If you’re a CMO or Head of Marketing, this will sound familiar: your martech stack started with a clear purpose. But over time, it’s morphed into a Frankenstein-like system of disconnected tools, quick fixes, and dusty subscriptions. Tools were added reactively—someone in sales needed a plugin, growth wanted a shiny new platform, and customer success had a favourite dashboard. Meanwhile, the original architecture got lost.
A regular martech audit isn’t a luxury—it’s essential. It can help you cut costs, simplify workflows, improve integrations, and increase your team’s effectiveness. The catch? It often feels like a massive undertaking. Let’s change that. Here’s a structured approach that keeps you sane and gets real results.
One of marketers' most prominent mistakes is treating a martech audit like a checklist. “We use these 18 tools. Done.” But that tells you nothing about how those tools contribute to your goals.
A real audit asks more profound questions:
Why are we using this?
What value does it provide?
Does it support our strategic objectives?
Your martech stack is more than software—it’s the backbone of your marketing operations. Approach it like a system, not a shopping list.
Before you can evaluate anything, you need visibility. Build a simple but detailed inventory. For each tool, capture:
Tool name
What it does
Who uses it
Who owns it
Cost (monthly/annually)
How it integrates with other tools
It’s not glamorous work, but it’s mission-critical. Without this overview, you’re flying blind. With it, you’ve got a solid foundation for every subsequent decision.
Now, go through the list and score each tool:
Is it actively used?
Is it critical to any key processes?
Does it overlap with other tools?
If it overlaps, why are you keeping it instead of consolidating? What’s the unique value it offers?
Does it benefit multiple teams?
Are the integrations stable and functional?
It’s common to find overlapping functionality—two tools that handle email, lead forms, or reporting. That’s not always bad, but you need a clear justification. Maybe one tool handles transactional emails while the other is for campaigns. That’s fine—as long as it’s intentional, not accidental.
It’s time to zoom out. A strong stack is more than the sum of its parts. Ask yourself:
Are your tools well integrated?
Do you have a central source of truth for your data (like a CRM or CDP)?
Are there manual steps that should be automated?
Are you using three tools for email, two for lead forms, and no one owns the connections?
Can every customer data field only be changed in one place? You're inviting chaos if two tools can edit the same field without syncing. Every field should have a single source of truth.
If you can’t sketch a clear diagram of your flow from campaign to conversion, something’s off.
This step separates a tactical cleanup from a strategic reset. Ask yourself:
What are our marketing goals for the next 12–24 months?
Is our stack aligned with those ambitions?
Do we use tools because they’re valuable, or because we have to?
Can we trust our data?
Are there tools that frustrate or slow down our team?
Honest answers here will show you where your stack is holding you back.
Now you’ve got the insights. Time to do something with them:
Consolidate: remove tools you don’t need
Upgrade: replace limited tools with better alternatives
Retrain: help your team get more out of what you already have
Redesign workflows: Now that you know what’s possible, rethink your process
This isn’t about having the perfect stack. It’s about having one that works for your current and future needs.
You don’t need to be a technical architect to understand your martech stack. You need to take a good, honest look at it.
With a structured approach and the right questions, you can make confident decisions, reduce complexity, and set your marketing team up for success.
Need help with your martech audit? I help marketing teams gain clarity, make smart choices, and build stacks that actually support their strategy. Fill in the form below—I'd be happy to help.