Diminishing returns for MarTech?

Written by Brook Schaaf

 

In a recent opinion piece, an agency founder argues that “the bloom is off the rose. And if it is not, it ought to be.” The rose in question is marketing technology, which has “continuously under-delivered and complicated an already competitive environment.”

No particular proof is offered for this assertion, but it seems to represent an undercurrent of thinking. A few years ago, a post on chiefmartec.com theorized that MarTech might be in the “trough of disillusionment.” This month, Gartner released a survey in which 60% of CMOs anticipate slashing their marketing departments in half by next year “because of failed promised improvements.”

Gartner states in the press release, “The survey found that the quantity of marketing decisions that analytics influences does matter: Organizations that report marketing analytics influence fewer than 50% of decisions are more likely to agree that they are unable to prove the value of marketing. Once marketing analytics teams cross that 50% threshold, there are likely diminishing returns to striving to increase the quantity of decisions influenced.”

In the survey’s own words, it would seem that the point of diminishing returns may have been reached. In fact, it may have been exceeded given recent privacy changes, such as the diminishment of cookies and app tracking restricting.

You know which channel hasn’t yet seen diminishing returns?

That’s right — affiliate.