As B2B companies pour money into the systems and technologies needed to transform their marketing operations into truly global digital performance engines, we will continue to see a steady rise in marketing spend as chief marketing officers leverage their new capabilities and ability to drive (and measure) return on investment on an unprecedented scale. Because of the marketplace’s overall digital transformation, B2B CMOs are now in a better position to argue for more ad spend.

Last week, eMarketer announced its first B2B digital advertising forecast, predicting the space will total $4.6 billion in 2018, up 13 percent from this year’s projected total of $4.07 billion. What’s more, when comparing next year’s forecast versus 2013, B2B digital ad budgets will have grown by 111 percent in just five years.

The growth figures for B2B media spend actually understate the share of corporate budgets going into B2B marketing activities if you consider the material technology investments that companies are making to drive performance and efficiency from their ad spends. This investment in digital transformation of the end-to-end B2B marketing stack is allowing deeper insights, better targeting and overall efficiency in driving engagement, leads and actions.

Unfortunately for digital marketers, collateral damage often doesn’t reveal itself until it’s too late – you’ve signed on the dotted line and you have a year-plus contract to fulfil. There are three commonly over-looked, but also hard to vet, complications when you add marketing tech to your website:

• Site performance
• Product customisation
• Real-time functionality

The good news is, you can you avoid these complications while still in the buying process. Here’

1. Real-time decision making finally gets real
Many organisations looked into or acquired technology to facilitate real-time when it first emerged as a leading trend, but it is only now that many are actually practically applying it. 

2. Taking steps towards cognitive computing
The next few years will see organisations start to get to grips with what cognitive computing can offer. While there is much fascination with the potential for cognitive, there is still an element of nervousness from many organisations, especially when it comes to A.I. This is not unfounded, as A.I. has not yet reached the point where it can run without careful human monitoring. 

3. The growing need for data management and governance

4. Getting your digital estate in order
Organisations are still failing to fully understand their digital estates and the systems they already have. Many are fairly digitally mature, with estates that have grown at a rapid pace. Due to the particularly high turn-over in senior marketing roles, coupled with increasing marketing technology spend, businesses are likely to have multiple systems in place, which are not being utilised or integrated properly.

One of the simplest ways to do this is by using a martech blueprint. This technique involves creating a visual diagram that outlines current technology, systems, processes and data flows. This allows marketers to gain a single view of their technology investments to identify opportunities for consolidation, chokepoints, and even where new tech can fill a big gap as they phase out others.

Here are a few things you can do to overcome and prevent this “too much martech” scenario:

• Align technology with business priorities.
• Do an inventory check on existing technology. 
• Ensure all tools and systems connect. 
• Make a business case to rip out the tech “stuff” that is “nice to have.”