Proven Strategies, Common Pitfalls,and Predictions on the Path Forward Contents 7Opportunities for GrowthWhere There’s Room for Improvement 1Executive SummaryHow Personalization Helps Marketers Stay Relevant 2Personalization Pulse CheckHow Customer-First Thinking Is Shaping Personalization 8Making Every Moment Matter 3Digging Into DataWhat’s Powering Personalization Behind the Scenes 9Next Steps for Better Personalization 4Personalization Across ChannelsExpanding Scope and InfluenceTHE STATE OF PERSONALIZATION IN DIGITAL MARKETING 10Connect the Full Customer Journey 5What’s Holding Marketers BackBarriers to Scaling Personalization 11Methodology 6AI’s Role in Personalization andProgrammatic WorkflowsHow It’s Used and Where It’s Headed What We Mean By Personalization In this report, personalization refers to the use of customer data totailor messaging, creative, or offers across channels. It ranges frombasic tactics—such asdynamic creative optimization(DCO) in displayadvertising and personalized offers via email—to more advancedTHE STATE OF PERSONALIZATION IN DIGITAL MARKETING Executive Summary How Personalization HelpsMarketers Stay Relevant Inboxes filled with unread promotions and deals.Social feeds packed with sponsored posts. Banner ads The internet is flooded with ads. Most of them reach the right person,but many fail to be truly memorable due to ad fatigue and a lackTHE STATE OF PERSONALIZATION IN DIGITAL MARKETING As a result, marketers have moved away from the one-size-fits-allapproaches that dominated early digital advertising and adopted more Most say they’re advanced in personalization maturity, but the datasuggests otherwise. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY We wanted to know how marketers usepersonalization today, what challenges areholding them back, and where they plan to Key Takeaways To answer these questions, we partneredwith Ascend2 to survey nearly 500 brandand agency marketers across NorthAmerica on how personalization is actually of brands and 94% of agencies agree that AI isimproving personalization, but only one in five have 93% of brands plan to increase their investmentin personalization over the next year. 87% The results show a growing dividebetween marketers who can putpersonalization into practiceacross channels and those held of agency marketers say quantifying andcommunicating the results of personalized campaigns 77% of agencies and 45% of brands believe AI-poweredcross-channel orchestration will have the greatest 47% Personalization Pulse Check How Customer-First ThinkingIs Shaping Personalization Consumers now expect brands to understand their needs, remember theirpreferences, and anticipate what they want next. Brands and agencies that use what they know aboutcustomers to create personalized experiences are setting Here’s how they’re doing it today and where there’s room for improvement. Personalization IsNo Longer Optional How Marketers Rate TheirPersonalization Efforts (% of Brands) Many brands believe personalization has a measurable impact onthe bottom line. A whopping 87% plan to increase their investmentin personalized marketing over the next 12 months, with more than 34% Clearly, personalization has evolved from a niche strategy into acore component of modern marketing. Most organizations now fallinto the developing (34%) or advanced (30%) stages of 30% 20% Early experimentation KEY TAKEAWAYTHE STATE OF PERSONALIZATION IN DIGITAL MARKETING 14% Most marketers say they’re advanced in personalization, butthe data shows that gaps remain. Leaders should reassesstheir team’s personalization readiness and ensure their Not Using Personalization 2% Email Reigns Supreme,But Opportunities Remain Email remains the foundational channel of most personalizationstrategies. Nearly half of brand marketers surveyed (47%) saypersonalized email campaigns are their primary method for driving Additionally, only 40% of brand marketers use account-basedmarketing (ABM) to target high-value accounts with tailoredmessaging, despite their proven ability to drive stronger engagement KEY TAKEAWAY Advanced marketers* are nearly twice as likely to use DCOcompared to those still developing their personalization efforts *Advanced marketers are survey respondents at manager level and above from $10M+ revenuecompanies who reported using advanced, scalable personalization across most channels. Brands report the greatest impact from owned-channeltactics like personalized email campaigns, product Agencies, meanwhile, see stronger performance frommedia-led tactics like DCO (47%) and ABM (46%). 99% of agencies say personalization directly drives KEY TAKEAWAYTHE STATE OF PERSONALIZATION IN DIGITAL MARKETING Brands and agencies agree personalization drivesrevenue, but they diverge on where that impact actuallycomes from. Marketing leaders should reassess whethertheir personalization mix is too narrow and consider The Tools ThatPower Personalization Marketing