Report:
Magic Quadrant for B2B Marketing Automation Platforms
How does Gartner define the B2B Marketing Automation Platforms market in 2023?
Gartner defines B2B marketing automation platforms (B2B MAPs) as software that supports demand generation processes at scale. This includes building awareness, generating and nurturing high-quality leads, orchestrating multichannel engagement to guide customer journey progression, and using analytics to measure and optimize performance. The main goal is to help marketers capture, qualify and nurture leads and accounts, align them to appropriate sales team members, then continue marketing-driven engagement across the remainder of the customer journey. B2B MAPs also enable engagement with existing customers for retention and account growth. These platforms are designed primarily for B2B marketing use cases but may also apply to B2C organizations selling high-consideration products with lead management needs and/or B2B2C models with complex, indirect sales processes.
Key Facts for Magic Quadrant for B2B Marketing Automation Platforms in 2023
- Publication Date: 20-Sep-2023
- Document ID: G00779387
- Coverage: Global
- Authors: Rick LaFond, Jeffrey L. Cohen
- Core Purpose: Marketing operations leaders must enable the delivery of coordinated, multichannel engagement to prospects and customers. B2B marketing automation platforms are an essential tool for supporting this mandate, and early vendor investments in generative AI show promise of expanded solution value.
Strategic Planning Assumptions
No strategic planning assumptions provided.
How was the B2B Marketing Automation Platforms market evolved in 2023?
- 79% of B2B marketing technology leaders have a B2B marketing automation platform
- 75% of B2B CMOs say their marketing organization is facing increasing pressure to cut marketing technology spend to deliver better ROI
- B2B MAPs are among the least likely marketing technology tools to be cut in the face of budgetary pressures
- Marketing teams utilize only 47% of the total capabilities made available by their B2B MAP solution
- 59% of B2B marketing technology leaders say they lack the technical skills within their marketing team to operate some technologies
- 57% of B2B marketing technology leaders believe generative AI would have high to extremely high levels of reward
- 75% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free purchase experience
- Typical B2B buying group consists of 5 to 11 stakeholders representing five business functions
What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?
- Contact and/or account record pages to view customer-level marketing engagement history and other pertinent relationship details
- Ability to input and synchronize and activate first-party data, as well as augment existing contact/account data with third-party data sources
- Ability to create segmented lists of contacts or accounts using business rules and/or predictive analytics capabilities
- Lead scoring functionality to support the creation and management of lead qualification processes using business rules and/or predictive analytics capabilities
- Lead workflow functionality enabling organizations to manage the lead-to-revenue life cycle, from generation/collection to conversion
- Lead workflow functionality enabling organizations to create multistep journeys for contacts (e.g., drip campaigns, customer onboarding motions) using a graphical UI suitable for nontechnical users
- Ability to deploy and manage an orchestrated coordinated customer engagement program across multiple channels, including native email and landing page execution
- Functionality to enable personalized customer communications based on account, persona or journey stage attributes
- Ability to measure tactical, strategic and operational KPIs to monitor campaign, channel and funnel performance using data visualization/dashboarding capabilities
What are the common features of top products in the B2B Marketing Automation Platforms space?
- Functionality for next best action orchestration capabilities (e.g., next best offer, next best channel) using AI
- Ability to partition the platform for users in distinct business units, brands or regional marketing teams
- Functionality for account-level scoring to support account prioritization processes using business rules and/or AI
- The creation of content components (e.g., email copy) using generative AI
Scope Exclusions
- Platforms primarily designed for B2C marketing without lead management capabilities
- Solutions lacking native email and landing page execution capabilities
- Vendors unable to demonstrate multichannel orchestration across at least 3 basic channels and 1 advanced channel
- Products missing core lead workflow, scoring, or qualification functionality
- Solutions without data visualization and dashboarding for campaign performance measurement
- Vendors not meeting minimum customer, revenue, or geographic presence requirements
Inclusion Criteria
Vendors must, among other requirements:
- Proven ability to deliver B2B marketing automation functionality
- At least 25 customers using B2B MAP solution, including at least 10 customers with $50M+ revenue and/or 100+ employees
- At least $100M in 2022 revenue; or $25M in 2022 revenue with minimum 12 new customers vs 2021
- Sales and customer support presence in minimum of 2 of 4 regions: North America, Latin America, EMEA, Asia/Pacific
- Client portfolio includes customers in at least 3 of 7 specified industries
- Ecosystem of partners providing technology extensions or services
Ability to Execute — Relative Weighting
- Product or Service - High
- Overall Viability - High
- Sales Execution/Pricing - Medium
- Market Responsiveness/Record - High
- Marketing Execution - Medium
- Customer Experience - High
- Operations - Low
Completeness of Vision — Relative Weighting
- Market Understanding - High
- Marketing Strategy - Medium
- Sales Strategy - Medium
- Offering (Product) Strategy - High
- Business Model - Medium
- Vertical/Industry Strategy - Low
- Innovation - Medium
- Geographic Strategy - Medium
FAQs
Q: What does this research cover?
A: This research evaluates B2B marketing automation platforms that support demand generation processes at scale, including building awareness, generating and nurturing high-quality leads, orchestrating multichannel engagement, and using analytics to measure and optimize performance. The research covers 13 vendors across four quadrants (Leaders, Challengers, Visionaries, and Niche Players) and evaluates them based on their Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision across multiple criteria including product capabilities, customer experience, market understanding, innovation, and geographic strategy.
Q: Who should use this research?
A: This research should be used by marketing operations leaders who are evaluating, selecting, or optimizing B2B marketing automation platforms. It is particularly valuable for those who need to: (1) Understand vendor positioning and capabilities in the B2B MAP market, (2) Assess which vendors align with their organization's specific requirements and use cases, (3) Identify vendor strengths and cautions to inform purchasing decisions, (4) Build business cases and RFPs for B2B MAP implementations, (5) Maximize ROI from existing B2B MAP investments by understanding platform capabilities and best practices, and (6) Position marketing as a profit center by improving lead generation quality, measurement capabilities, and alignment with modern B2B buyer preferences.
Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?
A: Mandatory features for vendors in this market include: customer profile management with contact/account records and data synchronization; lead scoring and qualification using business rules and/or predictive analytics; lead workflow capabilities for managing the lead-to-revenue lifecycle and creating multistep customer journeys with graphical UI; multichannel marketing management with native email and landing page execution plus orchestration across multiple channels; measurement and reporting capabilities including KPI tracking, data visualization, and A/B testing; and bidirectional integration with CRM/SFA applications plus at least two other adjacent platform categories such as digital commerce, web content management, sales engagement, ABM, CDP, or revenue data platforms.
Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?
A:
- Insufficient customer base (fewer than 25 customers or fewer than 10 customers with $50M+ revenue/100+ employees)
- Inadequate revenue ($100M minimum, or $25M with 12+ new customers)
- Limited geographic presence (must operate in at least 2 of 4 major regions)
- Narrow industry focus (must serve at least 3 of 7 specified industries)
- Lack of partner ecosystem for technology extensions and services
- Missing core B2B MAP functionality as defined in inclusion criteria
- Primary focus on B2C marketing without B2B lead management capabilities
- Limited support for traditional B2B demand generation activities (as was the reason for Pega's exclusion)
Q: What differentiates Ability to Execute vs. Completeness of Vision?
A: Ability to Execute focuses on a vendor's current capabilities and performance, including product quality, financial viability, sales effectiveness, market responsiveness, marketing execution, customer experience, and operational excellence. It measures how well vendors deliver on their promises today. Completeness of Vision assesses a vendor's understanding of market direction and their strategy for the future, including market understanding, product strategy, business model innovation, and geographic expansion plans. It evaluates how well vendors anticipate and prepare for future market needs and their ability to influence market direction.
Reference
- Gartner, Magic Quadrant for B2B Marketing Automation Platforms, 20-Sep-2023, ID G00779387
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