Acquisition Marketing
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Customer 360
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Looking for trusted evaluations of customer data platforms (CDPs)?
The 2024 Forrester Wave™: Customer Data Platforms for B2C Marketing provides in-depth insights into the top 12 CDP vendors, evaluating them across 29 rigorous criteria. These platforms are essential for brands looking to unify customer data, personalize experiences in real time, and integrate marketing efforts across online and offline channels.
In a quickly evolving market, CDPs are no longer a luxury—they’re foundational for modern customer experience strategies. And their role is only growing. As AI and automation take center stage in enterprise tech, the right CDPs are positioned to become the connective tissue between data, AI and CX. The platforms that can unify these elements will define the next generation of customer experiences.
ActionIQ, named a Leader in the 2024 report, has now joined Uniphore, a global leader in conversational AI and enterprise automation. This strategic move pairs a top-rated composable CDP with AI-powered capabilities that drive the next generation of intelligent, scalable customer engagement.
Key Takeaways from The 2024 Forrester Wave for CDPs
The Forrester Wave evaluation process gives buyers a reliable assessment, focusing on market presence, strategy, and product capabilities. Here are key takeaways from the report.
- ActionIQ by Uniphore was named a Leader in the Forrester Wave, for cutting-edge composable integrations with the data warehouse, easy-to-use tooling for marketers and AI-enabled features that boost performance.
- Top priorities for enterprise teams looking for a CDP include “personalization, transforming marketing strategy to accommodate real-time interactions, and integration of online and offline interactions.”
- Implementing a CDP improves data quality and enhances marketing effectiveness, leading to significant revenue growth and better customer engagement.
See why ActionIQ by Uniphore was named a Leader in the Forrester Wave for CDPs
Why the CDP Category Matters More Than Ever
According to Forrester, the CDP category has “officially arrived,” playing a crucial role in connecting the marketer’s need for personalized, data-driven campaigns with the IT team’s requirements for secure, scalable infrastructure. CDPs give organizations a unified view of the customer—central to unlocking better engagement, smarter decision-making, and real-time activation.
The customer data platform market is projected to grow from $5.1 billion in 2023 to $28.2 billion by 2028, reflecting the explosive demand for solutions that can unify fragmented data and deliver consistent customer experiences across channels.
But not all CDPs are created equal. Some copy data out of the warehouse, creating silos. Others—like ActionIQ by Uniphore’s Composable CDP—compute data where it lives, preserving performance, security, and governance.
Understanding the Forrester Wave™ Evaluation Process
Forrester’s methodical evaluation process ensures objectivity, consistency, and relevance for enterprise buyers. Each vendor is scored across 29 criteria spanning:
- Product capabilities: including data ingestion, unification, identity resolution, orchestration, activation, and analytics
- Strategy and vision: roadmaps, pricing, composability, AI, privacy support
- Market presence: customer adoption, global reach, and revenue footprint
Vendors are categorized as Leaders, Strong Performers, Contenders, or Challengers based on these scores.
Findings from the Forrester Wave ™ Report
Forrester categorizes these products on a scale that synthesizes their findings into a scale, including Challengers, Contenders, Strong Performers and Leaders on a scale of weaker to stronger vendors.
ActionIQ by Uniphore Was Named a Leader
ActionIQ by Uniphore was excited to be named a leader in the Forrester Wave for B2C CDPs. Forrester highlighted the strength of ActionIQ by Uniphore’s Composable CDP in:
- Easy-to-use platform
- AI-enhanced functionality
- Balanced support for marketing and IT
- Native, customer analytics
Now, after ActionIQ joined Uniphore, this vision expands to include powerful conversational AI, automation, and intent detection—creating a unified CX platform that brings together data, intelligence, and activation.
Other leaders in the category included Treasure Data, Adobe, and Salesforce.
“ActionIQ offers a compelling vision for CDPs as the capstone of data and AI infrastructure, backed by corresponding innovation and product planning, and a straightforward and dynamic pricing model.”
– The Forrester Wave: Customer Data Platforms for B2C CDP, Q3 2024
Other CDP Leaders & Market Segments
In addition to ActionIQ, other Leaders in the 2024 report include:
- Adobe
- Salesforce
- Treasure Data
These vendors demonstrated strength in vision, product maturity, and execution across use cases.
Strong Performers include Zeta Global, mParticle, BlueConic, and Tealium—showing promising capabilities but scoring slightly lower across strategy or product innovation.
Contenders, including Redpoint Global, Amperity, Twilio, and Microsoft, showed more limited capabilities or market focus in this evaluation. Notably, no vendors were placed in the Challenger category this year.
Trends Shaping the CDP Market
The 2024 Wave captures a turning point: CDPs are no longer optional for enterprises seeking to deliver high-performing customer experiences. Some of the biggest trends include:
Composable Architectures & Data Warehouse-Native Designs
Brands want to work with their existing data infrastructure—not create more silos. CDPs like ActionIQ by Uniphore offer Composable architectures that eliminate the need to copy data out of the warehouse. Instead, they compute directly at the source for stronger governance, efficiency, and performance.
Federation & Modularity
As businesses scale, CDPs must adapt. Modular platforms support use-case expansion, hybrid environments, and evolving privacy requirements.
AI-Driven Personalization
Advanced CDPs are embedding AI throughout the stack—from predictive modeling to autonomous audience building. With the Uniphore acquisition, ActionIQ now stands to integrate deeper automation and AI-native capabilities into its CX stack.
Cookie Deprecation Readiness
With third-party cookies on the way out, CDPs are increasingly responsible for stitching together anonymous and known user journeys—helping brands nurture long-term relationships through first-party data.
“ActionIQ is a top choice for enterprises that require composable implementation options and balanced support for both marketing and IT stakeholders.”
– The Forrester Wave: Customer Data Platforms for B2C CDP, Q3 2024
Benefits of Implementing a Customer Data Platform
Implementing a customer data platform offers numerous benefits, from improved data integration to enhanced marketing effectiveness. CDPs address significant data management challenges by integrating data and campaigns and providing marketers with a comprehensive view and easy activation of buyer journeys.
Improved Data Quality
Customer data platforms play a crucial role in enhancing the accuracy and completeness of customer data, which is vital for effective marketing strategies. CDPs provide built-in integrations that streamline the incorporation of customer data into marketing strategies, saving time and resources. This detailed and accurate data allows for more precise targeting and personalization in marketing campaigns.
Enhanced Revenue Growth
Customer data platforms drive revenue growth by providing deeper insights into customer behavior. Effective predictive analytics within a CDP can identify new customer segments and engagement opportunities, further boosting revenue. For example, lookalike modeling within CDPs helps identify high-value prospects, significantly increasing average order values.
Real-World Success Stories with CDPs
Real-world success stories demonstrate the effectiveness of customer data platforms in enhancing marketing outcomes.
Several enterprises have achieved success with Customer Data Platforms (CDPs). B2B organizations are increasingly adopting these platforms to improve marketing effectiveness and customer insights to provide personalized customer services.
“ActionIQ’s product roadmap stands out from competitors with plans to enhance the composable architecture, expand artificial intelligence features, and enhance functionality and UX for self-service.”
– The Forrester Wave: Customer Data Platforms for B2C CDP, Q3 2024
The Forrester Wave: Customer Data Platforms for B2C CDP, Q3 2024
For example, brands like e.l.f. Beauty, Atlassian, Albertsons, Hearst and The Washington Post rely on ActionIQ’s Composable CDP to get results, from more efficiency to better CX results, from 131% increase in acquired customers and 5X increase in reach to 71% increase in conversions, 30% increase in repurchase rate and 25% increase in customer lifetime value.
“ActionIQ’s composable philosophy begets top marks for data ingestion, data management, and data governance capabilities; the solution also exhibits strong AI-enhanced functionality for insights and engagement, native customer analytics, integrations for activation endpoints, and overall usability.”
– The Forrester Wave: Customer Data Platforms for B2C CDP, Q3 2024
Case Study #1: e.l.f. Beauty Cultivates Brand Loyalists
e.l.f. used ActionIQ to scale their data strategy, collecting richer first-party data through quizzes and surveys. This allowed them to create audience segments that reflect nuanced skincare and beauty needs. As a result:
- 131% increase in acquired customers
- 5X increase in reach
- 25% increase in customer lifetime value
“The reason we selected ActionIQ was because it brought all the pieces I needed to create a single golden record for my consumer… across all our marketing channels.”
– Ekta Chopra, Chief Digital Officer, e.l.f.
Case Study #2: Atlassian Increase Conversion 71% With a Complete Composable CDP
With 10 terabytes of data and 288 million customers, Atlassian faced a data activation gap. By deploying ActionIQ’s Composable CDP, they connected directly with Databricks and unlocked:
- 71% increase in conversions
- 5X increase in reach
- 50% reduction in RoAS
“With HybridCompute, no longer having to duplicate databases will be huge for us.”
– Glen Shillinglaw, Head of Global Marketing Operations, Atlassian
What’s Next: CDPs, AI & the Uniphore Vision
As the CDP market continues to grow, so does the need for intelligence layered on top of unified data. Uniphore’s acquisition of ActionIQ signals a major shift—bringing together data orchestration and conversational AI to power next-generation customer interactions.
By combining ActionIQ’s composable data infrastructure with Uniphore’s AI-powered engagement and automation, the combined platform offers:
- End-to-end customer journey orchestration
- Voice and digital interaction intelligence
- Scalable data governance and warehouse-native activation
- Real-time personalization and autonomous decisioning
Together, they represent the future of AI-native customer experience platforms.
Final Takeaways: Why This Forrester Wave™ Matters
- The CDP market is maturing quickly—and enterprise adoption is surging.
- CDPs that support composability, AI, and real-time orchestration are leading the pack.
- ActionIQ’s recognition as a Leader affirms its technical depth and market alignment.
- The Uniphore acquisition expands the vision from data activation to full-spectrum customer experience.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Forrester Wave for CDPs
What are Forrester’s evaluation criteria for CDPs?
Forrester assesses CDPs on 29 criteria across current offering, strategy, and market presence—emphasizing composability, personalization, data quality, and orchestration.
Which vendors were named Leaders in the 2024 CDP Wave?
ActionIQ (now part of Uniphore), Salesforce, Adobe, and Treasure Data were recognized as Leaders.
How do CDPs enhance customer engagement?
CDPs unify customer data, enable segmentation and personalization, and activate audiences in real time—driving higher conversions, retention, and revenue.
What makes ActionIQ + Uniphore a big deal?
By joining forces, they combine best-in-class data infrastructure with conversational AI, automation, and intent analytics—offering a unified CX platform for the enterprise.
What trends are shaping the CDP market?
Composable architectures, AI-enhanced marketing, privacy readiness, and real-time activation are defining the next era of CDPs.
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See why ActionIQ by Uniphore was named a Leader