30 Marketing Personalization Statistics, Trends, and Data Points for 2026

Marketing personalization has moved from a competitive edge to a baseline consumer expectation, but the data behind it is mixed and the framing matters. This briefing assembles verified personalization statistics on consumer expectations, revenue lift, adoption, data and privacy friction, and AI-driven personalization, attributing every figure to its publisher and year. Most headline numbers come from vendor or consultancy surveys with self-selected respondents, so we flag self-reported limits and vendor framing throughout rather than presenting marketing claims as settled fact.
Executive Summary
- 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions and 76% get frustrated when this does not happen, per McKinsey’s Next in Personalization 2021 report (global B2C survey). Source: McKinsey & Company, November 2021.
- Personalization most often lifts revenue by 10 to 15%, with company-specific results ranging from 5 to 25% depending on sector and execution. Source: McKinsey & Company, Next in Personalization 2021.
- 56% of consumers say they will become repeat buyers after a personalized experience, a 7-point year-over-year increase, per Twilio Segment’s 2023 survey of 3,001 adults across multiple countries. Source: Twilio Segment, State of Personalization 2023.
- Only 51% of consumers trust brands to keep their personal data safe, exposing the central tension between personalization and privacy. Source: Twilio Segment, State of Personalization 2023.
- 80% of consumers reported being more likely to do business with a company offering personalized experiences, per Epsilon’s 2017 survey of 1,000 US adults aged 18 to 64. Source: Epsilon, 2017.
- 73% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations, per Salesforce’s State of the Connected Customer (6th edition, surveying more than 14,300 consumers and business buyers). Source: Salesforce, 2024.
- 33% of US consumers say they never want to receive personalized interactions from companies, a counterweight to vendor optimism. Source: Forrester, The State Of US Consumer Personalization 2024.
- 89% of business leaders believe ethical use of AI can be a competitive advantage, signaling that AI-driven personalization is now an executive priority rather than an experiment. Source: Twilio Segment, State of Personalization 2024 (survey of 521 directors and above).
Key Findings
- 71% of global consumers expected companies to deliver personalized interactions in McKinsey’s 2021 survey, and 76% reported frustration when interactions were not personalized. Source: McKinsey & Company, November 2021.
- Personalization typically delivers a 10 to 15% revenue lift, with outcomes spanning 5 to 25% by company and sector, per McKinsey’s 2021 analysis. Source: McKinsey & Company, 2021.
- McKinsey’s 2023 explainer states personalization can reduce customer acquisition costs by as much as 50%, lift revenues by 5 to 15%, and increase marketing return on investment by 10 to 30%. Source: McKinsey & Company, May 2023.
- Fast-growing companies derive 40% more of their revenue from personalization than their slower-growing counterparts, per McKinsey’s 2021 report. Source: McKinsey & Company, 2021.
- Shifting to top-quartile personalization performance across US industries would generate more than $1 trillion in value, according to McKinsey’s 2021 estimate. Source: McKinsey & Company, 2021.
- 80% of consumers said they are more likely to do business with a company that offers personalized experiences, and 90% found personalization appealing, in Epsilon’s 2017 survey of 1,000 US adults. Source: Epsilon, 2017.
- 56% of consumers reported they will become repeat buyers after a single personalized experience, up 7 points year over year, in Twilio Segment’s 2023 survey. Source: Twilio Segment, 2023.
- Only 51% of consumers said they trust brands to keep their data safe in Twilio Segment’s 2023 survey, the clearest measure of the personalization-privacy gap. Source: Twilio Segment, 2023.
- 92% of businesses reported using AI-driven personalization to drive growth, per Twilio Segment’s 2023 report. Source: Twilio Segment, 2023.
- 80% of business leaders said consumers spend more, by an average of 38%, when their experience is personalized, a self-reported business-side estimate. Source: Twilio Segment, 2023.
- 73% of business leaders agreed AI will change personalization and marketing strategies, and 58% expected AI chatbots to be the most impactful AI personalization technology over the next five years. Source: Twilio Segment, 2024.
- 73% of customers expected companies to understand their needs and expectations in Salesforce’s research, while a large share still find brands impersonal. Source: Salesforce, 2024.
- 84% of customers said the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services, per Salesforce’s State of the Connected Customer. Source: Salesforce, 2022.
- 33% of US consumers said they never want to receive personalized interactions, and 62% wanted economic value in exchange for personalization, per Forrester’s 2024 analysis. Source: Forrester, 2024.
- 72% of companies reported using a customer data platform for personalization and 48% reported using a data warehouse, per Twilio Segment’s 2024 survey of business leaders. Source: Twilio Segment, 2024.
Consumer Expectations for Personalization
Surveys from consultancies and software vendors converge on a clear directional finding: a majority of consumers now expect personalized interactions, and disappointment carries a cost. The exact magnitude varies by survey instrument and respondent pool, so the numbers should be read as indicative rather than precise.
71% of consumers expected companies to deliver personalized interactions in McKinsey’s 2021 global survey. Source: McKinsey & Company, Next in Personalization 2021. In the same survey, 76% of consumers reported frustration when interactions were not personalized. Source: McKinsey & Company, 2021. 73% of customers expected companies to understand their unique needs and expectations, per Salesforce’s State of the Connected Customer (more than 14,300 respondents). Source: Salesforce, 2024. 84% of customers said a company’s experience is as important as its products and services. Source: Salesforce, 2022. These figures suggest expectation, not just preference, but they come from vendors that sell personalization tooling, which is a framing limitation worth noting.
Revenue Lift and Business Impact
The most-cited financial claims for personalization trace to McKinsey. They are presented as ranges, not point estimates, which is appropriate given that lift depends heavily on sector, baseline maturity, and execution quality.
Personalization most often produced a 10 to 15% revenue lift, with company-level results spanning 5 to 25%, per McKinsey’s 2021 report. Source: McKinsey & Company, 2021. McKinsey’s 2023 explainer framed the impact as a 5 to 15% revenue lift, up to 50% lower customer acquisition costs, and a 10 to 30% increase in marketing return on investment. Source: McKinsey & Company, May 2023. Fast-growing companies drove 40% more of their revenue from personalization than slower-growing peers. Source: McKinsey & Company, 2021. Across US industries, shifting to top-quartile personalization performance would generate more than $1 trillion in value. Source: McKinsey & Company, 2021. The $1 trillion figure is a modeled estimate of potential value, not realized revenue, and should be cited as such. On the vendor side, 80% of business leaders said consumers spend an average of 38% more when their experience is personalized, per Twilio Segment, 2023; this is a business-respondent perception rather than a measured transaction outcome.
Adoption and Repeat Purchase Behavior
Adoption of personalization technology is near-universal among surveyed businesses, while the consumer behavioral payoff is reported through self-assessment.
92% of businesses reported using AI-driven personalization to drive growth, per Twilio Segment, 2023. Source: Twilio Segment, 2023. 56% of consumers said they would become repeat buyers after a personalized experience, a 7-point year-over-year increase, per Twilio Segment, 2023. Source: Twilio Segment, 2023. 80% of consumers said they are more likely to do business with a company offering personalized experiences, per Epsilon, 2017. Source: Epsilon, 2017. The Epsilon figure remains one of the most widely cited personalization statistics, but it is now several years old and predates current privacy regulation and cookie deprecation, so it should be flagged as dated.
Data, Privacy, and the Trust Gap
The strongest counter-narrative to personalization enthusiasm is consumer distrust of how brands handle data. The same surveys that show appetite for relevance also show reluctance to share the data that powers it.
Only 51% of consumers said they trust brands to keep their data safe, per Twilio Segment, 2023. Source: Twilio Segment, 2023. 33% of US consumers said they never want to receive personalized interactions from companies, per Forrester, 2024. Source: Forrester, 2024. 62% of US consumers wanted economic value in exchange for personalized interactions, per Forrester, 2024. Source: Forrester, 2024. Forrester’s framing is notably more skeptical than the vendor surveys, describing consumers as lukewarm about personalization efforts, which provides a useful corrective to the more optimistic McKinsey, Salesforce, and Twilio numbers.
AI-Driven Personalization
By 2024, surveyed business leaders treated AI as the next phase of personalization rather than a side experiment. These figures come from a business-leader panel, not consumers, so they measure executive intent and belief, not consumer experience.
73% of business leaders agreed AI will change personalization and marketing strategies, per Twilio Segment, 2024. Source: Twilio Segment, 2024. 89% of business leaders believed ethical use of AI can be a competitive advantage. Source: Twilio Segment, 2024. 58% of business leaders expected AI chatbots to be the most impactful AI personalization technology over the next five years. Source: Twilio Segment, 2024. 59% of businesses expected their teams to be using AI daily by 2025. Source: Twilio Segment, 2024. 72% of companies reported using a customer data platform for personalization. Source: Twilio Segment, 2024. The 2024 Twilio Segment survey covered 521 directors and above at companies with more than 500 employees across 12 countries, a small and senior sample that skews toward larger enterprises.
Original Synthesis
The following insights are derived by combining the cited public figures. They are interpretive comparisons, not new survey data, and each carries the limitations of its inputs.
- The expectation-trust gap. Combining Twilio Segment 2023 figures, 56% of consumers say they will become repeat buyers after a personalized experience while only 51% trust brands to keep their data safe. The implied tension is that the behavioral upside of personalization (repeat purchase) is roughly matched by a trust deficit in the data that enables it. Inputs: Twilio Segment, 2023. Limitation: both figures come from the same single survey and measure different respondent attitudes, so this is a directional contrast, not a causal relationship.
- Optimist-skeptic spread on consumer appetite. Vendor and consultancy surveys put consumer expectation of personalization at 71% (McKinsey 2021) and 73% (Salesforce 2024), while Forrester 2024 finds 33% of US consumers never want personalized interactions. The roughly 30 to 40 percentage-point spread between “expect personalization” and “never want it” reflects differing question wording and respondent framing more than a true contradiction, and it argues for treating any single personalization-demand number cautiously. Inputs: McKinsey 2021; Salesforce 2024; Forrester 2024. Limitation: the questions are not directly comparable; McKinsey and Salesforce ask about expectation, Forrester about active rejection.
- Self-reported lift sits above modeled lift. McKinsey’s modeled revenue lift from personalization is 10 to 15% (2021), while Twilio Segment 2023 reports business leaders claiming consumers spend 38% more on average when experiences are personalized. The business-respondent self-report is roughly two to three times McKinsey’s modeled range, illustrating how vendor-survey perception tends to exceed consultancy estimates grounded in performance data. Inputs: McKinsey 2021; Twilio Segment 2023. Limitation: the two figures use different methodologies (modeling versus respondent estimate) and are not measuring the same quantity.
Personalization Statistics by Source and Year
| Statistic | Value | Publisher | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consumers expecting personalized interactions | 71% | McKinsey (Next in Personalization) | 2021 |
| Consumers frustrated when not personalized | 76% | McKinsey | 2021 |
| Typical revenue lift from personalization | 10 to 15% | McKinsey | 2021 |
| Customers expecting companies to understand their needs | 73% | Salesforce (State of the Connected Customer) | 2024 |
| Consumers more likely to buy with personalization | 80% | Epsilon | 2017 |
| Consumers becoming repeat buyers after personalization | 56% | Twilio Segment | 2023 |
| Consumers trusting brands to keep data safe | 51% | Twilio Segment | 2023 |
| US consumers who never want personalized interactions | 33% | Forrester | 2024 |
| Business leaders: ethical AI is a competitive advantage | 89% | Twilio Segment | 2024 |
Sources for table: McKinsey & Company (2021, 2023), Salesforce State of the Connected Customer, Epsilon (2017), Twilio Segment State of Personalization (2023, 2024), Forrester (2024). All values as published by each firm.
Revenue and ROI Ranges from McKinsey
| Metric | Reported range | Source and year |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue lift (most common) | 10 to 15% | McKinsey, Next in Personalization 2021 |
| Revenue lift (explainer framing) | 5 to 15% | McKinsey, What is personalization?, 2023 |
| Customer acquisition cost reduction | up to 50% | McKinsey, 2023 |
| Marketing ROI increase | 10 to 30% | McKinsey, 2023 |
| Extra revenue share at fast-growing firms | 40% more | McKinsey, 2021 |
Sources for table: McKinsey & Company, Next in Personalization 2021; McKinsey & Company, What is personalization? (May 2023). Ranges are modeled estimates, not guaranteed outcomes.
Charts to Build
- Title: The expectation-versus-rejection spread. Data needed: consumer personalization expectation (McKinsey 71%, Salesforce 73%) versus active rejection (Forrester 33%). Source: McKinsey 2021, Salesforce 2024, Forrester 2024. Insight: demand for personalization is real but far from universal. Citation-worthy because it counters the common “everyone wants personalization” claim with a named contrarian dataset.
- Title: McKinsey personalization value ranges. Data needed: revenue lift, acquisition cost reduction, marketing ROI ranges. Source: McKinsey 2021 and 2023. Insight: benefits are stated as ranges, not point estimates. Citation-worthy because it gives journalists the defensible bounded figures rather than a single inflated number.
- Title: The personalization trust gap over time. Data needed: consumer trust in brands to protect data (Twilio Segment 51%, 2023) against share using AI-driven personalization (92%, 2023). Source: Twilio Segment 2023. Insight: adoption outpaces trust. Citation-worthy because it pairs a supply-side and demand-side metric from one survey.
- Title: Self-reported lift versus modeled lift. Data needed: Twilio Segment business-leader estimate (38% more spend) versus McKinsey modeled lift (10 to 15%). Source: Twilio Segment 2023, McKinsey 2021. Insight: vendor perception exceeds consultancy modeling. Citation-worthy as a media-literacy point about reading personalization stats.
- Title: AI personalization priorities among business leaders. Data needed: AI changing strategy 73%, chatbots most impactful 58%, daily AI use by 2025 59%, ethical AI as advantage 89%. Source: Twilio Segment 2024. Insight: AI personalization is an executive consensus. Citation-worthy for trend pieces on marketing AI adoption.
Methodology
Source selection prioritized the primary publishers named for this topic: McKinsey’s Next in Personalization report and its 2023 personalization explainer, Epsilon’s 2017 research, Twilio Segment’s State of Personalization reports (2023 and 2024), Salesforce’s State of the Connected Customer, and Forrester’s consumer personalization research. Every figure was traced to the publishing firm and dated. Where a primary PDF was accessible, statistics were read directly from it (Twilio Segment 2023 and 2024 reports were parsed from the official Segment PDFs). Where direct access timed out, figures were corroborated across at least two independent sources reporting identical numbers and attributions. Conflicting framings were retained side by side rather than reconciled: for example, McKinsey’s 2021 “10 to 15%” and its 2023 “5 to 15%” revenue-lift ranges are both shown with their respective publication years. The derived insights in Original Synthesis are arithmetic or interpretive comparisons of the cited figures and introduce no new data. No statistic was invented or estimated. Inclusion required a named publisher, a year, and a verifiable figure; numbers that could not be attributed were excluded. Last updated June 2026.
Source Quality
Tier 1 (primary research, consultancy and large-sample surveys): McKinsey & Company (Next in Personalization 2021; What is personalization? 2023), Forrester (The State Of US Consumer Personalization 2024). These firms publish methodology and have institutional research reputations, though McKinsey’s numbers are consultancy-modeled.
Tier 2 (credible vendor and platform research with disclosed methodology): Twilio Segment State of Personalization (2023, n=3,001 consumers and business leaders; 2024, n=521 business leaders across 12 countries), Salesforce State of the Connected Customer (more than 14,300 respondents), Epsilon (2017, n=1,000 US adults). These are credible but vendor-published and sell personalization-adjacent products, a framing bias to disclose.
Tier 3 (reputable secondary reporting used only for corroboration): Business Chief and trade-press summaries were used solely to confirm figures already attributed to Tier 1 and Tier 2 publishers, never as a primary basis for any statistic.
Most Quotable Statistics
- “71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and 76% get frustrated when this does not happen.” Source: McKinsey & Company, 2021.
- “Personalization most often delivers a 10 to 15% revenue lift.” Source: McKinsey & Company, 2021.
- “Only 51% of consumers trust brands to keep their data safe.” Source: Twilio Segment, 2023.
- “33% of US consumers say they never want to receive personalized interactions from companies.” Source: Forrester, 2024.
- “89% of business leaders believe ethical use of AI can be a competitive advantage.” Source: Twilio Segment, 2024.
Data Limitations
Most figures here are self-reported survey responses, which measure stated attitudes rather than observed behavior. McKinsey’s revenue and ROI figures are consultancy models and ranges, not audited outcomes; the $1 trillion value figure is modeled potential, not realized revenue. The Epsilon 80% statistic dates to 2017 and predates major privacy regulation and third-party cookie deprecation, so it may overstate current willingness to share data. The Twilio Segment 2024 figures come from only 521 senior business leaders at large companies, a small and enterprise-skewed panel that does not represent small or midsize firms. Vendor publishers (Twilio Segment, Salesforce, Epsilon) sell personalization-related products, a framing incentive to read critically. Question wording differs across surveys, so figures such as McKinsey’s 71% “expect personalization” and Forrester’s 33% “never want personalization” are not directly comparable. Where firms revised framings across years (McKinsey 10 to 15% versus 5 to 15%), both are shown with dates.
Recommended Dataset Fields
For a downloadable CSV companion, the following fields are recommended: statistic_name, value, value_type (percentage, range, dollar, multiple), publisher, report_title, publication_year, geography, sample_size, respondent_type (consumer or business_leader), survey_dates, source_url, tier, and limitation_flag.
Press Summary
Marketing personalization is now a consumer baseline, but the evidence is more contested than vendor marketing suggests. McKinsey reports that 71% of consumers expect personalized interactions and that personalization most often lifts revenue 10 to 15% (2021). Twilio Segment finds 56% of consumers become repeat buyers after a personalized experience, yet only 51% trust brands to keep their data safe (2023). Forrester offers the sharpest counterpoint: 33% of US consumers say they never want personalized interactions (2024). On AI, 73% of business leaders agree AI will reshape personalization and 89% see ethical AI as a competitive advantage (Twilio Segment, 2024). The throughline is a widening gap between adoption and trust: businesses are racing into AI-driven personalization while a meaningful minority of consumers remain skeptical or opposed. Reporters citing these numbers should note that most come from vendor or consultancy surveys with self-reported responses and differing question wording. For research-led analysis, see CO Consulting.
Suggested Headlines
- 71% of Consumers Expect Personalization, But Only 51% Trust Brands With Their Data
- The Personalization Payoff: What McKinsey, Forrester, and Twilio Actually Found
- One in Three US Consumers Never Wants Personalized Marketing, Forrester Says
- Personalization Lifts Revenue 10 to 15%, But the Trust Gap Is Widening
- AI-Driven Personalization Is Now an Executive Consensus, and a Privacy Flashpoint
FAQ
- What share of consumers expect personalization? 71% of consumers expected companies to deliver personalized interactions. Source: McKinsey & Company, 2021.
- How much revenue can personalization add? Personalization most often lifts revenue 10 to 15%, ranging 5 to 25% by company. Source: McKinsey & Company, 2021.
- Does personalization reduce marketing costs? McKinsey reports personalization can cut customer acquisition costs by up to 50% and raise marketing ROI by 10 to 30%. Source: McKinsey & Company, 2023.
- Do consumers become repeat buyers after personalization? 56% said they would become repeat buyers after a personalized experience, up 7 points year over year. Source: Twilio Segment, 2023.
- Is the Epsilon 80% statistic still reliable? 80% of consumers said they prefer brands offering personalization, but this is from 2017 and predates current privacy rules. Source: Epsilon, 2017.
- How much do consumers trust brands with their data? Only 51% of consumers trust brands to keep their data safe. Source: Twilio Segment, 2023.
- Do all consumers want personalization? No; 33% of US consumers say they never want personalized interactions. Source: Forrester, 2024.
- What do customers expect from companies overall? 73% of customers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations. Source: Salesforce, 2024.
- Are businesses adopting AI for personalization? 73% of business leaders agree AI will change personalization, and 89% see ethical AI as a competitive advantage. Source: Twilio Segment, 2024.
- How widely is AI-driven personalization used? 92% of businesses reported using AI-driven personalization to drive growth. Source: Twilio Segment, 2023.
This briefing is published by CO Consulting as research, not marketing. For a tailored review of personalization data for your sector, you can book a consultation.
