How big should your marketing ops team be?

Also - how long should a migration take?

In this edition:

1. How Big Should Your Marketing Ops Team Be?

2. How to Set the Vision and Plan for Your Marketing Ops Team

3. POLL - How Long Should a Marketing Automation Migration Take?

4. For Paid Subscribers: Why Most Marketing Ops Pros Won’t Make the Lead to Leadership

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Attend the Marketing Ops Breakout Event!

Nobody can predict the future.But asking the right questions alongside forward-thinking peers may give you the edge to overcome emerging challenges.Join a community of marketing operations leaders from OpenAI, DoorDash, and more at our next MOps Breakout on Nov 20 to explore the key trends and strategies MOPs leaders need for 2025.In this free virtual event, we’ll dive into:

• The data trends driving tomorrow’s decisions

• How AI and other automation tools will change your workflows

• Why standardization is key to staying adaptable

Don’t miss out on this chance to connect, strategize, and get inspired. Register now.

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How Big Should Your Marketing Ops Team Be?

Marketing Ops Team Sizes by Company Size: A Scalable Blueprint

This diagram outlines how marketing ops teams grow alongside company size, from startups to enterprises. It also reflects new trends in marketing ops, including cross-functional collaboration, the rise of AI, and the increasing importance of customer experience.

Key Highlights from the Diagram:

• 1–50 employees: A single marketing ops manager wears many hats, supporting campaigns, data, and technology.

• 50–199 employees: The team expands to include a campaign operations manager, data analyst, and part-time data support, which can be internal or external. Training and enablement is prioritized as early as possible to ensure scalability.

• 200–999 employees: With a marketing ops team lead, the team grows to include:

  • A campaign ops manager (dotted line to the ops lead for greater visibility and agility).

  • A data and analytics manager.

  • A MarTech manager.

  • An enablement and project manager to drive collaboration and process efficiency.

• 1,000+ employees: At the enterprise level, a director of marketing ops oversees a comprehensive team structure:

  • A MarTech lead managing campaign ops and a new AI and product management role.

  • A strategy ops lead overseeing finance, planning, and PMO.

  • An analytics lead directing dashboards/reporting and data science teams.

New Mandates and Trends

• Campaign Operations and Customer Experience: Campaign ops teams are evolving to spearhead customer experience initiatives, ensuring a unified, data-driven approach to engaging customers.

• AI and Product Management: We’ve introduced a new role focused on AI adoption and product management to help teams navigate the growing importance of AI in marketing workflows.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: All these structures emphasize seamless collaboration across the GTM org, ensuring marketing operations integrates with sales, customer success, and product teams.

Why This Matters

As companies grow, marketing operations must balance efficiency, visibility, and scalability. From early investments in data support to embedding enablement in the team structure, these models ensure marketing operations can drive business outcomes at any size.

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How to Set a Vision and Plan for Ops Teams

Here is a simple framework for creating your marketing ops vision and plan.

Where are we today?
Where do we want to be tomorrow?
How will we get there?
How will we know we are making progress?

Here is the breakdown:

Where are we today? (Current State)
Take stock and review these questions. List each one and rate their effectiveness.
1. What tech do we have today?
2. What reports do we have today?
3. What people do we have in place and what are they doing?
4. What processes are in place today?

Where do we want to be tomorrow? (Future Goal State)
Align these to key business objectives.
1. What tech do we need to reach our goals?
2. What data enhancements and integrations do we need?
3. What people and responsibility changes will position us for success?
4. What is the ideal performance output of our team, technology and processes?

How will we get there? (Actual Plan)
These are the specific projects/tasks. You know you are being specific enough if you can definitely say "yes this is complete."
1. What platforms will we implement?
2. Which processes will we create/improve?
3. Which alignment meetings will we have and when?
4. Who will we bring on to execute this?

How will we know we are making progress? (Tracking)
Each month/quarter you can review these checkpoints.
1. What project milestones do we need to hit?
2. What numbers do we need and by when?
3. What qualitative metrics (survey, NPS) are we expecting?
4. What negative metrics should we watch out for (fires, ad hoc requests)?

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POLL: How big should a marketing ops team be at a mid-sized company?