Spend on marketing analytics and data infrastructure to grow sharply

Spend across marketing analytics and data infrastructure is forecast to grow from $22 billion in 2022 to $32 billion in 2026 in the U.S., U.K. and European Union. That’s according to a new report from Winterberry Group, “From Data to Insight: The Outlook for Marketing Analytics.”

The predicted increase of over 30% is derived from a survey of 200 U.S. and European marketers, as well as interviews with industry experts.

Why we care. These findings underline the extent to which marketing will become increasingly data-driven in the months and years to come. In order to be data-driven at scale, marketing will rely more and more on an agile and well-integrated martech stack.

What’s more, the range of skills required within marketing organizations — or in close proximity — will have to include confidence in handling analytics and data.

Major challenges. Despite these prospects for growth, Winterberry listed four major challenges that continue to dog the data and analytics space:

• Quality of data and persistence of data silos.
• Conducting measurement despite “black boxes” (unreliable vendor performance data).
• The deprecation of third-party cookies.
• A shortage of talent.

Dig deeper: Marketing analytics: What it is and why marketers should care

A work in progress. Many marketing organizations recognize themselves as lacking maturity when it comes to data and analytics. 47% describe themselves as “emerging” or “progressing”: only 10% consider themselves “leaders.”

The main areas of interest as organizations develop the right muscles are audience intelligence, the customer journey, customer experience, creative and content, and media measurement and attribution.

“Organizations leading the charge in analytic decision-making have demonstrated that a cohesive strategy across data, technology, people, and processes is key to success,” said Michael Harrison, Winterberry Group Managing Partner, in a release.