Half of senior UK marketers admit campaign execution is below average
Half of senior UK marketers rate their businesses’ overall campaign execution as below average – scoring less than 11 out of 20 – and only 6% consider their teams genuinely agile when it comes to defining, creating and running campaigns, according to new research from the Marketing Experience (MX) readiness survey developed by Intermedia Global (IMG). The findings point to deep-rooted operational problems that persist even after significant investments in platforms and data.
Steve Kemish, CEO of IMG, said: “Many teams have invested in platforms and data, but still struggle to execute campaigns efficiently and at speed. This suggests that operational friction remains one of the biggest hidden barriers to marketing performance today.”
Campaign execution struggles
One in eight senior marketers (13%) admit they have no content strategy at all. More than half (56%) either fail to gather content and campaign performance insights or produce reports but then do not act on the findings. The survey highlights a broader strategy-execution gap: while 80% of marketers report having clear strategic plans, only 14% feel confident in their ability to execute them effectively, leaving resources wasted and opportunities missed.
Kemish identified “operational friction” as a hidden barrier that persists even when teams have invested in the right tools and data. This aligns with wider research showing that marketing strategy execution frequently fails because of inadequate planning, unrealistic expectations and poor implementation processes. The lack of agility – just 6% of senior marketers describe their teams as genuinely agile – compounds the problem.
ROI and technology gap
When it comes to delivering campaign return on investment, just over a third of marketing departments (38%) measure ROI on some of their campaigns but not all, while a quarter (25%) say they have zero visibility on ROI at all. Despite 96% of marketers tracking martech tool performance, 40% find it difficult to measure ROI, and 18% see no clear return from their martech investments. Part of the challenge lies in the complexity of multi-channel strategies and evolving attribution models, especially with the rise of AI.
Kemish warned that an obsession with short-term ROI may be undermining long-term profit growth and market share. The pursuit of immediate sales activations, often on digital platforms, has come at the expense of brand building, leading to a decline in the effectiveness of top-performing UK campaigns. A basic marketing ROI formula – (Revenue from Marketing – Marketing Spend) / Marketing Spend x 100% – requires adjusted versions to account for organic growth, with a 5:1 revenue-to-spend ratio commonly considered a strong benchmark.
The survey revealed a huge gap between best and worst performers in technology maturity, which recorded the widest spread in scores across any area. Nearly half of marketers (44%) say their key martech tools (CRM, automation, analytics, DAM) work well together and would call the setup “pretty good,” while a quarter (25%) say those tools are ineffective and not fit for the future. Underutilisation is rife: almost all marketers (99%) have capabilities within their martech stack they are not using, and the majority (62%) use only 50–75% of available features. This is attributed to complexity, integration challenges, poor data quality, budget constraints and inadequate leadership support.
A skills gap also persists: 17% of marketers acknowledge their teams lack the necessary skills to fully leverage martech tools. The “10/90 rule” suggests 90% of investment should go into people and 10% into tools. Meanwhile, UK marketers are adopting AI tools at a fast rate – 84% use AI daily, compared with a global average of 66% – but they maintain creative control. However, AI integration within martech remains limited: only 13% say AI currently helps manage their duties, though many plan to adopt more capabilities in 2025 and 2026. Martech investments typically account for about 25% of total marketing budgets, yet marketers report using only 42% of available capabilities.
The human element is another area of concern. Half of marketing teams offer only minimal onboarding and training for marketing technology when people first join, or leave new users to figure it out themselves. Even more tellingly, 56% say their teams understand the main features of the martech stack but underuse the advanced ones.
Operational maturity: the missing link
The root cause of these problems, according to IMG’s analysis, is a deficiency in what the company calls “operational maturity” – how effectively organisations connect their data, systems, processes, people and execution to create a stronger Marketing Experience (MX). This concept goes beyond individual campaign performance or technology investment. It covers the entire operational backbone: data and insight maturity, technology integration, campaign execution, operational efficiency and process alignment.
Kemish said: “Overall, the research reinforces that modern marketing success is no longer just about creativity or investment in technology. It’s about operational maturity — how effectively organisations connect their data, systems, processes, people and execution to create a stronger Marketing Experience.”
IMG advocates for a holistic “Marketing Experience” (MX) philosophy, which holds that successful marketing depends on effective tools, clean data, seamless workflows and a well-supported team – not just polished campaigns. The company, recognised in the top 10 UK agencies in the B2B Marketing Benchmarking Report 2026 and ranked 109th in the Financial Times FT1000 for Europe’s Fastest Growing B2B Companies, aims to transform how marketing operates to enable client growth.
Broader UK marketing challenges underscore the maturity gap. Fifty-five percent of UK marketers feel overwhelmed by the pace of industry change, with key difficulties including inadequate budgets, lack of time and keeping up with new trends. Among SMEs, 67% lack a clear marketing action plan and over half have no documented business plan, leading to ad-hoc campaigns and wasted spend. Poor data quality directly contributes to wasted marketing expenditure, and many businesses struggle with insufficient data analysis and performance tracking, resulting in misguided decisions and resource misallocation.
While marketing operations teams are increasingly being introduced, many still lack clarity in processes and data-driven decision-making. Integrating media and creative functions remains a significant hurdle, and few companies have reached what is considered a “Sophisticated” level of marketing operations maturity. The future points toward greater use of AI for personalisation, predictive analytics and automation, with analytics shifting from measurement to prediction. Omnichannel integration, stronger privacy and governance enforcement, and automation of campaign intake and production are all expected to accelerate. Skills demands are moving towards data and compliance, with a growing need to understand data and system architecture. But for now, the core challenge remains the same: operational friction, the hidden barrier that prevents even well-funded marketing departments from executing campaigns effectively and at speed.
