07 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP AND BENCHMARKING
IBM Institute for Business Value
IBM’s globally integrated thought leadership and benchmarking platform.
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Ranked #1 by Source Global Research in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
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Benchmark data points
Performance data across 60K organizations.
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Research experts
Industry, technology and function specialists, data scientists and analysts across 17 countries.
A little more inspiration.
Fresh perspectives for what comes next.
Research and ideas from the IBM Institute for Business Value, selected for Elisa.
Industry insights
Telecommunications
Research on how AI, cloud and new business models are reshaping telecoms, customer experiences and opportunities for growth.
Explore on IBM.com (opens in a new tab)
2025 CMO study
The CMO revolution: 5 growth moves to win with AI
Five moves to rethink marketing operations and help turn ambitious ideas into growth in the age of AI.
Explore on IBM.com (opens in a new tab)
Customer experience
Win the moment by mastering customer intent
How brands can connect data, decisions and action to understand customer intent and deliver relevant experiences. In partnership with Adobe.
Explore on IBM.com (opens in a new tab)
Content & generative AI
The content supply chain’s AI awakening
What it takes to move generative AI beyond pilots and improve content creation and delivery. A study with Adobe and AWS.
Explore on IBM.com (opens in a new tab)
Agentic AI & Commerce
Own the agentic commerce experience
In collaboration with NRF, explore consumer use of AI and how brands can thrive in the era of AI-assisted shopping.
Explore on IBM.com (opens in a new tab)
Future of Business
The enterprise in 2030
AI isn’t just enhancing the business model. By 2030, it will be the business model.
Explore on IBM.com (opens in a new tab)Two decades of benchmarking expertise.
For two decades the IBM Institute for Business Value has helped business leaders assess their performance to drive transformation and successful change at speed and scale.
Explore benchmarking at ibm.co/benchmarking (opens in a new tab)
Patented toolset
Used by thousands of IBMers to perform custom comparisons tailored to the priorities of each client.
Deep experience
Conducting benchmarking studies, performing advanced analytics, identifying improvement opportunities and creating financial business cases.
Open standards sponsor
Sponsor of Open Standards Benchmarking℠ with APQC. Donated IBM intellectual property to create Process Classification Frameworks used globally.
Unrivalled database
Millions of data points from 60,000+ organizations across 60 countries, covering all major industries, front and back-office functions, and technologies including cloud, AI and automation.
Benchmarking for marketing.
Performance data from IBV, ready for Elisa’s marketing questions.
Select a card for more detail.
01Marketing performance is measured differently
KPIs span brand, engagement, revenue, effectiveness and profitability. Even the ones few teams use are often called mission critical.
Marketing performance is measured differently
KPIs span brand, engagement, revenue, effectiveness and profitability. Even the ones few teams use are often called mission critical.
Most widely used KPIsShare of all respondents using the metric
Rated mission critical by those who use themShare of users rating the KPI mission critical
Marketing revenue attribution is used by only 29% of respondents, yet half of those who use it call it mission critical. Source: IBM IBV Performance Data and Benchmarking.
02Key benchmarking data for marketing
Six areas of marketing data, from spend and operating models to personalization and AI, comparable against peer groups.
Key benchmarking data for marketing
Six areas of marketing data, from spend and operating models to personalization and AI, comparable against peer groups.
Marketing expenditure
- Spend as a percentage of revenue
- Split across personnel, media, agencies and martech
- Marketing FTEs per $1B of revenue
Revenue and margin impact
- Revenue attributable to marketing
- ROMI, overall and by channel
- Impact of AI in marketing on revenue
Operating models
- Balance of in-house, agency and outsourced work
- Use of marketing workflow systems
- Standardization of workflows
Channels and campaigns
- Digital vs traditional channel adoption and spend
- Return and conversion rates by channel
- Time to plan campaigns, with and without agencies
Personalization and engagement
- Level and type of personalization
- NPS by customer type
- Customer acquisition and attrition rates
Technology and AI
- Martech stack and use of customer data platforms
- Challenges in turning data into insight
- Generative AI use cases and their impact on acquisition and loyalty
Results are available by standard and custom peer groups, using factors such as industry, size, target audience, customer type and location. E-commerce, sales and service benchmarks are available separately.
03Benchmark Wizard
Performance comparisons for front and back-office processes across geographies and industries, open to every IBMer.
Benchmark Wizard
Performance comparisons for front and back-office processes across geographies and industries, open to every IBMer.
Explore performance data and practices by industry, business function or topic.
- A gateway to performance metrics, process frameworks and thought leadership
- One consistent methodology to measure costs, cycle time, efficiency and quality
- Industry-specific data, for example telecommunications, banking payments and underwriting
- Flexible peer groups by industry, role, region, transaction volume and more