Data usage in marketing and advertising - statistics & facts

In 2019, the global marketing-related data market was valued at 34.6 billion U.S. dollars and is forecast to further grow by nearly 17.7 billion by the end of 2021. The United States is by far the leading market in this area, as it set to account for 47 percent of the 2021 global value, equaling roughly 24.7 billion U.S. dollars. Marketers in the U.S. spend most of their money on demographic, transactional and behavioral types of third-party audience data.

Marketer usage of data

Close to 40 percent of marketing professionals have been using data analytics in their marketing decision-making process. However, these figures have decreased recently, to which one possible solution is the growing number of privacy regulations that influence how marketers can collect, acquire, and use the data for commercial purposes. The most commonly cited way in which privacy regulations impact marketing data strategies is the need to increase transparency around data use. Creating new internal standards for data collection and limiting the collection were also mentioned as top factors influencing data usage.
On top of privacy regulations, marketers now have to deal with the deprecation of cookies – the main source of third-party data on consumers and their online behavior. With the usage of cookies being eliminated, new solutions are tested and implemented to counteract the loss. One of these solutions is customer data platforms (CDPs) which are meant to be a one-stop shop for information on customers. CDPs are considered effective in improving overall marketing effectiveness, reducing time spent preparing reports and managing customer data as well as improving operational inefficiencies. In fact, owing to the use of customer data platforms marketers have been seeing significant improvement in online sales, return on investment, engagement, and brand lift, just to name a few.

Customer perception of marketing data usage

In general, a little over a half of surveyed adults in the United States perceive targeted advertising as an inappropriate use of personal data, while roughly a third believe that such ads are a convenient way to see relevant product recommendation. Customers are concerned and feel worried knowing that companies are collecting and using their personal data for the purpose of online advertising. All in all, sharing personal information with companies is mostly warranted by the level of trust in a given company, certainty that their data is protected and how the data is being used. These are the main factors that would make mobile users share their data with brands and companies.



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