Data and Analytics Trends to Drive Future Growth

Marketing IntelligenceReportData and Analytics Trends to Drive Future Growth

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BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES

What You’ll Find in This Report

Last year, we published the inaugural "Marketing Intelligence Report" to better understand the perceptions, needs, and challenges of U.S. marketers and ad agencies. This year, we’ve expanded the research globally for an even wider view on the state of marketing intelligence.

This research was designed to uncover:

• How marketers are operationalizing growth mandates and improving visibility of marketing ROI

• The role of cross-channel marketing and its effect on marketing analytics

• Global challenges with marketing data integration and analytics

• How marketers are leveraging data to support business objectives and strategies

• How marketers are thinking about data-driven transformation in the future

Data Collection

Data in this report is from a double-blind online survey of third-party respondents conducted from September 8 through October 12, 2020. The survey generated responses from over 1,050 decision-making marketers in each of the following markets: U.S., Australia, U.K., France, Germany, Japan, and Singapore (150 per country). In addition, qualitative, one-on-one interviews were conducted by phone with two senior marketers in each country across the U.S., Australia, and the U.K. between October 6–15, 2020. Survey data percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.

Distribution of Marketing Performance Levels

Throughout this report, we classify survey respondents across the following two tiers of marketing performance:

• High performers: report they are satisfied with their sales and marketing investments/spend (ROI) of products/services

• Low performers: report they are not satisfied with their sales and marketing investments/spend (ROI) of products/services

https://www.salesforce.com/

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Contents

Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

COVID-19 Heightens Focus on Marketing Spend Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

01 | Marketing and the Growth Mandate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

02 | State of Marketing Analytics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

03 | Data Integration and Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

04 | Data Analytics and Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

05 | Data-Driven Transformation in 2021 and Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Survey Demographics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25


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Executive Summary

As customers shift their expectations and behaviors in response to a "digital first" world, businesses have had to accelerate their digital transformations to keep up. Eighty-eight percent of customers expect companies to accelerate digital initiatives due to COVID-19. More than half (52%) of consumers and business buyers expect offers to always be personalized, and 66% expect companies to understand their personal needs.1 Marketers have taken a prominent role in driving this transformation, and are under increasing pressure to deliver maximum impact with every investment.

In their pursuit of success, marketers are increasingly looking to engage, measure, adapt, and optimize every touchpoint of the customer experience. To do this, marketers seek a strategy for their customer and performance data that moves at unprecedented speed and scale.

Our global research evaluates how marketers are navigating this transformation, with a focus on how they are integrating and analyzing marketing performance data from all of the touchpoints needed to reach today’s digital first customers — all while maximizing marketing-led growth. Here are five of our key findings.

1 "State of Connected Customer," Salesforce, 2020

5 Marketers seek to improve on data-driven outcomes in the next year.

Marketers’ top priorities for the next year include optimizing marketing spend, gaining a strategic view of all performance, and having better insights to understand and engage customers.

4 Marketers lack timely, accessible, and actionable reporting and insights.

Only 32% of marketers have daily visibility into performance, and 74% of marketers cite that key stakeholders face challenges accessing data and insights.

3 Time-consuming data integration hinders data confidence and veracity.

Forty-three percent of marketers spend a week or more every month preparing data, and only 31% of marketers are very confident in the accuracy of their data.

2 Marketing performance data continues to proliferate across multiple channels and platforms.

Marketers are using an average of 21 marketing and advertising platforms, and 79% of marketers say it’s important to have a cross-channel overview of performance and business impact.

Marketers play a key role in businesswide growth, but they’re struggling to meet their targets. 1

Eighty-seven percent of marketers view their position as critical for driving growth. However, only two in five marketers say they are very successful at reaching their sales targets.


https://www.salesforce.com/resources/research-reports/state-of-the-connected-customer/?d=cta-body-promo-230

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COVID-19 Heightens Focus on Marketing Spend Optimization The COVID-19 pandemic has had an immediate impact on marketing organizations and reinforced the need to optimize marketing spend. Nearly one in three marketers report a decrease in their marketing and advertising budgets. Meanwhile, almost half of marketers report that their budgets remain the same.

The pandemic has also forced many marketers to rebalance their priorities. Relating to customers with empathetic and personalized messages became a heightened priority, as did the use of data and collaboration across teams and business units.

Amidst this rapidly changing landscape, businesses have had to adapt their models, services, and communications. Sixty-nine percent of customers believe that companies should offer new ways to get products and services due to COVID-19.2 Thus, marketers have prioritized testing new marketing strategies and channels to succeed in the new normal. At the same time, they have had to do this while preserving and optimizing their marketing budgets. High performers are nearly twice as likely to significantly increase prioritization across different goals relative to low performers.3

2 "State of Connected Customer," Salesforce, 20203 High and low performers are defined as:

High performers: Satisfied with their sales and marketing investments/spend (ROI) of products/services Low performers: Not satisfied with their sales and marketing investments/spend (ROI) of products/services

Finally, for the majority of marketers, data has only become more important. Eighty percent of marketers report increasing prioritization of the use of data and measurement to navigate the uncertainty of socioeconomic conditions (see page 26).

Marketers Who Have Significantly Increased Prioritization of the Following Due to the Pandemic

■ High Performers ■ Low Performers

42%

17%

Testing new marketing tactics/strategies

39%

23%

Providing customers with empathetic, personalized messages

19%Preserving marketing budget

22%

Providing leadership with updates around marketing efforts/ROI

19%

Using data/measurement to navigate the uncertainty

18%

Testing/measuring performance of new channels

20%

Collaboration/alignment across teams and business units

38%

37%

37%

37%

36%




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Marketing and the Growth Mandate

Marketers today are increasingly accountable for business outcomes. Globally, nine out of ten marketers have made marketing-led growth one of their core priorities.

High performers and agency marketers were twice as likely to make a significant step toward marketing-led growth as a key priority (see page 27).

01 How Marketers Define Growth

Growth marketing is all about growing or scaling your business at a rapid rate, based on data gathered online about your customers and your industry.

— Group Manager, Brand, U.S.

Growth marketing is about constantly driving new reach. Reaching new customers, driving better return on our ad dollars, increasing the lifetime value of our customer retention rate and lifetime value of our customers, increasing our basket size, transaction frequency — all of the metrics that I measure are growth marketing.

— Vice President, Brand, U.K.

I think from a growth perspective, [the question is] are we growing in the right areas? How do we expand and where do we invest so that we can grow the quickest, and can we use data to help inform that strategy so that we're investing in the right places?

— Vice President, Agency, U.S.


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From a planning perspective, more than half of marketers see driving growth as a long-term pursuit, and one in four view it as a mix of long- and short-term goals. Twenty-two percent of low-performing marketing teams think about driving growth only in the short term (see page 27).

Ranking of Marketers Growth-Defining Metrics

Sales/revenue1Customer satisfaction/NPS2Lifetime value of a customer3Brand loyalty3Return on marketing investment4

Total Ranking Based on Top 3 Choices for Respondents “Lifetime value of a customer” and “Brand loyalty” are tied for third place.

How Marketers Think About Driving Growth

Marketers measure growth through a balance of business and customer metrics such as longer-term brand equity and shorter-term top-line sales. While revenue is the main metric, additional customer-centric measurements (satisfaction/Net Promoter Score, lifetime value, brand loyalty, and return on marketing investment) round out the top five.

When we look at the long-term outlook ... you can't just pump all your money into lower-funnel tactics to see a long-term return. You need to make sure you're investing at all the right levels of the purchase funnel to make sure you're building a long-term brand rather than it just being short-term returns.

— Director, Agency, U.K.

Short term

18%

Long term

56%

A mix of short and long term

26%


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Most marketers assess their company’s performance against these key growth metrics as at least “somewhat successful.” However, there is some room for improvement: less than half consider their organizations “very successful” on any metric. Furthermore, less than 50% of marketers are very successful in achieving the very growth metrics that they deem most important (sales/revenue, customer satisfaction/NPS, customer LTV, and so on).

While growth marketing is a crucial mandate, there are different obstacles to achieving optimal growth. Nearly four in five marketers report that they are not exceeding growth goals, and low performers are eight times more likely to not exceed growth goals (see page 28).

While there are multiple hurdles, several challenges are related to data: misalignment on measurement and reporting, lack of data management, and a lack of real-time insights among them.

Marketers' Self-Assessment of Their Success Across the Following Growth Metrics

Sales-qualified leads/pipeline

Brand awareness

Marketing-qualified leads

Lifetime value of a customer

Customer engagement

Brand loyalty

Customer satisfaction or NPS

Sales/revenue

Market share

Customer retention

Funnel conversion rates

Customer acquisition cost

Customers/client volume

Return on marketing investment

47% 48% 6%

45% 46% 8%

45%

45%

44%

43%

42%

41%

41%

40%

39%

38%

38%

37%

34%

48%

46%

48%

50%

50%

53%

51%

53%

54%

49%

54%

55%

57%

7%

9%

7%

7%

9%

6%

8%

7%

7%

13%

9%

8%

8%Marketing spend per customer

Ranking of Growth Marketing Barriers

Misalignment on measurement and reporting1Lack of resources and talent2Lack of data governance/management3Lack of real-time insights4Return on marketing investment5

Total Ranking Based on Top 3 Choices for Respondents

Marketing Intelligence Report: Data and Analytics Trends to Drive Future Growth

■ Successful ■ Somewhat Successful ■ Not at All Successful


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State of Marketing Analytics

Since the top challenges to growth centered around data and measurement, it is important to understand the state of data and analytics infrastructures within marketing organizations. When asked to assess the state of their marketing organization’s data and analytics infrastructure, more than half of marketers rated them as average or poor. This suggests room for improvement in collecting, harmonizing, organizing, analyzing, and acting on data. To understand why data-related issues are holding marketers back, we need to look at the current state of marketing analytics.

02

Most marketers now rely on a diverse marketing mix of channels led by their brand website, display advertising, email campaigns, programmatic advertising, and social media, but also including a long tail of different channels depending on their business, industry, and customer.


State of Marketing Organizations’ Data & Analytics Infrastructure

Advanced

48%

Poor

4%

Average

48%


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10%

1–5 31–506–15 50+16–30

35%

16%

3%

Average Number of Platforms 21

35%

Number of Marketing/Advertising Platforms Used for Cross-Channel Marketing

On average, marketers use eight different channels for their marketing strategies. But the full complexity of cross-channel marketing becomes clearer when you examine the number of platforms and the amount of data that marketers must manage. For example, while social media is considered just one channel, it encompasses many different platforms, including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, just to name a few. Depending on a business’ customer base, these platforms may also include ones like Reddit or LinkedIn, or LINE, WeChat, and WhatsApp in significant global regions. Thus, while marketers may only be using an average of eight channels, they’re using an average of 21 platforms.

Seventy-nine percent of marketers agree that it is important to have an overview of all cross-channel marketing activities.

The metrics most commonly used to measure performance across these channels include contribution toward sales and revenue, marketing and advertising spend, and brand awareness. Within each overarching metric lies additional, more granular measurement. For example, measuring marketing or advertising spend by definition includes budget and spend data across all channel, campaign, content, or audience investments.

Ranking of Metrics Most Commonly Measured in Marketers' Campaigns

Sales revenue1Marketing or advertising spend2Brand awareness3Customer acquisitions4ROI/customer lifetime value (CLV/LTV)5




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Data Integration and Management

Integrating the data flowing in from all of the platforms marketers use into a cross-channel view enables the evaluation and improvement of marketing performance. Marketers who report complete satisfaction with their investments and outcomes are 4.8 times more likely to be satisfied with their data integration than those who are moderately or less satisfied with their investments and outcomes.4 When asked to assess the current state of their data integration and management, more than half of marketers indicate there is room for improvement (see page 29).

For those marketers, the main challenges around data integration and management involve maintaining data veracity (that is, data that is consistent or complete) and the ability to connect data from multiple sources.

Only one-third of marketers report full confidence in the accuracy of their data. (see page 29)

4 Sixth edition "State of Marketing" report, Salesforce, 2020.

03

Another challenge involves employee resources and skills. The ingestion, cleansing, and harmonization of data across channels often requires advanced skill sets or AI-powered technologies. Marketing data is complex, not just due to the number of data sources and volume of data returned, but also because each data source is siloed within its own platform, structured with its own fields and metrics, and delivered in a different format.

Top Challenges with Data Integration & Management

Data veracity1Ability to connect and unify data from multiple sources2Employee resources and skill sets3Data variety4Data volume/accessibility5




https://www.salesforce.com/form/pdf/6th-state-of-marketing/?sfdc-redirect=227

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To solve these challenges, marketers are turning to automation to ensure consistent data preparation while optimizing employee resources. Over half of marketers use an automated approach to integrate data from different platforms. On the other hand, nearly one-third of marketers still integrate and harmonize data manually. High performers are nearly two times more likely to use an automated approach than a manual one (see page 30).

When using a manual approach, 43% of marketers spend a week or more every month collecting, cleansing, and harmonizing datasets.

Extent to Which Marketers Integrate and Harmonize Cross-Channel Data Sets Automatically

Time Spent Collecting, Cleansing, and Harmonizing Data Sets Manually

12%

1 day a month

>1 week a month

A few days a month

Continuously every week each month

1 week a month

45%

30%

11%

2%


Fully manual

8%Fully automatic

25%

More automatic than manual

29%

More manual than automatic

23%

An even mix of the two

14%


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Eighty-eight percent of marketers spend at least days — if not weeks or months — integrating performance data from new partners, channel platforms, and business systems of record. This is lost time that could be spent analyzing data for insights and applying learnings to marketing and media strategies, which 34% of marketers say is a top challenge (see page 29). In addition, 56% of marketers who are spending a few days a month on manual processes are only receiving reports on a weekly to quarterly basis (see page 31).

Duration to Integrate New Data Partners/Sources

10%

Minutes WeeksHours MonthsDays

42%

11%

3%

35%



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Data Analytics and Optimization

Once data is properly integrated, marketers can begin to access it in a consumable format and extract new insights to inform decision-making. However, when asked to assess their data analysis and optimization capabilities, 54% of marketers indicated room for improvement (see page 32).

So what are the roadblocks in analyzing and optimizing marketing data? Key challenges are marketers’ inability to share and collaborate on data analysis across stakeholders, connect marketing activities to business outcomes, and apply learnings to strategies.

Collaboration among teams is especially important given varied marketing functions and the rise of globally distributed workforces.

Seventy-four percent of marketers report that key stakeholders face challenges accessing data and insights. (see page 32)

Those in high-performance organizations are nearly seven times as likely to claim very easy access to data and insights relative to lower-performance organizations (see page 32).

04

Top Challenges with Marketing Data Analysis and Optimization

Ability to share and collaborate on data analysis across stakeholders1Connecting marketing activities to business outcomes2Ability to apply learnings to marketing/media strategies3Lack of speed in reporting and insights due to manual data prep3Using real-time data analysis to inform campaign optimization4

Total Ranking Based on Top 3 Choices for Respondents “Ability to apply learnings to marketing/media strategies” and “Lack of speed in reporting and insights due to manual data prep” are tied for third place.


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Marketers see the value in data, but are held back from optimizing its full potential. Marketers use data for different goals, but most aren’t completely satisfied with their ability to leverage data for growth-driving functions. Nearly three in four marketers see room for improvement at their company in media planning and buying, marketing budget optimization, and proving and improving marketing ROI.

Extent to Which Marketers Are Satisfied with Company’s Ability to Leverage Data for the Following Functions

Media planning and buying

Increasing sales and revenue

Developing insights into consumer behavior

Marketing budget optimization

Proving/improving marketing ROI

Dynamic/personalized ad/marketing creative

Customer journey analytics

25%

22%

22%

22%

21%

21%

21%

% Completely Satisfied

Marketers also see room for improvement in their use of data to improve customer experiences. Around 80% of marketers are not completely satisfied with their ability to leverage data to understand consumer behavior, analyze the customer journey, and create personalized marketing creatives.

Only 45% of marketers believe they can drive measurable business outcomes very well. (see page 33)

It’s almost like paralysis by analysis. That’s my biggest challenge, because currently I have data. But am I measuring too many things? What can I actually do with that data? What can I change today to make a difference tomorrow?

— Vice President, Agency, Australia



The lack of full visibility into cross-channel marketing efforts has a large impact on business agility. Marketers need insights at their fingertips to make decisions while campaigns are still in-flight and to respond to customers in the moment with the right message or offer. Ninety-two percent of marketers believe real-time decision-making is an important factor in the success of their marketing (see page 33). However, 54% of marketers are not receiving reports on a daily or real-time basis.

How Often Marketers Generate/Receive Reports of Their Cross-Channel Performance

14%

Real time MonthlyDaily QuarterlyWeekly

32%36%

15%

3%

We don't currently do this

1%

Marketers on the Importance of Timely Insights

We target quite a young Gen Z audience, and that audience is forever changing their behaviors and attitudes, brands they love, brands they hate, all that kind of thing. So we really have to be quite quick about how we action our audience insights and make sure that we're putting them into use.

— Director, Agency, U.K.

Having a predictive component as to how it's going to perform is a nice thing to have at your fingertips. So that as a marketer, we know that there's good investment in the dollars and can inform the direction for my team to say you're going to spend a good amount of time on this, and here's why. It’s a goal-setting opportunity.

— Vice President, Brand, U.S.



Faster and more complete visibility into cross-channel performance requires greater automation of the manual and time-consuming tasks of collecting and aggregating data for reports. Currently, only 6% of marketers’ cross-channel analytics reports are fully automated. One-third of marketers use an even mix between automatically and manually generated reports. Still, two in five marketers rely more on manual report generation.

Extent to Which Marketers’ Cross-Channel Reports Are Generated Automatically

I’m constantly being asked for insight into marketing activity and have to plug in lots of data sources and manually do that. There's a better, smarter way of doing things.

— Vice President, Brand, U.K.

Fully automatic

6%Fully manual

11%


28%


23%


32%



Many marketers rely on siloed reporting within each individual platform (30%), some manually aggregate reports in spreadsheets (17%), but most have moved to adopting business or marketing intelligence platforms (53%). High performers are more likely to use marketing intelligence or general business intelligence platforms (59%) and less likely to use spreadsheets (14%) than low performers (47% use marketing intelligence or business platforms/21% use spreadsheets; see page 34).

How Marketers Measure and Optimize Performance

There are so many different platforms that are out there that our teams have access to … we're just spread across all these different platforms and tools, and [our teams] have got to help us understand those elements. It’s a little bit of a strain on the organization.

— Vice President, Agency, U.S.

Marketing or business intelligence platform

53%

Use spreadsheets

17%

Within each platform

independently

30%


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Data-Driven Transformation in 2021 and Beyond

In this section, we focus on what it takes to achieve marketing success, marketers’ goals for the future, and their self-assessment in achieving a data-driven culture.

Looking at the key factors for marketing success, the importance of accurate and accessible data becomes even more apparent. Over half of marketers believe that data veracity and data accessibility are the most important factors in driving marketing success, and half of marketers believe that providing visibility to leadership is very important. Also among the top success initiatives is the ability to connect marketing and sales data, which highlights how important it is to be able to prove ROI and tie marketing to business outcomes.

05

Extent to Which Marketers Consider the Following Important for Their Marketing Performance Success

Accurate, validated data

Data accessibility

Optimizing marketing budget

Connecting marketing and sales data

Providing visibility to leadership

Centralizing data across all channels/sources

Technical skills to interpret marketing data

Real-time decision-making

Media planning/pacing

Consistent measurement and/or taxonomy

AI-powered insights

55% 38%

53% 42%

52% 42%

51% 43%

50% 43%

49% 45%

49% 44%

48% 44%

46% 46%

45% 47%

43% 46%

7%

5%

6%

7%

7%

7%

7%

8%

8%

9%

11%

■ Very Important ■ Important ■ Not Important


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Ranking of Top Growth-Related Business Initiatives for the Next 24 Months

Connected customer experience1Ecommerce growth2Sales growth via new interactive chat, mobile, and AI/bot-driven experiences3Acquisition of new products4Direct-to-consumer or services revenue growth5


Marketers continue to face challenges when it comes to data and measurement, but the outlook for next year shows that they are focused on making improvements. Top priorities include optimizing marketing spend, creating a strategic view of overall marketing performance, and improving their ability to understand and engage customers.

In order to achieve these improvements, marketers have a variety of initiatives in place for the next 24 months.

Top Improvements Marketers Are Seeking to Make over the Next Year

Optimizing marketing spend1Strategic view of overall marketing performance2Better ability to understand/engage customers3Efficiency of data management/preparation3Revenue growth and campaign KPI performance4

Total Ranking Based on Top 3 Choices for Respondents “Better ability to understand/engage customers” and “Efficiency of data management/preparation” are tied for third place.



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As data is such a key component of their work, marketers view a data-driven culture as critical to their success. And this transformation is well underway. Marketers report they’re making good progress in essential areas such as gaining support from leadership, measuring marketing ROI, and leveraging technology such as AI and marketing analytics platforms to gain efficiencies across their data.

Marketers’ Self-Assessment of Their Success to Transform to a More Data-Driven Culture

Support from executive leadership

Tracking ROI across each marketing investment

Investment in using AI-powered solutions to uncover insights at speed

Investment in marketing analytics platform/technology

Cross-team collaboration in understanding analytics reporting and to support decision-making

Cross-team alignment on data and using insights/analytics to make every decision data-driven

60%

58%

58%

57%

54%

51%

% very successful

With continued progress on the strategic alignment of people, processes, and technologies to a unified data foundation for analytics, marketers are well-prepared to embrace their role as growth drivers who can successfully optimize engagement with today’s digital first customers.

The challenge is to empower your teams to [test] things and give them the ability to learn based on the data and the insights. Empower them to be creative and give them the runway to take off, as opposed to making them [operate] on a short runway that doesn't have a ton of support behind it.

— Vice President, Brand, U.S.




Survey Demographics Respondent Profiles

Employment Status

Top 3 Functions

Advertising/Marketing

IT

Customer Service

Web Design

Sales

Administration

33%

22%

22%

21%

17%

Human Resources 14%

Finance 13%

Purchasing 11%

Manufacturing/Operations 10%

100%

Advertising Spend

$1 million to $5 million ................ 31%

$6 million to $20 million .............. 29%

$21 million to $50 million ............25%

$51 million+ ................................... 15%

Average Budget .......................... $25,830,000

Job Title

26%

C-level Department Head

VP, SVP, EVP

ManagerDirector

20%

25%

14%

Analyst

1%

14%

1%

Strategist

Employed full time

97%

Employed part time

3%



Survey Demographics Organizational Environments

Sectors

Apparel/Fashion

Consumer Packaged Goods

Technology/Business Solutions

Consumer Electronics

Financial Products/Services

Retail (physical presence)

28%

28%

27%

25%

24%

Retail (online only) 22%

Media & Entertainment 20%

Manufacturing 19%

Cosmetics & Toiletries 19%

29%

Automotive 18%

Healthcare & Life Sciences 17%

Telecommunications 15%

Restaurants 12%

Liquor, Beer & Wine 12%

Pharmaceuticals & Remedies 11%

Travel 6%

Advertising Focus

B2C

30%

Both B2C and B2B

44%

B2B

26%



Methodology

Who? What? Where

N=1,065 brand marketers or advertisers globally

N=100/50 brand marketers/agency per country

• Involved in marketing and/or advertising decision-making for manufacturers/brand or agencies

• Must use and/or drive marketing analytics

• Company or main client must spend U.S. equivalent $1MM+/year on advertising, or calibrated spend based on economy size

• Mix of titles: Sr Manager+, Director, VP, C-level

• Our assumed incidence for this group is 50%, targeted by title

15-minute online and telephone supplemented survey

• Translated into French, German, Japanese, and Chinese

• Localized English for U.K. and Australia

U.S.

U.K.

Australia

France

Germany

Japan

Singapore



AppendixCOVID-19 Heightens Focus on Marketing Spend Optimization

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Marketing/Advertising Budget

32%

Brand

46%

22%

27%

Agency

50%

24%

21%

High Performers

49%

30%

46%

Low Performers

44%

10%

Increased

Stayed the same

Decreased

Denotes statistically significant difference between groups

vs. vs.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Marketing/Advertising Budget

Increased

22%

Decreased

30%

Stayed the same

47%



AppendixCOVID-19 Heightens Focus on Marketing Spend Optimization

Extent to Which Prioritization Has Increased for the Following Due to the Pandemic

Providing customers with empathetic, personalized messages 81%

Using data/measurement to navigate the uncertainty 80%

Collaboration/alignment across teams and business units 80%

Testing new marketing tactics/strategies 79%

Providing leadership with updates around marketing efforts/ROI 79%

Testing/measuring performance of new channels 77%

Preserving marketing budget 76%

19%

20%

20%

21%

21%

23%

24%

■ Increased Prioritization ■ No Increased Prioritization


Appendix01 | Marketing and the Growth Mandate

Extent to Which Marketers Are Shifting Marketing-Led Priorities to Growth

8%

Brand

60%

32%

6%

Agency

52%

42%

6%

High Performers

48%

46%

9%

Low Performers

69%

22%

Yes, very significantly

Yes, somewhat significantly

No, not at all


vs. vs.

How Marketers Think About Driving Growth

57%

Brand

29%

14%

56%

Agency

19%

25%

54%

High Performers

31%

15%

55%

Low Performers

23%

22%

Short term

Mix of short and long term

Long term


vs. vs.



Appendix01 | Marketing and the Growth Mandate

Marketing Organization’s Level of Success to Meet or Exceed Goals for Growth

9%

Brand

71%

20%

10%

Agency

71%

19%

4%

High Performers

66%

30%

21%

Low Performers

76%

3%

Exceeds goals

Meets goals

Does not meet goals


vs. vs.



Appendix03 | Data Integration and Management

Marketers’ Assessment of Their Current Data Integration and Management State

Marketers’ Confidence in Accuracy of Their Data

Top Challenges with Marketing Data Analysis and Optimization

Top3

Ability to share and collaborate on data analysis across stakeholders

Connecting marketing activities to business outcomes

Ability to apply learnings to marketing/media strategies

Lack of speed in reporting and insights due to manual data prep

Using insights to target highly relevant audiences

Using insights to engage audiences with the right content or offers

37%

35%

34%

34%

32%

32%

Using real-time data analysis to inform campaign optimization 32%

Creating effective data visualizations 31%

Custom report generation 25%

Excellent

47%

Poor

7%

Good

46%

Very confident

31%

Not confident

10%

Confident

59%




Extent to Which Marketers Integrate and Harmonize Cross-Channel Data Automatically

High Performers


Low Performers

Fully manual

10%Fully automatic

28%


28%


18%


16%

Fully manual

7%Fully automatic

21%


29%


29%


13%


1%



How Often Marketers Generate/Receive Reports of Their Cross-Channel Performance

16%

Real Time MonthlyDaily QuarterlyWeekly

29%

39%

13%

2%


1%

Marketers who spend a few days a month on manually collecting/cleansing/harmonizing data

9%

Real Time MonthlyDaily QuarterlyWeekly

22%

39%

25%

4%


1%

Marketers who spend a week or more on manually collecting/cleansing/harmonizing data



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Appendix04 | Data Analytics and Optimization

Marketers’ Self-Assessment of Their Data Analysis and Optimization Capabilities

Extent to Which Stakeholders Can Access Data/Insights Easily

11%

Brand

63%

26%

9%

Agency

63%

28%

4%

High Performers

55%

41%

23%

Low Performers

71%

6%

Very easily

Somewhat easily

Not easily

vs. vs.


Poor

6%

Good

47%

Excellent

46%

Not applicable

1%


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Marketers' Self-Assessment of Their Success in Meeting the Following Goals

Translating data into actionable insights 46% 44%

Driving measurable business outcomes 45% 41%

Improving campaigns while in-flight 44% 44%

Optimizing advertising budget 43% 45%

Providing leadership visibility to inform decisions 43% 46%

Improving speed-to-market 43% 44%

Increasing reporting efficiency through automation

42% 44%

Reducing brand waste 41% 46%

Leveraging AI-powered insights 39% 45%

11%

14%

12%

12%

11%

13%

13%

14%

16%

Extent to Which Marketers Consider the Following Important for Their Marketing Performance Success

Accurate, validated data 55% 38%

Data accessibility 53% 42%

Optimizing marketing budget

52% 42%

Connecting marketing and sales data

51% 43%

Providing visibility to leadership

50% 43%

Centralizing data across all channels/sources

49% 45%

Technical skills to interpret marketing data

49% 44%

Real-time decision-making 48% 44%

Media planning/pacing 46% 46%

Consistent measurement and/or taxonomy

45% 47%

AI-powered insights 43% 46%

7%

5%

6%

7%

7%

7%

7%

8%

8%

9%

11%


■ Very Important ■ Important ■ Not Important

■ Successful ■ Somewhat Successful ■ Not at All Successful


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Extent to Which Marketing Organizations Use Data for Decisions

21%

Brand

62%

16%

21%

Agency

64%

12%

10%

High Performers

69%

20%

37%

Low Performers

53%

6%

Always/almost always

As much as possible

Not often enough


vs. vs.

Never

How Marketers Measure and Optimize Performance

17%

Brand

29%

54%

17%

Agency

33%

50%

14%

High Performers

27%

59%

21%

Low Performers

32%

47%

Marketing or business intelligence platform

Within each platform independently

Use spreadsheets


vs. vs.



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Sales/revenue1

Country Profile United States

Top Growth-Defining Metrics

Marketing-qualified leads2Brand awareness3

Lack of a unified view of performance1

Top Growth Marketing Barriers

Lack of understanding of customer2Misalignment across teams on measurement and reporting3


Marketing or advertising spend1

Top Metrics Used for Marketing Campaigns

Sales or revenue2Return on investment 3

Average Number of Marketing/Advertising Platforms Used


Data veracity1Top Challenges

Data accessibility1Ability to connect and unify data from multiple sources2

23%

of marketers fully automate cross-channel data integration and harmonization


Using real-time data analysis to inform campaign optimization1

Top Challenges

Using insights to target highly relevant audiences2Ability to share and collaborate on data analysis across key stakeholders3


Ecommerce growth1

Top Growth-Related Business Initiatives for the Next 24 Months

Connected customer experience across marketing, sales, service2Direct-to-consumer growth3

Accurate, validated data1

Most Important Factors for Marketing Performance Success

Data accessibility2Optimizing the marketing budget3

Creating a strategic view of our overall marketing performance1

Top Improvements Marketers Seek to Make over the Next Year

Better ability to understand and engage customers2Optimizing marketing spend3

22

* Data veracity and data accessibility are tied for first place.

of marketers have access to real-time or daily cross-channel performance reports

50%


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Sales/revenue1

Country Profile United Kingdom


Return on marketing investment1Brand loyalty2

Misalignment across teams on measurement and reporting1


Lack of real-time insights2Lack of alignment to business KPIs3


Sales or revenue1


Marketing or advertising spend2Brand awareness2




Time spent on data cleansing/data prep2Data volume3

23%


Ability to share and collaborate on data analysis across stakeholders1

Top Challenges

Connecting marketing investments/ activities to business outcomes2Using real-time data analysis to inform campaign optimization3


Direct-to-consumer growth1


Ecommerce growth1Connected customer experience across marketing, sales, service2

Connecting marketing and sales data1


Accurate, validated data2Real-time decision-making3

Deeper insights into audiences, content, and offers1


Driving revenue growth and campaign KPI performance2Optimizing marketing spend2

19* Sales/revenue and return on marketing

investment are tied for first place.* Marketing or advertising spend and brand

awareness are tied for second place.

* Direct-to-consumer growth and ecommerce growth are tied for first place.

* Driving revenue growth and campaign KPI performance and optimizing marketing spend are tied for second place.



47%


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Lifetime value of a customer1

Country Profile Germany


Customer satisfaction or net promoter score 1Marketing-qualified leads2



Lack of alignment to business KPIs2Lack of data governance/management3


Sales or revenue1


Customer lifetime value1Marketing or advertising spend2



Ability to connect and unify data from multiple sources1

Top Challenges

Data veracity2Data variety3

34%



Top Challenges

Ability to apply learnings directly to marketing/ media strategies and planning2Lack of speed in reporting and insights due to manual data prep3


Recurring revenue model1


Connected customer experience across marketing, sales, service1Sales growth via new interactive chat, mobile, AI- /bot-driven experiences2

Data accessability1


Preparing data for advanced analysis2Providing visibility to leadership3

Better ability to understand and engage customers1


Creating a strategic view of overall marketing performance 2Driving revenue growth and campaign KPI performance3

23* Lifetime value of a customer and customer

satisfaction or net promoter score are tied for first place.* Sales or revenue and customer lifetime

value are tied for first place.

* Recurring revenue model and connected customer experience across marketing, sales, service are tied for first place.


47%



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Sales/revenue1

Country Profile France


Marketing-qualified leads2Lifetime value of a customer3

Lack of resources and talent 1


Lack of real-time insights2Lack of data governance/management3




Site visits2Sales or revenue3




Data accessbility2Data volume3

25%


Using real-time data analysis to inform campaign optimization1

Top Challenges

Using insights to engage audiences with the right content or offers2Connecting marketing investments/activities to business outcomes3


Ecommerce growth1


Sales growth via new chat, mobile, AI bot applications2Connected customer experience across marketing, sales, service3

Optimizing the marketing budget1


Accurate, validated data2Data accessibility3

Optimizing marketing spend1


Better ability to understand and engage customers2Creating a strategic view of overall marketing performance 3

20



41%


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Sales/revenue1

Country Profile Australia


Customers/client volume1Customer satisfaction or net promoter score2

Lack of data governance/management1


Misalignment across teams on measurement2Lack of real-time insights3




Customer acquisitions2Return on investment 3



Ability to connect and unify data from multiple sources1

Top Challenges

Data veracity1Data volume2

38%


Connecting marketing investments/activities to business outcomes1

Top Challenges

Using insights to target highly relevant audiences2Using insights to engage audiences with the right content or offers2




Connected customer experience across marketing, sales, service1Diversification of products/offerings1

Technical skills/expertise to interpret/integrate marketing data1


Accurate, validated data2Interactive views of data across channels3

Data ownership alignment across marketing and IT departments1


Efficiency of data management and preparation 2Deeper insights into audiences, content, and offers3

18* Sales/revenue and customers/client

volume are tied for first place.

* Ability to connect and unify data from multiple sources and data veracity are tied for first place.

* Using insights to target highly relevant audiences and using insights to engage audiences with the right content or offers are tied for second place.

* Recurring revenue model, connected customer experience across marketing, sales, service, and diversification of products/offerings are all tied for first place.



51%


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Customer satisfaction or net promoter score1

Country Profile Singapore


Return on marketing investment2Brand loyalty 2

Misalignment across teams on measurement1


Lack of data governance/management2Inefficient use of budget3


Return on investment 1


Channel metrics2Marketing or advertising spend3




Data variety 2Time spent on data cleansing/data prep2

18%



Top Challenges

Using insights to engage audiences with the right content or offers 2Using insights to target highly relevant audiences3


Connected customer experience across marketing, sales, service1


Services revenue growth2Acquisition of new products/brands/offerings2



Interactive views of data across channels2Data accessibility3



Efficiency of data management and preparation 2Better ability to understand and engage customers3

27* Return on marketing investment and

brand loyalty are tied for second place.

* Data variety and time spent on data cleansing/data prep are tied for second place.

* Services revenue growth and acquisition of new products/brands/offerings are tied for second place.



37%


* Optimizing marketing spend and efficiency of data management and preparation are tied for second place.

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Sales/revenue1

Country Profile Japan


Customer acquisition cost2Brand awareness3

Lack of resources and talent1


Lack of understanding of customer2Lack of unified view of performance3


Sales or revenue 1


Customer acquisitions 2Site visits3



Employee resources and skill set1Top Challenges

Data veracity1Creating consistent KPIs and taxonomy across data sources2

16%



Top Challenges

Ability to apply learnings directly to marketing/media strategies and planning1Creating effective data visualizations2


Services revenue growth1


Connected customer experience across marketing, sales, service1Acquisition of new products/brands/offerings2



Optimizing the marketing budget2Providing visibility to leadership3

Creating a strategic view of overall marketing performance1


Optimizing marketing spend2Efficiency of data management and preparation 2

19

* Employee resources and skill set and data veracity are tied for second place.

* Services revenue growth and connected customer experience across marketing, sales, service are tied for first place.

* Connecting marketing investments/activities to business outcomes and ability to apply learnings directly to marketing/media strategies and planning are tied for first place.



45%


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Brand loyalty 1

Industry Profile Automotive


Brand awareness2Marketing spend per customer 2



Lack of data governance/management2Lack of alignment to business KPIs2


Sales or revenue 1


Marketing or advertising spend2Brand awareness3




Data variety2Time spent on data cleansing/data prep3

31%



Top Challenges

Using insights to target highly relevant audiences2Lack of speed in reporting and insights due to manual data prep2




Ecommerce growth2Acquisition of new products/brands/offerings3



Analyzing the competition2Centralizing all data across channels/sources3

Access to real-time data for faster decision-making1


Efficiency of data management and preparation 2Creating a strategic view of overall marketing performance3

25

* Using insights to target highly relevant audiences and lack of speed in reporting and insights due to manual data prep are tied for second place.

* Brand awareness and marketing spend per customer are tied for second place.

* Lack of data governance/management and lack of alignment to business KPIs are tied for second place.



57%


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Sales/revenue1

Industry Profile Consumer Packaged Goods


Marketing-qualified leads2Lifetime value of a customer2



Lack of data governance/management2Lack of real-time insights3








Data variety2Ability to connect and unify data from multiple sources3

29%



Top Challenges

Ability to apply learnings directly to marketing/media strategies and planning2Using insights to engage audiences with the right content or offers3




Ecommerce growth2Sales growth via new chat, mobile, AI bot applications3



Data accessibility2Optimizing marketing spend3



Creating a strategic view of overall marketing performance 2Better ability to understand and engage customers2

24* Marketing-qualified leads and lifetime

value of a customer are tied for second place.* Marketing or advertising spend and sales

or revenue are tied for first place.

* Creating a strategic view of overall marketing performance and better ability to understand and engage customers are tied for second place.



51%


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Sales/revenue1

Industry Profile Financial Services


Customer satisfaction or net promoter score1Customer engagement 2



Lack of data governance/management2Lack of understanding of customer 3




Sales or revenue2Customer lifetime value 3




Ability to connect and unify data from multiple sources2Data variety2

27%



Top Challenges

Ability to share and collaborate on data analysis across stakeholders2Lack of speed in reporting and insights due to manual data prep3




Acquisition of new products/brands/offerings2Direct-to-consumer growth 3



Data accessibility2Centralizing all data across channels/sources3

Efficiency of data management and preparation 1


Access to real-time data for faster decision-making2Creating a strategic view of overall marketing performance 3

24* Sales/revenue and customer satisfaction

or net promoter score are tied for first place.

* Ability to connect and unify data from multiple sources and data variety are tied for second place.



47%


salesforce.com 45


Customer engagement1

Industry Profile Healthcare & Life Sciences


Sales/revenue 2Custmer acquisition cost3

Inefficient use of budget1


Misalignment across teams on measurement2Lack of alignment to business KPIs2


Customer acquisitions 1


Marketing or advertising spend2Sales or revenue2




Data volume2Ability to connect and unify data from multiple sources3

26%



Top Challenges

Lack of speed in reporting and insights due to manual data prep2Connecting marketing investments/activities to business outcomes3


Sales growth via new chat, mobile, AI bot applications1


Connected customer experience across marketing, sales, service2Recurring revenue model3

Data accessibility1


Accurate, validated data2Centralizing all data across channels/sources3

Better ability to understand and engage customers1


Deeper insights into audiences, content, and offers2Optimizing marketing spend3

27* Misalignment across teams on measurement and lack

fof alignment to business KPIs are tied for second place.* Marketing or advertising spend and sales or

revenue are tied for second place.



55%


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Sales qualified leads/pipeline1

Industry Profile Manufacturing


Sales/revenue 2Customers/client volume3



Lack of alignment to business KPIs2Lack of understanding of customer2








Data variety2Time spent on data cleansing/data prep2

24%



Top Challenges

Using insights to target highly relevant audiences2Ability to apply learnings directly to marketing/media strategies and planning3




Connected customer experience across marketing, sales, service1Acquisition of new products/brands/offerings1



Data accessibility2Centralizing all data across channels/sources3

Scaling analytics across the enterprise1


Driving revenue growth and campaign KPI performance2Optimizing marketing spend3

25* Lack of alignment to business KPIs and lack of

understanding of customer are tied for second place.

* Data variety and time spent on data cleansing/data prep are tied for second place.

* Recurring revenue model, connected customer experience across marketing, sales, service, and acquisition of new products/brands/offerings are all tied for first place.



49%


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Sales/revenue1

Industry Profile Media & Tech


Customers/client volume2Lifetime value of a customer3



Lack of data governance/management2Lack of alignment to business KPIs2




Sales or revenue2Customer lifetime value3




Ability to connect and unify data from multiple sources2Data accessibility3

26%



Top Challenges

Use insights to engage audiences with the right content or offers 2Connecting marketing investments/activities to business outcomes3




Sales growth via distribution 2Acquisition of new products/brands/offerings2



Data accessibility2Optimizing the marketing budget3



Better ability to understand and engage customers2Driving revenue growth and campaign KPI performance2

23* Lack of data governance/management and lack of

alignment to business KPIs are tied for second place.

* Sales growth via distribution and acquisition of new products/brands/offerings are tied for second place.

* Better ability to understand and engage customers and driving revenue growth and campaign KPI performance are tied for second place.



44%


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Sales/revenue1

Industry Profile Retail


Customer satisfaction or net promoter score2Lifetime value of a customer3



Lack of resources and talent2Lack of data governance/management3


Sales or revenue 1


Marketing or advertising spend2Return on investment 3




Data variety2Employee resources and skill set 3

24%



Top Challenges

Ability to apply learnings directly to marketing/media strategies and planning2Lack of speed in reporting and insights due to manual data prep 2




Ecommerce growth2Sales growth via new chat, mobile, AI bot applications3



Data accessibility2Providing visibility to leadership3



Creating a strategic view of overall marketing performance2Efficiency of data management and preparation 2

23

* Creating a strategic view of overall marketing performance and efficiency of data management and preparation are tied for second place.

* Ability to apply learnings directly to marketing/media strategies and planning and lack of speed in reporting and insights due to manual data prep are tied for second place.



49%


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Data and Analytics Trends to Drive Future Growth