MARTECH

ADOPTION
where roi comes from
and who’s getting it

Benchmark Study Report

January 2018
Table of Contents
Introduction 3

Executive Summary 5

The Personas 7

MarTech Stacks 9

Budgeting for MarTech 14

Acquiring/Building the MarTech Stack 18

Skills, Metrics and Satisfaction 26

MarTech Challenges 31

Analyst Bottom Line 33

Acknowledgements 35

Appendix: Survey Background 36

Introduction
INTRODUCTION martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 4

In the early 1960s, Everett Rogers popularized the Diffusion of Innova-

tions theory to explain how organizations adopt technology.

This theory introduced the business world to five personas that describe Diffusion of Innovations
different attitudes toward technology adoption: Innovator, Early Adopter,
Early Majority, Late Majority, and Laggard.

Innovators are those organizations that first adopt new technology so

that they can gain the advantages it might provide before anyone else
does. In doing so, they accept the greatest amount of risk, because they
are blazing the adoption trail that may or may not lead to a reward. At the
other end of the spectrum, the Laggards assume almost no risk because
they are the last to adopt, but they are also the last to experience the
advantages technology offers.

Technology began entering the domain of marketing decades ago, and it

is now considered indispensable to marketing’s success. But even so, not
all marketers have rushed to embrace marketing technology (martech)
as they consider where the “sweet spot” is on the technology adoption
curve. Which persona is winning? “Winning” has several possible mean-
ings, but in this study the scorecard is martech return on investment (ROI).

MRP and Demand Metric partnered to field research to find out how
these personas adopt martech differently and how their posture
toward martech adoption impacts their ROI. The benchmarking infor- Innovators Early Early Late Laggards
mation this study provides can help marketers build a best practice blue- Adopters Majority Majority

print for acquiring, adopting, and maximizing the ROI on martech.

Executive Summary
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
More than 80 percent of this study’s participants were from primarily
B-to-B or mixed B-to-B/B-to-C organizations, with just over half reporting
revenue growth during the past fiscal year. The respondents are from a
diverse set of industries, with the largest segment coming from the tech-
nology sector and a sizeable segment from manufacturing.
Key Findings
Marketing organizations that position themselves near the front
of the technology adoption cycle are getting better returns on
their martech investments.
The presence of Customer Experience/VoC, ABM, Sales
Enablement, Content Marketing, Marketing Analytics, and
Predictive Analytics solutions in the martech stack are associ-
ated with the highest returns.
The Innovator persona leads all others in the usage of martech,
with one-fourth using 10 or more solutions.
Innovators are least likely to report a shrinking martech budget.
Three-fourths of Innovators report adequate or ample martech
funding, compared to only 15 percent of Laggards.
The top three martech solutions that companies in this study
plan to invest in are ABM, Marketing Automation, and Predic-
tive Analytics.
martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 6
These study participants are estimated to have an average of 7 to 9 martech
solutions in their stack, and in the past year implemented about two new
martech solutions. Just over 40 percent of the study participants come
from companies with less than $10 million in annual revenue, while 15
percent are with firms reporting revenues of $500 million or more.
Innovators are the only persona who favor a best-of-breed
approach to acquiring martech.
Best-of-breed and single-vendor approaches to acquiring
martech provided the best return for study participants.
Organizations that invest in the skills needed to exploit their
martech are eight times more likely to get good or very good
ROI as a result.
Of the study participants that are not using metrics to track and
measure their martech success, only 15 percent report good or
very good ROI.
Innovators are most satisfied with their martech stacks (77
percent satisfied), while Laggards are least satisfied (56
percent satisfied).
This report details the results and insights from the
analysis of the study data. For more detail on the
survey participants, please refer to the Appendix.
The Personas
The Personas martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 8

Study participants selected the persona they identified
with most closely concerning the adoption of marketing
technology from among these options:
Innovators: the first to adopt a technology.
Early Adopters: among the first to adopt a technology.
Figure 1 shows the distribution of these personas from this study, with
the actual percentages from the Diffusion of Innovations theory shown
for comparison.
Which persona an organization has for adopting technology is a function
of leadership and culture. In an organization that feels a need to take on
a different persona for technology adoption, the change will come about
through leadership creating a different culture. Cultural shifts toward
the Innovator end of the spectrum are almost always intentional, while
those toward the Laggard end are usually the unintended consequence
of other forces and factors. These personas will serve as segments for
reporting differences in how martech is funded, adopted, and used.

figure 1
The distribution of technology adoption
Early Majority: in the first half of users to adopt a personas comparison
technology, but not among the first.
Diffusion of Innovations Curve This Study`s Distribution

10.5% 16.2% 16%

34% 34%
Late Majority: In the second half of users to adopt a
technology, but not the last.
2.5% 13.5% 16.2%
27.1% 30%

Laggards: the last to adopt a technology.

Innovators Early Early Late Laggards
Adopters Majority Majority
MarTech Stacks
MARTECH STACKS martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 10

The study inventoried some major categories of martech solutions in use figure 2
by participants. Figure 2 shows the overall, current martech usage for all Overall Martech Usage
companies in the study.
The current, overall martech stack for all personas in the study.
The top three solutions in the martech stack for
CRM 60%
companies in this study are:
1 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Social Media Listening/Engagement 57%

2 Social Media Listening/Engagement

Marketing Analytics 54%
3 Marketing Analytics
Content Marketing 52%
Fewer than one in five of respondents are currently using Account-Based
Marketing or Predictive Analytics. Video Marketing 41%

Marketing Automation 40%

40 %
Sales Enablement 35%
Respondents are currently
using Marketing Automation.
Mobile Marketing 28%

CX/VoC 26%

60 %
Respondents are Personalization/Chat 26%
currently using CRM.

ABM 18%

Predictive Analytics 15%

MARTECH STACKS martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 11

Innovators have marketing analytics as the top solution in use in

this study, revealing the data-driven nature of how they market. It is
worth noting that the Early Majority persona reported higher usage for

57 %
marketing analytics, at 65 percent, and Early Adopters are nearly at the Early Adopters reported good or
same level of usage as Innovators. More than half of the companies that very good return on investment.
fall into these three personas are using data in some fashion to influence
marketing decisions and measure results.

For all personas except Innovators, content marketing is a top-three

martech solution. The Innovators seem to have put a focus on two
specific content types/channels: mobile and video. Marketing organi-
zations usually have some expectation about what they will get in the
way of a return from their martech investments. Figure 3 summarizes
the percentage rating the return on the overall martech investment as
Laggards reported good or
very good return on investment. 36 %
“Good” or “Very good” by persona.

figure 3
Return on Martech is Good or Very Good
Personas that are earlier in the martech adoption cycle report the best return.

Early Adopters 57%

Innovators 56%

Early Majority 55%

Laggards 36%

Late Majority 34%

MARTECH STACKS martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 12

It’s clear that being earlier in the martech adoption cycle provides better
returns on investment. Those who are Late Majority or Laggards expe-
rience a sharp falloff in reporting good ROI. In fact, almost one-fourth
(22 percent) of the Laggards report “Poor” or Very poor” returns on
martech investments. This ROI from Figure 3 will serve as a useful metric
to compare correlated attributes of martech usage later in this report.
Figure 4 reveals the holistic nature of the martech stack. Even though
composed of distinct solutions, once they are added to the martech
stack, a symbiotic relationship emerges, where the value of the whole
stack is greater than the sum of its individual parts. Even so, some
individual solutions have a bigger impact through their presence or
absence than others.

The presence or absence of the various solutions shown in Figure 2 has

an impact on the return study participants are getting from their martech
investment. Figure 4 shows the difference in the percentage of partici-
pants that report a “Good” or “Very Good” martech return based when Respondents report a good
the individual solutions are and are not in the martech stack. or very good ROI when

figure 4
Impact on ROI of Having Martech Solutions in the Stack
60 % Marketing Analytics
are in the stack.

The absence of even a single martech solution from the stack can significantly
affect the return on the overall martech investment.
Return on Martech is Good or Very Good

Not in the Stack In the Stack

28% 8% 8% 25% 28% 30% 19% 23%

36% 38% 34% 36%

55% 60% 60% 61% 63% 61% 51% 64% 50% 63% 55% 56%

Video Predictive Marketing Content Sales Perso- Social Media CX/VoC Mobile ABM CRM Marketing
Marketing Analytics Analytics Marketing Enablement nalization/Chat Listening/ Marketing Automation
Engagement
MARTECH STACKS martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 13

The absence of the content marketing, marketing analytics, and sales
enablement solutions create the largest overall martech ROI gap.
The presence in the stack of Customer Experience/VoC, ABM, Sales
Enablement, Content Marketing, Marketing Analytics and Predictive
Analytics solutions are associated with the highest return.
To complete this overview of martech stacks, the number of solutions in
use by persona is presented in Figure 5.
Innovators do lead in martech usage, with one-fourth using 10 or more
martech solutions, more than twice the usage level of all other personas
except the Early Adopters.

figure 5
Number of Martech Solutions in Use by Persona
Innovators have more martech in use than the other personas.

10 or More Martech Solutions in Use Less than 10 Martech Solutions in Use No Martech in Use

25% 17% 10% 9% 13%

75% 83% 90% 89% 84%

0% 0% 0% 2% 3%

Innovators Early Adopters Early Majority Late Majority Laggards

Budgeting for MarTech
BUDGETING FOR MARTECH martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 15

The way organizations budget for things can reveal priorities. It’s natural
to assume that Innovators, because they are the first to adopt tech-
nology, fund martech at the highest level. Figure 6 shows the year-to-

27 %
year martech budget change by persona. Laggards reported a reduction
in martech budget over the year.
Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, and Late Majority have very
similar year-to-year martech budget growth. Most noticeably, Innovators
are least likely to report a shrinking martech budget, while not surpris-
ingly, Laggards are most likely to report that.

10%
figure 6 Innovators reported a reduction
Marketing Technology Budget Changes Year-to-Year in martech budget over the year.
Only Laggards deviate significantly from the martech funding growth pattern.

Grew Remained Flat Shrank

50% 56% 53% 51% 32%

40% 29% 36% 34% 41%

10% 15% 11% 15% 27%

Innovators Early Adopters Early Majority Late Majority Laggards

BUDGETING FOR MARTECH martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 16

Some percentage of all personas showed martech budget growth, Increased executive support for marketing is a common thread running
and study participants were asked to identify the reasons why. Table 1 through all but one of these personas. The differences worth noting are
summarizes the top reason given by persona. at the opposite ends of the adoption spectrum. For Innovators, a top
reason is marketing is getting better at producing measurable results.
For Laggards, a top reason is increased costs of martech. These
table 1
reasons represent very different spending rationales. With Innovators,
Increased executive support is a reason common the business case for martech is easier to justify: they are producing
to almost all personas. measurable results and thus are able to prove their contribution to the
revenue pipeline. In their case, the budget increases are coming because
Persona Top Reason for Martech Budget Growth they want to spend more on martech. They hold the view that martech
is an investment.

Increased executive support for marketing and Not so with Laggards, who cite increased costs of marketing technology
Innovator
Marketing is better at delivering measurable results (Tie). as a top reason for increased martech spending. This reason is, in effect,
a declaration that they have to spend more. They don’t necessarily want
to spend more, but they feel they have no choice, holding the view that
Early Adopters Increased Sales. martech is an expense rather than a competitive lever.

Early Majority Increased executive support for marketing.

Late Majority Increased executive support for marketing.

Increased executive support for marketing and

Laggards
Increased costs of marketing technology (Tie).
BUDGETING FOR MARTECH martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 17

Study participants were asked to rate the adequacy of their martech figure 7
budgets to determine the percentage of each persona that felt like the Martech Budget is Adequate or Ample
martech budget was adequate, enough for everything needed, or ample,
Perception of the adequacy of martech budgets, by persona.
enough for everything needed and some things that are wanted. Figure 7
shows the results of this rating.
Innovators 72%
The difference that Figure 7 shows is dramatic, with almost three-fourths
of Innovators expressing that martech funding is adequate or ample, Early Adopters 59%
while only 15 percent of Laggards feel that way, a difference of 57
Early Majority 50%
percentage points from one end of this spectrum to the other.

This difference amplified further when looking at the data about martech Late Majority 45%
budget allocations. Figure 8 shows the average percentage of the total
marketing budget that goes toward acquiring and operating the organi- Laggards 15%
zation’s marketing technology.

The way an organization spends money reflects its priorities, and Inno-
vators, with almost twice the budget allocation, clearly prioritize martech figure 8
much higher than Laggards. Martech Budget Allocation
The percent of the total marketing budget allocated to acquiring/
operating martech.

Innovators 28%

Early Adopters 26%

Early Majority 20%

Late Majority 20%

Laggards 16%
[CURRENT SECTION] THE STATE OF ASSOCIATION MARKETING | [OVERALL SECTION] 18

Acquiring/Building the
MarTech Stack
ACQUIRING/BUILDING THE MARTECH STACK martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 19

The survey asked participants to identify which martech solutions are figure 9
either under evaluation or already budgeted. This data, summarized Overall Martech Budgeted & Evaluating - All Personas
in Figure 9 for all personas, is an indicator of investment priorities and
The current, martech investment plans for all personas in the study.
acquisition plans.
ABM 25%
The top three martech solutions in which companies
in this study plan to invest are: Marketing Automation 24%

1 Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

Predictive Analytics 23%
2 Marketing Automation
Mobile Marketing 22%
3 Predictive Analytics
CX/VoC 22%

Personalization/Chat 20%

25 % Sales Enablement 20%

Respondents plan to invest in ABM.
Video Marketing 18%

CRM 14%

Content Marketing 14%

20%
Respondents plan to
invest in Sales Enablement. Marketing Analytics 13%

Social Media Listening/Engagement 12%

ACQUIRING/BUILDING THE MARTECH STACK martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 20

Figure 10 displays martech investment plans segmented by persona. The Innovators and Early Adopters are planning the biggest investment
in nine of the 12 martech categories shown in Figure 10.
figure 10
Martech Investment Plans by Persona
The areas of planned martech investment by persona

Innovators Early Adopters Early Majority Late Majority Laggards

20% 7% 27% 27% 7% 7% 27% 20%

7% 14% 14%
33%

26% 26% 26% 31% 22%

19% 11% 15% 11% 7% 15%
35%

30% 22% 18% 27% 24% 18%

0% 4% 20% 20% 8% 8%

25% 16% 27% 29% 22% 20% 23% 18% 20% 22% 17%
13%

23% 17% 16% 26% 26% 23% 17%

13% 13% 13% 13% 13%

Marketing CRM ABM Mobile CX/VoC Social Media Perso- Sales Content Marketing Predictive Video
Automation Marketing Listening/ nalization/ Enablement Marketing Analytics Analytics Marketing
Engagement Chat
Acquiring/Building the Martech Stack martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 21

table 2 Understanding the motivations that drive martech acquisitions was one
Top three martech solutions by persona goal of this research, and the top drivers for each persona are summa-
Only Laggards deviate significantly from the martech funding growth pattern. rized in Table 3.

table 3
Persona Top Three Planned Martech Investments Top Motivation for Martech Acquisition
Top motivation driving martech acquisition.
1. ABM (33 percent)
Innovator 2. Personalization/chat, Sales enablement and
Predictive analytics (Tied at 27 percent) Persona Top Motivation for Martech Acquisition

1. ABM (35 percent) Innovator To gain a competitive advantage (69%)

2. Predictive analytics (31 percent)
Early Adopters
3. CRM, Mobile Marketing and Customer Experience
(Tied at 26 percent) Early Adopters To drive more revenue (57%)

1. Marketing automation (30 percent) Early Majority To drive more revenue (80%)
Early Majority 2. Customer experience/VoC (27 percent)
3. Predictive analytics (24 percent)
Late Majority To drive more revenue (65%)

1. Mobile marketing (29 percent)

Laggards To boost productivity (63%)
Late Majority 2. Marketing automation (25 percent)
3. Personalization/chat (23 percent)

The data in Table 3 was collected by presenting study participants with a

1. Sales enablement and Content marketing list of common motivations, and the results give insight into the different
(Tied at 26 percent)
Laggards cultures within Innovators and Laggards. For example, one choice on the
2. Marketing automation and Marketing analytics
(Tied at 23 percent) study survey, “To have greater control over our IT destiny,” ranked last
for every persona and clearly was not a key motivator.
Acquiring/Building the Martech Stack martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 22

There are distinct patterns associated with acquiring and building the
martech stack. One approach is to research and acquire best-of-breed
solutions (leading software in a specific martech category), regardless of
the cost. The result is typically a martech stack consisting of solutions from
multiple vendors. Another approach is to select the most affordable solu-
tions; that also often results in a stack with solutions from multiple vendors.
A third approach is to choose a single vendor that can provide the critical
solutions for the stack. Finally, combinations of any of these approaches
are also ways that companies build their martech stacks. Figure 11 shows
the prevalence of these approaches.
figure 11
Approach to Building the Martech Stack
There is a clear shift of approaches from Innovators to Laggards.
Single Vendor Best-of-Breed Most Affordable Other/Combination
Figure 11, perhaps more than any other data from this research, shows
the stark difference between how these personas acquire and build their
martech stacks. Innovators are the only persona for which a majority
deliberately acquire best-of-breed solutions. Early Adopters are more
likely to use this same approach, but almost one-third select the most
affordable solutions. Of the remaining personas, all of them choose the
most affordable solutions.
This data requires thoughtful interpretation. Acquiring affordable solu-
tions is not a poor business choice. The real difference between the top
two approaches shown in Figure 11 – best-of-breed and affordable – is
the primary decision driver. Innovators that choose best-of-breed solu-
tions are remaining consistent with the primary driver for martech acqui-
sition as summarized in Table 2: to gain a competitive advantage. The
best solutions, therefore, are sought out to gain the best possible advan-
tage, and cost is rarely a factor as long as the advantages exist.

0% 8% 13% 3%
20%

10%
67% 48% 37% 22%

25% 32% 55% 62% 74%

8% 0% 0% 3% 13%

Innovators Early Adopters Early Majority Late Majority Laggards

Acquiring/Building the Martech Stack martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 23

Early Adopters straddle the fence on these two approaches. The data figure 12
suggests that this persona looks for the best-of-breed martech solutions, ROI of Martech Stack-Building Approaches
but not at any cost. Affordability is a factor in their acquisitions, but ties The single-vendor and best-of-breed approaches deliver about the same ROI.
go to best-of-breed solutions. Return on Martech is Good or Very Good

For the remaining personas, affordability is the primary driver in martech

Single Vendor 60%
acquisitions. Sometimes the most affordable solutions also deliver the
best set of benefits, but not always.
Best-of-Breed 58%
These approaches to building the martech stack correlate to the return
on investment shown in Figure 3. Most Affordable 37%

Figure 12 displays the percentage of study participants that reported a Other/Combination 29%
“Good” or “Very good” return, segmented by the approaches shown in
Figure 11.

If maximizing the return on martech investments is a high priority, this

research shows the best path to achieving that: building the martech
stack using a single-vendor or best-of-breed approach. Members of the

58 %
Late Majority and the Laggards in this study favor the most affordable Respondents reported a good or very good
approach to building their martech stacks, and they are reporting the return in a best-of-breed stack.
lowest return as one result of that approach.

60
Respondents reported a good or very good
return in a single vendor stack. %
Acquiring/Building the Martech Stack martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 24

Who within an organization gets involved in identifying potential figure 13

martech solutions can signal important aspects of culture that go well
Who`s Involved in Identifying Potential Martech
beyond acquiring and using solutions in the stack. Figure 13 shows the
Solutions
differences between personas in the casts of players that are involved
Innovators have the lowest percentage of marketers involved in
in identifying solutions. identifying martech solutions.
It may seem counterintuitive that Innovators have the lowest involvement in Innovators Early Adopters Early Majority Late Majority Laggards
members of the marketing team identifying potential martech solutions. The
statistic from Figure 13 that speaks volumes is the involvement of the sales 16% 5% 0% 11%
team. For Innovators, compared to all other personas, sales team involve- 47% 21%
ment is relatively high, almost twice the level of the next-closest persona.
16% 16%
This level of involvement implies better marketing-sales team alignment, 3% 0% 0%
65%
a characteristic that is crucial to revenue goal achievement.

2% 7% 2% 4% 7%
78%

12% 11% 7%

47 %
3% 3%
Innovator’s marketing teams 64%
identify potential martech solutions.

6% 3% 9% 10%
50% 22%

Marketing Sales IT Finance C-Suite Other

78
Early Majority’s marketing teams
identify potential martech solutions. %
Acquiring/Building the Martech Stack martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 25

Figure 14 shows, by persona, who is involved in preparing the business figure 14

case for martech acquisitions.
Who`s Involved in Preparing the Business Case for
Innovators again show the lowest percentage of marketers involved in a Martech Solutions
key aspect of acquiring martech. Innovators also have the lowest percentage of marketers involved in
preparing the business case for martech solutions.
The reason has nothing to do with marketing’s lack of interest in the
Innovators Early Adopters Early Majority Late Majority Laggards
martech that is essential to its work. Instead, Figure 14 shows why: Inno-
vators have far more involvement from the finance team in preparing the
0% 11% 5% 10%
business case.
53% 21%
As with Figure 13, the data here paint a picture of an organization that is
remarkably silo-free, with the highest levels of inter-departmental coop- 13% 13%
0%
17%
3%
eration in a way that lets each department play to its strengths while 54%
working together.
4% 4% 9%
5% 2%
It’s far too common that friction exists between marketing and finance, 76%
but that is not the norm for Innovators.
16% 7% 7% 10%
Instead, Figure 14 paints a picture of cooperation at level seven to 10 3%
57%
times greater than for the other personas.

12% 6%
3% 3% 3%
73%

Marketing Sales IT Finance C-Suite Other

Skills, Metrics and Satisfaction
Skills, Metrics and Satisfaction martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 27

Having the right components in the martech stack is not the only factor
that drives success and satisfaction: skills and metrics are enablers of
taking full advantage of the solutions in the stack. Just over one-third of
study participants on the whole reported that they have most or all of the
skills they need to fully leverage their martech stacks. Figure 15 shows
the skills assessment by technology adoption persona.
While all of the personas register some skills gaps, the Laggards are far
behind the rest of the pack. Skills come from experience and training,
and training is often viewed as a luxury by many organizations, one that
is the first “expense” to cut when looking to lower costs.
figure 15
% With Most or All Skills Needed to Fully
Leverage Martech
The Laggards suffer from a significant lack of skills for exploiting their
martech stack.
Innovators 50%
Early Adopters 41%
Failure to equip the marketing team with the skills needed to fully
exploit the martech is a serious oversight because it creates a barrier
to productivity and hinders efforts to realize the highest possible return
on the martech investment. Figure 16 shows the relationship between
skills and ROI.
This connection between skills and getting a return on martech is quite
intuitive. It stands to reason that if firms that purchase technology, but
don’t acquire the skills to exploit it, are by default choosing to accept
suboptimal results and return. What is perhaps less intuitive is just how
big the gap is between having most or all of the needed skills, and having
few to none of them. As Figure 16 shows, the difference is not incre-
mental, but exponential. Organizations that invest in acquiring and
maintaining martech skills are eight times more likely to also experi-
ence good or very good ROI.
figure 16
Martech Skills Relationship to ROI
The connection between skills and martech ROI is very clear
Return on Martech is Good or Very Good

Early Majority 47% Have most or all of

81%
the needed skills

Late Majority 32% Have some of the 32%

needed skills

Laggards 13% Have few or none

10%
of the needed skills
 Skills, Metrics and Satisfaction martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 28

An organization’s approach to selecting and using metrics is another factor figure 17

that impacts martech usage and ROI outcomes. The study measured
Primary Martech Success Metric Type
the usage of three types of metrics that organizations frequently use to
Usage of martech success metrics
measure their martech usage success:

1 Productivity metrics measure things such as time saved or assets Innovators Early Adopters Early Majority Late Majority

created and are the least useful class of metrics when it comes to Laggards
understanding marketing’s contribution to revenue.
8% 0%
2 Volume metrics measure things like leads generated, pages 25% 25% 42%
viewed, or impressions. They are more useful than productivity
metrics in understanding marketing’s contribution but still don’t
8% 0%
directly indicate revenue impact. 27% 46% 19%

3 Financial metrics measure things like opportunities created,

revenue generated, or ROI. These are direct measures of market- 8% 8% 2%
ing’s contribution to revenue, and therefore the most useful. They
31% 51%
are also the most difficult to measure.
11% 12% 0%
32% 45%

Almost one-third of the Laggards are using no metrics, or only productivity

metrics, which means they have no credible indicators of the revenue 3% 3%
29% 36% 29%
impact they are making with their martech. Marketing analytics propo-
nents are quick to point out that a balanced portfolio of volume and
financial metrics is necessary for marketing to continuously improve
None Productivity Volume Financial Other
how it operates and prove its revenue contribution, with the emphasis Metrics Metrics Metrics
on financial metrics. Innovators are doing the best job here, having
the highest combined rate of using volume and financial metrics (74
d
percent), with financial metrics usage the higher of the two.
n
Skills, Metrics and Satisfaction martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 29

As with martech skills, a relationship exists between metrics usage and figure 18
martech ROI. Figure 18 depicts this relationship. Metrics Relationship to ROI
Of the study participants that are not using any metrics to track the When metrics aren’t used to measure martech usage success, the
success of their martech usage, only 15 percent report getting a good or chances of getting good martech ROI are very small.
very good martech ROI. This finding raises the question: how can these Return on Martech is Good or Very Good
organizations, when not using metrics, have the ability to know what their
martech ROI is? At best, those not using any metrics can only estimate the Volume
57%
Metrics
return they are getting.

Users of volume metrics report the highest level of ROI, a surprising outcome Financial
44%
Metrics
since the natural assumption is that financial metrics users should receive
the best return on their martech investment, because of their metrics-usage
Productivity
maturity. Consider this: only those using financial metrics have the ability 37%
Metrics
to accurately calculate their martech return. For this reason, the financial
metrics ROI data shown in Figure 18 is considered the most accurate.
None 15%

Study participants have reported

a good or very good return on

57% martech using volume metrics.

15 %
Study participants have reported a
good or very good return on martech
when no metrics are being used.
Skills, Metrics and Satisfaction martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 30

The skills and metrics discussed in this section of the report are drivers figure 19
of satisfaction. Figure 19 shows the satisfaction rating for all study partic- % Satisfied or Very Satisfied
ipants, where the satisfaction rating is the sum of “Satisfied” and “Very
The analytics solutions have the highest satisfaction ratings.
Satisfied” responses for each martech solution examined in this study.
Marketing Analytics 80%
Innovators on the whole are the most satisfied with their martech stacks,
having an average rating across all solutions in Figure 19 of 77 percent.
Laggards are the least satisfied, with an average satisfaction rating of 56 Predictive Analytics 77%
percent, more than 20 points lower than the Innovators.
Content Marketing 75%
Standing in the way of greater satisfaction with martech are a series
of challenges that study participants are experiencing, which the next
Marketing Automation 75%
section of this report will detail.

CRM 74%

Personalization/Chat 73%
Laggards are satisfied

56%
with their martech stacks.
Sales Enablement 67%

Video Marketing 65%

Social Media Listening/Engagement 65%

ABM 61%

77 %
Innovators are satisfied with
their martech stacks.
Mobile Marketing 61%

CX/VoC 54%
MarTech Challenges
MARTECH CHALLENGES martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 32

The organizations that contributed to this research ranked the chal- table 4
lenges they experience in acquiring or using martech. Table 4 shows the Martech Challenges
top three challenges faced by each persona. Top three martech challenges by persona.

The challenges that Early Adopters, Early Majority, and Late Majority expe-
rience are identical, with only slight changes to the order in which they Persona Top Three Martech Challenges
occur. All personas except Innovators cite justifying the cost of martech
as one of the top challenges (for Innovators, this challenge ranks 6th). 1. Understanding how to take full advantage of it.
Innovators, who have acquired the skills to use their martech, have the 2. Keeping up with the rapidly evolving technology
Innovator landscape.
largest budget for it, and are doing the best job delivering measurable
3. Lack of marketing resource to manage multiple
results, seem to have little trouble justifying their martech spend. marketing technologies.

1. Justifying the cost.

2. Lack of marketing resource to manage multiple
Early Adopters
marketing technologies.
Personas rank “justifying costs” 3. Integrating the various systems that we use.

60 % as their biggest challenge.

1. Justifying the cost.
2. Lack of marketing resource to manage multiple
Early Majority
marketing technologies.
3. Integrating the various systems that we use.

1. Justifying the cost.

2. Integrating the various systems that we use.
Late Majority
3. Lack of marketing resource to manage multiple
marketing technologies.

60
Personas cite “system integration”
in their top three challenges. %
1. Lack of marketing resource to manage multiple
marketing technologies.
Laggards
2. Justifying the cost.
3. Getting executive support for using it.
Analyst Bottom Line
ANALYST BOTTOM LINE martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 34

Analyst Bottom Line

The data this report presents may seem to point to the Innovator
persona as the most desirable one. Rather than state a conclu-
sion that marketers should, based on this research, adopt a certain
persona, the better advice is to look at the most desirable results and
then determine which persona is most associated with those results.
The result this conclusion will focus on is ROI and what this research
says about getting the best return on martech investments:
Personas that are earliest in the adoption curve (Innovators,
Early Adopters and Early Majority) are getting the best overall
martech ROI.
The presence of Customer Experience/VoC, ABM, Sales Enable-
ment, Content Marketing, Marketing Analytics and Predictive
Analytics solutions in the martech stack are associated with the
highest returns.
The persona that is achieving these results most consistently is
the Innovator. If these results express the preferred disposition of
a marketing organization, then this list of characteristics serves
as a plan to make martech deliver better results:
Adopt martech solutions earlier in their lifecycle.
Adopt specific solutions with a known relationship to ROI.
Don’t have affordability as the primary martech solution acqui-
sition criteria.
Make getting and maintaining skills to fully exploit martech a
priority.
Use the most meaningful metrics to track marketing and its
martech’s success.

Building a martech stack using the single-vendor or best-of-

breed approach is associated with the highest return.

Organizations that ensure they have most or all of the needed

skills to exploit their martech stack are most likely to report
getting good or very good ROI.

Study participants that are using volume and/or financial

measures as primary martech success metrics are getting the
best return on their martech investment.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Acknowledgements
Demand Metric is grateful to MRP for sponsoring this research, and for those who took the time to complete the study survey.
MRP is a global provider of marketing intelligence, software, and
services. For over 13 years, clients have relied on MRP to drive
pipeline and deliver the insights needed to more effectively
sell to their key target markets. MRP’s Delta Marketing Cloud
combines predictive intelligence with integrated marketing
tactics to deliver closed-loop marketing programs generating
industry leading ROI and conversion. MRP has 12 offices and
covers 100 countries around the globe it is a wholly owned
subsidiary of the FD Group, PLC (LSE: FDP).
For more information, please visit:
www.mrpfd.com
martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 35
Demand Metric is a marketing research and advisory firm serving
a membership community of over 120,000 marketing profes-
sionals and consultants in 75 countries.
Offering consulting playbooks, advisory services, and 500+
premium marketing tools and templates, Demand Metric
resources and expertise help the marketing community plan
more efficiently and effectively, answer the difficult questions
about their work with authority and conviction, and complete
marketing projects more quickly and with greater confidence —
thus boosting the respect of the marketing team and making it
easier to justify resources the team needs to succeed.
To learn more about Demand Metric, please visit
www.demandmetric.com
APPENDIX: SURVEY BACKGROUND martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 36

Appendix: Survey Background

This Marketing Technology Benchmark survey was administered online
during the period of July 18, 2017, through September 20, 2017. During this
period, 236 responses were collected, 218 of which were qualified and
complete enough for inclusion in the analysis.
This research report is based on self-reported data that we consider reli-
able, but we do not represent it as accurate or complete, and it should not
be relied on as such.
The representativeness of this study’s results depends on the similarity
of the sample to environments in which this survey data is used for
comparison or guidance.
Summarized below is the basic categorization data collected about
respondents to enable filtering and analysis of the data:

TYPE OF ORGANIZATION PRIMARY ROLE OF RESPONDENT

President,
CEO or owner Other marketing role Other sales role
25%
Mixed B-to-B/B-to-C
56% 8% 58% 3% 2% Finance

Primarily B-to-B
19%
Primarily B-to-C
VP or Director
10% of Sale 4% 5% 10%

CMO or VP of Marketing IT Other

REVENUE GROWTH ENVIRONMENT IN MOST

RECENT FISCAL YEAR ANNUAL SALES
$25 to $500 to
9% Less than $10 million $99 million $999 million
Significant decline

16% 19% 42% 13% 7%

Significant increase
Slight decline

22% 34%
Slight increase 14% 10% 14%
Flat
$10 to $100 to $1 billion or
$24 million $499 million more
 © Demand Metric Research Corporation.
All Rights Reserved.

www.demandmetric.com

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