• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, July 11, 2024

Marketers have turned away from third-party data and are now relying on first- and zero- party data, in alignment with recommended best practices, judging by Data-Driven Marketing Trends, a study by Ascend2.  

Of the marketers polled, 52% say first-party data collected directly from customers is their primary data source. Another 12% use zero-party data (data explicitly shared by customers). These practices should help them comply with any potential privacy laws. 

Only 8% utilize third-party data purchased from external sources, and 18% deploy second-party data — data shared by partners.  

Meanwhile, 47% say data-driven marketing is most useful in email marketing. This is the same as last year, and up 5% from 2022.

Next is customer experience/journey mapping, which has held steady at 46%. Personalization is now listed by 35%, down from 41% in 2022 and 40% in 2023.  

“These results have been consistent for the past three years, highlighting the critical role of personalized and targeted communication in driving marketing success,” the study says. 

But there are challenges, starting with difficulty in targeting segment audiences. This has grown from 2023.  

• Targeting segmented audiences — 49% 
• Real-time decision making — 34% 
• Finding and maintaining quality data — 34% 
• Allocating adequate resources — 31%
• Measuring ROI/attribution — 27% 
• Implementing and managing the right technology — 27% 
• Managing data and privacy regulations — 23%
• Centralizing data/removing silos — 14%

How well are the respondents doing? Only 5% believe they are unsuccessful, while 63% report they are somewhat so and 32% are very successful or best in class.

And marketers are largely satisfied with the tools they are using -- 27% very much so and 58% somewhat. Only 15% report dissatisfaction, and a mere 3% are very unhappy with their tools.  

A plurality of 57% also claims their organization is able to integrate data from email, social media and website analytics into a unified marketing strategy. But only 15% have achieved total integration.  

Some are turning to AI, 11% using it extensively and 35% moderately. All these efforts at data-driven marketing appear to be worth the trouble.

But 29% are making minimal use, and 17% not at all. Brands are now using this discipline for:

• Personalizing marketing content — 33%
• Improving customer service with chatbots — 31% 
• Enhancing the accuracy of marketing forecasts and performance predictions — 28%
• Predicting customer behavior and trends — 26% 
• Automating marketing campaigns — 26%
• Analyzing and interpreting large datasets for insights — 26% 
• Identifying high-value leads and prospects — 22%
• Optimizing ad placements and bidding strategies — 20%  
• Enhancing customer segmentation — 19%
• None of the above — 23% 

Ascend2 surveyed 319 marketing decision makers. Of these, 24% were in B2B, 51% in B2C and 25% were in both segments equally.

In addition, 28% work in companies with more than 500 employees, while 32% work in firms with 50 to 500 employees and 40% are in companies with fewer than 50.