51% of Marketers to Increase Their Spending on Marketing Automation This Year

As marketers continue to see the benefits of marketing automation, new research indicates that they will be allocating more of their budget toward this solution within the next year.

Ascend2 recently published “The State of Marketing Automation” report, and statistics suggested that the majority of marketers (51%) intend to at least moderately increase their marketing automation budget in the coming year. About 30% of respondents stated that their budget for this tactic will at least remain the same, while 8% believe that it will increase significantly over the next 12 months.

The key areas that marketers are focusing on in terms of automation are social media management (29%), paid advertising (29%), and email marketing (28%). Most marketers (53%) still only “somewhat agree” that their marketing automation platform makes it easier for them to build effective customer journeys, suggesting there is room for improvement in this area.

Marketers Lacking Necessary Data to Meet Customer Expectations

Although many marketers understand the importance of the customer journey and experience, previous research indicates that certain barriers are holding them back from meeting expectations. Specifically, customer data platforms (CDPs) have become a barrier for marketers.

Merkle released its “2022 Q3 Customer Engagement Report,” and data suggested that the majority of marketers (27.1%) have struggled with implementation when attempting to leverage their CDP. Approximately 23.7% claim that their largest issue remains a lack of clean, reliable data within their CDP.

“While their power and promise have helped CDPs take the industry by storm, those promises are often vague and poorly understood,” wrote the researchers behind the report. “A key misconception stems from vendor claims that their CDP can fully solve for data issues and provide brands with a robust consumer 360.”