Data quality named the top priority for improving marketing performance, according to Adverity’s survey of CMOs across the US, UK, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland
London, 2nd September 2025 — Adverity, the essential marketing data and intelligence platform, has announced findings from its latest study revealing that nearly half (45%) of the data marketers use to make business decisions is incomplete, inaccurate, or out of date.
The findings reveal a stark reality: 43% of CMOs believe less than half of their marketing data can be trusted. This lack of confidence is not confined to certain markets or industries. Instead, it is a global issue, with limited variation across company size, sector, or region. In other words, whether a global brand or a regional agency, marketers are struggling with the same fundamental issue: poor-quality data.
Data quality is seen as the single biggest lever for performance
When asked what would most improve marketing performance, CMOs were clear: improving data quality (30%) ranked top. This was well ahead of automating data workflows (22%) and improving data democratisation (21%).
The message from marketing leaders is clear: while emerging technologies such as AI promise to revolutionise decision-making, they can only deliver value if the underlying data is complete, accurate, and reliable.
“Data is the fuel for every modern marketing engine, yet our research shows that almost half of that fuel is contaminated,” said Alexander Igelsböck, CEO of Adverity. “Marketers know that to drive performance, they must first fix the fundamentals: completeness, consistency, and accuracy of their data. Without this, even the most advanced analytics or AI will fall short. This report is a wake-up call for the industry to prioritise data quality before everything else.”
The top three barriers to better-quality data
The research identifies the areas where CMOs believe the most progress is needed to address data quality issues:
Data completeness (31%): ensuring all relevant data is collected and available.
Data consistency (26%): removing discrepancies between sources to create a single version of the truth.
Data uniqueness (16%): eliminating duplication and overlap to avoid misleading metrics, unnecessary costs, and fragmented customer histories.
These gaps demonstrate the ongoing difficulties marketers face when managing multiple sources of data, each with varying levels of accuracy, timeliness, and reliability.
Looking ahead: turning data challenges into opportunities
While the research underlines the widespread pain points around data quality, it also highlights a significant opportunity. CMOs recognise that solving these challenges will unlock new levels of performance and efficiency. By investing in smarter data integration, transformation, and governance, marketing leaders can create the strong foundations needed to power advanced analytics and AI-driven insights.
With better data quality at the core, marketers can move from questioning the reliability of their numbers to confidently driving growth, innovation, and competitive advantage.