Report: More Marketing Teams are Taking Control of Technology Purchases

New research indicates that CMOs are now spending as much of their budget on technology on CTOs, but which services and products are they investing in?

“The Marketing Tech Buying Process: A Look at How Companies Purchase Technology Today” report from Target Marketing and IBM discovered that CMOs spend 3.2 percent of their budgets on technology; this is just shy of the 3.4 percent that CTOs dedicate to the same thing.

The majority of CMOs are investing in email (53 percent), followed by CRM (47 percent), social media marketing (39 percent) and marketing automation (38 percent).

During the marketing technology purchasing process, 78 percent of respondents said that their marketing team is typically involved. About 70 percent claimed that executives played a role, while 53 percent cited their IT team.

“Involving fewer departments in the purchase likely streamlines the process overall, but it does not absolve marketing of the responsibility for making sure the systems it purchases play well with others,” wrote the authors of the report. “If the technology does not work out, it could well mean a marketing leader’s job.”

The Growing Investment in Martech

Previous data shows that marketers have been investing in martech for months. The “State of Marketing Technology 2017” report from Squiz found that most companies (64 percent) have invested “heavily” in marketing technology over the past 12 months.

Approximately 33 percent of respondents claimed that they were adding to their existing martech stack, while 31 percent stated that they were starting from scratch. Throughout the past year, 27 percent said that they had added at least “a little” to their martech stack.