Marketing Operations: Stats and Trends for 2023

Marketing operations may sound like the name of a secret spy agency, but it's actually the backbone of any successful marketing team.

And just like James Bond, marketing ops professionals need to stay on top of the latest trends and technologies to stay ahead of the competition. That means swapping out laser guns for strategy and grappling hooks for ROI. I promise they're all equally exciting. 

A quick definition: marketing operations refer to the planning, execution, and management of marketing campaigns and initiatives to achieve specific business goals.

It involves coordinating various aspects of marketing such as strategy, data management, technology, workflow, and team management to optimise marketing performance and drive revenue growth. The primary objective of marketing operations is to streamline and standardise marketing processes to increase efficiency, productivity, and accountability while improving the overall customer experience.

So grab your (shaken, not stirred) martini and let's look at some stats and trends in the world of marketing operations! 

The Top Marketing Ops Stats and Trends in 2023

Digital Marketing ROI and Effectiveness

• Marketing technology now accounts for 23% of overall marketing budgets.
• With marketing technology budgets set to grow further - 61% of agencies and marketers expect their own or client budgets to increase during 2022 - marketing operations professionals are set to be in greater demand than ever before.
• 46% of marketers say that their biggest challenge is proving the ROI of their marketing activities. (Source: HubSpot)
• 57% of customers won't recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site. (Source: Google)
• The average click-through rate (CTR) for a Google Ads campaign across all industries is 3.17% for search and 0.46% for display. (Source: WordStream)
• 93% of B2B marketers say the marketing operations function is important or critical in delivering digital transformation
• 80% of marketers think marketing automation generates more leads (and conversions)
   

The Marketing Operations Role in 2023

• Almost half (47%) said it Marketing Operations default to the most senior marketer (be that the CMO, marketing director, VP, or head of) whereas 21% have a head or director of marketing operations to do the job.
• Almost a quarter (22%) of companies take a more free-flowing approach. Instead of singular ownership, they adopt a shared process with individual members suggesting martech solutions, and operating it on an ad-hoc basis.
• With marketing technology budgets set to grow further - 61% of agencies and marketers expect their own or client budgets to increase during 2022 - marketing operations professionals are set to be in greater demand than ever before.

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Lead Generation and Customer Acquisition

• 61% of marketers rank lead generation as their number-one challenge
• 53% of marketers spend at least half of their budget on lead generation
• Less than one-fifth of marketers think outbound practices provide valuable leads
• The US digital lead generation market will reach approximately $3.2billion by 2023
• Lead generation is considered the most challenging task by 61% of marketers. 
• 53% of marketers spend approximately 50% of their budget generating leads.
• At most, 18% of marketers consider outbound lead generation suitable for generating quality leads
• 80% of B2B marketers rely on content marketing for lead generation

Personalisation and Customer Experience

• 78.5% of marketers agree that delivering an amazing customer experience is a powerful competitive advantage. This has increased the need for well-managed marketing tech required to crunch data in order to customise and personalise digital experiences, at scale.
• The Temkin Group found that companies that earn $1 billion annually can expect to earn, on average, an additional $700 million within 3 years of investing in customer experience.

• 49% of buyers have made impulse purchases after receiving a more personalised experience.
• Adobe recently found that companies with the strongest omnichannel customer engagement strategies enjoy a 10% Y-O-Y growth, a 10% increase in average order value and a 25% increase in close rates.

Not enough Marketing Ops for you? Want to see your marketing ability skyrocket with just one simple browse? Then check out our Marketing Ops Best Practice Guide, here!

Content Marketing and SEO

• 70-80% of people ignore paid search results and only click on organic results. 
• 82% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing, 10% report not using content marketing, and 8% are unsure if their company uses content marketing
• 40% of B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy, and 64% of the most successful B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy
• 69% of marketers actively invest time in SEO 
• The top three primary goals of creating content are boosting sales, building relationships with customers, and increasing brand awareness 
• 83% of marketers say it’s better to focus on quality rather than quantity of content, even if it means posting less often
• SEO leads hold a 14.6% close rate
• 70% of recipients delete their email instantly if it is not mobile responsive

• Most B2B marketers try to differentiate from the competition by content quality (83%) and covering untapped topics/stories (72%)
• 78% of B2B marketers employ keyword research for SEO while creating content
• 90.63% of pages get no organic search traffic from Google
• 71% of B2B researchers start their research with a generic search instead of branded search
• 52% more traffic is received by B2B blogs on educational content than promotional B2B company blogs

Social Media and Video Marketing

• 81% of marketers found that increased traffic occurred with as little as six hours per week invested in social media marketing. 
• 70% of marketers say SEO is more effective than PPC for generating sales.
• Video is the #1 form of media used in content strategy, overtaking blogs and infographics.
• 92% of marketers say that social media is important to their business.
• 72% of consumers who did a local search visited a store within five miles.
• 49% of consumers say they rely on influencer recommendations when making purchase decisions.
• Including a video on a landing page can increase conversion rates by 80%.
• 89% of marketers say email is their primary channel for lead generation.
• 63% of marketers say generating traffic and leads is their top challenge.
• 70% of B2B marketers believe video marketing helps capture and convert leads

Marketing Operations Professionals 

• 74% of marketing ops pros say they’re somewhat satisfied or extremely satisfied in their roles
• The most common responsibility in marketing ops roles: researching and recommending marketing technology products (81%).
• 49% of marketers have a marketing operations leader in at least one team
• There has been a 66% growth in the average MOPs team since 2020
• ~996k professionals are working in marketing operations today.
• With many MOPs pros facing burnout, it’s no surprise that nearly ¾ change their job every two years.

Learn More on Marketing Operations With Darrell Alfonso

Elevate, refresh and formalise your marketing operations knowledge and skills to drive your company and career. Join the only global certification programme in marketing operations. The course is packed with everything from marketing ops organisation fit to campaign ops, administration, budgeting and reporting, to tech and project management - and everything
in-between. 

Check it out, here!