Overview

Most marketers aren’t working without clear visibility by choice. They’re navigating an environment where the volume of data keeps increasing, but clarity doesn’t follow at the same pace.

Over the past few years, the marketing landscape has expanded in every direction. New channels, new formats, new tools, and now AI-driven workflows that make it possible to launch and iterate faster than ever. What once felt manageable now stretches across dozens of touchpoints, each with its own metrics, dashboards, and definitions of success.

Even as marketing has become more complex, the core responsibilities haven’t changed. Marketers are still expected to understand their audience, measure impact, and make informed decisions about where to invest next. But doing that now requires piecing together signals from platforms and systems that were never designed to work together.

That’s where things start to break down.

The visibility gap isn’t just about missing data. It shows up in the day-to-day reality of how marketing teams operate. Insights arrive too late to act on. Signals conflict with one another. And over time, even well-instrumented teams start relying more heavily on instinct to fill in the blanks.

56% of marketers often or always rely on gut instincts or past experiences to make marketing decisions. 73% of marketers say they regularly realize a campaign is underperforming only after it’s too late. 26% of marketers actually base their investments on current performance, leaving budgets misaligned with what works.

Which of the following marketing responsibilities do you regularly own or execute in your role?

1. Creating marketing content
   53%
2. Managing social media programs
   48%
3. Planning or managing campaigns
   44%
4. Analyzing marketing data
   37%
5. Managing paid media campaigns
   35%
6. Distributing or promoting content
   34%
7. Tracking campaign performance
   32%

Engagement and audience growth

63% - Easy
19% - Neutral
16% - Difficult

Customer retention and loyalty

62% - Easy
20% - Neutral
16% - Difficult

Revenue impact

55% - Easy
24% - Neutral
16% - Difficult

Pipeline creation

46% - Easy
34% - Neutral
16% - Difficult

Which channels are part of your current marketing mix?

72%

Organic social media

54%

Dedicated campaign landing pages

47%

Email or lifecycle campaigns

44%

Paid social

Limited visibility buries insights

Most teams have access to performance data. Far fewer have a clear, detailed view of how customers actually move across channels or which interactions are driving decisions. Only a small share of marketers say they have a clear view of what’s working, and many describe their visibility as partial or inconsistent.

Only 18% of marketers say they have a clear view of what’s working, while nearly half report limited or inconsistent visibility.

Interactions remain a blind spot

Not trusting the data enough to act.

What most limits your ability to improve marketing performance today?

1. Limited time or team capacity
2. Limited budgets
3. Too many channels or touchpoints to manage

Which change would have the biggest impact on improving your marketing performance over the next year?

1. Faster execution and turnaround
2. Increased budget

Invest in what works

Faster insights only matter if they lead to smarter investment decisions. And right now, for most teams, budget allocation is still more art than science.

How often do budget decisions feel constrained by uncertainty about performance?

1. Always
2. Often
3. Sometimes

Turning visibility into action

Faster execution, better insights, and more effective investment—the same underlying need keeps showing up. Visibility is what allows everything else to work the way it’s supposed to.

For most teams, getting there doesn’t mean starting over. It usually begins with a clearer view of what’s already happening.

Stop the guesswork with Bitly

Get the clarity you need to move with confidence and make every effort count. Track every link and QR Code, connect your channels, and see what’s working in real time.