REPORT

THE MODERN MARKETING DATA STACK 2025

How leading marketers are thriving in a world redefined by AI, privacy and data gravity

This brand-new report includes:
  • Three forces that redefine the marketing ecosystem 
  • The rising impact of first-party data 
  • The leaders in every aspect of marketing tech

There has been a seismic shift

In recent years, marketers have watched powerful trends — notably the arrival of advanced AI, increased attention to privacy concerns and the need for a data-first strategy — change how they reach their audiences and drive revenue. 

Heading into 2025, these are no longer “trends.” They are the fundamental pillars of a new status quo that will permanently reshape the technology and techniques of successful marketers.

The latest edition of The Modern Marketing Data Stack defines this new era, examines further trends that emerge from it, and details the entirely reshaped stack of technologies that marketers rely on.

Data Gravity Recenters the Martech Data Stack

Data gravity — the attractive power and vast potential of large, unified data sets — has reshaped the idea of the martech stack from a tower of building blocks to an array of interlocking technologies around a central data core. 

Read the report to understand this new alignment, and to see the leading technology partners delivering value in this new world.

We looked at how more than 9,800 customers in the Snowflake AI Data Cloud build their marketing stack to drive business growth. Our findings reflect the way new strategies are emerging in an AI-driven, privacy-first era.

DON'T CALL THEM TRENDS

AI innovations, privacy considerations and data revelations are more than the latest wave of industry hype.

The report explores three factors that are no longer variations from the baseline or hot trends pointing toward incremental advantages. These are game changers on the order of the smartphone:      
  

  • Generative AI. How marketers interact with their data, understand their audiences and create campaigns will be fundamentally different going forward.
  • Privacy. Consumers and regulators have woken up to the implications of sharing data, and the power of consent, in a way that has upended digital strategy.
  • Data gravity. It’s not just “eliminate silos” or “use all your marketing data.” Enterprises are unifying all their data, and bringing applications into a single source of truth. In the process, they’re improving speed, cost efficiency, quality of insight and overall results.

HOW TO NAVIGATE THE NEW PARADIGM

Dig into the ideas animating today’s cutting-edge marketing strategies.

The redefined status quo is not a static environment. In the report we explore trends emerging from this new reality, including:
 

  • The advent of the data-empowered marketer.AI technologies will change how marketers work, what’s expected of them and the skill sets they’ll employ.
  • The rise of first-party data. As third-party signals become fuzzier, high-quality first-party data not only backfills the loss, but drives new marketing strategies.
  • The explosion of commerce media. If you’ve got the first-party data and direct access to your audience, congratulations — you’re now an ad platform. Spend that extra revenue wisely.

Beyond these standout trends, the report digs into old and new measurement strategies, the sophistication of data-connected applications, real-world marketing success stories and more.

The Modern Marketing Data Stack 2025

To discover the leaders across the 10 capabilities that comprise the marketing data stack — and learn about the emerging trends to look out for in future editions of the MMDS — download the full report today.

Download the Report

Methodology

The goal of this research was to pinpoint the technologies that have garnered a substantial and active customer base within Snowflake. The study spanned a 12-month period, from May 1, 2023, to April 30, 2024, encompassing data from over 9,800 Snowflake customers. The process was as follows:

Identifying technologies in the marketing data stack:

  • We assessed the use of marketing technologies by Snowflake’s active customers during the analysis period. Active customers were defined as those who: 

    • Held either a capacity or an on-demand/self-service contract with a valid end date, and

    • Generated revenue for Snowflake within the past year

  • The technologies considered for the analysis were required to meet the following criteria:

    • The technologies considered as part of the three categories of data tools and platforms had to be active members of the Snowflake Partner Network (SPN) or have a comparable agreement in place with Snowflake

    • The technologies for the seven categories of the marketing and advertising tools and platforms were required to either be active members of SPN or be Snowflake Marketplace providers that have agreed to the relevant Marketplace terms and conditions

Categorizing technologies based on their type of Snowflake consumption:

As Snowflake continues to enhance its platform capabilities and offer various application deployment models, vendors integrate with the AI Data Cloud in diverse ways to serve different purposes. To accurately assess market leadership and adoption levels from the lens of our customer base, specific metrics were applied based on the type of Snowflake consumption. The analysis categorized technology providers into two distinct groups: 

  • Technologies using Snowflake for data integration, transformation and analysis workloads

  • Technologies utilizing Snowflake’s collaboration workloads

Interestingly, there was minimal overlap, with less than 2% of tools operating in both categories. This approach provided a clear and precise evaluation of how different technologies leverage Snowflake’s evolving capabilities to meet the needs of marketers.

Identifying key metrics for measuring success of marketing tools:

To accurately measure the adoption success of marketing tools within each category in the stack, specific metrics were analyzed based on how the partner technologies leveraged Snowflake's capabilities. 

  • Metrics for technologies using Snowflake for data integration, transformation and analysis workloads were: 

    • Total number of active customers using the technology, and 

    • Total credit consumption by the technology on Snowflake, and

    • The percentage growth of both categories for the 12-month trailing period, in comparison to the prior 12-month trailing period 

  • Metrics for technologies leveraging Snowflake’s collaboration capabilities:

    • Total number of stable edges that include the technology. Stable edges are the ongoing relationships between data providers and consumers of data. A stable edge is defined as a data share that has produced at least 20 transactions in which compute resources are consumed and such consumption results in recognized product revenue over two successive three-week periods (with at least 20 transactions in each period). 

    • Total credit consumption is driven by data shares that the technology uses on Snowflake

    • The growth of both of these for the 12-month trailing period, in comparison to the prior 12-month trailing period

Analyzing growth figures:

We included all active capacity and self-service customers as of May 1, 2023, who generated positive revenue for Snowflake over the subsequent year. Growth percentages reflect the increased usage of each category’s tools over the immediate 12-month trailing period between May 1, 2023, and April 30, 2024, compared to the previous 12-month period. By following this methodology, we aimed to provide a clear picture of the technologies gaining traction among Snowflake’s customer base.

Creating a penetration index for Snowflake technologies: 

We developed an index to illustrate the market penetration and usage depth of technologies based on their interaction with Snowflake. The calculation uses weighted criteria tailored to different types of Snowflake usage: 

  • Technologies using Snowflake for data integration, transformation and analysis capabilities:

    • Breadth (40%): Number of active customers using the technology on Snowflake over the 12-month period of analysis

    • Depth (40%): Total credit consumption by the technology on Snowflake over the 12-month period of analysis

    • Growth of breadth and depth:

      • (10%) Percentage growth of the total number of active customers using the technology for the 12-month trailing period, in comparison to the prior 12-month trailing period

      • (10%) Percentage growth of the credit consumption by the technology for the 12-month trailing period, in comparison to the prior 12-month trailing period 

  • Technologies utilizing Snowflake’s collaboration workloads:

    • Breadth (40%): Number of stable edges of the technology on Snowflake over the 12-month period of analysis

    • Depth (40%): Total credit consumption by the technology on Snowflake over the 12-month period of analysis

    • Growth of breadth and depth:

      • (10%) Percentage growth of the total number of stable edges of the technology on Snowflake over the 12-month trailing period of analysis, in comparison to the prior 12-month trailing period

      • (10%) Percentage growth of the consumption by the technology for the 12-month trailing period, in comparison to the prior 12-month trailing period

      • Note that the Enrichment & Hygiene category — which in last year’s report was based solely on stable edges delivered by the partner — has been updated for this year’s report to follow the same index applied to the other collaboration workload categories. 

  • This index provides a comprehensive view of both the market reach and the intensity of technology usage within Snowflake’s ecosystem.

Rank/select the marketing technologies from 1 to N, where the lower number (ranking) is more favorable. Combine the full list of technologies across both groups and normalize this ranking between 0-100. (A score of 100 would be the technology ranked first across every metric.)

  • Leaders represent the top technologies with the highest index in each category.

  • Ones to Watch did not necessarily follow the leaders in their standing, but were selected based on multiple factors such as strong recent momentum in the market, innovative technology or approach with Snowflake, or have recently demonstrated strong customer capabilities.

Attribution of Snowflake technology distinctions for each partner:

  • Real-time enabled: Refers to organizations within the modern marketing data stack, categorized either as Leaders or Ones to Watch, that used a minimum of 40 consumption credits between May 1, 2023, and April 30, 2024 (roughly three per month), for Snowpipe Streaming and/or Dynamic Tables. This designation does not encompass all partners offering real-time services, as some may not meet the criteria as defined for this report but may offer real-time services directly to customers.

  • AI-ready: Partners within the modern marketing data stack, categorized either as Leaders or Ones to Watch, that used a minimum of 40 consumption credits between May 1, 2023, and April 30, 2024 (approximately three per month), across Cortex LLM, Cortex AI, Machine Learning Credits or Unmanaged ML Packages.

  • Snowflake Native App: Partners that have a Snowflake Native App, either privately available or publicly listed, between May 1, 2023, to April 30, 2024, which also had consumption during that time period.