Marketers are drowning in data, but hungry for insight | MarTech

Marketers have more data than ever and a growing suite of tools to work with – yet many are still flying blind. According to “The Marketing Intelligence Report 2026”(registration required) From marketing intelligence platform Funnel and Ravn Research, 72% of internal marketers and 55% of agency marketers say they are overwhelmed by the data they collect and find it difficult to convert it into actionable insight. In fact, 86% of internal teams and 79% of staffing teams say they fail to identify what really drives performance.

That disconnect is clearly reflected in the dashboards that many teams rely on. They may look impressive, but they often don’t answer the question marketers care about most: What do we do next? Instead of surfacing actionable insights, too many dashboards provide vanity metrics (clicks, impressions, followers) that aren’t tied to actual business results.

Part of the problem is the sheer complexity of modern marketing. Campaigns span dozens of channels and devices, and visibility often lags behind. Sixty-eight percent of internal marketers report a lack of up-to-date visibility into performance across all channels. And when it comes time to report the results, 41% say they don’t analyze what caused the results or suggest next steps. This is especially concerning given that agency teams, who face more external responsibility, report lower rates of the same issue.