The 2025 Marketing Data Report: Trends, challenges, and opportunities

At Supermetrics, we’re in a pretty unique position. We process over 15% of global ad spend. That’s why we have a fair understanding of how marketers are using data. Additionally, we analyzed product usage data from 6000 businesses and surveyed 200 marketers globally—both hands-on marketers and managers—to determine how marketing teams use (or misuse) data. And here’s what we’ve learned from the 2025 Marketing Data Report.

Marketing teams are using 230% more data compared to 2020

Thousands of marketers use Supermetrics to get data from different sources every day. Consequently, our platform processes thousands of queries every day. And we’ve noticed that between 2020 and 2024, the average rows per query has doubled. In other words, marketers are looking at 100% more information—think more metrics, dimensions, and longer date range, etc.—for each data point. Additionally:

• The average query count—meaning how many searches for marketing data marketers perform— grew by 50%
• The average rows returned—meaning how much data they get from each search—grew by 230%

It’d be great to think that marketers are more comfortable using data, and our survey shows that only 14% of our respondents said that a lack of data expertise was holding them back. But, unfortunately, we’re not quite where we need to be with marketing measurement:

• 56% don’t have enough time to analyze their data properly
• 26% don’t have enough data to make decisions
• 38% don’t have tools to integrate and report on their data

It’s a clear sign that marketers have too much data than they can possibly manage and make sense of.

If I just take someone’s temperature every 10 minutes and end up with a lot of data but haven’t defined what counts as good or bad, the data is worthless, and I’ll drown in it. The same applies to marketing—without clear definitions, data alone won’t help.” Bartosz Schneider, Principal Data Strategist, Supermetrics

We aren’t cookieless yet—but it’s coming, and marketers are freezing up

When we asked our respondents what they expect to happen as third-party cookies fade out, they predicted a number of serious challenges to their marketing plan:

• 66% worry about tracking users across channels
• 57% expect less effective targeted advertising
• 57% predict more difficulty in marketing attribution and measuring marketing

But, when we asked them about their plan for the upcoming challenges, the response was lukewarm at best:

• 58% still rely on third-party data
• Only 16% use zero-party data
• 8% are looking at Privacy Sanbox, which is Google’s proposal for cookieless tracking

Marketers are sleeping on zero-party data

With increasing privacy, marketers are investing more in first-party data. However, only 16% of respondents say that they’re using zero-party data in marketing. Additionally:

• 58% use third-party data
• 29% use public data, such as economic indicators published by government agencies, or open data
• 34% use second-party data, such as data shared between partnering companies or industry consortiums where one partner might share their customer data under specific agreement terms

While the wealth of third-party data may make it feel like you’re data-rich, it’s a false impression. By over-relying on third-party data, you’ve been using generalizations about your customers, which aren’t accurate and relevant most of the time.

“It’s time to acknowledge that reality. We’re either already data-poo, or we’re about to be” Outi Karppanen, Lead Marketing Industry Strategist, Supermetrics

If you care about personalization and create targeted campaigns, you should take zero-party data seriously. It’s data that customers share with you willingly. For example, preference surveys, feedback forms, or questionnaires. Combined with first-party data, it allows you to collect relevant data while complying with privacy regulations.

We haven’t cracked the ROI code yet

41% of marketers say that can’t effectively measure marketing across channels. If we have to take a wild guess, we think the remaining 59% are lying. This is because marketing ROI is a complicated concept that was dumped down significantly. When we’re talking about return on investment, we’re really talking about proving causation.

Did your customer make a purchase because they went to your event? Or is it because they downloaded your ebook? Causation isn’t a simple thing to prove. And yet, no money, no honey—proving ROI is the only way marketers can secure budget and buy-in.

• 63% rank ROI as their top marketing metric
• 30% see proving ROI as marketing’s main role

Marketing mix modeling, campaign experimentation, and predictive analytics are top measurement investments for 2025

Marketing mix modeling (MMM) gets touted as “the next big thing” every decade. And today, with the signal loss, the help of automation, and new technology, it’s making a bigger comeback. That’s why:

• 49% are using it
• 47% say it’ll be their investment for next year

Other top measurement methods include:

• 42% will invest in campaign experimentation
• 40% have predictive analytics on their list
• Only 27% are interested in incrementality testing

While MMM is a great measurement tool, it’s not right for every business. You’d need a diverse marketing mix and a high level of ad spend (ideally, around $2 million annually) to effectively run your model.

It’s better to familiarize yourself with incrementality testing and conversion-lift studies instead of throwing MMM at everything.

“If you're spending 50 grand a year on marketing, you have no business doing an MMM. None whatsoever. You don't have the granularity and the volume of data that is required for the model to perform accurately.” Zach Bricker, Lead Solutions Engineer, Supermetrics.

Get all the trends and expert tips to fix your measurement

Those are just a few key takeaways from the 2025 Marketing Data Report. Check out the report to get all the data, insights, and tips from experts that you can implement for your own measurement strategy.