The Current State of Marketing Automation in ANZ: Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities

Once seen as a niche investment, marketing automation (MA) has become a foundational driver of business growth in Australia and New Zealand. Beyond efficiency gains, it is reshaping customer engagement by responding to changing sentiments and evolving expectations.

Retailers are using automation to deliver tailored shopping experiences, manufacturers to streamline lead nurturing, and service providers to scale campaigns with consistency and impact.

Source: Grand View Research

The numbers tell the story. The ANZ marketing automation market is projected to grow from $190.1 million in 2024 to $544.8 million by 2030 — nearly a threefold increase. This signals both rising adoption and untapped potential for businesses to extract more value from their platforms. 

Yet many organisations are still only scratching the surface. Limited personalisation, fragmented systems, and unclear ROI measurement remain common roadblocks.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the current state of marketing automation in ANZ and highlight the key trends driving adoption, challenges holding businesses back, and the opportunities that can turn automation into a true catalyst for growth.

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. 

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. As per a report, 76% of ANZ SMBs (small and medium businesses) plan to use AI for marketing.^[ii]  

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

Marketing Automation Platforms in Play

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 are less about technology availability and more about how organisations are using these platforms. Five core challenges that stand out in the ANZ context are:

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 struggle to move beyond basic demographic segmentation. A lack of integrated data systems makes it harder to access behavioral insights, purchase history, and engagement patterns needed for meaningful personalisation. 

As a result, most marketers are forced to rely on broad audience segments rather than individual-level customisation. This results in campaigns that feel generic to recipients. 

ROI Measurement Complexity

Modern customer journeys span multiple touchpoints, devices, and timeframes. This leads to attribution complexity that continues to perplex ANZ businesses. While marketing teams can track engagement metrics like clicks and opens, tying campaigns directly to revenue remains a challenge. Without clear ROI visibility, securing automation investment becomes difficult.

Critical Skills Shortage

The ANZ region faces a notable shortage of marketing operations specialists. Skilled professionals who understand MA platforms are in short supply. Moreover, only 33% of marketers in Australia and 29% in New Zealand are fully satisfied with their ability to unify customer data sources.^[v] This leaves teams unable to fully leverage advanced automation features. 

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

While challenges remain, local SMBs in ANZ are among the most confident of any region about business growth. The rising opportunities in marketing automation provide them with new ways to adapt and scale.

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] AI-driven tools like predictive lead scoring and intent-based campaigns help shorten sales cycles by enabling marketing teams to target high-intent leads faster. Additionally, intelligent chatbots are becoming mainstream as brands refine behavioral tracking. 

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 takeaway is clear: basic automation is no longer enough. 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 entering a new phase. 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.

Need an ANZ Technology Partner that Turn Marketing Automation into True Transformation? Let’s Talk!

Statistics References:

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