Only three things in life are certain: death, taxes, and that marketing professionals will change their technology tools, the so-called martech. When the survey Martech Replacement 2024 landed on my desk, this change became extremely clear. From marketing automation tools to CRM, ESP (and beyond), marketers’ insatiable thirst for change remains unshaken.
But what’s interesting are the factors driving these changes. Low adoption, contract renewals, consolidation of new tools, new leadership, and many other reasons are catalysts fueling this constant state of technology tool flux.
In 2024, the main factor driving martech change was, unsurprisingly, cost—the most visible part of any martech investment and the one often under a microscope by CFOs. No wonder the latest Gartner CMO Spend report from Gartner shows martech spending at its lowest level in 10 years.
But it was the second factor driving martech replacement—open integration/API capabilities—that caught my attention.
Consolidation and fragmentation, simultaneously
Thanks to the explosion of martech apps over the last decade, much has been made about an inexorable shift toward technology tool consolidation. The premise is that the fewer apps in your tech stack, the cheaper and better it is to manage.
While tool proliferation is real, and some consolidation is certainly happening, the data tells us companies are using more software than ever, deploying specialized tools and apps to meet specific, business-critical needs. Look at most modern companies’ tech stacks and you’ll see core platforms supporting a Jenga tower of interconnected tools—not a single, universal platform.
The State of Martech 2024 report found a similar pattern. Despite having foundational platforms (like CRM, ESPs, CDPs, or data warehouses), about 82% of surveyed organizations said they also used alternative products and apps.
It’s precisely in this context that integration/openness becomes so crucial. To put it bluntly, if a vendor doesn’t integrate your data well with other tools, marketers will find a different tool that does.
A wolf in sheep’s clothing
Large martech suites, of course, have recognized this growing demand for interoperability and built seemingly robust app ecosystems that allow you to use a variety of different tools alongside their core platform.
But buyer beware: these integrations aren’t free.
These large software suites built their dominance by acquiring and stitching together smaller, independent tech companies. As a result, these enterprise software suites span multiple apps, each operating on different data models lacking internal compatibility—let alone integration capabilities with third-party systems.
This means while it’s technically possible to integrate third-party point solutions with them, they’re so complex and unwieldy—often with little documentation—that most end up paying a premium for consulting services to build integrations on their behalf.
Looking ahead to 2025
Given how highly marketers ranked integration capabilities in 2024, this veneer of interoperability likely won’t be enough.
With the rise of APIs and growing demand for composable tech tools, the bar for martech vendors has never been higher. They need to ensure compatibility between different tools and systems of record, ensure data flows accurately between tools in real time, provide user-friendly interfaces for teams to leverage their API, and deliver best-in-class documentation and tools to support them in building their tech stack.
If this sounds like a tall order, it shows how marketing, data, analytics, and digital teams are maturing within organizations. With that maturity comes greater tech skills and expertise, and a desire to move beyond out-of-the-box functionality.
It’s vital to embrace platforms designed to work with other systems rather than lock you in. We believe brands should have the flexibility to choose the best channel solutions for themselves, and marketing, data, and engineering teams shouldn’t have to spend months building manual point-to-point integrations to get data out of these platforms.
For 2025 and beyond, I foresee a far more integrated future than before.
