Study: 60% of CMOs to cut marketing analytics team by 2023

The majority of CMOs (60%) will reduce the size of their marketing analytics team in half by 2023 due to failed promised improvements. This comes as Gartner found that marketing analytics is only responsible for influencing 53% of marketing decisions.

Companies that said marketing analytics influence less than 50% of decisions are more likely to agree that they are unable to prove the value of marketing. On the other hand, if the analytics influenced more than 50% of decision-making, marketers are likely to see diminishing returns. Gartner surveyed 377 users of marketing analytics to explore the role of marketing analytics in decision-making.

Meanwhile, users of marketing analytics still face data management challenges. In fact, inconsistent data across sources and difficulty in accessing the data were the top reasons analytics are not used in decision making, Gartner found. Barriers to the use of marketing analytics in decision-making are not always caused by data integration challenges unique to marketing — rather, much of this boils down to people and/or process problems.

For example, key cognitive biases are the main cause of marketing analytics’ influence plateau. One-third of respondents reported that decision-makers cherry-pick data to try to tell a story that aligns with their preconceived decision or opinion. In addition, roughly a quarter of respondents said that decision-makers do not review the information provided by the marketing analytics team (26%), reject their recommendations (24%), or rely on gut instincts to ultimately make their choice (24%).

What should marketers do?

1. Track decisions made based on analytics

Doing so would offer marketers a current state of view and areas to improve. According to Gartner, CMOs should identify examples of marketing analytics work that provided actionable recommendations to a marketing campaign or programme. They should also encourage their team to look for patterns in decision-making habits and to document the types of decisions they influence.

2. Tackling cherry-picking

Set KPIs and metrics before launching a new campaign or marketing strategy, not after the data has already started to come in.

3. Encouraging senior leaders to set an example

CMOs are advised to avoid the trap of the highest paid person's opinion and allow data to inform or change decisions.

4. Have analytics upskilling programmes

These programmes should account for differing workflows and resource constraints across the marketing organisation. Build personas that detail how different employees need to use data in their roles and prioritise training sessions that best enable participants to learn the skills they need to perform their job.

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