Marketing automation plays a decent part in business these days, and, according to eMarketer, it’s only going to get bigger.

Of course, that’s because there’s plenty of room to grow. A report from Ascend2 held back in December indicates that only 24 percent of marketing professionals on a worldwide basis report using any form of marketing automation to an extent. However, there’s potential in growth in the years ahead, as 35 percent indicated they use it a limited amount, and 34 percent that weren’t currently using it stating that they would in the future.

CallidusCloud had equally small findings, with just under 13 percent of those polled stating they had successfully automated 75 percent or more of their sales and marketing processes. More than half also said that fewer than 50 percent of their processes were automated.

However, it’s a big part of business for future purposes. Ascend2’s poll indicates that 86 percent of respondents believe marketing automation can be successful to achieving certain objectives for their companies. However, only 25 percent believe this could be “very” successful, with room for improvement in the user department.

When it comes to a good marketing automation strategy, 47 percent of those polled believe increasing sales revenues and lead generation are key areas, followed by improving lead nurturing (44 percent), improving customer engagement (37 percent) and improving marketing productivity (33 percent).

However, only 20 percent of respondents stated that improving marketing-sales alignment was a top priority for marketing automation. This is a bit of cause for concern, but there’s always room to learn and, eventually, grow.

But spending is about to increase big-time with technology, as CIO reports that spending will jump by $120 billion over the next decade — a whopping jump from the $1.2 billion for this year. “This is unprecedented growth in any software category I’ve ever come across,” said Ashu Garg, general manager for Foundation Capital. “There’s a fundamental shift, an irreversible trend, of consumers living in a digital world” with a demand for more marketing technology.

That said, some marketers still need to figure out a way to master its tech, mainly in the social media department. Adweek reports that approximately 87 percent of business to business marketers use social media, but less than one in five (17 percent) can actually measure return on investment, or ROI for short. In the business to consumer market, the number is a little higher in both areas, but only by 87 percent for general social media use, and 27 percent being able to calculate ROI.

So, as you can see, there are still improvements to made all around with marketing tech — but the market will grow, and there’s no stopping it.