Digital Marketing Statistics

Today’s overcrowded markets in pretty much any industry leave no room for hesitation, and digital marketing is no longer optional —it’s a necessity. To make matters even more complicated, it has multiple aspects —SEO, PPC, email marketing, etc. —with all of them almost equally relevant to the success of your venture. That’s why we prepared these essential digital marketing statistics which will keep you up-to-date with the latest trends. So, sit back, read on, and let the numbers speak for themselves.

Digital Marketing Statistics (Editor’s Choice)

• Over 90% of marketers include content marketing in their promotional strategies.
• 88% of marketers believe social media marketing brings great exposure for their brands.
• 66% of businesses focus on email as an important part of their marketing strategy.
• 70%-80% of Internet users concentrate on organic results, ignoring paid ads.
• Nearly 70% of businesses are expected to start using a video marketing strategy in 2021.
• Half of retail professionals worldwide believe that digital presence is crucial for the progress of their businesses.

Content-Related Online Marketing Statistics

Successful businesses use content marketing to familiarize audiences with their brand as well as their products and services. The statistics presented here will help you understand which content and delivery you should use for your target audience. It will also give you a deeper knowledge of content marketing supported by numbers and evidence that will hopefully result in creating your own lead-generating and up-to-date content strategy.

1. Almost 80% of marketers aim at generating more quality leads through content marketing in 2021. (eMarketer)

2. 91% of organizations report that their promotional efforts incorporate content marketing. (Statista)

3. 59% of B2C marketers have plans to increase their spendings on content marketing going forward. (Statista)

4. Over three-quarters of B2C marketers believe their organizations successfully use content marketing. (Marketingprofs)

5. 81% of B2C marketers think their Internet users see their organizations as a reliable source. (Marketingprofs)

6. The majority of B2C organizations of different sizes have small or one-person teams for content marketing. (Marketingprofs)

7. The most commonly used content marketing types for B2C organizations with 94% and 80% are social media content and blog posts or short articles, respectively. (Marketingprofs)

8. Only 15% of B2C marketers don’t use paid distribution channels for content marketing. (Marketingprofs)

9. Almost 80% of B2C organizations use metrics to measure content performance. (Marketingprofs)

10. The most popular metric for measuring content marketing engagement is the number of leads, according to 51% of marketers. (Statista)

11. Conversion, website traffic, and engagement are the three most popular metrics used to measure content performance. (Marketingprofs)

12. 67% of content marketing strategies contain some kind of a virtual event compared to 42% containing in-person events. (Statista)

13. For 68% of marketers, content marketing technologies have given them a better understanding of content performance. (eMarketer)

14. Although over 70% of marketers use some kind of content marketing strategy, only 30% have it on a document. (Marketing Buddy)

15. Companies with an official content marketing strategy are more likely to succeed than those with an undocumented strategy. (Marketing Buddy)

16. Digital media is set to account for 60.2% of overall media consumption in the US by 2022. (Marketing Charts)

17. The three most popular technologies used in content marketing are social media publishing, analytics tools, and email marketing software with 84%, 83%, and 72% usage, respectively. (Marketingprofs)

18. The most common activity that 80% of organizations outsource to content marketing agencies and freelancers is content creation. (Marketingprofs)

19. 86% of marketers perform fact-checking to make sure they’re presenting true accurate information. (Marketingprofs)

20. More than 40% of businesses use content marketing to generate awareness and interest. (Marketingprofs)

21. Over 80% of marketers report success in using content marketing to create brand awareness. (Marketingprofs)

22. The best channels for non-paid content marketing are social media, organizations’ websites or blogs, and email. (Marketingprofs)

23. Facebook gives the best outcome both as an organic and paid content marketing distribution channel. (Marketingprofs)

24. More than 60% of online businesses have set up KPIs in order to measure content marketing initiatives. (Marketingprofs)

25. Marketers allocate $230,000 a year on average for content marketing. (Marketingprofs)

26. More than 90% of professionals have made changes to their content marketing strategies because of COVID-19. (Content Marketing Institute)

27. About 80% of businesses believe that the alterations they’ve made to their content marketing strategy have proven effective. (Content Marketing Institute)

Internet Marketing Statistics on Social Media

While people were spending lots of time on social media to begin with, the pandemic has further fuelled this trend. The good news is that social media popularity can be turned into a digital marketing advantage. The possibilities of social media as a marketing channel are endless, from interaction with customers to sharing user-generated content.

28. On average, people spend 2 hours and 25 minutes on social media every day. (Data Reportal)

29. The number of social media users is expected to reach 4.41 billion by 2025. (Statista)

30. Nearly 70% of marketers report that influencer marketing has proven effective. (Buffer)

31. Almost half of online consumers are greatly affected by influencer recommendations. (Four Communications)

32. Increased exposure is the leading benefit of social media marketing, according to 88% of marketers. (Statista)

33. More than 90% of US companies with over 100 employees are expected to make the most of social media marketing. (Statista)

34. Facebook is the most popular social media platform with over 2.85 billion monthly active users. (Statista)

35. India has the largest Facebook audience of 340 million people on the platform. (Statista)

36. In 2020, there were 10 million active advertisers on Facebook that used the social platform for promotion purposes. (Statista)

37. Advertising accounts for 98% of Facebook’s revenue. (Statista)

38. TikTok has noted an amazing boost in active users in recent years and is expected to hit 1.2 billion average monthly users by the end of 2021. (AppAnnie)

39. 99% of Snapchat revenue in 2020 came from advertising. (Investopedia)

40. Three out of 10 Millennials use social media to engage with a brand at least once a month. (SproutSocial)

41. 70% of GenXers will probably buy from a brand that they follow on social media. (SproutSocial)

42. Half of brand followers on social media have a purpose to find out about new products and services. (SocialMediaToday)

43. Almost 90% of messages on social media are left without a response. (SproutSocial)

44. The chatbot market size is projected to reach over €9 billion (~$11 billion) by the end of 2024. (Digital Agency Network)

45. Nine out of 10 marketers believe that one of the benefits of social media is that it brings greater exposure for brands. (MarketersBrainTrust)

46. 33% of SMBs use social media to promote the business, whereas 28% do it to create awareness and exposure. (Yellow Social Media)

47. 63% of SMBs are on social media to engage in two-way communication with potential and existing consumers. (Yellow Social Media)

48. 80% of SMBs believe that using social media marketing is effective. (Yellow Social Media)

49. SMBs spend 12% of their marketing budget on social media on average. (Yellow Social Media)

50. Facebook (83%) is the most popular social media platform for advertising SMBs, followed by Instagram (22%), LinkedIn (16%), and Twitter (12%). (Yellow Social Media)

51. Just 5% of SMBs trust influencers to advertise their products on social media. (Yellow Social Media)

52. Almost 40% of brands rely on paid content for advertising on social media channels. (Yellow Social Media)

Digital Marketing Statistics on PPC

PPC marketing has long been touted as one of the most effective digital marketing tools. Successful PPC marketing strategies don't focus on annoying ads that rudely interrupt users’ experience but rather ads that pop up offering something you actually need. Still, before deciding on whether to include PPC in your marketing strategy you should look at the facts and the statistics that we’ve compiled here.

53. Search advertising spending is expected to reach almost $140 billion by 2022. (Statista)

54. US digital advertising spend is projected to hit $186 billion at the end of 2021, taking a global leading position. (Statista)

55. People seem to believe Google the most with a 65.7% of trust rate, followed by Amazon (65.1%) and Microsoft 93.9%). (SEO Clarity)

56. 80% of companies use Google AdWords for PPC. (BizTraffic)

57. People are four times more likely to click on a Google paid search ad compared to all other search engines. (Clutch)

58. Google Ads conversion rate averages at 3.75%, whereas the conversion rate for Bing Ads is 2.94%. (Web FX)

59. For many websites, the PPC conversion rate is 1.33%, however, the average Amazon PPC conversion stands at nearly 10%. (Jungle Topp)

60. The click-through rate for social media ads was 1.3% in 2020 which is slightly higher than a year before. (Statista)

61. 75% of Internet users believe that paid search ads help them find what they need. (Clutch)

62. The reason why 33% of online consumers click on paid search ads is that it gives them a straight answer to their search. (Clutch)

63. If a paid search ad mentions a familiar brand, 26% of people will click on it. (Clutch)

64. Internet users click on YouTube and Amazon search ads primarily because they mention a well-known brand. (Clutch)

65. Over 40% of online consumers tend to click on the top three results of the search. (BizTraffic)

66. Three-quarters of Internet users don’t get past the first search engine result page. (BizTraffic)

67. Organic visitors are 50% less likely to make a purchase compared to PPC visitors. (BizTraffic)

68. PPC leads increase conversion rates by 50%. (Curvearro)

69. Over a quarter of the clicks on Facebook Ads convert into purchases. (Cyber Click)

70. Mobile devices account for more than 70% of paid search impressions. (Marketing Dive)

71. The importance of mcommerce can also be seen here because mobile accounts for over 50% of PPC clicks. (BizTraffic)

72. Only 2% of brands see PPC performance as unsatisfactory. (Brainlabs Digital)

73. 13% of brands report seeing some success with PPC, but not a lot. (Brainlabs Digital)

74. PPC budgets of 55% of brands rose in 2020. (Brainlabs Digital)

75. More than 60% of marketers want to expand their PPC budgets in the future. (Acquisio)

76. 64% of brands have stated that they want to allocate more money for PPC, whereas 30% won’t change their budgets. (Brainlabs Digital)

77. Small and medium-sized businesses spend between $9,000 and $10,000 on PPC every month. (Curvearro)

78. PPC ads can raise brand awareness by up to 80%. (Curvearro)

79. 27% of Internet users turn on ad blockers, which means less chance for meeting ad targets for marketers. (Search Engine Journal)

80. Almost half of Internet users can’t differentiate between organic search results and PPC. (BizTraffic)

Email Marketing Statistics

Email marketing can make or break your business. It lets you communicate with customers old and new, and consistently delivers strong results without breaking the bank. Read on to learn more about this ‘old but gold’ digital marketing strategy.

81. Salesforce Marketing Cloud is the leading email service provider for marketing purposes with 23% of all marketers using it. (Statista)

82. Almost 70% of businesses use email marketing to promote their products and services and to communicate with customers. (Forbes)

83. The average email open rate in 2020 was 18% for all industries. (Campaign Monitor)

84. Welcome and thank you emails with a link have an amazing 98.39% open rate and over 37% of click-through rate. (Get Response)

85. Open and click-through rates of emails containing graphics are higher compared to text-based emails. (Get Response)

86. Friday has a slightly better performance than the rest of the week in terms of email marketing, boasting the highest email open rates, click-through, and CTO rates of 18.9% 2.7%, and 14.4%, respectively. (Campaign Monitor)

87. Over 40% of online consumers show a higher tendency of making a purchase when they are presented with an email containing newly launched or randomly selected products. (Dyspatch)

88. 55% of marketers have resorted to software for email marketing automation, while the other 25% make plans to start using it in the future. (Email Monday)

89. COVID-19 has helped increase email conversion rates by 17%. (Omnisend)

90. The pandemic has brought higher interest in email marketing according to the following benchmarks for March 2020: average open rate — 21.7%, average click-through rate — 2.78%, average click-to-open rate — 12.8%, average unsubscribe rate — 0.13%, average bounce rate — 0.71%. (Campaign Monitor)

91. Purchasing decisions of 18 to 34-year-olds are over 60% more likely to be influenced by marketing emails compared to older generations. (Marketing Charts)

92. 60% of Internet users feel overwhelmed by emails and 46% of them decide to unsubscribe because of that reason. (Dyspatch)

93. The use of video content can do a lot for the engagement of email marketing, mainly increasing click-through and click-to-open rates. (Get Response)

94. Automated emails triggered by subscribers' behavior have the highest open rate of 38% compared to other email types. (Get Response)

95. 59.4% of Internet users will make a purchase if the product suggested in a marketing email is based on their shopping history. (Dyspatch)

96. The email subject line is the most important factor for around 33% of online consumers that influences their decision whether to open the email or not. (Dyspatch)

97. Half of the people who receive marketing emails are happy to interact inside the email. (Dyspatch)

98. 27% of marketing email receivers don’t know what to do with an interactive email. (Dyspatch)

99. Only 57.7% of companies send welcome emails to new subscribers. (Invesp)

100. The click-through and click-to-open rates of welcome emails are 24.69% and 28.70%, respectively. (Get Response)

101. Nearly 22% of marketing emails are opened shortly after sending. (Get Response)

102. The open rate for an email containing an image is 21% compared to the 15% open rate of text-based emails. (Get Response)

103. The best type of marketing email by conversion rate is ‘Email My Cart’ with almost 25%. (Barilliance)

SEO Statistics

SEO helps you understand how Internet users search for information about your brand and those of your rivals. So, before making a decision on whether to incorporate SEO in your marketing strategy, look at this list of SEO statistics which can also inspire you to find ways to improve your website rankings, conversion rates, and increase website traffic.

104. Over 90% of online experiences start with a search engine. (Imforza)

105. Search beats social media as a driver to content sites by over 300%. (Imforza)

106. Around 80% of users don’t pay attention to paid ads and they focus on organic results. (Imforza)

107. Organic search accounts for 53.3% of web traffic. (Bright Edge)

108. SEO gives better results in terms of sales compared to PPC for 70% of online businesses. (Hubspot)

109. Regarding close rate, SEO leads are better than outbound leads with 14.6% and 1.7%, respectively. (Imforza)

110. 65% to 70% of the search engine market belongs to Google. (Imforza)

111. 18% of organic clicks for Google go to number one and 10% to number two position. (Imforza)

112. Three quarters of Internet users usually stay on the first page of search results. (Imforza)

113. Higher education and college has the highest bounce rate of 51% among all industries. (First Page Sage)

114. Legal services boast 7.5% conversion rate which is the highest of all industries. (First Page Sage)

115. Half of the time the top ranking page gets the most total search traffic. (Ahrefs)

116. A quarter of the pages that appear on the top of the searches don’t have a meta description. (Ahrefs)

117. Only 22% of the 10 top ranking pages aren’t older than one year. (Ahrefs)

118. Pages that appear on position no.1 of the searches are usually nearly 3 years old. (Ahrefs)

119. Coronavirus was the most searched term worldwide in 2020. (Google Trends)

120. The long-tail SEO technique ranks better by 3 to 6% than generic search in 2-5 SERP positions. (Smart Insights)

121. Around three quarters of SEOs ask customers for a monthly retainer fee for some or all of their services. (Ahrefs)

122. A lot of search engine optimization agencies, freelancers, and consultants offer pricing plans for their clients, however most of them do not. (Ahrefs)

123. The amount of search queries that have featured snippets in their search result is 12.3%. (Ahrefs)

124. On average, Google processes more than 40,000 search queries every second or 1.2 trillion searches a year. (Internet Live Stats)

125. 34.3% of every 100 searches on Google desktop result in no clicks. (Sparktoro)

126. Only 0.78% of Google searches end in clicks on the second page of results. (Backlinko)

127. Google sees billions of searches every day, but only 15% of those queries are new. (Google)

128. 90.63% of content doesn’t receive traffic from Google. (Ahrefs)

Online Video Marketing Statistics

People have an insatiable appetite for online videos. This can benefit marketing teams and by offering video content to Internet users they can attract new and keep loyal customers interested in their brands. The statistics given below confirm that videos are irreplaceable regardless of the type and size of the businesses.

129. People seem to share video content twice as much compared to other types of content. (Wyzowl)

130. 85% of marketers think online video marketing is an efficient way to attract the attention of Internet users. (Animoto)

131. Over 90% of brands attracted new buyers because of social media videos. (Animoto)

132. 71% of people name YouTube when asked about their favourite channel for watching videos. (Business2Community)

133. 87% of businesses choose YouTube for online video marketing, 2% more than 2020. (Wyzowl)

134. YouTube users spend more than one billion hours watching video content on a daily basis. (YouTube)

135. 60% of businesses believe that the pandemic will have an impact on their video marketing budgets. (Wyzowl)

136. In 2020, the usage of TikTok among video marketers reached 20% and 67% out of them are satisfied with its effects. (Wyzowl)

137. Almost 60% of future digital marketing strategies will include Instagram as a popular video marketing channel. (Wyzowl)

138. Accounts usually owned by big brands with over 100k fans share over 70% of all marketing video content on Facebook. (Social Insider)

139. 7% less marketers want to include Twitter in their marketing strategy in the future compared to 2020. (Wyzowl)

140. Twitter has over 2 billion video views on a daily basis. (Twitter)

141. 86% of businesses implement videos in their marketing strategies. (Wyzowl)

142. In 2015, 80% of marketing teams believed that video marketing resulted in better product understanding, however, in 2021, that figure amounts to 94%. (Wyzowl)

143. 24% of businesses started exploring digital video marketing in 2020. (Wyzowl)

144. Almost 100% of marketers clearly state their plans to continue using videos in their digital marketing strategies. (Wyzowl)

145. 19% of marketers who don't use videos in their digital marketing strategies believe that it is not necessary. (Wyzowl)

146. 69% of businesses with a non-video marketing strategy are expected to start using it in 2021. (Wyzowl)

147. The most common reason for video marketing is building awareness (28%), however, marketers also create videos to explain their products and services and to increase sales and traffic. (Business2Community)

148. The number of video marketers who want to include interactive video in their marketing plans has increased to 24%. (Wyzowl)

149. 14% of businesses share video content every day, whereas 36% make videos a few times a week. (Biteable)

150. Shoppable videos are the next step in digital video marketing and over 20% of marketers want to give them a try. (Business2Community)

151. Video content with music has a better engagement for 81% of marketers. (Biteable)

152. The global advertising spend on online videos in 2019 was $45 billion, but in 2021, it is expected to hit $61 billion on online video marketing. (Smart Insights)

153. The projections for mobile video ad spending in the US for 2024 are $9.26 billion. (Statista)

154. 43% of businesses spend between $100—$1,000 per video on average. (Biteable)

155. Presentations account for 65% of video marketing and ads follow closely with 57% of marketers making this type of video. (Biteable)

156. Advertising views on mobile devices accounted for 14% of all ad views in the US in the second half of 2020. (Statista)

157. Astonishing 96% of Internet users claim the amount of time they spend watching video content has increased. (Wyzowl)

158. 69% of people prefer watching short videos when they want to find out about a new product. (Wyzowl)

159. 84% of Internet users were influenced by video marketing to make a purchase. (Wyzowl)

Other Important Online Marketing Industry Statistics

The pandemic isolated people, limited their movement, and among other things, fast-forwarded the process of digitization in the world of business. The following statistics will create a more explicit image of digital marketing including the angles that weren’t mentioned before like B2B digital marketing, ROI of digital marketing, traditional marketing, and others.

B2B Digital Marketing Statistics

160. Nearly half of B2B marketers in North America want to expand their content marketing budgets in the future. (Statista)

161. Content marketing has helped 87% of B2B marketers in North America create brand awareness. (Statista)

162. 48% of B2B marketers believe that improvement of quality and audience conversion will be their top content marketing activity. (Marketing Charts)

163. Over 90% of B2B marketers use Facebook for social media marketing, 79% rely on LinkedIn and 70% prefer Twitter. (Revive)

164. 82% of B2B marketers in the US and Canada use Twitter for the distribution of organic content, whereas 27% use it as a paid distribution channel. (Statista)

165. B2B unique click-through rates of 22% are 3% lower than B2C rates, whereas association emails record click-through rates of 19%. (Statista)

166. Pay-per-click and social media advertising give the best results in content marketing of all paid distribution channels for B2B marketers. (Content Marketing Institute)

167. 85% of B2B organizations have opted for email marketing software to help them with content marketing. (Content Marketing Institute)

168. 58% of B2B organizations want to start using marketing automation as part of their strategy. (Email Monday)

Digital Marketing ROI Statistics

169. 56% of marketers who keep track of ROI assess their ability to measure as very good or excellent. (Marketingprofs)

170. 51% of B2C organizations keep track of content marketing ROI. (Marketingprofs)

171. According to 60% of marketers, measuring social media ROI is a challenging task. (The Shelf)

172. On average, PPC has high ROI i.e. for every $1.60 invested in PPC, companies earn $3. (BizTraffic)

173. Email marketing delivers ROI which is higher than other channels, or $36 for every dollar invested, on average. (Litmus)

174. Top performers, which account for 18% of all companies, report ROI of more than 70$ per dollar invested. (Barilliance)

175. Low performers in email marketing generate as little as $5 of ROI or even less. (Barilliance)

176. More than 90% of businesses are satisfied with the ROI of social media video marketing. (Animoto)

177. 68% of marketers believe that video beats Google Ads in terms of ROI. (Biteable)

178. YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram are the top three video marketing channels with the highest ROI. (Biteable)

179. For every dollar that companies spend on Google Ads, the return is $8 through Google Search and Ads. (Google Economic Impact)

Digital Marketing vs Traditional Marketing Statistics

180. Seven in 10 consumers don't like learning about a new product through traditional ad methods instead they prefer content. (Business2Community)

181. Almost 80% of families have the tendency to read mail ads. (Business2Community)

182. 44% of consumers have been influenced by direct mail marketing to look for a certain brand online. (Business2Community)

183. Paper ads and the brand placing them are 70% more likely to be remembered compared with digital media ads. (Asset Digital)

184. A magazine ad costs from $500 to $20,000 and a half-minute TV ad on a not-so-popular station is approximately $1,500. (Asset Digital)

185. US B2B traditional marketing spending is expected to go up by 1.34% in the future, whereas digital marketing spending will probably see a 12.55% increase. (Statista)

186. Television reaches around 70% of the audience in a day, which makes it the most effective advertising. (Think Box)

187. Although it has been characterized by a declining trend, the response rate of direct mail of 4.4% is still considerably higher than email (0.12% response rate). (Forbes)

188. Over 40% of marketers think that events are the single most effective channel compared with digital marketing, content marketing, and email. (Bizzabo)

189. Seven in 10 teenagers don’t trust traditional celebrities as much as influencers. (Digital Marketing Institute)

Additional Internet Marketing Industry Statistics

190. Global Internet sales are expected to reach a whopping 5.9 trillion in 2023. (Statista)

191. The pandemic had a huge impact on ecommerce resulting in an increase in the number of visits of retail websites to 22 billion in June 2020. (Statista)

192. Almost 20% of the global retail sales belonged to e-retail sales in 2020. (Statista)

193. Online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay account for the biggest share of online shopping orders as of 2020. (Statista)

194. Retail ecommerce sales in the US in 2021 are expected to amount to 843.15 billion. (eMarketer)

195. Around 66% of companies plan to raise their investments in Amazon Advertising, Walmart Media Group, OTT/CTV, and YouTube. (Catalyst Digital)

196. China is expected to account for 33.3% of all digital buyers in the world and 56.8% of the global online sales in 2021. (eMarketer)

197. The fastest growth of online retail sales of 36.7% in 2020 was reported in Latin America. (eMarketer)

198. Nearly 40% of small businesses in the US don't have a website. (Visual Objects)

199. About half of retail professionals believe that digital presence is essential to the progress of their companies. (Forbes)

200. 28% of online consumers use Internet search, whereas 21% use email ads before making a purchase. (Catalyst Digital)

201. 54% of people claim that digital ads inspire them to buy a certain item or remind them about something they need. (Catalyst Digital)

202. 20% of digital buyers find advertising while shopping helpful. (Catalyst Digital)

203. 61% of Internet users who are aware of social commerce will probably make a purchase from social sites in the future. (Catalyst Digital)

204. 90% of marketers said they increased budgets for at least one media channel. (Catalyst Digital)

205. Nearly 20% of ecommerce professionals decide to increase their social ads budgets because 59% of online buyers notice social commerce. (Catalyst Digital)

206. 53% of marketers allocate half of their finances to generating leads. (Website Income)

207. Just 18% of marketing teams believe that outbound practices provide quality leads. (Hubspot)

208. Eight in 10 users of marketing automation recorded an increase in the number of leads. (Apsis International)

209. Content marketing boasts generating three times more leads than traditional marketing and is 62% cheaper. (Demand Metric)

210. Businesses that are good at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at a 30% lower cost. (Marketo)

211. Deals by nurtured leads are almost 50% higher in value than deals made by non-nurtured leads. (Annuitas)

Summary

The world of digital marketing is ever-evolving and companies need to keep pace with the latest trends. This list of digital marketing statistics has hopefully given you some insight into the industry, paving your way to creating your own successful marketing strategy, regardless of the size of your business and the niche you’re working in.