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Summary
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Embrace Real-Time Data Activation: Transition from static reporting to real-time data activation to enhance decision-making speed; marketers should implement continuous data pipelines that provide insights hourly or faster, enabling timely actions across campaigns.
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Invest in Modern Measurement Stacks: Upgrade to cloud-native, modular ETL/ELT systems that allow seamless data ingestion and normalization from various platforms. This will eliminate bottlenecks and empower teams to activate insights independently without heavy reliance on engineering resources.
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Focus on Unified Data Architecture: Adopt solutions like Singular’s Extract to unify and automate data management processes, which will enhance visibility, streamline campaign optimization, and drive measurable ROI improvements by reducing decision cycles from days to minutes.
Data activation challenges
Marketers are producing more data than ever, yet they struggle with data activation. Campaign data flows from countless platforms: mobile apps, web, CTV, social, and owned channels. This creates a flood of signals that rarely connect. As a result, many teams still operate with partial visibility and slow decision cycles.
Industry research shows that only about half of marketing data is fully activated for optimization or ROI analysis. The issue is not the lack of data, but the lack of readiness. Legacy measurement systems are built for static dashboards, not dynamic, cross-channel activation.
Transitioning to a modern, future-proof measurement stack is no longer optional. It is essential for teams that want to unify data, act faster, and drive growth in 2026 and beyond.
How marketing measurement is evolving
Marketing is entering a data-activation era. The next generation of measurement stacks must not only collect and normalize data, but also make it immediately usable across platforms and campaigns.
Real-time activation replaces batch reporting
Teams now expect fresh data that updates hourly, or faster, so insights lead to timely action. Continuous pipelines are replacing overnight uploads.
Data pipelines are becoming cloud-native and modular
Modern ETL and ELT workflows support both structured and unstructured inputs. This flexibility lets marketing analysts query, model, and activate data without engineering or CDP bottlenecks.
Measurement and activation are converging
With multiple ad networks and data partners, strong schema normalization and permissions management ensure accuracy and compliance without slowing down growth.
These trends show a clear direction: marketing data must flow freely from collection to activation, empowering performance teams to make smarter decisions in real time.
Your future-proof stack powered by Extract
Singular built Extract and our ETL/ELT solutions for this exact transformation. Singular’s Extract and ETL/ELT architecture allows marketers to automate data movement, unify measurement, and activate insights faster, without relying on engineering or CDP resources.
- Automated ingestion and normalization across thousands of ad partners, SDKs, and platforms. Singular’s CostAgg+ unifies every metric, schema, and conversion event in one consistent format.
- Flexible pipelines that support both ETL (Extract-Transform-Load) and ELT (Extract-Load-Transform) workflows. This means teams can choose whether to process data inside Singular or within their cloud warehouse.
- Always-on APIs and postbacks that deliver analysis-ready data to BI tools like Looker, Tableau, BigQuery, or Snowflake.
- Granular permissions and governance that let teams control access and share specific data slices across partners and internal stakeholders.
- Data activation built into the workflow so insights flow directly into campaign optimization, creative testing, and audience segmentation, ensuring faster ROI loops.
In short, Singular turns fragmented data into actionable intelligence. Marketers get the full view of performance across every channel, updated continuously, and ready for immediate use.
Why this matters for 2026 and beyond
The marketers who will lead in 2026 are those who make their data work for them. They will no longer wait for analysts to reconcile reports or engineers to build pipelines. Instead, their stacks will unify, model, and activate insights automatically.
By adopting Singular’s unified data architecture, growth teams can:
- shorten decision cycles from days to minutes
- eliminate manual reconciliation and engineering backlogs
- enable continuous optimization based on complete data visibility
- drive measurable ROI improvements through smarter activation
Ready to activate your data?
Future-proof your measurement stack now. See how Singular’s Extract and ETL/ELT capabilities deliver a unified, activation-ready foundation for modern marketing.
Book a demo to explore how your team can accelerate growth through automation, unification, and real-time data activation.
Matt Hyder
Matt Hyder is the Director of Product Marketing at Singular. He's a storyteller, go-to-market strategist, and once upon a time ... an opera singer.
