Marketing is being measured like a P&L

Most organizations aren't built for it.

ISG helps marketing and other enterprise leaders benchmark investment performance, redesign the operating model, optimize the technology and provider ecosystem and govern value around commercial outcomes. 

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Marketing must show up on the revenue growth ledger

Every CEO, CFO and board today expects marketing to demonstrate its direct contribution to revenue, profitability and growth. Brand, customer engagement and demand generation remain on the marketing agenda, but the CMOs role is consequently evolving to a growth architect where marketing investment must translate to commercial outcomes and business growth.

At the same time, AI, martech, agency ecosystems, talent and service providers are creating a more complex marketing estate. Investment has grown faster than the governance needed to connect activity to outcomes. AI can increase speed and capacity but without changes to the core operating model, that capacity is often absorbed into more activity rather than converted into business value. 

Where marketing value is lost: 

  • Investment
    Where is the spend going?

  • Business Value
    What value does it create?

  • AI & Operating Model
    Is work designed for new business demands?

  • Martech & Agencies
    Is the ecosystem optimized for outcomes vs activity?

  • Value Governance
    Are outcomes continuously measured?

ISG Marketing Advisory helps CMOs turn that pressure into action. We benchmark marketing investment and performance, redesign the operating model, rationalize the martech and supplier ecosystem, and put the governance in place to turn efficiency into measurable growth and ROI.

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ISG CMO AI VALUE STUDY

AI ambition is moving faster than marketing’s ability to capture value

AI is creating more capacity across marketing, but that capacity is not yet translating into the growth, savings and profit leaders expect.

The opportunity now is to redesign the work, align suppliers and hold teams accountable for turning AI-enabled performance into measurable ROI.

Source: ISG AI Value Study, 2026

Top AI Priorities for Marketing Leaders:
62% Staff Productivity
 
 
 
56% Revenue Growth
 
 
 
54% Faster Speed to Market
 
 
 
Organizations Measure AI Through:
62% Cost Savings
 
 
 
48% Revenue Growth
 
 
 
42% Profit Growth
 
 
 
Largest Performance Gaps:
-24% Profit Growth
 
 
 
-16% Cost Saving
 
 
 
-10% Revenue Growth
 
 
 

ISG Marketing Advisory

Marketing leaders need a single view of investment, the work it funds and the value it creates. It requires an enterprise approach that connects financial accountability, AI-enabled work design, ecosystem choices and disciplined value governance.

That requires more than a martech assessment or agency review. It requires an enterprise approach that connects financial accountability, AI-enabled work design, ecosystem choices and disciplined value governance. 

ISG brings independent, data-led advisory to the marketing function. We help leaders reset the baseline, design the operating model, optimize the ecosystem and assure the value. 

RESET

Marketing Growth Ledger

Benchmark spend and performance against the market. Establish a defensible baseline and link investment to outcomes and revenue. 

DESIGN

AI-Enabled Operating Model

Redesign ways of working. Orchestrate human and AI workflows. Assess talent, controls and the operating model. 

OPTIMIZE

Martech & Provider Ecosystem

Rationalize the stack and roster. Source and strengthen statements of work and service levels. Shift measures from tactics to performance.

ASSURE

Value Realization & Governance

Create executive scorecards and KPIs. Track benefits and risk. Govern reinvestment decisions. 

Transform marketing to unlock 30 - 60% savings
 

Transform Marketing

CLIENT STORY

Cutting marketing services costs at a global beauty leader
 

45%

Reduction in the cost of delivery marketing services for a global cosmetics and beauty leader.

As part of a broader enterprise transformation, ISG restructured the company’s global provider environment, strengthened commercial terms and accountability and established performance governance across the marketing estate.

The work lowered the cost of delivering marketing services and released capacity that could be redirected toward higher-value growth priorities. The governance layer is what keeps the savings in place after the transition ends. 

Why Choose ISG
 

Independent

Independent

ISG does not deliver marketing execution or sell platforms. Our recommendations are provider agnostic and built around the enterprise outcome.

Market Backed

Market Backed

ISG brings more than 10 million data points and 285,000 contracts to benchmark sourcing and provider decisions.

Enterprise Scale

Enterprise Scale

ISG has proven experience across 75 of the Fortune 100 and influences $200B in technology decisions every year.

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Meet Our Team

Make Every Marketing Dollar Work Harder

Talk to an ISG advisor about where your marketing investment is going, how it compares to the market, and what it would take to connect it to business outcomes.

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Frequently Asked Questions
 

Start by separating what marketing spends from what that spend produces, then hold both in the same measurement frame. That means a baseline of marketing investment and cost to serve, a peer comparison that shows whether the spend is high or low for the scale of the work, and a defined set of financial and operational measures agreed with finance before the work starts. Governance is what makes it stick, because a measurement framework without review cadence and named accountability stops being maintained within two quarters.
Because time saved is not the same as money saved, and most marketing organizations have no mechanism to convert capacity into output. Just because the work is now down faster does not mean it has generated added value for the business. More than a third of marketing leaders say time saved through AI has not translated into savings or value for the enterprise, and profit growth sits 24 points below expectations, the widest gap of any measure marketing tracks. Capacity freed by automation gets reabsorbed into more activity unless the operating model, the provider contracts and the headcount plan are redesigned to release it.
AI makes martech complexity more urgent. Many marketing teams are managing overlapping platforms, fragmented data and supplier relationships that were not designed to work together. Adding more tools can deepen the problem. CMOs should rationalize the stack around the capabilities and outcomes that matter most by identifying duplicate or underused technology, improving data flows across core platforms and ensuring each supplier has a clear role in delivering value. ISG helps marketing leaders assess the martech and supplier ecosystem, strengthen vendor terms and build a simpler, more connected stack that supports AI, better decisions and measurable ROI.
Classify each activity by the judgment it demands and how repeatable it is, then match it to a delivery structure. Strategic direction and differentiating IP stay with the enterprise. Planning and design work is co-designed with partners. Repeatable delivery moves to managed services governed by service levels. Scarce niche capability, such as media buying or regulatory expertise, goes to specialists. Decomposing marketing this way gives every activity an ownership recommendation you can defend to the business rather than one based on how the team happens to be organized today.
A marketing advisory assesses how marketing investment, work and providers perform. An agency delivers marketing execution, which means it has a commercial interest in the scope of work it is being asked to assess. ISG is independent of the providers under review and does not deliver marketing execution, so the recommendation carries no self-benefit. The work also draws on contract and performance data across the provider market rather than on experience with a single roster.
Savings depend on where the inefficiency sits, and the largest reductions usually come from the provider and agency estate. In one recent engagement, a global cosmetics and beauty leader reduced the cost of delivering marketing services by 45% as part of a broader enterprise transformation, through restructuring the global provider environment, strengthening commercial terms and accountability, and establishing performance governance. A benchmark against peers is what sizes the opportunity before any commitment is made.
ISG Marketing Advisory is an advisory service for enterprise marketing leaders that connects marketing investment to business outcomes. It brings ISG's benchmarking, operating model transformation, sourcing, provider strategy and governance capability to the marketing function, covering how marketing spend compares to peers, how the operating model is structured around how work that gets done, workflows, talent, overall strategy, how the technology and agency ecosystem performs focused on outbased metrics vs tactics, and how value is measured and sustained.