How to improve your analytical maturity in marketing

How to improve your analytical maturity in marketing

A global study by McKinsey & Company shows a shift in the role of a marketing leader, whose responsibilities are no longer limited to creativity and brand strategy, but range from e-commerce management to the implementation of artificial intelligence for personalization and automation.

And while marketing leaders recognize the importance of developing new capabilities for growth, there are significant gaps in the execution and adoption of new technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). In fact, this increase in their responsibilities has not been accompanied by an improvement in their operational capabilities. Only 27% of marketing leaders believe their operating models are mature enough to achieve their growth objectives.

Capability assessment: identifying maturity gaps

A simple way to diagnose a business's digital maturity is to identify the gap between the importance of developing a capability and the maturity actually achieved. Marketing is full of tools, insights, and technology, but gaps identify that its development is uneven.

For example, according to the report, 63% of marketing leaders believe that artificial intelligence is key to the future of marketing, but only 9% have developed an effective strategy to implement it. This data suggests that our digital industry has a gap between recognizing the importance of developing new operational capabilities and the maturity to effectively implement them.

These gaps can vary in key areas such as data management, insight generation, and agile execution. McKinsey identifies four fundamental pillars for assessing marketing maturity in companies:

Investing in what really matters: a data strategy

It's not a matter of doing everything at once. The key is to first master the basics and then scale strategically. The lack of accurate analysis is what subsequently limits growth and the results achieved. In fact, many teams still don't make the most of the data they generate in their marketing executions: 64% of marketers admit that their decisions are not primarily guided by data.

This is explained by three reasons. First, the lack of access to tools that generate relevant insights. Second, the lack of a clear and competitive data strategy that allows for relevant insights. Finally, the team's capabilities impede correct data interpretation.

To mitigate these gaps, at Bunker we recommend adopting automation and artificial intelligence structurally. Likewise, prioritizing a review of the data strategy to accurately measure performance.

Adopt AI structurally

Although 63% of respondents see enormous potential for AI, only 9% of companies have built real-world capabilities to leverage it. According to the aforementioned study, the main uses marketing leaders are making of AI are linked to creative efficiency, personalization at scale, and media optimization.

Audit media investment

In recent years, advertising technology (adtech) solutions such as Smartly, Skai, and ROI Hunter have incorporated AI elements that have allowed for more sophisticated media optimization. These ways of optimization come from the management of the advertising budget itself, not from a strategy review.

To this end, at Bunker, we developed the Media Audit, a customized analysis to assess the health of your digital media buying across your main channels. The audit is based on recognized best-practice frameworks such as Brilliant Basics and Performance Five. The benefits of conducting this type of audit include:

• Optimizing media buying in accordance with industry best practices
• Analyzing campaign performance to detect inefficiencies and opportunities
• Recalibrating marketing budget allocation
• Improving the performance and results of media agencies

Audit creativity efficiency

From creative production solutions like Canva, Pencil, and Jasper, the creation of ads and posts has found endless possibilities thanks to AI.

To measure the effectiveness of these new tools, at Bunker we created the Creative Audit, a novel technology that allows us to detect elements and objects in creatives to identify patterns and correlations between those elements and campaign performance. Whether it's image, video, or both formats, the benefits of conducting an audit are:

• Identify winning patterns and key elements to reveal what works best
• Validate measurement hypotheses based on creative data
• Design optimized A/B tests based on ad performance
• Mature creative strategies with insights that elevate the quality of your decisions

We're here to help. Conduct your media audit or creative audit with us and be amazed by all the improvement opportunities we'll uncover for your business. This way, you'll take your analytical maturity to the next level.