Smartly Research Reveals Conversational Commerce as Advertising’s Next Frontier

Only 25% of marketers rate their creative as active in driving full-funnel results, underscoring the need to break down creative and media silos

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Conversational commerce is quickly emerging as the next frontier in digital advertising, according to a 2025 study commissioned by Smartly, the AI advertising platform, and conducted by Forrester Consulting. The study highlights that 73% of marketers plan to increase their conversational commerce investments by up to 50% over the next two years.

“With conversational ads, brands don't have to guess what people want. They tell you—you just listen,” said Laura Desmond, CEO, Smartly. "Combining that with media and creative working seamlessly together, people engage, brands learn, and marketing just works better. It's intelligent creative."

Why Conversational Commerce Matters Now
As social platforms transform into spaces for discovery, entertainment, and seamless transactions, they redefine how brands build meaningful connections with consumers. Conversational commerce offers a direct, personalized channel for engagement.

The research shows that marketers are increasingly recognizing this opportunity:

• Budget Prioritization: Over half of the surveyed marketers already allocate dedicated budgets for conversational commerce, separate from programmatic or paid social.
• Growing Metrics: While clicks and conversions are still key, marketers are looking to conversational commerce to boost brand reputation and enhance customer experiences.
• End-to-End Engagement: 68% believe creative is critical in driving full-funnel effectiveness from awareness to conversion, with conversational commerce emerging as a powerful tool to enhance engagement.

“The most successful brands today understand that the consumer journey isn’t linear—it’s dynamic, spanning platforms, devices, and moments,” said Moses Velasco, SVP, Product, Smartly. “Our research shows that while most marketers see unifying creative and media as critical to driving results, few feel equipped to do so. This gap underscores the need for brands to break down silos and deliver contextually relevant, personalized interactions across the entire funnel."

“Conversational ads have transformed the way we engage with customers, delivering remarkable improvements across key performance metrics,” said Neil Jones, Head of Performance Media, Boots. “This past holiday season, we saw a 4.6x increase in conversion rate and a 49% lift in sales campaign performance, all while reducing CPA by 11%.”

The Role of Intelligent Creative in Driving Results
According to the Forrester Consulting study, the success of conversational commerce depends heavily on creative that is dynamic, data-informed, and optimized for performance. However, the findings also reveal significant barriers:

• Only 27% of marketers feel their creative and media processes are fully integrated, despite 67% identifying integration as critical to success.
• Marketers report dissatisfaction with current creative tools, citing a lack of automation, intelligence, and real-time adaptability.

Collapse the Funnel with Smartly’s Conversational Ads

Shift from One-to-Many to One-to-One Marketing: Engage in real-time, personalized 1:1 interactions through messaging platforms, increasing relevance and driving faster conversions.

Engage Users in Their Moment of Intent: Leverage messaging and conversation platforms to connect with your audience where they are most receptive, rather than disrupting their experience by shifting them away from their preferred platforms.

Turn Zero-Party Data into Actionable Insights: Gain accurate, privacy-centric data proactively shared by your audience. Overcome data fragmentation with performance and creative analytics for more targeted campaigns that boost engagement.

“Advertising’s future is here, and it’s conversational,” added Desmond. “CMOs who act now—by unifying their tools and powering their creative with AI—will be the ones to define the next era of consumer engagement.”

Read the Forrester study on Smartly’s website.

Methodology
In this study, Forrester conducted an online survey of 822 digital advertising and conversational commerce decision-makers at organizations in North America, EMEA, and APAC to evaluate their adoption and use of conversational commerce technologies and solutions. Survey participants included decision-makers in marketing. Respondents were offered a small incentive as a thank you for time spent on the survey. The study began and was completed in November 2024.

About Smartly
Smartly is the AI-powered advertising technology company ranked as the leader in The Forrester Wave™: Creative Advertising Technologies. Our platform unifies creative and media to produce intelligent creative—dynamic, data-driven image and video assets optimized for seamless activation across channels. Brands manage, optimize, and scale high-performance campaigns in one place, achieving PwC-validated results, including a 5.5x return on ad spend (ROAS) and 42 minutes saved every hour.

We support 700+ brands and manage over $6 billion in ad spend globally. With strategic partnerships across major media platforms—including Amazon, Google, Meta, Pinterest, Reddit, Snap, and TikTok—we help Fortune 500 companies deliver relevant advertising at speed and scale. Backed by deep media and creative expertise and best-in-class customer support, we empower brands to maximize performance and drive real business outcomes. Visit Smartly.io to learn more.