Research With Ascend2 Shows That Marketers Select “Improving Data Quality” as their Top Priority and Their Top Challenge This Year

Anteriad announced the release of a new global B2B marketing research study, conducted by Ascend2, “The 2024 B2B Marketing Outlook: The Data Confidence Divide.” The report finds that 76% of surveyed marketers expect budget increases this year, while 31% expect significant increases compared to only 16% in 2023. In terms of how that budget growth will be spent, marketers who achieved significant revenue growth in 2023 plan to spend more on innovative tactics in 2024 compared to their peers (33% vs 26%.)

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“Our research shows that marketers are seeing some positivity, with the majority expecting budget increases. While marketers who experienced revenue growth are more likely to try innovative marketing tactics, the majority of marketers are focused on foundational improvement, looking to improve data quality, citing it as both a top priority and a top challenge.” said Todd Lebo, CEO, at Ascend2.“We also see that marketers will be focused on balancing AI with authenticity as they look to engage their audiences.”

Key Findings:

• 59% of marketers rank authenticity among their most important brand attributes, ranking above customer-centricity, transparency, consistency, and innovation. The research also found that 49% of marketers say it is absolutely possible to strike the right balance between AI and Authenticity, while another 44% believe that it is possible, but it is a tightrope walk.
• 66% of marketers chose “improving data quality as” their top priority and 60% selected it as their top challenge.  Expanding audiences and reaching the right audience are top goals, and a solid data foundation is a key component of success;
• Three times as many marketers who are confident in their data strategy reported a significant increase in revenue, at 46% compared to just 15% of their less confident counterparts.

Additionally, marketers who said they were extremely confident in their personalization strategy were 3.5 times more likely to expect significant increases in pipeline growth, at 43% compared to 15% of other marketers. Marketers using intent data for effective personalization are significantly more likely to report being extremely confident in targeting the right personas and ICP than those not using intent data (57% vs 48%).

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Confidence varies across generations of marketers. Regarding the ability to balance use of AI and brand authenticity, confidence is the highest in younger generations of marketers; 56% of Millennial and Gen Z marketers believe that it is possible to strike the perfect balance between authenticity and using AI, compared to 42% of Gen X marketers and just 29% of Boomers.

“We expanded our scope this year to include marketers around the globe, and found that while there are common priorities, especially around the importance of balancing AI with authenticity and prioritizing data quality, there are variations in strategies and tactics in use today. For example, while 38% of North American marketers use intent data for personalization, only 29% of marketers in APAC and EMEA do,” said Lynn Tornabene, CMO at Anteriad. “We also found that marketers with high confidence in their approach tended to have experienced better results and expect higher growth. At Anteriad, we know that many elements can contribute to high confidence, including measurable success, access to quality data, and implementation of proven best practices, all things that we work closely with our customers to deliver.”