Zeta Global Q4 Earnings: AI & Athena Drive Record Growth

Zeta Global (NYSE:ZETA) has once again demonstrated its prowess in the competitive marketing technology landscape, delivering an exceptional fourth quarter and full-year 2025 performance. The company's latest earnings call illuminated a compelling narrative of accelerated growth, expanding profitability, and a strategic vision heavily underpinned by its artificial intelligence initiatives. Central to this vision is Athena, Zeta's proprietary AI-driven interface, which executives repeatedly cited as a primary engine for driving customer adoption and sales momentum.

Co-founder and CEO David Steinberg proudly announced Zeta's "eighteenth consecutive beat and raise quarter," a remarkable track record that speaks volumes about the company's consistent execution and robust business model. This sustained success is attributed to a compounding "flywheel" effect: the synergistic combination of Zeta's extensive proprietary data, sophisticated AI-driven intelligence, and an emerging, user-friendly interface layer powered by Athena. This potent combination is specifically designed to facilitate easier platform adoption and deeper integration across large enterprises, solidifying Zeta's position as a leader in personalized customer engagement.

A Legacy of Consistent Outperformance: Diving into Zeta Global's Q4 Financials

The financial results for Zeta Global Q4 and the full year 2025 paint a picture of impressive financial health and strong operational leverage. For the fourth quarter, Zeta reported total revenue of $395 million. Steinberg clarified that when excluding the impacts of recent acquisitions and political candidate revenue from the prior year, this figure represents a robust 28% year-over-year growth – a testament to the organic strength of the core business. This level of growth is particularly noteworthy in a dynamic market environment, indicating that Zeta's solutions are resonating deeply with its target clientele.

Profitability metrics were equally compelling. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter surged to $95.1 million, marking a significant 35% increase year-over-year. This growth in EBITDA outpaced revenue growth, indicating improving operational efficiency and scalability. Furthermore, Zeta achieved a significant milestone by posting positive GAAP earnings, with a net income of $6.5 million in the quarter, a strong reversal from a net loss of $3.6 million in the prior quarter. This shift to positive GAAP net income signifies a transition to a more mature and fundamentally profitable business model, which is a critical indicator for investors assessing long-term viability.

Key Financial Highlights from Zeta Global Q4 & Full Year 2025:

Q4 Revenue: $395 million (28% YoY growth excluding specific impacts).
Q4 Adjusted EBITDA: $95.1 million (35% YoY growth).
Q4 GAAP Net Income: Positive $6.5 million (vs. -$3.6 million prior quarter).
Q4 Free Cash Flow: $55.8 million, up 76% YoY, representing a healthy 14% margin.
Full-Year 2025 Revenue: $1.305 billion (30% YoY growth overall).
Full-Year 2025 Adjusted EBITDA: $279 million (21.4% margin).
Full-Year 2025 Free Cash Flow: $165 million (12.6% margin), a significant 78% increase YoY.

CFO Chris Greiner highlighted that Q4 revenue exceeded the midpoint of guidance by an impressive $14 million, underscoring the company's ability to consistently surpass expectations. The robust free cash flow generation, reaching $55.8 million in Q4 and $165 million for the full year, provides Zeta with substantial financial flexibility for future investments, strategic acquisitions, and return to shareholders, further solidifying its financial foundation.

The AI Imperative: Athena – Zeta's Next-Generation Catalyst

The buzz surrounding artificial intelligence was palpable throughout the earnings call, with Athena emerging as a significant focal point and a primary catalyst for future growth. Athena, first unveiled at Zeta Live in October, is not merely another feature; it's described as a "super intelligent agent" meticulously designed for the complex needs of enterprise marketing. Its purpose is to revolutionize how large organizations leverage data and execute campaigns, making sophisticated marketing intelligence more accessible and actionable.

The initial capabilities of Athena are centered around "Insights" and "Advisor." The "Insights" module empowers marketing teams to derive deeper, more actionable intelligence from Zeta's vast proprietary data assets, enabling better audience segmentation and campaign targeting. The "Advisor" component assists in campaign production and optimization, offering intelligent recommendations to improve performance. Early adopters of Athena are already reporting substantial benefits, including significant time savings across various marketing processes—from segmentation and content production to performance analysis—along with tangible improvements in return on investment (ROI). This validates Athena's potential as a genuine differentiator in the crowded MarTech space. Management confirmed that Athena remains on track for general availability by the end of the first quarter, signaling its imminent wider market impact.

For any enterprise grappling with data overload and the demand for personalized, scaled marketing, Athena represents a powerful solution. It transforms raw data into strategic advantage, automating complex tasks and providing intelligent recommendations that historically required extensive human analysis. This leap in capability is why Zeta Global Q4: Why Athena AI is the Next Big Catalyst is a key takeaway from these results. It strengthens Zeta's "flywheel" by providing an intuitive interface that makes its powerful data and AI more digestible and impactful for enterprise users, thus accelerating adoption and deepening engagement.

Practical Tip for Businesses: Evaluate how AI-powered platforms like Athena can streamline your marketing operations. Look for solutions that integrate seamlessly with your existing data, offer predictive analytics, and provide actionable recommendations to enhance campaign efficiency and personalization at scale.

Expanding Reach: Customer Adoption and Vertical Domination

Beyond the impressive financial figures, Zeta Global's Q4 and full-year results highlighted robust customer expansion and diversified vertical growth, underscoring the broad-based demand for its platform. David Steinberg pointed to a record net revenue retention (NRR) of 120% in 2025, a significant jump from 114% in 2024. NRR is a crucial metric, indicating that existing customers are not only staying but also increasing their spending with Zeta—a clear sign of satisfaction and value derived from the platform. The fact that RFP (Request for Proposal) volume more than doubled year-over-year further illustrates surging market interest and demand for Zeta's solutions.

Customer acquisition and expansion metrics were equally strong:

Total scaled customer count reached 602, representing a 14% increase year-over-year.
Super-scaled customers, typically larger enterprises with higher spending, grew by an impressive 24% year-over-year, totaling 184.

These figures demonstrate Zeta's success in both acquiring new clients and deepening its relationships with existing, high-value customers. The increasing number of "super-scaled" clients is particularly encouraging, as these relationships often translate into larger, more stable revenue streams.

Greiner elaborated on the broad market penetration, noting that for the first time as a public company, nine of Zeta's top 10 verticals grew more than 20% year-over-year in 2025. This widespread growth across diverse sectors minimizes reliance on any single industry, demonstrating the universal applicability and value of Zeta's platform. Some of the fastest-growing verticals included:

Travel and Hospitality: Up 105%
Advertising and Marketing: Up 70%
Automotive: Up 60%
Consumer and Retail: Up 46%

Additionally, healthcare, identified as an area of "new investment," showed strong momentum with over 20% growth. This strategic diversification into high-growth sectors like healthcare positions Zeta for sustained expansion and resilience against market fluctuations.

Navigating Market Sentiment: A Deeper Look at Zeta Global's Trajectory

Despite the undeniably strong Zeta Global Q4 results, the market's immediate reaction was somewhat muted, with the company's shares experiencing a year-to-date decline. This scenario is a classic example of a "beat being priced in." For nearly five years, Zeta has consistently met or exceeded its guidance, training the market to expect solid execution. When a company repeatedly beats expectations, that performance becomes the new baseline, and an "expected beat" often fails to provide a fresh catalyst for a significant stock surge.

This "sell the news" dynamic underscores that for high-performing companies, investor focus often shifts from past performance to future catalysts and broader market concerns, such as valuation or competitive pressures. However, for long-term investors, the fundamental health of Zeta Global remains robust. The company's consistent profitability, strong free cash flow generation, record customer retention, broad vertical growth, and the strategic rollout of an innovative AI platform like Athena are powerful indicators of sustained value creation.

Investor Insight: When evaluating companies with a consistent "beat and raise" history, look beyond immediate stock price reactions. Focus on underlying fundamentals—profitability, cash flow, customer growth, and innovation pipeline—as these are the true drivers of long-term shareholder value, regardless of short-term market sentiment.

Conclusion

Zeta Global's Q4 and full-year 2025 earnings report paints a compelling picture of a company firing on all cylinders. Driven by consistent financial outperformance, a burgeoning AI strategy spearheaded by Athena, and impressive customer expansion across diverse verticals, Zeta is solidifying its leadership in the marketing technology space. The "eighteenth consecutive beat and raise" is a testament to its strong execution, while Athena promises to be a transformative force, making sophisticated enterprise marketing more efficient and effective than ever before. As Zeta continues to leverage its powerful flywheel of data, AI, and intuitive interfaces, it is well-positioned to capture increasing market share and deliver sustained growth in the evolving landscape of digital marketing.