The Current State of Marketing Automation in Australia and New Zealand: Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities

Marketing automation is no longer a competitive advantage in Australia and New Zealand; it’s the baseline. Retailers are delivering tailored shopping experiences at scale. Manufacturers are running always-on lead nurturing without lifting a finger. Service providers are executing complex, multi-channel campaigns with the consistency that manual processes could never sustain.

Source: Grand View Research

And the investment is following the momentum. Australia’s marketing automation market is projected to grow from $190 million in 2024 to $544 million by 2030 – nearly a threefold increase in six years, according to Grand View Research. New Zealand is tracking a similar trajectory. Across both markets, this is no longer a question of whether to invest in automation. It’s a question of whether businesses are investing in it well.

That distinction matters more now than it ever has. ANZ is at an inflection point: the businesses that treat automation as a platform purchase will be overtaken by those that treat it as a growth strategy. The gap between the two is already widening.

In this blog post, we explore what that inflection point looks like in practice, the trends accelerating adoption across Australia and New Zealand, the challenges that are holding too many businesses back, and the opportunities available to those ready to move beyond surface-level usage.

The Current Marketing Landscape in ANZ

Marketing automation in ANZ is no longer a niche investment. It is becoming mainstream among mid-to-large enterprises and across industries, from HiTech and BFSI to manufacturing, healthcare, and eCommerce. As B2B buyers increasingly turn to AI tools during the research phase, the pressure on ANZ businesses to deliver timely, personalised responses at every touchpoint intensifies. This makes automation not just efficient, but essential.

Marketing Automation Adoption Trends ANZ

Globally, about 75% of businesses now use at least one form of marketing automation.^[i] In ANZ specifically, the momentum is building as firms embrace smarter tools and AI-led workflows. ANZ’s newest SMBs are increasingly digitally native –  technology isn’t an afterthought for them, it’s the default. So it’s perhaps no surprise that 76% of ANZ SMBs plan to use AI for marketing in 2026, the highest proportion of any region globally.^[ii]  

Marketers in ANZ are embracing AI for a variety of use cases:

Marketing Automation Platforms in Play

Platform choice in ANZ reflects a market that is maturing but still uneven. Enterprise organisations are largely consolidated around a handful of established platforms, while SMBs, particularly in New Zealand, tend toward more accessible, integrated solutions that don’t require a dedicated marketing operations team to run. This isn’t purely a resourcing constraint. All-in-one platforms that reduce tool sprawl, embed AI, and do the heavy lifting without specialist dependency are simply how they expect software to work.

Here are the key marketing automation platforms for ANZ businesses to consider:

HubSpot: Best for mid-market companies and businesses seeking an all-in-one, user-friendly stack with strong inbound, CRM, and service-marketing features. Companies like Chronos Agency have partnered with it and reported ~50% growth in new deals in ANZ.^[iii] 

Marketo: Best for large enterprises that need account-based marketing, analytics, strong lead engagement, multiple integrations, and enterprise-grade scalability. Marketo has had a solid presence in ANZ for a while, with local operations (sales, support) and leadership.

Eloqua: Most suited for large enterprises with complex regulatory, content, or multi-brand/multinational requirements. Eloqua is often chosen for its strong integration options, as local ANZ marketing teams tend to struggle with integrating systems.

Pardot: Preferred by B2B organisations, especially those already using Salesforce-CRM and looking for tight alignment between marketing and sales. Pardot enjoys adoption among firms that rely heavily on Salesforce.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud: Ideal for enterprises and large organisations that need omnichannel customer engagement at scale. SFMC excels in advanced email marketing, customer journey orchestration, and real-time personalisation. However, it requires skilled talent and strong implementation support. 

Key Marketing Automation Challenges for ANZ Enterprises

The barriers to marketing automation success in Australia and New Zealand are less about technology availability and more about how organisations are – or aren’t using these platforms. ANZ is at an inflection point: the businesses that address these challenges strategically will pull ahead; those that don’t will find the gap increasingly difficult to close. Five challenges stand out:

Data and Technology Integration

Integration difficulties continue to plague automation initiatives, with 44% of organisations citing integrating data across technologies as a significant obstacle.^[iv] This prevents the data flow necessary for sophisticated automation workflows and creates silos.

The fragmented data leads to quality issues, including inconsistent records and duplicate entries. This undermines key marketing automation efforts like segmentation, lead scoring, and campaign performance. 

Limited Personalisation Capabilities

Most ANZ enterprises are still executing personalisation at a surface level. The gap isn’t ambition, it’s infrastructure. Without integrated data systems pulling together behavioural signals, purchase history, and engagement patterns, marketers default to demographic segmentation and hope for the best. This matters more in ANZ than most markets as local consumers are among the most digitally engaged in the Asia-Pacific region, meaning the bar for relevance is already high. Generic campaigns don’t just underperform; they erode trust.

ROI Measurement Complexity

Proving the value of marketing automation remains one of the most frustrating challenges for ANZ marketing leaders. Modern customer journeys span multiple touchpoints, devices, and timeframes, making revenue attribution genuinely difficult.

Most ANZ marketing teams can tell you their open rates and click-throughs. Far fewer can say with confidence what their automation investment is generating in pipeline and revenue. Without that visibility, securing ongoing investment becomes an uphill battle.

Critical Skills Shortage

The ANZ marketing operations talent market is stretched. Skilled professionals who can implement, optimise, and strategically manage MA platforms are in short supply, and the data reflects the consequences. 

Only 33% of marketers in Australia and 29% in New Zealand are fully satisfied with their ability to unify customer data sources.^[v] In New Zealand, where the overall talent pool is smaller, this shortage is more acute, leaving many organisations dependent on external partners to bridge the gap. 

Change Management

Even when the technology and talent are in place, organisational culture can get in the way. Sales and marketing alignment is often patchy, and resistance to process changes slows adoption. At times, leaders underestimate the mindset shift required to move from manual, campaign-based marketing to an always-on, data-driven model.

Emerging MA Opportunities for ANZ Businesses

The challenges are real, but so is the momentum. ANZ SMBs are among the most confident about business growth of any region globally, and the opportunities available through marketing automation are expanding faster than most organisations are moving to capture them. Here is where the real upside lies:

AI-Driven Automation

ANZ is seeing one of the fastest uptakes of generative AI in APAC as adoption rose from ~14% in 2024 to 29% in 2025 among local brands.^[vi]

For marketing teams, this means predictive lead scoring, intent-based campaigns, and conversational AI that engages and qualifies leads around the clock, without adding headcount. The businesses moving from AI experimentation to AI deployment are already shortening sales cycles. The gap between them and those still evaluating is widening.

Personalisation at Scale 

ANZ marketers have a powerful opportunity to tap into 1:1 engagement. By combining marketing automation with AI, businesses can dynamically tailor emails, ads, and web experiences to individual preferences, purchase history, and behaviors. This opens the door to context-aware campaigns. For example, surfacing product recommendations in real time or tailoring nurture flows based on intent signals.

Integrated Tech Ecosystems

ANZ marketers can unlock far greater value from automation by connecting it with core systems, such as CRM, CDP, and analytics. These integrations create a single customer view that makes campaign execution, performance tracking, and sales and marketing alignment easier. It also establishes the foundation for scalable personalisation.

Cost & Efficiency Gains

One of the clearest marketing automation opportunities for ANZ is in efficiency. Automation takes over repetitive tasks, and the benefits stack up.

Reduced manual effort → less time spent on routine admin.

Shorter sales cycles → faster response times and lead prioritisation.

Improved lead quality → teams focus where it matters the most.

For businesses under pressure to do more with less, these gains enable smarter marketing that scales without draining resources.

What All This Means for ANZ Businesses

The data in this blog tells a consistent story: ANZ businesses have the platforms, the appetite, and increasingly the AI tools to execute sophisticated marketing automation. The real opportunity lies in moving from isolated campaigns to a strategic, optimised approach where marketing automation drives measurable growth.

That shift requires four priorities:

• Build unified customer journeys — ensuring every channel (email, social, web, events) connects into a seamless experience.
• Leverage AI with clean data — combining predictive tools with accurate, integrated data to improve targeting, personalisation, and efficiency.
• Measure impact, not just activity — tying automation to revenue outcomes rather than clicks and opens.
• Invest in expertise — working with skilled partners and consultants who understand both the technology and the unique ANZ market context.

The Future of Marketing Automation in ANZ

Marketing automation in ANZ is at an inflection point. Adoption is no longer the question — optimisation is. The businesses that succeed over the next five years will be those that go beyond surface-level usage and treat automation as a strategic growth lever.

Ready to Move Beyond Surface-Level Automation? Let’s Talk!

Statistics References:

[i] Digital Silk
[ii] Constant Contact
[iii] B&T
[iv] Ascend2
[v] Salesforce