CMO Council study: martech performance depends on how you use it, not how much you buy
TLDR
A CMO Council and MartechTribe analysis of nearly 1,000 martech stacks across seven industries found that revenue-leading companies don't necessarily have more tools or expertise—success depends on how effectively each tool is deployed.
The CMO Council and MartechTribe released "The Apex Martech Matrix 2026," analyzing 988 martech stacks across seven industries to understand what drives marketing performance. The research found that top performers—defined as the highest 30% in revenue per employee within each industry—don't consistently have either more sophisticated technology or greater expertise using it. Instead, the relationship between tools and outcomes varies by category: marketing automation rewards broader functionality, email rewards stronger operational practices, CRM rewards both, and CDPs showed no performance advantage despite higher investment. MarTech reports that many high-performing companies found quick wins by maximizing underused capabilities in existing platforms rather than buying new solutions.