Marketers seek more customer data, but many struggle to make sense of what the numbers are telling them.

In a February survey of 200 US marketers by Blueshift and TechValidate, 54% of respondents said one of the main roadblocks preventing them from making better use of customer data was their insufficient data analysis capabilities. Getting access to reliable customer data and being able to segment audiences quickly were also common obstacles.

As automated advertising continues to grow, customer data is becoming an important tool for digital marketers. According to a February survey of more than 500 UK and US marketers by OnBrand and Bynder, respondents indicated that their No. 1 motivation for investing in emerging technologies is to drive customer engagement. And in a February survey of client-side marketers worldwide by Econsultancy and Adobe, 65% of respondents said improving their data analysis is a very important factor in providing better customer experiences.

Marketers whose customer data analysis is inaccurate stand to lose a lot of money. In a study conducted by Experian of 1,000 employees worldwide who have visibility into how their employer manages data, about one-fifth of respondents believed that more than half of their customer data was wrong. Human error was cited as the main culprit, as half of the respondents indicated basic missteps contributed to their company’s erroneous customer data.

Customer data isn’t the only type of data that gives marketers a hard time. Data management was considered to be the most difficult digital marketing tactic, according to a survey of 154 marketing influencers and research subscribers conducted by Adestra and Ascend2.