Press data

Microsoft Partner Marketing, Measured - the transatlantic divide 2026

The UK & Ireland and US results side by side, from 501 sales, marketing and business leaders at Microsoft partners, surveyed by Censuswide for Resultful.

It's rare that any research looks at both markets in this much detail, and some of the findings took us by surprise. One thing is for sure: there are serious warning signals staring both sets of partners in the face. The interesting thing will be if they do anything with the warning, or simply "keep calm and carry on".

Every question below shows UK & Ireland partners first, with US partners underneath, so you can compare the two markets at a glance.

View UK&I findingsView US findings
Nathan Selby, CEO & Founder at Resultful
Nathan SelbyCEO & Founder at Resultful
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Research data

Q1.Which, if any, of the following marketing activities does your organisation currently run?

Currently doingPlanning within 12 monthsNot doing, no plans UK&I USA

SEO

65.2%28.4%6.4%
73.7%24.3%2.0%

Paid search

41.6%50.0%8.4%
44.6%53.0%2.4%

Paid social

56.0%35.2%8.8%
59.4%38.2%2.4%

Organic social (company)

40.8%50.8%8.4%
55.0%39.8%5.2%

Organic social (individual accounts)

51.2%37.6%11.2%
46.2%44.2%9.6%

Email nurture campaigns

43.2%50.0%6.8%
49.0%44.6%6.4%

Blogs and articles

45.2%44.0%10.8%
46.2%46.6%7.2%

Gated content / longer-form assets

46.0%46.0%8.0%
54.6%38.6%6.8%

PR and media relations

46.0%45.6%8.4%
45.0%45.0%10.0%

Video

47.2%45.6%7.2%
51.4%41.0%7.6%

Customer case studies

52.0%36.0%12.0%
51.4%40.2%8.4%

Referral or advocacy

43.2%49.6%7.2%
51.8%41.0%7.2%

ABM (account-based marketing)

49.6%41.6%8.8%
52.6%41.8%5.6%

Outbound SDR or telemarketing

43.6%47.2%9.2%
52.6%38.6%8.8%

Partner-to-partner co-marketing

54.0%40.0%6.0%
51.4%40.6%8.0%

Microsoft marketplace listing and optimisation

47.6%42.4%10.0%
48.6%45.4%6.0%

Sales enablement collateral

49.6%40.8%9.6%
52.2%39.8%8.0%

Marketing automation

46.8%43.2%10.0%
51.8%43.0%5.2%

Basic reporting

47.2%40.4%12.4%
60.2%31.9%8.0%

Enhanced reporting with attribution

43.6%49.6%6.8%
51.4%43.0%5.6%

Q2.Thinking about your marketing, please indicate whether each statement is true or false for your organisation.

TrueFalseDon't know UK&I USA

We have a documented marketing strategy covering the next 12 months

74.0%21.2%4.8%
78.1%21.1%0.8%

Our marketing plan is directly aligned to our business goals

45.6%49.2%5.2%
53.8%45.4%0.8%

We have a clearly defined proposition that sets us apart from other Microsoft partners

60.8%31.6%7.6%
63.3%35.5%1.2%

We market our own proposition, not just Microsoft's products

46.0%46.0%8.0%
48.6%46.2%5.2%

We have documented target personas or an ideal customer profile

54.8%36.8%8.4%
55.4%39.0%5.6%

Our messaging is our own rather than adapted Microsoft campaign material

51.2%42.0%6.8%
57.0%38.6%4.4%

We have a repeatable way of generating new business enquiries

50.4%41.6%8.0%
56.2%39.4%4.4%

Our marketing consistently generates qualified leads

47.6%45.2%7.2%
58.6%34.7%6.8%

We can measure marketing's contribution to pipeline and revenue

51.2%35.2%13.6%
57.0%35.5%7.6%

Sales and marketing agree on which accounts we are targeting

48.4%44.0%7.6%
55.4%39.0%5.6%

We could launch a new campaign within four weeks if we needed to

50.0%40.0%10.0%
55.0%37.8%7.2%

We are confident we are getting good value from our marketing investment

56.8%35.2%8.0%
56.2%38.6%5.2%

Q3.What, if anything, are your organisation's top 3 marketing priorities for the next 12 months?

(Select up to 3)

Building brand awareness in a crowded market

27.2%
18.7%

Better utilising Co-op funding

25.2%
16.3%

Winning net-new customers

23.2%
20.3%

Generating more qualified leads

22.4%
18.3%

Improving win rates

22.4%
17.1%

Strengthening the Microsoft relationship

22.4%
21.5%

Growing revenue from existing customers

21.6%
22.3%

Entering a new vertical or geography

21.6%
24.3%

Launching a new practice or service line

19.6%
17.5%

Aligning closer to funded engagements

19.6%
19.9%

Driving Azure or Copilot consumption

18.8%
23.1%

Q4.What, if anything, most limits your marketing today?

(Select up to 3)

The complexity of funding rules

31.2%
27.5%

Competing internal priorities

30.8%
35.1%

Difficulty standing out from other partners

27.6%
18.3%

Headcount or in-house skills

27.2%
19.9%

Over-reliance on vendor-supplied material

25.2%
24.7%

An inability to measure results

24.0%
23.1%

Not enough content

20.0%
13.5%

Leadership buy-in

19.6%
21.1%

Budget

19.2%
16.7%

No clear proposition

12.0%
12.0%

N/A - Nothing in particular

0.8%
-

Q5.If you have won new business in the last 12 months, roughly what proportion came from each of the following sources?

22.1%
17.8%
17.3%
17.1%
14.9%
10.8%
26.6%
19.0%
15.7%
14.9%
14.5%
9.3%

Marketing you generated yourself

22.1%
26.6%

Distributor or vendor leads

17.8%
15.7%

Referrals passed to you by Microsoft

17.3%
19.0%

Customer referrals and word of mouth

17.1%
14.9%

Outbound sales with no marketing involved

14.9%
14.5%

Other

10.8%
9.3%

Q6.What, if anything, funds your marketing activity?

(Select all that apply)

Microsoft Co-op Funding

46.0%
51.4%

Distributor-funded activities

44.4%
33.1%

Microsoft MDF

41.2%
46.2%

Your own P&L

37.2%
33.5%

Other vendor funding

30.4%
28.7%

N/A - No dedicated funding

0.4%
-

Other, please specify

0.0%
-

Q7.What, if anything, would happen to your marketing if Microsoft funding were withdrawn entirely?

Stop/reduce (Net)

60.6%
74.6%

Stop almost completely

14.9%
22.2%

It would reduce significantly

30.3%
32.3%

It would reduce slightly

15.4%
20.1%

It would continue largely as is

9.7%
6.3%

It would increase slightly

20.6%
13.2%

It would increase significantly

9.1%
5.8%

Don't know

0.0%
0.0%

Continue/increase (Net)

39.4%
25.4%

Q8.What proportion of annual revenue, if any, does your organisation invest in marketing?

None

0.4%
0.0%

Under 1%

0.0%
0.0%

1-2%

25.2%
8.8%

3-5%

62.0%
62.9%

6-10%

12.4%
27.9%

More than 10%

0.0%
0.4%

Don't know

0.0%
0.0%
Mean: 3.85% Mean: 4.94%

Q9.How, if at all, is marketing resourced in your organisation?

(Select all that apply)

A director or owner covering marketing alongside another role

38.8%
32.7%

A broad channel marketing agency

34.8%
29.1%

A dedicated in-house marketing team

32.4%
23.5%

A dedicated Microsoft Partner marketing agency

30.8%
31.1%

A single in-house marketer

28.0%
25.9%

A generalist marketing agency

26.8%
38.2%

Freelancers or contractors

21.2%
25.9%

Distributor

20.8%
20.3%

Q10.Microsoft incentives have shifted from rewarding retained licences towards rewarding new licence growth. How confident or unconfident are you in your organisation's ability to maintain or grow its incentive earnings over the next 12 months?

Unconfident (Net)

30.8%
22.3%

1 - Very unconfident

12.4%
8.8%

2 - Somewhat unconfident

18.4%
13.5%

3 - Neither confident nor unconfident

4.4%
6.8%

4 - Somewhat confident

36.0%
36.3%

5 - Very confident

28.8%
34.7%

Confident (Net)

64.8%
70.9%
Mean: 3.50 Mean: 3.75

Q11.Which, if any, of these statements best explains your confidence level?

Our growth has come mainly from renewals

34.0%
29.1%

We have sufficient marketing budget to support new business growth

30.4%
30.3%

We have already adapted our approach

29.6%
26.3%

We have a strong pipeline of net-new business opportunities

28.4%
32.7%

Our team is well structured and resourced to drive new customer acquisition

25.6%
23.1%

We do not have a repeatable way to generate net-new business

18.8%
15.1%

We do not have the marketing budget to drive new growth

16.8%
10.8%

We do not fully understand how the new rules apply to us

15.2%
9.6%

Our team is not structured for acquisition

14.4%
15.1%

N/A - No particular reason

-
0.4%