The marketing technology industry is rapidly expanding, with over 14,100 tools and platforms now available – an increase of more than 3,000 in just one year. This growth means that marketers have more options than ever. According to Gartner, B2B marketers are now using an average of seven MarTech tools weekly, a significant jump from just three in 2018. While this surge in tools opens up exciting possibilities, it also brings serious challenges. Companies face the daunting task of mastering these tools to maximize their effectiveness while navigating the complex landscape of privacy regulations.
In 2023, the MarTech market was valued at over $85 billion and is expected to grow to more than $285 billion by 2030. This growth brings a wide range of marketing tools that can help brands promote themselves and reach new customers. However, many marketers are feeling the pressure of this abundance. A study by Clevertouch shows that 57% are overwhelmed by the number of martech platforms available on the market, and 54% plan to simplify their toolsets in the next year.
What’s more, as the number of tools in a marketing stack increases, so does the risk of privacy violations. A survey by Piwik PRO found that while 56% of European companies collect personal data through their marketing tools, less than a third (31.4%) regularly check if their solutions meet the standards of data protection regulations like GDPR.
Review, collect and stay compliant
In the Piwik PRO’s survey, 56.2% of respondents admit that their stack stores or processes personal data, and 16% don’t know how to answer this question. The most commonly used technologies in European companies’ include: email automation tools (40.8%), analytics (39.8%), social media channels (39.2%) and advertising technologies (36.9%). Less popular technologies are experience optimization tools (27.3%), CMS (19.1%) and CRM (16.1%).
To make sure that companies do not jeopardize their long-build trust, they have to comply with privacy regulations. To do so, they should regularly review their marketing stack’s compliance. Even before the introduction of GDPR, as many as 80% of enterprises had concerns that their marketing technology vendors might expose their company to GDPR legal risks.
- This is especially important as firms continually expand and shift between tools. It should be kept in mind that even if our organization is up to date with current regulations, it does not necessarily mean that the solution provider is. – added Piotr Korzeniowski, COO at Piwik PRO.
Survey showed that only one in three (31.4%) respondents admitted that their company regularly reviews marketing stack’s compliance. The largest percentage, 33.8%, say this type of review is done from time to time. Puzzlingly, 15.7% have never done such a review and only less than 3% intend to do so in the near future.
Another crucial element of staying compliant is data collection. The GDPR includes six legal bases for collecting and using data, but the survey shows that companies mainly rely on two: consent and legitimate interest. Given that the study asked about data collection for marketing purposes, “consent” (49.8%) should be the only correct answer here. Organizations that pointed out the “legitimate interest” (37.2%) may be misunderstanding its application and could be collecting data in ways that do not comply with the GDPR.
Understand your flows and keep your data close
Even if we are sure that the tools in our stack and the data collection process comply with privacy regulations, we must also take into consideration how our data is transferred between different parts of our stack and where it is stored.
Piwik PRO study shows that 58.3% of respondents admit that they understand all the data flows in their marketing stack and 56.7% claim to know all of them. Knowing and understanding data flows are critical for optimizing processes, ensuring data integrity, and enabling personalized marketing campaigns. It prevents errors and boosts campaign effectiveness by making tools interact more smoothly. Additionally, knowing these flows ensures compliance with data privacy regulations and protects sensitive customer information.
When talking about data storage, one of the main considerations for European companies should be whether it’s kept within or outside the European Economic Area (EEA). This is mainly due to a different approach to safeguarding data privacy in different regions of the world. But not every company is fully aware where the data from their marketing stack is stored in the first place. Almost one third (29.3%) of the companies admit that they don’t know where their data is kept. This differs a lot regarding the specific countries. In Germany over 85% are aware of this, but in Denmark only 55.7%.
- Keeping data within EEA is a great benefit in terms of compliance and jurisdiction but not every company is doing so. This is mainly because a lot of popular marketing and analytics tools are US made, and the data is kept in the country of origin. – added Piotr Korzeniowski
According to the study, 59% of the participants store the information from their marketing stack within the European Economic Area (EEA) and 19.1% do otherwise (in 2023 it was 24.3%). On the other hand, the number of respondents who don’t have knowledge about it increased from 17.7% in 2023 to 21.9% in 2024.
The need to continually assess and optimize these stacks remains critical, as companies must ensure they not only meet regulatory standards but also maintain the trust of their customers in an increasingly complex MarTech environment.