Marketing Management Challenges for 2024

We talk with a lot of CMOs and heads of marketing communications teams. Along with CEOs and CFOs. A key theme we noted towards the end of 2023 that has grown more into 2024 is marketing management facing a sort of crisis point.

There are significant headwinds for marketers into 2024, not the least of which is shrinking budgets and having to do more with less people and less ad spend. All while proving their delivering on profitability. Many feel it’s getting harder to align metrics with what finance the rest of the C-Suite wants.

Which is interesting since marketers now have more data than ever before. Perhaps this is a case of too much data and not following the invaluable rule of The Metrics That Matter The Most (TMTMTM).

Top 8 marketing management challenges for 2024.

1 Mitigating Artificial Intelligence Risks: Marketing leaders are struggling with how to effectively use Generative AI the most, with legal concerns from copyright to chatbots not being effective. Most see it as too early and are waiting to see how things play out this year before committing on any major initiatives beyond productivity uses internally.

2 Declining Social Media ROI: We’ve been hearing that marketing departments aren’t seeing the returns on social media ads, although some are finding new creative uses and getting benefits, but beyond engagement, struggling to show how it’s contributing to profitability in significant ways. Many are reevaluating their social media strategies. They’re looking for consultants to help them innovate on new approaches. They do not see AI as being helpful.

3 Demand and Lead Generation Tactics Failing: Lead generation tactics aren’t delivering like they used to is the common concern for most. To get even a 2% return, they’re spending more and having to expand channels, but they’re not proving as effective.

4 MarTech Stack Challenges: Overly complex, breaking APIs, data not flowing through and often having more MarTech tools than they need. In tough economic times, marketing management is looking to streamline their MarTech stacks and get more focused.

5 Effective Budget Management: Budgets are shrinking and management is having to show ROI on ad spend is still effective. Finance departments are wanting clearer, more meaningful metrics. Belt tightening is the rule of the day. A focus on marketing operations is where most are finding the best time spent.

6 Content Creation Devaluation: With so much AI generated content, marketing leaders are finding their content isn’t getting ranked on Google and other search engines. Many feel their content is being devalued. For most, they’re response is hiring high quality copywriters and taking seps to ensure their content isn’t seen as mass generated by an AI.

7 Managing New privacy & Data Rules: As countries, States and provinces bring in new rules and regulations and we approach a cookie-less world, marketers are trying to figure out how to navigate these changes. The impacts are across their MarTech stack and into how they manage their data, consent and tracking.

8 Too Much Data & Analytics Confusion: We’re hearing from marketing leaders that they’re struggling with data overload. Simplifying and reviewing their metrics and how they’re using analytics is the drive for 2024. While many MarTech vendors emphasize the analytics that come with their service, marketing management no longer sees this as feature, but rather just adding to the data overload.

There are others we’re seeing, such as having to pay more to get agency attention and dealing with agencies demanding more for less work. Then there’s bringing more marketing operations in-house, yet struggling to make teams effective.

Budget constraints, data overload, the risks of generative AI tools and changes in how consumers are using social media are presenting marketing leaders with some big headwinds into 2024.