Many of the available marketing automation stats we regularly use – to make strategic decisions, craft presentations, prepare for sales calls – are getting a bit long in the tooth. So we set off to uncover the most recent marketing stats by surveying more than 350 marketing professionals in North America and Europe to get their take on how investing in marketing automation impacts business performance. The most noteworthy results are included below.

1. NEW MARKETING AUTOMATION
STATS FOR 2017
Overall, just over half (53%)
of B2B organizations surveyed
are USING marketing
automation technology, and a
further 37% say they are
PLANNING to implement it.
www.act-on.com
Using
MA
SOURCE:
The State of B2B Marketing Automation report, published by Econsultancy & Act-On
Many of the available marketing automation stats we regularly
use – to make strategic decisions, craft presentations, prepare
for sales calls – are getting a bit long in the tooth. So we set
off to uncover the most recent marketing stats by surveying
more than 350 marketing professionals in North America and
Europe to get their take on how investing in marketing
automation impacts business performance. The most
noteworthy results are included below.
MA ADOPTION
TOP REASONS FOR PURCHASING
53% 37%
Planning to
Implement
Leaders*
are 24% more likely than
their peers to say they are
CURRENTLY USING marketing
automation.
Almost two-thirds (62%) of these
companies EMPLOY marketing
automation technology, compared
to 50% for the Mainstream.
* businesses with high-performing marketing departments, defined as those companies with
marketing functions that exceeded their top business objective in 2016
50%
62%
Across all areas, North American organizations are
14% more likely to USE MARKETING AUTOMATION
than their European counterparts.
North America
Europe
Our respondents rated the
TOP THREE REASONS
for adopting marketing automation:
Higher Quality Leads
Two-thirds (66%) of
respondents rank
HIGHER QUALITY LEADS
as being among their top
three reasons for
implementing automation.
1
2
3
Increase Revenue
Align Sales & Marketing
66%
(volume) is also an important
objective for marketing automation
cited as a top-three reason for its
implementation by 41% of
those surveyed.
of respondents say
INCREASED REVENUE
is the reason they want to adopt MA.
GENERATING MORE LEADS
+14%
ROI WITH MA
of respondents agree that effective
marketing automation is critical to
LONG-TERM BUSINESS SUCCESS
98%
of respondents strongly agree that
marketing automation INCREASES
marketing’s contribution to pipeline.
+
=
A significantly higher proportion of respondents
based in North America indicate that marketing
automation has delivered their organizations with
RETURN ON INVESTMENT than those in Europe
(91 percent versus 72 percent).
91% 72%
58% of respondents strongly
agree that marketing
automation makes marketing
teams more efficient. 58%
57%
The vast majority of Leaders say that marketing
automation has delivered a RETURN ON INVESTMENT
(93%) or INCREASED CONTRIBUTION TO PIPELINE
(90%), compared to just over two-thirds of Mainstream
organizations (69% and 68% respectively)
93%
90%
LEADERS MAINSTREAM
ROI PipelineROI Pipeline
93%
90%
69%
68%
MA USAGE
Only two in five survey
respondents (41%) believe
their organizations are using
marketing automation to its
FULLEST CAPACITY.
2 / 5
More than half of respondents are only using
THREE BASIC FUNCTIONS of marketing
automation: email (73%), web forms (63%), and
landing pages (56%).
93%
73%
63%
56%
Marketing Automation Functions
Fewer than three in ten users are IMPLEMENTING
MORE ADVANCED TACTICS such as automated creation
of dynamic content and account-based marketing
>
58% of Leaders are using
LEAD NURTURING vs only
35% of the non-leaders. Lead Nurturing
Lead Scoring
35%
58%
37%
48%
47%
50%
It was seen that both these areas are
very much on the radar, with 50% and
47% of companies, respectively,
PLANNING TO USE THESE TACTICS.
48% of Leaders are using
LEAD SCORING vs only 37%
of non-leaders.
Both
Measurement of MARKETING QUALIFIED LEADS
(65% versus 48% in Europe) and
SALES ACCEPTED LEADS (56% versus 39%) is much
more common in North America.
65%
56% measurement
of SALs
measurement
of MQLs 48%
39% measurement
of SALs
measurement
of MQLs
Leaders are significantly more likely to measure
the contribution marketing makes to the
SALES PIPELINE or REVENUE using their
marketing automation system or CRM.
The State of B2B Marketing:
BARRIERS TO ADOPTION
The foremost obstacle to adoption is the
PERCEIVED COMPLEXITY of marketing automation
which is cited as a significant challenge by more
than 4 in 10 respondents.
>
Half of respondents referenced LIMITED AVAILABILITY
OF SKILLED EXPERIENCE as a barrier to success.
50%
DATA MANAGEMENT
(cited by almost half of
those surveyed as a key
challenge) and
INTEGRATION
(highlighted by more
than a third).
50%
>33%
RESOURCES were highlighted by
six in ten respondents as a
marketing automation challenge
but only 11% cited pure cost,
indicating broader constraints.
44% of respondents rated
ALIGNING SALES AND
MARKETING for mutual
success as their top reasons
for implementing MA.
44%