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17 | 03 | 2025

How to choose your next martech solution wisely

Choosing a martech tool is a strategic decision for any team, as it impacts productivity, process automation, and business scalability. However, the selection process is not straightforward. In this article, we explore key considerations before acquiring a marketing technology solution, current purchasing trends, and best practices to ensure an effective choice. Considerations for choosing a martech 1. Define needs and objectives Before making a decision, companies should evaluate multiple factors to ensure the solution fits their needs and objectives. The first step in choosing a marketing platform is to be clear about the problems they want to solve. According to Gartner, 54% of marketing teams seek to improve operational efficiency and 44% consider reducing costs. Therefore, it's important to understand how this purchase aligns with a long-term strategy. 2. Understand the category that defines the platform If all marketing platforms say the same thing, it's necessary to consider the category. Given the high degree of specialization among platforms, being an agency, adtech, or martech doesn't mean the same thing. For example, although we can all provide a solution for "media optimization," talking about media auditing isn't the same as talking about media management: while the former refers to a Data Analysis category, the latter refers to an agency or adtech category. 3. Evaluate the reputation of the technology Customer reviews and ratings are a decisive factor when purchasing software. Evaluating awards, recognition, and badges is essential to understand whether a technology is keeping pace with the industry it operates in. According to Gartner, four in ten buyers rely on user reviews before making a decision. In this regard, Bunker DB is positioned as the only Latin American martech recognized by Software Advice in the data analysis category. 4. Prioritize ease of implementation A marketing platform may seem ideal in terms of functionality. However, its ease of implementation will dictate its adoption. What good is having the best solution on the market if it's so complex that we barely get any use out of it? Would you prefer to use 10% of a complex solution or 100% of a simpler one? At this point, it's important to evaluate the estimated implementation time and the estimated learning curve. 5. Prioritize integration capacity Likewise, becoming independent of an IT team requires simple and high-quality integration with other platforms. For example, if the data structure is stored in AWS, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure, having that export is essential. If my most used platforms in marketing are Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and TikTok Ads, those integrations will also be required. At this point, it's important to evaluate integration with native connectors. 6. Look for onboarding and technical support Understanding the quality of technical support is also essential. Will it be self-managed, or will there be professionals available to assist me? Will it be in my local language, or are there language limitations I should consider? How many professionals and teams does the platform provide for successful onboarding? A faster onboarding process will allow for a more immediate time-to-value for that solution. 7. Cost as a decisive factor The price of a platform isn't the only cost to consider. When calculating the total cost, you should consider subscription or license costs, one-time implementation and configuration costs, and the human costs of training, technical support, and consulting. For example, does the platform charge per user per month? Does the platform offer discounts for multiple brands or for purchasing a solution package? Why is there hesitation when choosing a martech? Currently, it is estimated that more than 14,000 companies make up the martech ecosystem. Unlike a decade ago, the problem today is not a lack of options, but an overabundance of offerings. With so many alternatives, choosing the right martech has become a challenge for brand managers and growth marketing teams. Among the main difficulties in effectively filtering a handful of relevant options, we find the following: Lack of relevant content. Increasingly, all companies say the same thing or something similar, making it difficult to conduct an in-depth evaluation. All companies may promise to "maximize ROI," "optimize time," or "automate processes," but there are significant differences in how each does it. Without reliable and detailed content, it is difficult to know who to trust. More stakeholders involved. The technology selection process involves more teams within a company. The teams evaluating marketing technology include IT, Marketing, Operations, and Sales, each with their own timeframes and demands. This adds complexity and lengthens decision-making times. Perceived risk and shorter contracts. The cost of a martech leads companies to prefer shorter contracts to reduce risk in case the project doesn't perform as expected. It's very common today to find annual contracts with termination clauses of six months or less. Trends in martech purchasing As if that weren't enough, the martech ecosystem is changing, and certain trends are consolidating when evaluating technology selection. Among them, we identify: Less dependence on IT teams. Given the multiplicity of stakeholders in this decision-making process, there is an explicit focus on mitigating IT department decision-making times, prioritizing business teams to have greater influence in decision-making. In fact, today, 60% of marketing technology buyers are marketing, sales, and operations leaders. This reinforces a trend toward more accessible solutions and user-friendly interfaces. A gap in marketing performance maturity. According to a study by McKinsey, 41% of marketing leaders surveyed consider their marketing performance measurement method to be mature, and only 30% acknowledge that they dynamically adjust their investment. Purchases based on real-life demonstrations or tests. Buyers are no longer satisfied with sales presentations. 40% of buyers seek personalized demonstrations before purchasing. Increasing prioritization of AI. Artificial intelligence tools are helping companies analyze performance data and compare solutions more objectively. 35% of buyers use AI to compare prices. slice1 Final recommendations for choosing the best solution The process of purchasing a martech platform has evolved, and companies must adapt to new strategies to make more informed decisions. Define goals and needs from the start. Prioritize highly rated solutions on comparison platforms. Consider solutions with a good reputation among their customers. Evaluate compatibility and integration with your current tools. Take advantage of trends like AI, live demos, and personalized recommendations. Evaluate ease of implementation. Evaluate the quality of onboarding and the customer support team. Consider the total cost, not just the initial price. Making the right decision can accelerate your company's growth and improve operational efficiency. Make sure you choose wisely!

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03 | 02 | 2025

Media Audit: A Step-by-Step Guide to Optimizing Your Paid Media Strategy in 2025

With so many advertising platforms, so many established formats, and so many types of segmentation, objectives, and bidding systems, it's easy to lose sight of which variables and elements of a campaign are truly driving business growth. Therefore, a paid media audit is key to optimizing advertising investment, identifying opportunities for improvement, and ensuring that every dollar invested is aligned with your business's strategic objectives. At Bunker DB, we believe in the power of data to make smart, performance-based decisions. Below, we guide you through a 7-step process for conducting an effective audit of Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other paid media. What is a Media Audit? A paid media audit is a detailed analysis of paid media investment, evaluating the efficiency of advertising campaigns, the quality of traffic generated, and the return on investment (ROAS). This process allows you to: Identify which campaigns are generating real impact. Optimize budget segmentation and distribution. Detect investment leaks in unprofitable media. Improve creative strategy and ad relevance. Step-by-Step Guide to Performing a Paid Media Audit 1. Identify all active Paid Media sources The first step is to map all active campaigns on the various paid media platforms. Prioritizing the largest-budget media outlets will allow you to save analytical time while maintaining statistically reliable results: Google Ads (Search, Display, Shopping, YouTube) Meta Ads (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger) TikTok Ads LinkedIn Ads Programmatic Advertising (DV360, Sizmek, The Trade Desk) Retail Media (Amazon, Mercado Ads) 2. Centralizes information and normalizes data For efficient auditing, it's essential to centralize all data in a single analysis platform. At Bunker DB, we use artificial intelligence technology to consolidate information from multiple sources and standardize it for further analysis. Extract data from each advertising platform. Unify key metrics: ROAS, CPC, CTR, conversion rate, CPA. Create cross-platform comparative analysis dashboards. 3. Evaluate the structure of the campaigns Campaigns are often created incrementally, with a combination of logics that may conflict with each other. Evaluate whether your campaign structure follows these best practices: Separation by objective: Performance (sales, leads) vs. Branding. Funnel organization: Awareness, Consideration, Conversion. Segmentation strategy: Custom audiences vs. prospecting. Ad structure: Creatives aligned to each funnel phase. If you find duplicate campaigns, campaigns with unclear objectives, or campaigns with overlapping segmentations, this is your opportunity to optimize. 4. Review the performance of your ads and audiences Each platform behaves differently, and it's clear to us that audiences respond differently depending on the medium. The uses and customs of each medium, their specific codes for interacting with advertising, are often very different. Analyze: Top 5 best-performing campaigns (most efficient ROAS and CPA). Audiences that generate higher conversions (lookalikes, retargeting, first-party data). Ad formats with better engagement (text, image, video). Frequency and saturation curves: Are you showing too many of the same ads? If you identify patterns of underperformance, you can adjust targeting or test new ad formats. 5. Analyze attribution and incremental impact The traditional last-click attribution model often fails to reflect the true impact of each advertising channel. Consider: Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) to measure the real contribution of each medium. Incrementality experiments to validate whether a campaign is actually generating additional sales. Multi-touch attribution models (data-driven). Cases like Ebay in 2014 and Airbnb in 2021 have shown that reducing investment in Paid Search doesn't always mean a drop in sales, but can instead optimize the budget toward more profitable media. 6. Evaluate the impact of creativity on results A paid media audit should focus not only on investment metrics, but also on the quality of the creatives used. Are your ads aligned with your target audience? Do you have enough variety in formats (static, video, carousel)? Do your creatives meet each platform's guidelines? Using AI-based analytics to identify winning creatives can improve your campaign performance by up to 20%. 7. Adjust your bidding strategy and budget A key optimization in Paid Media is budget allocation and bidding strategies. If a campaign is consuming a lot of budget without results, adjust the bidding strategy or consider reallocating your investment: How much are you spending per channel? Is there an imbalance in investment? Which campaigns have the highest return? Can you redirect your budget to them? Are you using Smart Bidding and automation? Strategies aimed at Maximize Conversions or Target ROAS can improve efficiency. How to Audit Your Media with Bunker DB With solutions like Bunker DB, you can centralize data, gain real-time insights, and make AI-powered decisions to increase the impact of your advertising strategy. You can use our Paid Media module to map your media and campaigns, analyze them, and gain valuable insights into your results. You can also use our latest release, ADA. By applying artificial intelligence alongside your centralized data, you can gain insights into your media and campaigns in record time. Conclusion An audit is useless without concrete actions. Once you've identified areas for improvement, implement changes and measure their impact. Monitoring must be ongoing. Conduct quarterly audits and use advanced measurement tools to assess their business impact: Optimize underperforming campaigns or pause them if they don't add value. Refine targeting to avoid overlapping or irrelevant audiences. Test new creatives based on performance insights. Adjust budgets and bidding strategies to maximize results. Performing a Paid Media audit is not only a best practice, but a necessity to maximize your return on investment in digital advertising. Through this structured process, you can identify investment leaks, improve the efficiency of your campaigns, and optimize every dollar spent.