Zeta Global Could Be One of the Biggest AI Winners in Marketing
Zeta Global is building an AI-powered marketing cloud that unifies identity, intelligence, and omnichannel activation. For marketers, that means fewer disconnected tools and more campaigns that actually learn from real customer behavior.
The company's latest numbers point to strong momentum: accelerating revenue, expanding margins, and growing free cash flow. More importantly, its product direction-identity resolution plus AI assistants inside workflows-maps to what marketing teams need right now.
What Zeta Actually Offers
Zeta connects first-party data to a proprietary identity graph of 245+ million U.S. consumers. It can convert anonymous web traffic into known individuals for targeting and re-engagement, closing the gap between intent and activation.
Because identity and execution live on the same platform, match rates and targeting quality improve. Teams get cleaner data, less vendor sprawl, and faster campaign iteration across channels.
Why Q3 Looked Like a Real Turning Point
- 15 straight quarters of 20%+ year-over-year revenue growth; Q3 revenue hit $337 million, up 25.68% YoY.
- Adjusted EBITDA reached $78 million, up 44.44% YoY, with margin expanding to 23.2% (19 consecutive quarters of margin expansion).
- Cash from operations was $57.9 million (up 68.3% YoY); free cash flow was $52.4 million (up 77.63% YoY) with a 15.54% FCF margin.
- Customer count grew 20% YoY to 572; $1M+ customers increased 25% YoY to 180.
Adoption is getting deeper: larger clients now use an average of 3.1 channels, and ARPU reached $579,000. Zeta serves 44% of the Fortune 100, and about 90% of revenue comes from customers who have been on the platform for more than a year.
Athena + OpenAI: What It Means for Your Team
Zeta's new AI assistant, Athena, is built to answer plain-language questions and turn them into actions inside marketing workflows. The first two agentic applications-insights and advisor-aim to shorten the path from question to decision to execution.
The OpenAI collaboration gives Zeta access to the newest model capabilities, which should support faster iteration and smarter recommendations over time. If you're exploring AI assistants for planning, analysis, and channel optimization, keep an eye on this track. Learn more about OpenAI.
Marigold Acquisition: Bigger Enterprise Footprint, Stronger Loyalty
Zeta closed the $325 million acquisition of Marigold, adding 100+ global enterprise brands, including 20 of the top 100 advertisers and 40+ Fortune 500 companies. The move is expected to be accretive to adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow in the first year.
For marketers, the practical upside is tighter integration between messaging, identity, and loyalty. Expect more opportunities to cross-sell and upsell across lifecycle stages, with loyalty data feeding smarter segmentation and personalization.
Forward Guideposts (What Matters, Not Just the Numbers)
- 2026 (pre-Marigold): revenue guide of $1.54B, adjusted EBITDA of $354M, FCF of $209M.
- Marigold adds: ~$190M revenue, ~$31.4M adjusted EBITDA, ~$15M FCF.
- Retention and enterprise penetration suggest durable demand for unified identity + activation.
The financials tell a story of a platform scaling into profitability while deepening enterprise use. For teams evaluating long-term partners, that stability reduces vendor risk.
Practical Takeaways for Marketing Leaders
- Consolidate your stack around identity, activation, and analytics to cut tool-switching and attribution gaps.
- Strengthen first-party data: improve consent flows, enrich profiles, and raise match rates-measure the lift on CAC and LTV.
- Pilot AI assistants for planning and analysis-start with budget pacing, audience insights, and creative testing loops.
- Connect loyalty with lifecycle messaging so rewards, offers, and content are sequenced across channels in real time.
- Prioritize anonymous-to-known conversion on high-intent surfaces; build fast follow-up journeys.
- Tighten governance: data quality, privacy, and measurement frameworks should be explicit and auditable.
Watch-Outs
Integration risk is real: Marigold is sizable, and cross-sell synergies aren't automatic. The enterprise marketing space is crowded, and large incumbents can bundle aggressively.
There's also platform risk from walled-garden players-if Meta or Google deepen their own stacks, they could steer budgets inward. Do a structured RFP, run a scoped pilot, and evaluate migration cost versus expected lift.
Bottom Line
Zeta's momentum looks solid: sustained growth, margin expansion, and a product direction that solves real marketing problems. If they execute on the OpenAI roadmap and integrate Marigold cleanly, marketers should see faster insights, higher match rates, and leaner workflows.
If you're building AI skills across your team, this certification is a helpful starting point: AI Certification for Marketing Specialists.
Your membership also unlocks:
