Two thirds of marketers to prioritise full-funnel media planning in 2023

85% of global marketing decision makers are adjusting marketing strategies to prepare for a recession, according to a new report seen exclusively by PMW today. 

Amidst mounting pressure to improve ROI, marketers are focusing on reducing unnecessary spend (71%), consolidating marketing efforts (68%), and bringing tech/services back in-house (67%) as their top priorities for the year. 

“Brands recognise they need to tighten their belts in the face of an economic downturn,” said Mike Fantis, Managing Partner at DAC Group London. “Nearly two-thirds (62%) are prioritising full-funnel media planning over the next 12 months. Maintaining brand awareness is a proven strategy to support long-term brand health and share of voice beyond a recession. The upper funnel activity and media plan is likely to look very different in 2023 and beyond. 

“We advise that marketers need to apply a performance mindset across the entire marketing funnel and hold every penny accountable.”

DAC group’s study of 260 global marketing decision makers has found that the respondents faced persistent challenges in delivering a full-funnel media experience. 

“The issue facing nearly one in six of the marketers we surveyed is they struggle to identify what tools and technologies they need to make full funnel marketing work – and notably to ask the right questions of their data,” Fantis cautions. “Instead of investing in unified technology suites that combine the power of media mix modelling with multi-touch attribution to address challenges over the longer term, many have bought tech piecemeal to address immediate problems.”

The technologies that businesses have embraced the most are SEO platforms, of which 85% have implemented or are planning to in the next 12 months, customer analytics and insights tools (81%) and cross channel identity resolution platforms (77%). 

Nasser Sahlool, DAC’s Senior Vice President of Client Strategy concludes: “It’s clear that marketers are struggling to make sense of the complexity of the full-funnel tech stack. While many businesses have implemented easily measurable tactics at the bottom of the funnel to achieve better outcomes, they need to apply this performance mindset to the entire funnel.

“Delivering financial value while measuring the halo effects of brand media on branded search activity is the key to developing effective, resilient media plans and measurement strategies in what will be an extremely challenging market.”