Marketers Seeing Positive Returns on Big Data Investments in 2015

A new study from Infogroup Media Solutions recently found that more than half of all marketers expect to see a positive return on their data-related investments for the first time in 2015.

What’s more, 62 percent of those surveyed said that they are currently investing in data marketing, which includes utilizing customer data and outside data trends in order to influence strategy, projects, and targeting for marketers throughout the year.

Big Data ROI

A key finding of the study was that almost half (47 percent) are already seeing a positive return on investment for their data-marketing efforts (up from 39 percent a year ago):

Furthermore, 20 percent said they plan to see a positive ROI this year and another 20 percent are planning on seeing that shift within the next 2 years. This means that 87 percent of all surveyed respondents have already or are planning on seeing a positive ROI from data marketing within the next 24 months. In addition to this expectation, a majority (73 percent) of leaders (trendsetters who have already embraced big data) are expecting an increase in budget for 2015 (40 percent of leaders are already seeing positive ROI).

This means that there is a correlation between a positive ROI and larger budgets for data marketing efforts.

A Renewed Focus on Targeting and Privacy

Two other findings from Infogroup’s study were that over 80 percent of participants said they were taking steps to protect consumer privacy and data, even if it’s just reviewed internally.  Additionally, only 21 percent said they were “very confident” in the accuracy of their customer profiles (which is often one of the biggest reasons for incorrect data). The same percentage also said proper data analysis was their biggest challenge.

Photo via Pixabay. Screenshot taken from report March 2015.