New Research Finds Digital Demand Drives Wider Adoption of CDPs, Businesses Focused on Delivering Trusted Experiences

A staggering 96% of businesses adopted or plan to adopt a “digital first” business strategy, with CDPs cited as an essential part of marketers’ technology portfolios. The uptick of demand has largely been driven by privacy changes and the pandemic accelerating more online activity.  Companies depend on CDPs to connect data in real time across technologies and a variety of customer touchpoints so they can understand buyer behavior and deliver trusted, relevant experiences.

Businesses are seeing measurable business impact from CDPs. The study shows 70% of marketers reported quick payback on their CDP investments, seeing positive ROI within six months – and 96% reported a full return within 12 months. 

“CDPs are becoming a must-have due to massive shifts in online behavior and the increase in privacy regulations we saw last year.  The types and sources of customer data are only growing and we see CDP adoption rapidly scaling to ensure data is collected, optimized and activated in a secure manner,” said Tealium’s Chief Marketing Officer, Heidi Bullock. “We were excited to see the research also affirms that CDPs regularly drive meaningful ROI within a year of implementation.” 

Tealium surveyed more than 1,000 marketing and business leaders in the financial services, healthcare, media, retail, and technology industries in the U.S., Europe, and Asia/Pacific to better understand why global businesses implemented their CDP, priorities for customer data management, and what’s coming next in the age of data.

Key Findings:

Many external factors are disrupting business. CDPs are seen as a fundamental change agent for data-driven businesses as evidenced by the 91% of respondents who cited digital transformation as a primary driver of their CDP adoption.

Budgets are bouncing back. After enduring budget cuts during the early months of COVID-19, between 50% and 60% of marketers increased spending in eight of nine critical technology categories last year.

Technology spending continues to rise. 87% of marketers expect to increase technology spending in 2022, with 40% planning significant increases, up from 32% last year.

Age of intelligence is dawning. Illustrating the interest in extracting actionable insights from data, 97% of executives said artificial intelligence capabilities are important to achieving their marketing priorities.

CDPs yield tangible ROI. CDPs are becoming more defined, as are use cases, to see real ROI. More than half of marketers said payback was achieved within six months and four out of five saw positive ROI within 12 months.

Customer trust is king. While an overwhelming 93% of respondents said their solutions come from one vendor, the top criteria for selecting a CDP were customer service (cited by 61%) and compliance (57%).

The combined impact of the pandemic, third-party cookie deprecation and increased regulation in data privacy and security have rebooted the ways companies engage with their customers. The importance of quality data collection, analysis and activation has never been greater. As companies are faced with completely reimagining their business plans, CDPs have surfaced as the proven solution to carry companies’ customer experiences into the future.