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How US Marketers Are Upgrading Their MarTech Stack: The MarTech 2022 Replacement Survey

Numbers, please! As a MarTech pro, you’re constantly thinking about when it’s time for some fresh air in your MarTech stack. Here you’ll learn how marketers in the MarTech motherland upgrade their tech stack.

  • Dieser Artikel wurde am 7. April 2026 aktualisiert.
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t’s nothing new that MarTech trends are set in the US. And it’s nothing new either that, as a MarTech aficionada or aficionado, you should take a look across the Atlantic at these trends from time to time. What is new, however, are some notable insights offered by the latest study from martech.org among US marketers. At its core, it addresses the questions: When is it time to upgrade the MarTech stack? Which factors influence the choice? And who should lead the upgrade?

The MarTech 2022 Replacement Survey by martech.org

The MarTech 2022 Replacement Survey from the US shows how marketers there keep their MarTech stack competitive. For this, the online magazine surveyed 300 marketing experts. The biggest trend for 2022? New software or apps must integrate well! Compared to the previous year, this has become significantly more important.

In 2022, the ability of software to provide information on return on investment is also much more in demand. Costs and the digital experience are other key factors when it comes to MarTech stack replacement.

The following technologies were replaced especially frequently in 2022:

Matchilla - Matching-Plattform und Marktplatz Marketing Automation (23%)

Matchilla - Matching-Plattform und Marktplatz Customer Relationship Management (CRM) (23%)

Matchilla - Matching-Plattform und Marktplatz Content management and SEO platforms (23%)

Matchilla - Matching-Plattform und Marktplatz Email (21%)

The time is now: How often do US marketers upgrade?

Things move fast here: A study by martech.org shows that marketing software and apps are replaced every three to five years. In 2022, around 36% of all upgrades fell into this category. 33% of renewals were for software that had only been in use for one or two years. Smaller companies in particular act quickly—the trend is clearly toward regular upgrades.

According to the survey, marketing automation, CRM and email are replaced every three to five years. For SEO tools, this timeframe is even shorter. Platforms for organizing virtual events as well as for project management are also replaced after just a few years. Marketers know exactly how important it is to keep the stack up to date—there’s no room for false hesitation here!

The exact timeframe ultimately depends on the company. In some teams, the appetite for new technologies is especially strong. Some industries change almost every year and require new software as a result, while others do just fine with their tried-and-true tools. That’s why this is an individual decision that needs to be well thought out. Don’t jump on every hype train just because an expert praised a tool!

Which factors influence the choice of new tools?

New MarTech software is therefore so sought-after because the solutions are evolving so rapidly and significantly with new features. The Replacement Survey shows that it is precisely this desire for better, stronger features that is driving the sometimes high upgrade rates for software in 2022. More than half of respondents said they switched to another software due to the better features. Marketers don’t settle quickly — and that’s a good thing!

»More than half said they switched to another software due to the better features.«

Integration with existing tools was another factor in the choice of new tools. Compared to previous years, this consideration is becoming increasingly important so that the MarTech stack works as seamlessly as possible. For 16% of all respondents, costs were also very important — understandably.

And the pandemic? Interestingly, the survey shows that COVID-19 is still a factor in decisions in the marketing space, but significantly less so than in the previous year. About 35% of respondents said the pandemic influenced their decision to do a software upgrade. Last year it was 47%. Virtual events and improved SEO, as well as email as a popular marketing channel, are still very important, but the general fear about the future seems to have eased a bit. Good news in many ways!

Marketing Operations Leader: The drivers and conductors behind the MarTech stack upgrade

If you’re now wondering who is actually responsible for upgrading MarTech stacks, the survey has an answer to that as well. Increasingly, it’s the Marketing Operations Maestros who manage the software and train the team to use it. The MarTech 2022 Replacement Survey shows that around 17% of upgrades are driven by Marketing Operations Experts .

That may not sound like much, but it’s significantly more than the year before, when only 12% of decisions were made by Marketing Operations Experts. According to martech.org, these experts are exactly the ones who should be deciding on MarTech stack upgrades. Especially in smaller companies, there often aren’t any Marketing Operations Leaders. In larger companies, it is precisely these people who champion switching to better software.

“In larger companies, it’s the Marketing Operations Leaders who champion switching to better software.”

One more interesting trend to wrap up: In the first Replacement Survey in 2019, it turned out that almost half of all respondents hired new teams to manage the new software. The pandemic changed that: in 2022, 62% of respondents trained their team members to use the new platforms themselves. In some cases, one or two new team members were hired.

Ready for change and some fresh momentum in your MarTech stack? Then grab the Marketing Operations Expert on your team and start trying out new tools and evolving your software architecture—go for it! And if you’re still looking for support, Matchilla is here for you as your guide in the MarTech world.

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About the author

Till Zier is CPO at Matchilla and, as a MarTech expert, reports in MatchZINE on news and trends in marketing, automation, analytics, and data.

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