AI hype in MarTech justified?

B2B marketers struggle with dark funnel attribution challenges. Chris Golec, CEO and founder of Channel99 and former Demandbase founder, explains how to illuminate hidden customer journeys that traditional analytics miss. The discussion covers view-through attribution methodologies using smart pixels and API integrations, account-based measurement approaches that reveal 3x more website visitors than industry standards, and AI-powered decision engines that can generate media mix recommendations in seconds based on cost-per-engagement metrics across channels. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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  The Martech Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast? I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth, and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iHereEverything.com.

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  Getting brands authentically integrated into content performs better than TV advertising.

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  Typical lifespan of an article is about 24 to 36 hours.

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  If we're reaching out to the right person with the right message and a clear call to action, then it's just a matter of timing.

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  Welcome to the Martech Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. In this podcast, you'll hear the stories of world-class marketers that use technology to drive business results and achieve career success. Here's the host of the Martech Podcast, Benjamin Shapiro.

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  I'm Benjamin Shapiro, and joining me today is Chris Golec, the former founder of Demand Base and the current founder and CEO of Channel 99, a company that is solving marketing attribution challenges by revealing the source of three times the website visitors compared to your industry standards. And today, Chris is going to explain how to illuminate the dark funnel problem that is costing you millions in misattributed revenue. All right, last question for you, a little bit about the AI hype cycle. You've been through multiple waves of technology, working in mostly B2B tech for 25 years. Is the AI hype in Martech justified, or are we just in another bubble like the mobile or dot com era?

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  I do think it's justified, and I do think we'll see more transformation over this next year than we have in the last 10 years.

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  Just because I don't think it's we're going to have this proliferation of SaaS products and interfaces. And I think the interoperability of all these different data sources, you'll be able to create, launch, optimize campaigns right from your general Gen AI solution. As people start plugging in to Gen AI, it's all going to be interoperable.

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  It's dizzying to me, and I agree. I am. This is the tsunami, right? The the the previous, the iPhone was a huge and mobile marketing to me was a huge transformative shift, but it took 20 years to roll out. Like, this is hitting us so fast, and it's the pace of change that concerns me. Not that we haven't gone through change before, right? Like, technology normally takes a long time to roll out. It is happening so quickly, and the models are getting so good, and we're able to create so much software. And we're seeing it in the stock market now with the SaaS companies all seemingly tanking. Who knows whether they'll

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  rebound or not? That, to me, creates the the anxiety and the concern is the pace, not necessarily the actual technology.

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  Yeah, well, I don't. I mean, we have complete visibility into the efficiency of B2B marketing spend. And I don't know if it would surprise you that 75% of the dollars go to marketing and targeting, reaching, engaging companies that will never buy anything. So the upside is massive.

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  Yeah, we definitely have a little fat to trim. I also think that the concern for me is there's a lot of people that are doing jobs that potentially become redundant and the reskilling. I feel it already. Like I mentioned, you know, early in our conversation, I'm spending time in my computer's terminal, not thinking about marketing or in front of a camera or, you know, dealing with clients. I'm coding stuff.

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  Yeah.

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  And and in languages I don't understand. Because it can be translated into English. And so like the skill transformation is happening. It can be painful. It's great to be able to learn and some people are going to get super wealthy. Trying to figure this out and being a first mover advantage. There's going to be people that are laggards that I think are going to suffer. I definitely, and going back to the original question, I am of the camp that this is a tsunami. This is the big one. Using a San Francisco metaphor, you know, earthquake jokes are no fun around here. But like, the world is shaking. The ground under us is moving and, you know, hopefully we all end up with beachfront property.

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  Well, I think people, it's upon them to educate themselves and figure out like, how can I really leverage what this stuff is doing to benefit my company?

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  Yeah, well, Chris, congratulations on your past success, the success you're having with the current company. I think it's really interesting what you're doing and rethinking a problem that marketers have had for a really long time. Understanding if their dollars are actually driving revenue in a coherent fashion. So thanks for coming on and being my guest.

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  I appreciate it, Ben. Thank you.

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  All right, that wraps up this episode of the Martech Podcast. Thanks to Chris Golec, the CEO and founder of Channel 99 for joining us. If you'd like to contact Chris, you can find a link to his LinkedIn profile in our show notes or on martechpod.com, or you can visit his company's website at channel99.com. And if you haven't subscribed yet and you want a daily stream of marketing and technology knowledge in your podcast feed, hit the subscribe button in your podcast app and we'll be back in your feed next week. All right, that's it for today, but until next time, my advice is to just focus on keeping your customers happy.

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  Thanks for listening to the Martech Podcast and I Hear Everything production. Looking to launch or scale a podcast like this one for your brand? Then visit ihereverything.com.