytics infrastructure, marketers have rated them as average or poor. This suggests room for improvement in collecting, harmonizing, organizing, analyzing, and acting on data. To understand why data-related issues are holding marketers back, we need to look at the current state of marketing analytics.
State of Marketing Organizations’ Data & Analytics Infrastructure
Most marketers now rely on a diverse marketing mix of channels led by their brand website, display advertising, email campaigns, programmatic advertising, and social media, but also including a long tail of different channels depending on their business, industry, and customer.
The Number of Marketing/Advertising Platforms Used for Cross-Channel Marketing
On average, marketers use eight different channels for their marketing strategies. But the full complexity of cross-channel marketing becomes clearer when you examine the number of platforms and the amount of data that marketers must manage. For example, while social media is considered just one channel, it encompasses many different platforms, including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, just to name a few. Depending on a business’ customer base, these platforms may also include ones like Reddit or LinkedIn, or LINE, WeChat, and WhatsApp in significant global regions. Thus, while marketers may only be using an average of eight channels, they’re using an average of 21 platforms.
79% of Marketers Agree
You Must Have an Overview of ALL Cross-channel Marketing Activities
The metrics most commonly used to measure performance across these channels include contribution toward sales and revenue, marketing and advertising spend, and brand awareness. Within each overarching metric lies additional, more granular measurement. For example, measuring marketing or advertising spend by definition includes budget and spend data across all channel, campaign, content, or audience investments.
Ranking of Metrics Most Commonly Measured in Marketers’ Campaigns
1) Sales revenue
2) Marketing or advertising spend
3) Brand awareness
4) Customer acquisitions
5) ROI/customer lifetime value (CLV/LTV)