How more tools and tactics hurt marketing performance

Marketers love shiny new tools, platforms and tactics, each promising greater efficiency, deeper insights or a competitive edge. But more doesn’t always mean better. In some cases, adding too much can backfire.

This is the efficiency paradox: the tipping point at which more tools and tactics stop driving results and instead create friction, wasted effort and diminishing returns. Every marketing leader needs to watch this challenge closely.

The expanding martech landscape

Martech stacks have exploded over the years. Mid-market companies, with 501 to 2,500 employees, use an average of 255 apps, ChiefMartec found. Many of these apps are marketing-related. While this reflects the growing sophistication of marketing, it also raises critical questions about efficiency and effectiveness.

Tim Hicks, VP of marketing at Integrate, sums it up nicely:

“The martech landscape has grown to over 14,000 solutions, ChiefMartec’s 2024 Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic, which means the true challenge many marketers are now facing isn’t about adding more tools, but instead choosing which are mission critical from their existing stack.

Every company is trying to consolidate its tech stack to eliminate redundancies and wasted spend, ensure platforms are fully utilized, and provide clear, defensible ROI.

Even the best tech or tactics can only drive meaningful results when actively leveraged by a dedicated resource or team. Without the proper resources and a clear strategy for integration, user adoption and continuous partnership with the vendor, adding more tactics and tools often leads to diminishing returns rather than enhanced performance.”

The hidden cost of more

Adding tools and tactics comes with hidden costs that aren’t always obvious upfront:

• Learning curves: New tools require onboarding, training and adoption.
• Integration challenges: Connecting data sources, ensuring proper tracking and syncing workflows takes time and expertise.
• Ongoing maintenance: Every tool requires monitoring and upkeep.

Without dedicated resources, the promise of efficiency becomes a mess of half-used tools and fragmented data. What starts as an attempt to simplify marketing often results in tech bloat — an overcomplicated stack that creates more problems than it solves.

Where marketing teams should focus

Instead of trying to do everything, marketing teams should focus on three key areas:

1. Technology: Fewer, better tools

Every tool added to your stack introduces an operational burden. Instead of looking for the next shiny object, ask:

• What’s actually driving results?
• What’s being underutilized?
• What’s duplicating efforts?

Many companies are now auditing and reducing their martech stack instead of expanding it. Sometimes, the best optimization is done by eliminating.

Dig deeper: The smart way to handle overlaps in your martech stack

2. Channel strategy: Doing more ≠ doing better

More channels don’t always mean better marketing. Some brands thrive with an aggressive omnichannel approach. Others do better by going deep on just a few.

A smarter approach is prioritization — understanding where your efforts actually move the needle rather than spreading resources too thin. Instead of trying to be everywhere, brands should:

• Focus on high-impact channels that deliver measurable results.
• Allocate resources to what’s working rather than experimenting without a plan.
• Reduce complexity by simplifying across channels.

3. Process optimization: Simplify, don’t add

Marketing processes accumulate over time: more data, reports, approvals, campaigns and steps. But how often do we step back and ask: Do we really need all this?

Cutting out unnecessary efforts — whether in campaigns, reporting, workflows or content production — can have a significant impact on efficiency.

Dig deeper: Simplifying your martech stack: From pipeline efficiency to brand affinity

The automation illusion

Automation sounds like the ultimate efficiency play, but it sometimes shifts the workload rather than eliminates it. When companies implement new automated processes, some efforts described as “automated” sometimes still include necessary human elements.

• Exception management: Handling edge cases that fall outside defined parameters.
• Quality control: Reviewing automated outputs to ensure accuracy and relevance.
• Integration maintenance: Connecting automation systems to other platforms and troubleshooting issues.

A recent LinkedIn video showcased a process to automate backlink building with a platform that connects experts with publishers. The process involved pulling from an archive of content to match and auto-generate responses for relevant media opportunities. In theory, it sounded like a massive time saver.

In practice? Not so much. The AI-generated responses were generic and often missed key details, so I still had to go in and refine them. When I made edits, I realized I could have written a better response from scratch in the same time. In this scenario, unless you’re dealing with high volume, automation wasn’t the magic fix it was made out to be.

Lesson learned: If automation doesn’t indeed remove effort, it’s just adding complexity.

Dig deeper: How to leverage the 80/20 rule for martech efficiency and ROI

When to say no to new tools or tactics

The temptation to try new tools or adopt emerging tactics is always there. But marketing leaders need to ask intelligent questions before saying yes:

• Is this solving a real problem or just a perceived one?
• Do we have the resources to implement this effectively?
• Will this integrate smoothly with our existing processes?
• What current tools or tactics will this replace?

If you can’t confidently answer these questions, you probably don’t need it.

A smarter approach to growth

Rather than chasing the next big thing, high-performing marketing teams take a selective approach to growth. That means:

• Regular audits: Assessing which tools, tactics and processes are truly driving value.
• Capacity planning: If you’re adding something new, what’s getting removed?
• Better measurement: Are you tracking the right KPIs or just the most convenient ones?

Most importantly, before adding anything new, ask yourself: “What can we stop doing to make room for this?”

Because the real key to efficiency isn’t about doing more — it’s about doing what matters most.

Dig deeper: Unlock marketing efficiency: The essential guide to martech stack optimization