What does the Forrester Total Economic Impact study of Zeta show?

The Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study shows that the Zeta Marketing Platform can deliver measurable business value for enterprise marketers. In the commissioned November 2025 study, Forrester found 6x ROAS, 295% ROI, $21.4M NPV over three years, $3.2M in annual savings, payback in under six months, and a 50% reduction in campaign setup time. For you, that means more revenue from the same media investment, less operational drag, and faster decisions across paid, owned, online, and offline channels.

The headline findings

Here’s the clearest way to read the study:

Forrester TEI result	What it means for marketers
6x return on ad spend (ROAS)	Media is working harder.
295% return on tech investment	The platform pays back far beyond cost.
$21.4M NPV over 3 years	Long-term economic value at enterprise scale.
$3.2M annual savings	Lower operating cost through consolidation.
Payback in under six months	Faster time to value.
50% reduction in campaign setup time	Less manual work, faster activation.

The study was commissioned by Forrester Consulting and based on interviews with enterprise marketing leaders across retail, travel, and financial services. That matters. It means the results reflect complex, real-world marketing organizations, not a narrow use case.

What the study says about business impact

The biggest takeaway is not just that Zeta performs well financially. It’s that the platform helps teams operate differently.

Instead of stitching together disconnected tools and acting after the fact, the Zeta Marketing Platform helps marketers connect data, identity, and activation in one place. That creates three kinds of value:

• Revenue impact through stronger media efficiency
• Cost impact through technology consolidation
• Speed impact through faster campaign execution

The report also highlighted benefits beyond the numbers, including:

• Improved customer experiences
• Deeper strategic insights
• Increased regulatory confidence
• Tech-stack consolidation

For a CMO, that combination matters. It’s not just about dashboards. It’s about decisions, not data. It’s about moving from reactive reporting to action that changes outcomes.

What the results mean for enterprise marketers

If you’re leading growth, performance, or lifecycle marketing, this study gives you a practical benchmark. It shows what happens when identity intelligence and activation are connected in a single operating model.

We see four clear implications:

1. Your media can work harder

   • The 6x ROAS result shows the platform can improve return on spend.

2. Your team can move faster

   • A 50% reduction in campaign setup time means less time lost to manual coordination.

3. Your tech stack can become leaner

   • The $3.2M annual savings point to meaningful consolidation value.

4. Your investment can pay back quickly

   • Under-six-month payback is a strong signal for enterprise buyers who need measurable outcomes.

This is the business case for AI-powered marketing done right: intelligence that doesn’t just inform, it acts.

How Athena by Zeta extends the TEI story

The Forrester TEI results were established on the Zeta Marketing Platform before Athena GA. Athena by Zeta now builds on that foundation with agentic execution.

At general availability, we saw early signals that point to even faster value creation:

• Segmentation completed in minutes rather than days
• Campaign workflows executed in hours instead of weeks
• All channels — paid, owned, online, offline — orchestrated from the same surface
• Custom agents in AI Studio executing the actions Athena recommends

Athena also ships with enterprise-grade governance. Its identity foundation is built on the Zeta ID graph, which uses permissioned consumer signal data, not third-party cookies.

Red Roof, an early Athena customer at GA, captured the shift well. President Zack Gharib said:

“Athena elevates the way we approach performance marketing. Instead of reacting to what already happened, we now have predictive insight that helps us anticipate opportunities.”

That is the shift we are driving: from hindsight to foresight, from manual effort to agentic action, from answers not dashboards to outcomes you can feel in the business.

The bottom line

The Forrester Total Economic Impact study of Zeta shows that enterprise marketers can achieve strong financial returns, lower operating cost, and faster execution with the Zeta Marketing Platform. It also shows why Athena by Zeta matters now: because the next wave of marketing value is not just about knowing more. It’s about acting faster, with confidence.

If you’re looking for a marketing platform that helps you achieve the impossible, this study gives you the proof point.

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