Report:
The Forrester Wave™: Customer Data Platforms For B2B, Q3 2025
How does Forrester define the Customer Data Platforms For B2B market in 2025?
B2B Customer Data Platforms help go-to-market teams address the complex challenge of understanding B2B customers beyond individual contacts by creating unified profiles at contact, account, and buying group levels. The market has evolved significantly to support personalized customer experiences through advanced data unification, analytics, and multi-channel audience activation. B2B CDPs now serve broader GTM teams beyond marketing, including sales and customer success, and are becoming critical foundations for AI-driven customer engagement strategies.
Key Facts for The Forrester Wave™: Customer Data Platforms For B2B, Q3 2025 in 2025
- Publication Date: 28-Aug-2025
- Document ID: 520c679e
- Summary: In our evaluation of customer data platforms for B2B (B2B CDP) providers, we identified the most significant ones and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report shows how each provider measures up and helps you select the right one for your needs.
- Authors: Katie Linford
How did the Customer Data Platforms For B2B market evolve in 2025?
- B2B CDPs are evolving to address complex data needs beyond simple contacts and accounts
- Key focus is on understanding buying groups - who is involved, their roles, and journey stage
- B2B CDPs now support profiles at contact, account, and buying group levels
- Analytics and AI capabilities are advancing rapidly across platforms
- Audience activation across channels is a core capability
- CDPs are expanding from marketing tools to support entire GTM teams including sales and customer success
- AI effectiveness depends on having unified, contextual customer data foundation
- Two main data model philosophies: out-of-the-box B2B models vs. fully configurable open models
- 11 vendors evaluated across Leaders, Strong Performers, and Contenders categories
- Evaluation cutoff date: June 12, 2025
What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?
- Broad, enterprise-level support. The vendor natively provides all core functions for this space and has a demonstrated track record of supporting large enterprises, with a minimum of 50 enterprise-level customers.
- A solution available for purchase as a standalone product. The product has its own SKU and pricing. It is not solely available as a feature within a larger portfolio.
- Substantial revenue in the market. The vendor has at least $20 million in annual revenue from its CDP product in the last four quarters.
- Mindshare among Forrester's enterprise clients. Forrester clients frequently mention the product as one they're considering before making a purchase. We've heard about the product from our clients in the form of inquiries, advisories, consulting engagements, and other interactions over the past year.
- Other vendors mention this vendor as a competitor.
What are the common features of top products in the Customer Data Platforms For B2B space?
No common features specified.
Scope Exclusions
- Solutions not available as standalone products with their own SKU and pricing
- Vendors with fewer than 50 enterprise-level customers
- Products generating less than $20 million in annual CDP revenue
- Solutions lacking demonstrated mindshare among Forrester enterprise clients
- Vendors not recognized as competitors by other market participants
Inclusion Criteria
Vendors must, among other requirements:
- Broad, enterprise-level support with minimum 50 enterprise customers
- Solution available as standalone product with own SKU and pricing
- Minimum $20 million annual revenue from CDP product in last four quarters
- Strong mindshare among Forrester enterprise clients
- Recognized as competitor by other vendors in market
Offering Strengths — Relative Weighting
- Data source integrations — 6%
- Data management and models — 7%
- Data governance and storage — 7%
- Data enrichment — 6%
- Privacy and consent — 3%
- Customer profiles — 7%
- Account and buying group profiles — 6%
- Contact, account, and buying group scoring — 5%
- Lead and opportunity matching and scoring — 3%
- Anonymous audience creation and segmentation — 4%
- Known audience creation and segmentation — 6%
- Integrations for systems of engagement — 6%
- Journey orchestration — 5%
- Integrations for insights and analytics — 5%
- Reports and dashboards — 3%
- Predictive modeling and AI — 4%
- Customer analytics — 5%
- Performance and attribution reporting — 4%
- User experience — 3%
- Buying group recommendation and completion — 5%
Strategy Strength — Relative Weighting
- Vision — 20%
- Innovation — 20%
- Roadmap — 20%
- Partner ecosystem — 10%
- Adoption — 15%
- Pricing flexibility and transparency — 15%
FAQs
Q: What does this research cover?
A: This research evaluates 11 customer data platform providers that focus on B2B use cases. The evaluation examines vendors' current offerings, strategy, and customer feedback across capabilities including data integration and management, profile creation at contact/account/buying group levels, analytics, AI modeling, privacy and consent, audience segmentation, journey orchestration, and activation across engagement systems.
Q: Who should use this research?
A: B2B organizations evaluating or purchasing a CDP should use this research to understand vendor capabilities and positioning. It's particularly valuable for organizations looking to: 1) Unify customer data across contacts, accounts, and buying groups, 2) Scale customer data access across GTM teams (marketing, sales, customer success), 3) Create a trusted data foundation for AI initiatives, 4) Understand different data model approaches (out-of-the-box vs. configurable), and 5) Match vendor strengths to their specific data maturity, technical resources, and business requirements.
Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?
A: All vendors included must natively provide core CDP functions including data integration, unification, profile management, segmentation, and activation. They must demonstrate enterprise-scale capabilities with at least 50 enterprise customers and $20 million in annual CDP revenue. The solution must be available as a standalone product with its own SKU and pricing, not just as a feature within a larger portfolio. Vendors must also have significant mindshare among Forrester's enterprise clients and be recognized as competitors by other market participants.
Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?
A:
- Insufficient enterprise customer base (fewer than 50 enterprise customers)
- Below revenue threshold (less than $20 million annual CDP revenue)
- Not available as standalone product with dedicated SKU and pricing
- Limited mindshare among Forrester enterprise clients
- Not recognized as competitor by other vendors in the market
- Does not natively provide all core CDP functions
- Lack of demonstrated track record supporting large enterprises
Q: What should buyers consider when evaluating products in this market?
A:
- Meet their data and AI modeling needs - understand whether out-of-the-box B2B models or open configurable models better fit organizational requirements and available technical resources
- Scale across GTM teams - ensure solution supports dynamic B2B data, insights, and activities for marketing, sales, and customer success teams beyond just contact databases
- Provide unified, contextual customer data foundation for AI - evaluate how the CDP will serve as part of trusted, context-rich customer data ecosystem for AI models aligned with organizational AI strategy
Q: How has the Customer Data Platforms For B2B market evolved in 2025?
A:
- Growing capabilities in creating profiles at contact, account, and buying group levels
- Advancement in analytics and AI-driven insights for B2B customer understanding
- Expansion of audience activation capabilities across multiple channels
- Evolution from marketing-only tools to solutions supporting entire GTM teams including sales and customer success
- Emergence of two dominant data modeling philosophies: out-of-the-box B2B models versus open configurable models
- Increasing role as contextual customer data foundation for AI applications
- Movement toward real-time, personalized customer interactions powered by unified data
- Enhanced support for complex B2B buying group dynamics and journey phases
Q: What differentiates Strength of Offering vs. Strength of Strategy?
A: Strength of Offering evaluates the vendor's current product capabilities across data management, customer profiling, analytics, AI, and activation features. It focuses on the present state of the solution and what it can deliver today. Strength of Strategy assesses the vendor's future direction, including their vision for the market, innovation pipeline, product roadmap, partner ecosystem strength, market adoption trajectory, and pricing approach. Strategy indicates where the vendor is headed and their ability to sustain competitive advantage over time.
Reference
- Forrester, The Forrester Wave™: Customer Data Platforms For B2B, Q3 2025, 28-Aug-2025, ID 520c679e
View Leaders
View Vendor Movements
