The ultimate list of marketing automation statistics 2022

What is marketing automation?

Marketing automation is the use of software and technology to pursue and engage audiences; measure, manage and predict outcomes; and adapt and personalize content and experiences at scale across marketing channels. The technology can be used to create personalized experiences, automate marketing tasks and execute ongoing engagement programs.

Marketing automation trends for 2022

Compared to 2019, less marketers are successful at marketing automation

16% of marketers claim they are unsuccessful at utilizing marketing automation, compared to only 5% in 2019. The amount of marketers who feel they are very successful at marketing automation dropped, from 40% in 2019 to 17% in 2021. This can partly be explained by a growing number of complex marketing automation tools entering the market.

Content automation will kick off, thanks to AI copywriting assistants

Content creation is still the most time consuming marketing activity for marketers, and 67% state they would love to automate it. With a growing number of AI content generation tools being released this year (Jasper and Flowrite to name a few), 2022 promises to be a good year for content automation.

There's a growing need for marketing automation courses

Only 20% of marketers feel they are using marketing automation to its full potential. As 48% claim they lack the expertise or know-how to implement a successful marketing automation strategy, there seems to be a growing market for marketing automation courses.

Statistics on integration and adoption of marketing automation

The marketing automation software industry in US is growing 20% annually and is projected to be a $10.3B market in 2022

Source: SharpSpring, "Investor Presentation" (2019).

Only 5% of marketers would call themselves a marketing automation expert

55% say they are complete beginners or have basic knowledge of marketing automation. Source: GetResponse & Smart Insights, "Email Marketing and Marketing Automation Excellence" (2018).

85% of marketers use some kind of marketing automation

Source: Automizy, "Marketing Automation Report" (2019).

75% of marketers say they currenly use at least one marketing automation tool

Source: Social Media Today, "State of Marketing Automation" (2019).

92% of marketing agencies are investing more time, budget, and resources into marketing automation

Marketing automation is on the rise, as nine out of ten agencies are prioritizing it. The three main objectives are to improve the effectiveness of campaigns, generate more quality leads, and ensure a stronger alignment between marketing and sales. Source: MarketingProfs, "Get Ready: Marketing Automation Integration Will Impact Your 2020 Strategy" (2019).

65% of marketers use marketing automation to streamline their email marketing efforts

Other digital marketing activities include: social media management (47%), landing pages (30%), paid ads (28%), and campaign tracking (25%). Source: Ascend2, "The State of Marketing Automation" (2021).

Dynamic web forms (12%), live chat (13%), and push notifications (13%) are the least common areas where marketers are using automations

Source: Ascend2, "The State of Marketing Automation" (2021).

40% of marketers are planning to add automation to their email marketing efforts in the year ahead

Other digital marketing activities they plan to automate include: social media management (39%), paid ads (32%), landing pages (26%), and campaign tracking (23%). Source: Ascend2, "The State of Marketing Automation" (2021).

54% of marketing professionals feel that they are not using their marketing automation tools to their fullest potential

Only 20% think they do. 26% are not sure. Source: Ascend2, "The State of Marketing Automation" (2021).

Social media post scheduling is seen as the most suitable digital marketing activity for automation (83%)

Other digital marketing activities include: email marketing (75%), social media advertising (58%), chatbots (53%), and sales prospecting (39%). Source: Social Media Today, "State of Marketing Automation" (2019).

23% of marketers believe PR outreach and brand promotion are the least suitable marketing activities for automation

Source: Social Media Today, "State of Marketing Automation" (2019).

63% of marketers use both outsourced specialists and in-house resources to implement marketing automation

The majority of marketers claim the most effective way to integrate marketing automation in their business is using a combination of both in-house resources and outsourced specialists. Only 24% believe the best results come from utilizing in-house resources only. Source: Ascend2, "Strategies, Tactics and Trends for Marketing Automation Intergration" (2019).

72% of marketers believe that automation is coming to their industry, regardless of their inclination to use it

Four percent says it's too early to tell, while 24% disagree. Source: Social Media Today, "State of Marketing Automation" (2019).

64% of marketers report that their automation solutions are only somewhat integrated or not at all integrated

A mere 7% of marketers report that their marketing automation solution is entirely integrated with the rest of their technology stack, while 29% states they are mostly integrated. Source: Ascend2, "The State of Marketing Automation" (2021).

Only 18% of marketers have a measurable lead nurturing program in place

17% of marketers report they have a lead nurturing program in place, but not as part of a well-designed strategy. 20% is currently developing a lead nurturing program. 19% have no program in place, but have future plans to implement it. 26% have no program in place and no plans to implement it. Source: Ascend2, "The State of Lead Nurturing" (2021).

69% of marketers say email is the most frequently used digital channel in their lead nurturing strategy

Other digital channels include: social media (67%), website personalization (38%), and paid advertising/retargeting (34%). Source: Ascend2, "The State of Lead Nurturing" (2021).

54% of marketers in B2B use marketing automation tools to streamline their content marketing strategy

Source: Content Marketing Institute & MarketingProfs, "B2B Content Marketing 2019" (2019).

Benefits and goals of marketing automation (key statistics)

The most important reason for implementing marketing automation is steamlining marketing and sales efforts (35%)

Other reasons mentioned by marketers include: improving customer engagement (34%), improving customer experience (34%), minimizing manual tasks (30%), and increasing the number of captured leads (28%). Source: Ascend2, "The State of Marketing Automation" (2021).

4% of marketers believe that 6 to 12 months in a reasonable time frame for realizing benefits of a new marketing automation system

36% of marketers expect to see results within 6 months or less, whereas 10% expect to see results after 12 months or more. Source: Ascend2, "Strategies, Tactics and Trends for Marketing Automation Intergration" (2019).

Improved targeting of messages is seen as the main benefit of marketing automation (60.4%)

Other benefits include: improved efficiency/ROI (40.5%), improved customer experience (36.9%), getting more leads (34.2%), and better quality of leads (33.3%). Source: Liana Technologies, "The Benefits and Challenges of Marketing Automation 2.0" (2020).

The most important objective of a marketing automation strategy is optimizing productivity (43%)

Other important objectives mentioned by marketers include: increasing marketing ROI (41%), improving campaign management (40%), improving database quality (39%), and acquiring more customers (39%). Source: Upland Software, "2017 State of Marketing Automation" (2017).

29% of marketers believe automating their lead generation process is a critical challenge for lead generation success

Source: Ascend2, "Lead Generation to Increase Conversions Survey" (2017).

Improving customer retention is the top priority for implementing a lead nurturing strategy (43%)

Other priorities mentioned include: increasing engagement (43%), increasing brand awareness (42%), improving customer experience (41%), and improving lead quality (36%). Source: Ascend2, "The State of Lead Nurturing" (2021).

80% of marketers say that having automation software is an important part of improving lead nurturing performance

20% of marketers do not think it's important. Source: Ascend2, "The State of Lead Nurturing" (2021).

30% of marketers believe saving time is the biggest benefit of marketing automation

Source: GetResponse & Smart Insights, "Email Marketing and Marketing Automation Excellence" (2018).

Top reasons for purchasing marketing automation tools

The most important factor in choosing a marketing automation system is the total cost or pricing model (53%)

Other important factors include: ease of use (47%), analytics and reporting capabilities (40%), all-in-one solution (39%). Source: Ascend2, "Strategies, Tactics and Trends for Marketing Automation Intergration" (2019).

Only 23% of marketers say recommendations from their network play a factor in evaluating marketing automation software

Source: Upland Software, "2017 State of Marketing Automation" (2017).

When evaluating marketing tools, 30% of marketers say the ability to automate is one of the most important conciderations

Source: Ascend2, "Marketing Technology Implementation Survey" (2020).

Marketing automation results & ROI statistics

84% of marketers describe their marketing automation strategy as successful

17% describe their marketing automation strategy as very successful (best-in-class), compared to competitors (40% in 2019). 67% claim to be somewhat successful at achieving their primary objectives (55% in 2019). 16% of marketers claim to be unsuccessful at marketing automation (5% in 2019). Source: Ascend2, "The State of Marketing Automation" (2021).

52% of marketing professionals see quality data as the most important tactic to amplify the success of a marketing automation tool

Other tactics mentioned include: strategic execution (46%), alignment of sales and marketing (45%), customer journey mapping (26%), and adequate staff training (22%). Source: Ascend2, "The State of Marketing Automation" (2021).

Only 13% of marketers have mentioned defining buyer personas as an important tactic for amplifying the success of a marketing automation strategy

Source: Ascend2, "The State of Marketing Automation" (2021).

60% of marketers use revenue generated as the most important metric to measure the benefits of marketing automation integration

Other metrics used: customers acquired (52%), conversion rates (44%), sales accepted leads (29%) and marketing qualified leads (28%). Source: Ascend2, "Strategies, Tactics and Trends for Marketing Automation Intergration" (2019).

75% of marketers claim their lead nurturing strategy is just somewhat successful

16% of marketers say they have a very successful (best-in-class) lead nurturing strategy, while 9% say they are unsuccessful at it. Source: Ascend2, "The State of Lead Nurturing" (2021).

61% of businesses that are exceeding revenue targets use automation in their sales process

Source: Hubspot, "Trends and Data in Sales and Marketing" (2020).

67% of marketers say they review their automated workflows only once per month or even less frequently

Source: Kiwi Creative, "Digital Trends for the Tech Industry"(2020).

Adoption of marketing automation technology shows the biggest difference between the most successful (63%) and least successful (39%) B2B marketers.

Source: Content Marketing Institute & MarketingProfs, "B2B Content Marketing 2019" (2019).

Marketing automation limitations & challenges statistics

13.9% of marketing and communications professionals are unfamiliar with the concept of marketing automation

In a recent survey, 86,1% of respondents stated they are familiar with marketing automation. Almost 14% of respondents were unfamiliar with the concept. Source: Liana Technologies, "The Benefits and Challenges of Marketing Automation 2.0" (2020).

48% of marketers claim lack of expertise and know-how is the main barrier to enter marketing automation space

Other challenges include: lack of human resources (43%), usability issues of marketing automation platforms (35%), lack of strategy (30%) and insufficient customer data (27%). Source: Liana Technologies, "The Benefits and Challenges of Marketing Automation 2.0" (2020).

The main barrier to adoption of marketing automation is integrating data from sources and systems (56%)

Other barriers mentioned by respondents include: lack of resources (54%), lack of skills (49%), lack of strategy (37%). Source: Smart Insights, "Managing B2B Marketing Automation in 2020" (2020).

Insufficient amount of training and resources is the most significant barrier to utilizing marketing automation tools to the fullest potential (39%)

Other barriers mentioned include: lack of resources to manage (32%), lack of budget to maintain (31%), complicated setup (25%), and slow onboarding process (16%). Source: Ascend2, "The State of Marketing Automation" (2021).

Lack of personal connection is perceived as the biggest concern with marketing automation tools (61%)

Other concerns mentioned include: risk of harming brand perception (44%), lack of control over process (39%), risk of missing opportunities (38%). Source: Social Media Today, "State of Marketing Automation" (2019).

Creating quality automations is the most common challenge marketers face with marketing automation (16%)

Other challenges mentioned in this study: integrations (14%), creating quality content (10%), and driving engagement (8%). Source: Automizy, "Marketing Automation Report" (2019).

Finding the right tools is the main marketing automation challenge for agencies (20%)

Other challenges include: integrations (20%), creating automations (20%), and data management (13%). Source: Automizy, "Marketing Automation Report" (2019).

The most common objection to using marketing automation software is cheaper alternatives in the market (50%)

Other objections respondents have mentioned include: not knowing what marketing automation is (25%), believing it is for big companies only (17%), and being against automation in general (8%). Source: KDM, "Marketing Automation 2018 Report: Do You Really Know What It Is?" (2018)

Content creation is the most time consuming marketing task that marketers would love to automate (67%)

Other marketing tasks include: audience research (44%), tracking ROI (42%), and developing effective ad approaches (34%). Source: Social Media Today, "State of Marketing Automation" (2019).

43% of marketers report that creating engaging content is the most challenging aspect of implementing a lead nurturing strategy

Other challenges include: aligning marketing and sales efforts (36%), allocating adequate resources (32%), implementing a multi-channel program (24%), and optimizing email series (22%). Source: Ascend2, "The State of Lead Nurturing" (2021).

48% of marketers report that allocating enough time, staff and resources to successfully execute a customer journey mapping strategy is a major challenge

Other challenges include: lack of quality data (35%), lack of budget (33%), inability to measure customer experience (32%), and lack of appropriate technology (27%). Source: Ascend2, "Customer Journey Mapping" (2020).

AI (5%) and advanced segmentation (13%) are the least used automation techniques amongst marketers

This could be die to a lack of digital skills in this area. Source: GetResponse & Smart Insights, "Email Marketing and Marketing Automation Excellence" (2018).