97 digital marketing statistics to help you excel in 2021.
With the advancement of technology and the current digital revolution, a new marketing component was able to arise, digital marketing. This marketing component utilizes the internet and different online-based digital technologies to promote a brand or product geared towards a specific audience. Digital marketing emerged in 1990 and has continued to remain successful as technology has become a critical part of our daily lives.
81% of residents in the United States spend time online daily, and digital marketing reaches people exactly where they spend their time. It allows you to reach your targeted audience, showcase your product or service and gain potential customers in the future.
Digital marketing statistics show that this is an innovative tool to engage with prospects and share information about a product or service. They can drive sales, increasing revenue and customer loyalty.
You should be empowering your customers to make informed decisions based on their wants and needs, seeing how your products or services can be beneficial to them.
This new advancement in technology can be used to your advantage, help build your marketing skills, and use marketing statistics and trends to continuously discover new ways to see an increase in your numbers.
A solid digital marketing strategy gives you the chance to improve your business and put these tools to use. It can increase your customer base, revenue, and loyalty. This is important to continue to see your business thrive while adjusting to ever-changing marketing needs and making improvements when necessary.
The use of technology can be vital to your future. These digital marketing statistics show how this critical and resourceful tool can help your business succeed.
Digital marketing statistics show effectiveness:
1.) The vast majority of Americans, 96%, now own a cellphone of some kind. (Pew Research)
2.) 70% of all website traffic comes from mobile phones, and adults spend around 5 hours a day on average on their phones. (Tech Radar)
3.) 55% of small-business owners say they have a business website, 50% say they have a business Facebook page, and 21% say they have a business Twitter account. (CNBC)
4.) 60% of people are inspired to seek a product after reading content about it. (Demand Metric)
5.) A 2019 survey in the United States found that 50 percent of B2B marketing professionals believed e-mail to be the most effective channel in producing a high return on investment. Search optimization and marketing placed second on that list. (Statista)
6.) 49% of respondents said they would prefer to receive weekly promotional emails from their favorite retail brands. (Statista)
7.) Business-to-business (B2B) technology buyers are least likely to respond to non-personalized messages as a marketing tactic. Digital event invitations and personalized messages are more likely to generate buyers’ interest. (Statista)
8.) 65% of respondents said they had used search engine marketing and pay-per-click methods to distribute promotional content. The largest share of respondents indicated using social media and promoted posts for content marketing distribution that year. (Statista)
9.) According to an analysis of content marketing-related job postings in the United States, conducted in early 2019, the skill most in demand for such positions was social media, seeing that it was mentioned in 47% of job offers. Research and SEO were required in roughly a third of vacancy announcements in the country. (Statista)
10.) 80% of B2B marketers say that they use metrics to measure content performance, 65% have established KPIs, and 43% measure content marketing ROI. (CMI)
11.) The top 5 metrics B2B marketers track to measure content performance are email engagement (90%), website traffic (88%), website engagement (86%), social media analytics (83%), and conversions (78%). (CMI)
Digital marketing statistics that demonstrate the effectiveness of SEO:
12.) During the Statista survey conducted in November 2016, 26% of responding SME owners said they had already been using SEO as part of their marketing activities. (Statista)
13.) SEO has long been at the forefront of any digital marketing strategy. (Forbes)
14.) Let’s start with SEO; nearly 14 billion searches online take place every month. (Educba)
15.) Google accounted for 62% of the U.S. desktop search queries. Google was also the leading mobile search provider in the United States, accounting for almost 84%t of the market as of October 2020. (Statista)
16.) In January 2021, Google accounted for 93.22% of the mobile search market in the US. Google Search is also one of the most popular mobile apps in the United States, with approximately 54 percent reach among mobile audiences. (Statista)
17.) SEO, content marketing, and email marketing directed the largest share of marketers, claiming that they generated the highest return on investment. One-third of industry professionals believe that these tactics were beneficial to their success. (Statista)
18.) 32% of responding marketers stated that social media sharing was the most effective SEO tactic. (Statista)
19.) 82% of marketing executives say that they expect campaigns to be measured. However, only 18% can measure the ROI of public relations, 24% can calculate the ROI of search engine optimization, and 26% can measure the ROI of social media. (SingleGrain)
20.) Keywords will always be critical, but millennials and Generation Z show an increased interest in voice and visual search technology. Adopting this early will significantly boost your chance of brand loyalty in 2021. (Forbes)
Effectiveness of content marketing statistics:
21.) Global marketers believed content marketing be the most effective digital technique based on their responses in early 2018. When asked to identify the single strategy they thought would make the most significant commercial impact on their own or their clients’ businesses, 20 percent pointed to content marketing. Following that was artificial intelligence and machine learning, big data, and social media marketing. (Statista)
22.) In a 2019 survey of advertising and marketing agencies, findings showed that among those offering a full scope of content marketing services, 87% included editorial services in their portfolio. The same was true for 61% of agencies focused on specialized content marketing services. (Statista)
23.) The top 2 technologies B2B organizations use to assist with content marketing are analytics tools (86%) and email marketing software (85%). (CMI)
24.) In late 2019, 49% of B2B marketers in the United States thought e-mail was the most effective channel in generating early-stage engagement. (Statista)
25.) During a survey conducted among global marketers in mid-2019, a little over half of the respondents said that their greatest challenges in content marketing included creating content that generates quality leads and attracts more traffic. (Statista)
26.) Developing relevant content and improving its SEO performance was also voted as challenging by 45 and 44% of surveyed marketers. (Statista)
27.) 46% of all respondents stated that they were planning to increase their B2B content marketing spending in the following 12 months, out of which 12% planned to increase it by more than 9%. (Statista)
28.) During a 2020 survey carried out among marketing technology decision-makers from the United States, 45% of respondents stated their customer data platform (CDP) had improved their online sales significantly. (Statista)
29.) In North America, 87% of respondents stated that brand awareness was a goal that their organization managed to achieve owing to content marketing. (Statista)
30.) Overall success with content marketing is similar to that reported for the last three years, with the largest percentage saying their organization is moderately successful. (CMI)
Marketing statistics on the effectiveness of advertising:
31.) In 2019, digital lead generation advertising spend in the United States was estimated to amount to nearly 2.6 billion U.S. dollars. This figure is projected to reach 3.2 billion by the end of 2023. Lead generation is one of many digital advertising formats, including display, search, e-mail, and mobile messaging. When combined, these are expected to generate 201 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, up from 129 billion in 2019. (Statista)
32.) In 2018 business-to-business (B2B) digital advertising spending in the United States reached a little over five billion U.S. dollars. 3.32 billion of that was devoted to desktop and 1.8 billion to mobile advertising. In 2019, B2B mobile advertising was set to surpass two billion U.S. dollars. (Statista)
33.) In 2019, close to half of all online ad revenue in the United States was generated through search advertising. About a third of the revenue came from online banners that year. (Statista)
34.) In 2019, internet advertising spending in the United States increased by 15.9%, from 107.5 to 124.6 billion U.S. dollars. In 2018, the growth rate stood at nearly 22%. (Statista)
35.) Internet advertising spending in the United States is forecasted to increase by about 21.6 between 2019 and 2024. It’s projected to grow from 125 billion U.S. dollars to nearly 153 billion U.S. dollars in this period. (Statista)
36.) In 2019, the U.S. was the largest global market based on mobile advertising spending. (Statista)
37.) Roughly 29% of marketers’ digital advertising budget went to mobile video advertising in 2018. Another 31% of those budgets went to desktop video, indicating the importance of the medium on both platforms. The budget share devoted to mobile video format was expected to grow by about 2% in 2019. (Statista)
38.) The global digital video ad spend is expected to grow from 26.49 billion U.S. dollars in 2019 to 35.05 billion in 2024. (Statista)
39.) According to a breakdown of U.S. online advertising revenue in 2019, that year, close to 63% of online ads in the U.S. were priced based on their performance. A year earlier, this figure stood at around 1% less. (Statista)
40.) In 2021, U.S. ad revenue is expected to reach close to 242 billion U.S. dollars. (Statista)
Effectiveness of social media statistics:
41.) A total of 79% of internet users in the United States have a social network profile. (Statista)
42.) The number of social network users in the United States is projected to increase from 223 million in 2020 to over 243 million users in 2025. (Statista)
43.) Marketing professionals agreed that social media was very important to their business. In fact, 63% agreed strongly. (Statista)
44.) 87% of B2B marketers use social media to distribute content. (Demand Metric)
45.) Over the past few years, marketing on social media has become one of the most popular and successful forms of digital marketing. Thanks to the massive userbases of networks like Facebook and Instagram, advertisers can reach billions of potential customers at the click of a mouse. Among the many benefits of using social media platforms for business purposes, industry professionals particularly value the increased exposure for their brands and products and the increased traffic on their websites. (Statista)
46.) Increased exposure is the most commonly cited advantage of using social media for marketing purposes among global industry professionals. This is expected given the huge benefit of having billions of active users as a potential advertising audience. Improved traffic, lead generation, and growing fan loyalty are further reasons why marketers see value in employing social networks in their campaigns. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the top three most used social platforms among global marketers. (Statista)
47.) Social referral traffic to retail eCommerce sites has grown 110% in two years. (Social Media Today)
48.) In every industry, there are influencers which the customer turns to or is inspired by. (Entrepreneur)
49.) Influencer marketing is a marketing strategy that uses opinion leaders with large social media followings to showcase brands. Influencers are paid to publish sponsored posts or branded placement. Companies use this type of online marketing to establish or expand a brand’s reach more quickly than using traditional means. (Statista)
50.) Within this scope, influencer marketing was born and is proving more and more effective as customers look for knowledgeable, authentic, and honest advertising. (Statista)
51.) In May 2019, it was found that 44% of respondents had already (learned about and subsequently) purchased a product because of a social media influencer. (Statista)
52.) A recent study found that 40% of people reported that they purchased a product online after seeing it used by an influencer on YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter. As a result, there is an opportunity for brands to utilize social media influencers more now than ever. (SmartBrief)
53.) Nearly half (43%) of advertisers plan to increase spending on influencer marketing. (Social Media Today)
54.) In 2019, 30% of responding marketers stated that when integrated into other channels, influencer content outperformed their brand-created content, while 28% said that they had not yet tested influencer content compared to brand-created content. (Statista)
55.) In a 2020 survey fielded in the United States, 51% of respondents stated that social media ads influenced their purchasing decisions. Social network ad spending in the U.S. was estimated at 40.3 billion U.S: dollars in 2020. (Statista)
56.) In 2021, 91.9% of U.S. marketers working for large companies were expected to use social media for marketing purposes. (Statista)’
57.) Most successful brands have a social media page to expand their marketing coverage of making their brand more accessible among social media users. (Social Media Today)
58.) 84% of B2B marketers use paid distribution channels for content marketing purposes; of that group, 72% use paid social media/promoted posts. (CMI)
59.) In a late 2019 survey, retail marketing professionals were asked on which social media platforms they were purchasing advertising. According to the results, 96% of respondents were buying social ads on Facebook, and 76% were doing so on LinkedIn. The smallest shares of responding marketers were investing in ads on Snapchat and Pinterest. (Statista)
60.) As of January 2020, Facebook was the most commonly used social media platform among marketers worldwide. According to a global survey, 94% of responding social media marketers used the network to promote their business, while another 76% did so via Instagram. (Statista)
61.) TikTok is growing increasingly popular in the business realm. The app has over 500 million global users, a number that is certain to rise in 2021. (Forbes)
62.) 34% of respondents said they were uncertain about their ability to measure the return on investment (ROI) of their marketing on social media platforms. However, 30% believed they were able to measure social media ROI. (Statista)
63.) Business retailers see about a 133% increase in revenues after marketing their business in the mobile market, promoting social media channels as a value for their business. (Social Media Today)
Effectiveness of digital marketing & Covid-19:
64.) Coronavirus has forced brands to adopt digital channels for product and service delivery as well as marketing. “Digital transformation” has become a popular term since March 2020, and all sized companies are investing significant dollars in the migration to digital platforms, including e-commerce, chatbots, email, apps, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, omnichannel marketing, and augmented/virtual reality. (SmartBrief)
65.) During a July 2020 survey conducted among North American marketers, it was found that 42% of the respondents said that they used in-person events in their content marketing campaigns. This seems to be an impact of the coronavirus pandemic and its effect on the industry. 67% of responding marketers said they were using a form of a virtual event as part. of their content marketing strategies. (Statista)
66.) Unsurprisingly, in response to the coronavirus outbreak, B2B brands in the United States reallocated resources from live events to webinars, among others. In fact, it was found that between February and March 2020, the number of brands offering webinars grew by 36%, from 245 to 332. (Statista)
67.) The global coronavirus pandemic is affecting consumer behavior worldwide. In January 2021, online transactions increased by 39.7% compared to the index period in January 2020, and the global conversion rate also increased by 40.3%. (Statista)
68.) With people instructed to stay at home, live streaming saw a huge boost in popularity. Live streaming can help your audience forge a connection to your business. (Forbes)
69.) A March 2020 survey of U.S. marketers and ad agencies found that 89% of respondents had made changes to their promotional efforts in response to the coronavirus outbreak. (Statista)
70.) In mid-March 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic outbreak worldwide, brands had to pay on average around 81 U.S. cent for a thousand impressions on Facebook ads. This number represents a significant decrease from the CPM of 1.88 U.S. dollars posted in November 2019, indicating that Facebook advertising has become cheaper in light of COVID-19 impact on social media usage. (Statista)
71.) The global coronavirus pandemic has led to retail marketers re-directing some of their usual marketing budgets towards other investments to keep their stores attractive for customers. A June 2020 survey of U.S. retail marketers found that 21% of respondents were planning to increase marketing investments in AR/VR technologies for their store, up from only eight percent of respondents who indicated that they wanted to do so in January 2020. (Statista)
72.) During a March 2020 survey of B2B marketers in the United States, it was found that 43% of responding industry professionals were planning to invest their money in content creation instead of live events as was budgeted before the coronavirus outbreak. A further 40% of B2B marketers wanted to reallocate their budgets to hosting webinars, and 17% planned to sponsor webinars. (Statista)
73.) As of March 2020 revisions of advertising market data, the pandemic will cause ad revenue in the United States to decline by approximately 20% in the first half of 2020 and by 2.5% in the following six months. Digital ad revenue is believed to grow by 4% throughout the entire year. (Statista)
74.) In 2020, mobile advertising revenue was expected to grow by 8.6%compared to 2019. Total digital media are projected to grow by 2.8% in 2020 as the entire ad industry is fighting the coronavirus outbreak’s consequences. However, it is forecast that digital media will bounce back slightly to 7.3% growth in 2021. (Statista)
75.) Despite the heavy impact the coronavirus had on the industry, marketers are still expecting positive growth in spending in 2021. (Statista)
How common is digital marketing?
76.) Up until recently, TV was the main medium overall; however, digital has seen unprecedented growth in the last few years and took the lead ahead of television. Digital advertising spending in the U.S. is estimated to increase from about 141 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 to just over 193 billion by 2025. (Statista)
77.) 84% of people expect brands to create content. (SEO Tribunal)
78.) Since early 2015 there has been a visible advantage in the focus on digital marketing and advertising over traditional channels. (Statista)
79.) 93% of respondents stated that mobile marketing was the most effective in driving sales online. (Statista)
80.) In a January 2020 survey, marketers in the United States indicated that 18.5% of their marketing budget was devoted to mobile marketing. This figure has consistently grown since early 2017, saw a sharp increase in 2020 during the pandemic, and is still set to reach 23.3% in 2022. (Statista)
81.) Mobile apps are one of the most popular features on smartphones. According to a US survey of smartphone users, the most popular types of smartphone apps used daily are part of the social and communication category, followed by gaming and entertainment apps. (Statista)
82.) In a survey conducted among the U.S. B2B marketers in January 2021, respondents were asked about the changes in their spending plans on traditional and digital media. B2B product-focused marketers said that their spending on traditional advertising was expected to decrease by 0.61% in the following year, compared to the past 12 months, while digital marketing spending was projected to increase by 14.32%. (Statista)
83.) In January 2021, B2B marketers in the United States were asked what share of their company’s revenue was invested in marketing. B2B product marketers say that 9.99% of the firm’s revenue was devoted to marketing efforts, while B2B services promotion professionals said that marketing accounted for 15.54% of their company’s revenue. (Statista)
84.) In February 2020, US marketers say that 37.7% of their projects used marketing analytics to make an informed decision. It seems that a decision on whether to use analytics in marketing or not is not yet final, as industry professionals have been hesitating about its level of involvement since February 2019. (Statista)
85.) The top 5 metrics B2B marketers track to measure content performance are email engagement (90%), website traffic (88%), website engagement (86%), social media analytics (83%), and conversions (78%). (CMI)
86.) The top 3 types of content B2B marketers use are social media content (95%), blog posts/short articles (89%), and email newsletters (81%). (CMI)
87.) In late 2020 B2B marketers in the United States were asked about the new tactics, strategies, and channels they wanted to implement in 2021. According to 46% of respondents, account-based marketing was on the top of mind to include in their 2021 marketing efforts, and 41% said the same about video marketing. (Statista)
Digital marketing strategy is the future of marketing.
88.) Businesses can benefit from digital marketing such as search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, influencer marketing, content automation, e-commerce marketing, campaign marketing, and social media marketing, social media optimization, email, direct marketing, display advertising, e-books, optical disks and games and are becoming more and more common in our advancing technology. (Research Gate)
89.) Every successful marketing plan is a planning process, not just a plan. A solid marketing plan is part of an ongoing strategy that involves setting goals, measuring results, and tracking performance. It requires regular review and revision. (American Express)
90.) You’re going to have greater success and efficiency if you identify your target market and focus your marketing efforts on them. (SMB)
91.) Marketing statistics show that the most recommended digital channel was email marketing with 15%, followed by web design and development, blog content, and paid social, each recommended by 13% of digital agency professionals. (Statista)
92.) In 2020, digital advertising spending in the United States amounted to approximately 497 U.S. dollars per internet user. (Statista)
93.) Your website is the foundation of an efficient digital marketing strategy because all other digital marketing elements direct guests to your website, which should effectively convert guests. (Research Gate)
94.) 55% of marketers say that articles and blog posts were considered the most valuable content for moving prospects through the sales funnel. (Statista)
95.) 60% of B2B marketers use web traffic to measure success. (Demand Metric)
96.) The top 3 types of content B2B marketers use are social media content (95%), blog posts/short articles (89%), and email newsletters (81%). (CMI)
97.) The entire global marketing automation market size is expected to reach 15.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2019 and grow to 25.1 billion by 2023. Its increasing value is expected when we consider how popular digital omnichannel marketing is becoming. (Statista)
Using digital marketing statistics and what they tell us to succeed.
With technology at our fingertips and the digital world’s continuous progression, you must use digital marketing to your business’s advantage. Find ways to showcase your brand online through your landing page, social media platforms, blog posts, or advertisements. Key into your targeted audience and ensure you can reach your ideal buyer persona using these marketing statistics to form your strategy.
It is about engaging with consumers, increasing revenue, gaining loyalty, and driving your business’s conversion rates. Digital marketing allows you to find new ways to create content specifically for your audience, build brand awareness, and show your team’s authenticity. Use this as a tool to find new marketing strategies, using the uprise of technology and digital media to help you.
Utilizing digital marketing will be crucial to the overall success of your business.
To gain knowledge about new marketing tools and strategies, partnering with Podium may be the next step for your team. Podium offers a range of communication tools to help your business continue to succeed now and in the future.