In this guide
- Sort martech by job: data and tracking, analytics, ads, CRM and lifecycle, content and site, reporting.
- Tools should share data through a tracking layer and IDs, not through exports.
- Prune the stack twice a year.
Marketing technology has more categories than anyone can hold in their head. The result is stacks full of overlapping tools, each with its own copy of the customer. This page organises the landscape by job, with examples, and gives a way to choose and to prune. It follows tools for a marketing agency and server-side tracking tools.
The categories
| Category | Job | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Data and tracking | Collect and route events | Google Tag Manager, a server container host such as Open Tracked, consent platforms |
| Analytics | Understand behaviour and results | GA4, Matomo, first-party analytics such as Open Tracked analytics |
| Advertising | Buy and manage ads | Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, Microsoft Advertising |
| CRM and lifecycle | Manage leads, customers and messages | HubSpot, Pipedrive, Klaviyo, Mailchimp |
| Commerce and site | Sell and publish | Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, Webflow |
| Content and creative | Make assets | Design and video tools |
| Reporting and BI | Combine and present data | Looker Studio, spreadsheets, warehouses |
| Experimentation and CRO | Test changes | A/B testing tools |
Orders from your store, back to the ad that earned them
Your store sends the order once. Open Tracked passes it on to each ad platform, cleaned and deduplicated.
How to choose
Write the job
What problem is this tool for?
Check what you already own
Many tools overlap.
Check data in and out
Can it send and receive events and IDs? Can you export everything?
Check privacy
Where is data stored, what is the DPA, how does consent work?
Test with real data
A small trial.
Price at your scale
Not only at the entry tier.
Connect them through a tracking layer
A server container is a good hub: it receives events once and forwards them to ad platforms, analytics and the CRM with consistent IDs and consent. That avoids the pattern where each tool has its own script and its own idea of a customer. Open Tracked hosts the container and adds first-party analytics and a CRM pipeline, so three categories can sit in one account.
Ask Ari instead of digging through reports
Ari reads your tracking and ad data and answers in plain words.
Prune
- List every tool, owner, cost and renewal date.
- Mark overlaps and unused tools.
- Check exports before you cancel.
- Cancel or consolidate.
- Repeat twice a year.
A realistic example
A mid-size retailer counts its marketing subscriptions and finds 31 tools across eight categories. Three tools each hold a copy of the customer list, none agree, and two overlap in analytics. It names an owner for each category, picks one tool per job, moves its events to a server container so that new tools get data through the container instead of another script, and cancels seven subscriptions. Page speed improves slightly because there are fewer scripts, reports agree more often and a new hire understands the stack in a day. The saving was real but small. The bigger gain was that the stack now had a shape, with a tracking layer in the middle and clear jobs around it.
3 things to remember
Scroll and the points stack up.
Sort martech by job: data and tracking, analytics, ads, CRM and lifecycle, content and site, reporting.
Tools should share data through a tracking layer and IDs, not through exports.
Prune the stack twice a year.
Frequently asked questions
What is martech?
Marketing technology: the software used to run, measure and optimise marketing.
How do I choose martech tools?
By job, data flow, privacy, price at your scale and exit options.
How many tools do I need?
As few as cover your jobs. Remove overlaps.
How do I connect them?
Through a tracking layer such as a server container and stable IDs.
How often should I review the stack?
Twice a year.
Do I need spreadsheets to read my results?
No. Once tracking is live, the Open Tracked analytics shows spend, revenue, ROAS and profit, and you can ask Ari, the built-in AI assistant, questions about your own numbers in plain words. Ari's allowance depends on your analytics plan.
Is Open Tracked different from Open Track or Open Space Track?
No. Open Tracked is the official name of our server-side tracking platform, and the website is opentracked.io. Many people search for it as Open Track, OpenTrack or Open Space Track. All of them lead to the same product: server-side Google Tag Manager hosting, first-party analytics and a CRM pipeline.
Fix your tracking at the source
Open Tracked hosts your server-side Tag Manager, keeps first-party cookies alive and shows what each ad is really worth.
The Open Tracked team
We build Open Tracked: server-side tracking hosting, analytics and the tools around them, for stores that spend on ads. Questions about this guide, or an idea for the next one?
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