• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, Yesterday

B2C marketers are still plagued by challenges in managing data across sources.

For instance, 69% see data unification as a complex pain point. Yet 53% rate their data strategy as very effective  —  up from 46% last year, according to The 2026 B2C Marketing Audience Building Report, a study from Porch Group Media (PGM Solutions) conducted by Ascend2. 

The biggest hurdles in building customer audiences are:

• Having the correct data to personalize communications — 57%
• Combining data types and sources — 47%
• Having the correct contact into to reach across channels — 46%
• Being able to build the right segments — 47%
• Accessing intent data — 38%
• Accessing first-party data insights — 32%
• Other — 4% 

Yet marketers are using these data sources to build their target audiences: 

• Social media — 55%
• Website — 55% 
• Email — 49%
• Survey — 45%
• Mobile app — 42%
• Point of sales — 37%
• CRM — 36%
• Third-party demographics — 31%
• Third-party contact — 31% 
• Transactional — 30% 
• Third-party behavioral or intent — 25%

The study notes that social media, email, mobile app, third-party contact data all moved up in rank from 2024.

However, survey, point of sales, CRM and transactional data have all moved down. 

Email, although it has gained a point, is not relied on by brands when building their target audiences.

In 2025, the listings are: 

• Social media — 17% 
• Website — 15% 
• CRM — 15% 
• Survey — 13% 
• Transactional — 9%
• Point of sale — 9% 
• Email — 7%
• Mobile app — 5%
• Third-party contact — 4% 
• Third-party demographics — 4% 
• Third-party behavioral or intent — 3%

Of the marketers polled, 63% now use first-party data, down from 65% in 2024. Third-party data usage is up to 31% from 25% last year. And, 28% are now using zero-party data, down a point YoY. The biggest growth was in intent data reliance — from 29% to 36%. 

The main benefits of significant use of first-party and intent data are:

• Improved customer experience — 42%
• Improved ROI on advertising — 39% 
• Improved targeting accuracy — 39%
• Increase customer acquisition — 37%
• Increased customer retention — 34% 
• Increased personalization of content — 34%
• Increased customer engagement — 32% 
• Optimized marketing campaigns — 32% 

The study concludes: “Change is inevitable, and over-reliance on one type or source of data is risky in the unpredictability of today. The industry’s response to third-party cookie deprecation is a perfect example of this. Many B2C companies overhauled their approach to data, investing more heavily in first-party data, alternative targeting, new measurement styles, and updated tech stacks. However, following Google’s decision to delay or walk back its plan to fully deprecate third-party cookies, nearly half of companies (43%) have reversed or deprioritized some of these efforts.” 

PGM and Ascend2 surveyed 260 B2C marketing professionals.