The GTM spending problem no one wants to admit | MarTech

"The latest GTM Effectiveness Report from Proof Causal.ai and Fiduciari makes the numbers difficult to ignore. Across enterprise B2B go-to-market functions, roughly 53% of GTM spend was ineffective across a basket of approximately 500 public companies. Among private startups and scaleups to which Proof had access, the inefficiency rate climbed above 70% before causal relationships in GTM were assessed. Yet, inside that ocean of waste, there was one notable exception: communications and PR."

"While most marketing and sales spending failed to create measurable lift, PR performance stood out with an unusually low inefficiency rate. Only about 12 cents of every PR dollar was ineffective. That difference is meaningful. It points to a structural flaw in how GTM is designed and funded today. It implies something more serious than simple inefficiency - most GTM functions may be built on flawed causal assumptions."

"PR is also an economic mechanism. It's the primary generator of earned legitimacy - now the dominant input into buyer confidence. Today's B2B buyers are overwhelmed, surrounded by paid social, paid search, ABM ads, sponsored newsletters, webinar campaigns, thought leadership series, SEO content farms and AI-generated white papers. The buyer's challenge is determining what's real. In that context, earned media and analyst validation contribute an estimated 89% of the confidence and trust factors that shape purchasing behavior."

Across enterprise B2B go-to-market functions, most GTM spend produced no measurable lift, with roughly 53% ineffective across ~500 public companies and over 70% among private startups and scaleups before causal assessment. Communications and PR were a notable exception, showing an unusually low inefficiency rate—only about 12 cents of every PR dollar ineffective. This gap suggests structural flaws in GTM design and funding and indicates many GTM investments rest on flawed causal assumptions. In an environment saturated with paid and owned media, earned media and analyst validation now generate the earned legitimacy that predominantly drives buyer confidence and purchasing behavior.

Read at MarTech