In part one of this mini blog series, we looked at systems integration, budgets and resource availability, and how these are holding MarTech back from impacting business growth. We continue to draw on industry research* in part two as we turn our attention to the role that marketing measurement and attribution are playing in progress.

Monitoring lead volume is still not enough

Reflecting that the top uses of MarTech currently are campaign management/reporting and basic e-marketing, it’s not surprising that measurement focuses almost exclusively on marketing impact – and not on the wider business results.

Just 3.2% can accurately measure sales pipeline and marketing’s contribution to revenue, compared to the 61.3% who can report on marketing performance. This indicates MarTech and CRM integration isn’t happening properly – or if it is, there’s a problem with the process, the data or education

More concerning is that approximately a quarter of respondents said that they have no visibility of impact on business growth or do not currently measure MarTech impact on business performance at all. This is a worrying find in the survey. Unless your organisation is awash with money, in order to get more budget, this must change.

When delving a bit more into the detail to establish what metrics marketers are using to measure performance, the findings also demonstrate that the ‘what’ being measured is not conducive to demonstrating the contribution that marketing makes to business growth.

Almost half (45.2%) highlighted number of leads generated as the top marketing measurement. While Lifetime Value of Customer was measured by 22.6%, very little attention is given to the cost per lead (12.9%) or cost per conversion (6.5%). It can be inferred that this is because MarTech is not integrated with the wider business stack – which means such detailed business reporting would prove difficult, if not impossible.

For marketers who are looking to drive business performance – and be able to demonstrate this clearly to the board – monitoring lead volume is not enough. Close attention needs to be paid to metrics such as cost per conversion, cost per lead, funnel velocity, nurture adoption, and campaign influence rates – and for these to be assessed across marketing channel too, including both on- and off-line.

Why education and maturity pose barriers to Revenue Attribution

While the adoption of digital channels still has some way to go, the fact that digital tactics are in play for many marketers means that more sophisticated evaluation of channel performance is possible – namely Revenue Attribution.

Revenue Attribution is fast becoming a term synonymous with MarTech yet its rate of adoption is lagging behind.

Just 9.7% of marketers reported that they have no understanding of Revenue Attribution, with the remaining 90.3% believing they have a moderate or basic understanding. Nobody claimed to be an expert when it comes to Revenue Attribution.

This suggests that most marketers are aware of Revenue Attribution, but the majority have yet to introduce a model (71%). Of those who have made a start, 22.6% identify that it is early days, and they still have a long way to go.

How marketers describe their understanding of Revenue Attribution models

How organisations are currently using Revenue Attribution

Biggest barriers to adopting Revenue Attribution

As was seen with MarTech aspirations, lack of understanding plays a major role (64.5%), along with digital maturity. This demonstrates a high level of awareness given that most marketers aim to fully integrate CRM and wider business software as part of their next MarTech move.

In the absence of the tech stack supporting Revenue Attribution, it is not feasible for a sophisticated model to be put in place. That said, best practice would be to prepare a road map which will enable any early tech integrations to take into account future Revenue Attribution ambitions.

So what can we conclude from our discussions around MarTech and business growth so far? Look out for our conclusions in the final part of this mini-blog series.

Want to learn more about leveraging MarTech to impact business growth? Ask us about our Insights to Impact workshops and how these can help you to better align MarTech with business goals and outcomes.

*Survey of 32 senior level marketers from across APAC. Survey conducted in conjunction with ICON and BluprintX (September, 2021)