CMOs are stuck in budget purgatory: marketing outlays have flat-lined at 7.7 % of revenue — the lowest share since the pandemic bounce-back according to Quad.
Worse, according to Marketing Brew 31% of that shrinking pie now goes to paid media, up double-digits year on year, while spend on tech, people and agencies is getting sliced.
So why are pipelines still gasping for air? Meet your Franken-Stack: a sprawl of overlapping apps, each billing monthly, none talking cleanly to the others. Martechify revealed that stack bloat is marketers’ No. 1 rationalization priority for 2025.
Owning more martech in 2025 is like owning more fax machines in 1995 — an expensive way to look busy.
The Three-Step Break-Up Plan
- Audit — tie every dollar of tech and media to attributable pipeline; kill 10 % overlap fast.
- Orchestrate — converge brand + demand under one data model so awareness and acquisition feed each other.
- Outsource Outcomes — shift at least 20 % of martech OPEX into managed services that guarantee pipeline instead of licenses.
Pipeline360’s Demand-as-a-Service is built for precisely this moment — curated data, integrated display + syndication, success priced on pipeline, not platform seats. Ready to get out of managing your tech stack and back into marketing? Let’s talk.
