In Forrester’s most recent Partner Ecosystem Marketing Survey, 75% of partner ecosystem marketing decision-makers reported their overall technology investments will increase in the next 12 months. Among organizations already investing in a partner marketing automation platform (PMAP), 65% plan to increase their investment. Even more telling, nearly 60% of organizations not currently using partner marketing automation plan to invest in this technology within a year.

This surge of investment reflects a broader shift in B2B go-to-market strategy. As organizations increasingly rely on their ecosystem of partners to scale influence, revenue, and growth, partner ecosystem marketing leaders are stepping into a more visible — and more demanding — role. The opportunity is significant, but so are the operational realities.

Many partner ecosystem marketing organizations continue to face resource constraints, uneven partner engagement, and inconsistent demand maturity across their ecosystems. In fact, partner ecosystem marketing decision-makers report that nearly 70% of their partners operate at low to medium levels of marketing and demand maturity. This makes it difficult to execute scalable, repeatable partner-led growth initiatives.

PMAPs Promise Expanding Value

The growing complexity of B2B partner ecosystems is fundamentally reshaping partner demand strategies. It is also expanding expectations for partner marketing automation.

Forrester defines partner marketing automation platforms as:

Comprehensive solutions designed for B2B organizations to automate and scale the enablement, management, and measurement of marketing and demand-to-revenue initiatives across the organization’s partner ecosystem.

These platforms include a wide range of features that allow B2B organizations and their ecosystem of partners to build market awareness and generate demand. This helps them achieve partner-led and/or influenced pipeline, revenue, and growth goals. B2B partner ecosystem marketing teams use PMAPs to drive several types of value. First, they use them to increase partner adoption and engagement. Second, they employ them to improve demand performance with ecosystem partners. Third, they leverage them to streamline achieving partner marketing objectives across diverse partner types and business models, including the unique range of values each offers to B2B buyers and customers. For many B2B organizations, this drives automation requirements ranging from marketing to, with, and for partners.

AI Is Becoming The Value Accelerant

AI is rapidly becoming a defining force in the PMAP market. All major PMAP vendors have embedded AI into their platforms and articulated clear roadmaps for future AI-driven innovation.

These innovations aim to significantly increase PMAP value for both suppliers and their partners. For example, they seek to boost platform engagement and improve ease of use to fuel greater marketing and demand generation success. With the rapid pace of AI, these capabilities hold the promise of stronger ROI and unlocking yet-to-be-realized future AI innovation potential.

Share Your PMAP Experience

If you’re a B2B partner ecosystem marketing professional, I’d love to hear from you. Which PMAP are you using today — and what has your experience been like? I’ll be working on the next PMAP Landscape later this year, and your real-world insights on what’s working (and what’s not) is incredibly valuable.

What To Do Next

Partner ecosystems do not fail because leaders do not believe in them — they typically fail because execution cannot scale.

To explore this technology imperative in more detail, Forrester clients can reach out to schedule a guidance session. I also recommend reviewing the most recent Forrester Landscape and Forrester Wave™.