'Instinct becomes the backup plan instead of the default': How marketers can beat data overload to make better decisions

The challenge for marketers has quickly shifted from not having enough data to make informed decisions to having so much data that it becomes nearly impossible to organize, present, and act on it in any meaningful way.

I had the opportunity to talk to Tara Robertson, Chief Marketing Officer at Bitly, to get her insight into how modern businesses can better understand what data really matters, how to collect it, and how to move away from making 'gut-feel' decisions that could be costing your business.

How is AI changing how potential customers interact with marketing content? The clicks that do happen mean so much more.

Tara Robertson, Chief Marketing Officer at Bitly AI has changed the early stages of the customer journey pretty significantly.

People still want to make informed purchase decisions, but increasingly, they’re researching and comparing options inside AI tools and LLMs rather than exclusively clicking through a traditional search results page.

That creates a much bigger “dark funnel” for marketers because more of the customer journey occurs in places we can’t easily see or measure.

At the same time, the visibility signals we’ve historically relied on are becoming less reliable.

Ranking highly on a SERP, for example, doesn’t necessarily translate to the same level of traffic when AI Overviews can give someone the information they need without requiring a click.

On the other hand, since there are now fewer clicks than before AI became so intertwined in discovery, the clicks that do happen mean so much more.

If someone looks at the AI summary, gets the answer they need, and still clicks, that shows real intent, not just casual browsing.

So, marketers should really strive to change their mindset from “how can I get more clicks” to “how do I make sure I know what's happening with the clicks I do get, and how do I create content good enough that a human or an AI system wants to surface it in the first place.

Your recent study found that 56% of marketers rely on gut instinct to make marketing decisions.

With so much data now at marketers' fingertips, why do you think this is still the case? This stat has stayed with me the most since we gathered the data.

It’s not that marketers don’t want to be data-driven, but that the data they collect is spread across too many tools, making it difficult to make strategic decisions in real-time.