Embracing Change

The role of a CMO is transforming significantly as a result of economic volatility, fast-paced digitisation, and changing buyer expectations. Using Factor Insights 2025 survey findings and insights, this report examines how Australian marketers are balancing the demand for revenue results with the modernisation of tech stacks, team scaling, and redefining buyer journeys. The report provides an assessment from a survey of 204 marketing leaders from Australia and New Zealand gathered in February 2025.

Because of the constraints posed by AI on internal skillsets, boundaries of attribution models have become more complex to track and manage. Now, it’s with great urgency that CMOs steer not just marketing – but the whole company through transformational changes. The report makes it clear what pivots CMOs need to execute in Q2: shift from campaign based lead generation to proactive demand driven branding; from self-contained projects with limited scope to widespread integration of AI into business functions; from disjointed marketing initiatives to cohesive, collaboration frameworks centered around sales integration.

CMO’s Strategic Priorities Are Shifting:

• Brand-led demand creation is now more valuable than short-term lead generation, with emphasis on nurturing community, trust, and experience.
• Upskilling in AI is crucial. Without this capability, investing in technology will not yield expected results.

What's Accelerating in Q2

• B2B buyer self-education has become the norm - more than two third prefer to research independently before engaging with sales.
• Complexity in ROI measurement has intensified as complicated customer engagements outpace first, last click attribution models.
• AI adoption grows steeply, however, 79% remain in ‘pilot mode’ due to lack of skills and fragmented tools.

Barriers to Marketing Impact

• 46% of CMOs point to lack of alignment with sales as the primary reason for hindering revenue generation.
• Ineffective ROI (22%) remains the most significant frustration for marketing leaders, even surpassing concerns about AI and data privacy.
• 70% of marketers are without training deemed essential for the execution of AI at scale.

New Marketing Performance Models Are Emerging

• Traditional lead-gen KPIs no longer apply. CMOs are embracing measurement frameworks based on engagement, influence and even revenue.
• Attribution moving to multi-touch models, incrementality testing, and marketing mix modelling.

Hype to Reality: AI Adoption and Execution

• Top Current AI Uses: Content Creation (22%), Campaign Optimization (21%), Personalisation (11%).
• Areas of focus this quarter: Content Automation, Predictive Insights & Personalisation at Scale.
• The time has come for CMOs to make AI less of an edge case and more part of the core marketing tech stack - but with a perspective on impact, not just experimentation.

Martech and DataStrategy in Transition

• CMOs are also consolidating tools to increase integration and save money.
• Combating these changes, as third-party cookies disappear, have been by the rise of first-party data and consent-based engagement.
• CRM, email, content and predictive analytics workflows all incorporate AI.