140 Marketing Statistics That Matter

This past year will go down in the history books for many reasons and be known for changing life as we know it in many ways. For marketers, it will be considered the year that everyone started to take digital more seriously. Companies that previously looked askance at digital were now looking for the fastest way to create a digital presence. Companies that had the best digital strategies saw their long-term investment pay off.

Though brought on suddenly by unexpected circumstances, this shift is not unexpected, merely accelerated. And this acceleration opened the door for innovation. How we market will probably never be the same. Making decisions based on data will become more important than ever.

General Marketing

40% of marketers say that their top marketing challenge is proving the ROI of their marketing. (HubSpot)
80% of marketers report their lead generation strategies are only somewhat effective (BrightTALK)
42% of B2B marketers say that a lack of quality data is the main barrier to lead generation. (BrightTALK)
Omnichannel campaigns have an 18.96% engagement rate, while single-channel campaigns have a 5.4% engagement rate. (ClickZ)
Omnichannel campaigns have a 250% higher purchase rate than single-channel campaigns. (ClickZ)
Omnichannel campaigns have a 90% higher customer retention rate than single-channel campaigns. (ClickZ)
80% of consumers are more likely to purchase from a brand that offers a personalized experience. (Instapage)
81% of marketers worry that using third-party data may raise privacy concerns. (eMarketer)
82% of marketers are planning to increase the use of first-party data. (Signal)
28% of local voice searches result in a call to the business. (BrightLocal)
41% of companies say they’ve had a 25% or more increase in phone conversion rates. 85% of marketers think that inbound calls and phone conversations are an essential component of their digital-first strategy. (Forrester)

Creative and Design

Creative and design have always been an essential part of any marketing effort. Graphic design statistics reveal that creative is increasingly becoming an even more important factor in digital marketing. Visual graphics bring forth specific emotions and help businesses appeal to a wide audience.

51% of B2B marketers consider creating visual content a priority. (Content Marketing Institute)
Including at least one image in a post increases Facebook and Twitter shares. (OkDork)
49% of marketers think that their creative assets play a vital role in their marketing strategy. (Venngage)
Visual content increased by 10.5% between 2018-2019. (Eksposure)

Performance Creative

Virtual Reality (VR) spend for business is expected to reach approximately $9.2 billion by 2021, outpacing its use for leisure. (FinancesOnline)
Consistently tweaking creative assets can improve response rates by 20%-50% or more. (ChiefMarketer)
25.2% of people’s purchases on Facebook are influenced by user-generated content (UGC). (eMarketer)
84% of communications are visual in 2020. (SAG ipi)
Images will remain a part of marketing strategies through 2021 for 66% of brands. (Elite Content Marketing)
49% of marketers report that visual assets are a key part of their marketing strategies. (Venngage)
Color influences 92.6% of consumers buying decisions. (KIssmetrics)
85% of people are drawn to brands that use visual graphics. (GraphicsZoo)

Website Design

43% of people consider a website’s design as the most critical factor denoting a business’s credibility. (Blue Corona)
73% of businesses invest in design to make their brand stand out. (Adobe)
Each dollar spent on UX brings back $100. (Web FX).
38% of people will leave a website if the content or layout is unattractive. (Blue Corona)
Web users read about 20% of the words on a webpage. (Elite Content Marketer)

Video

Approximately one million minutes of video travels the Intenet each second. (Cisco)
78% of people consume online videos each week, and 55% view them every day. (HubSpot)
89% of marketers consider video as a good return on investment. (Wyzowl)
81% of businesses use video marketing — up from 63% last year. (Hubspot)
6 in 10 people prefer watching online videos over television. (Google)
92% of people who watch a video on mobile share it with others. (Wordstream)
Mobile video watching increases 100% each year. (Insivia)
Online videos will make up over 82% of all consumer internet traffic, a 15% rise over the last four years. (Cisco)
Consumers remember 95% of a message when they see it in a video compared to 10% when they read it. (Insivia)
80% of people switch between online search and video while buying. (Elite Content Marketer)
75% of videos are watched on a mobile device. (eMarketer)
72% of consumers would prefer to learn about a service or product from a video. (HubSpot)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

With approximately 93% of all web traffic attributed to search engines, SEO has never been more important. The practice is continually evolving so staying on top of algorithm changes and search behavior are key.

50% of search queries are four words or more. (Wordstream)
18% of local mobile searches lead to a sale within a day. (Junto)
The #1 result in a Google search averages 3.8x more backlinks than results #2-#10. (Backlinko)
49% of users report that they use Google to find a new product or item. (Think with Google)
45% of U.S. Millennials use search when online shopping. (Statistica)
75% of users never scroll farther than the first page of search results. (Junto)

Voice Search

24% of Americans 18 and older, approximately 60 million people, own a Smart Speaker. (The Smart Audio Report)
62% of Americans report that they have used voice assistance technology of some kind. (Edison Research, 2020)
81% of people do online research before they make a large purchase. (Junto)
10% of total searches are currently voice searches (Junto)

Mobile Search

Nearly 25% of companies consider mobile optimization a top SEO tactic. (HubSpot)
By 2019 half of all global website traffic was generated by mobile devices. (excluding tablets) (Statista)
61.35% of mobile browser usage is controlled by Google Chrome. (WebsiteBbuilder)
Consumers are 60% less likely to convert after a negative mobile experience. (smallbizgenius)
Over 70% of YouTube watch time is from mobile devices. (WebsiteBuilder)
70% of consumers have made an in-store purchase after using their smartphone to find more information. (smallbizgenius)

Content Marketing

With all the changes in digital marketing this past year, content marketing has become an essential substitute for in-person advice and experiences.

70% of marketers are investing in content marketing, either in-house or through an agency. (Hubspot)
62% of agencies experienced an increase in clients looking for content marketing. (Content Marketing Institute)
47% of consumers view 3-5 pieces of content before deciding to talk to a salesman. (Junto)
Content marketing generates three times as many leads as traditional outbound methods but costs 62% less. (Demand Metric)
24% of marketers consider content marketing critical to their overall strategy. (HubSpot)
Web traffic is one of the most common ways to measure content marketing success. (HubSpot)
Articles that are longer than 3,000 words get 3x more traffic, 4x more shares, and 3.5x more backlinks than articles that are shorter. (SEMrush)
77% of companies report that they have a content marketing strategy. (SEMrush)
In-depth comprehensive content significantly outperforms content that doesn’t completely cover the topic. (Backlinko)

Social Media Marketing

Social platforms will continue to be an essential marketing channel. However, competition is fierce in this continually evolving space.

US social media ad spend in 2020 increased 20% over spend in 2019, reaching $43 billion. (eMarketer)
Facebook is most likely to inspire users to purchase, followed by Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat. (ViSenze)
Over half the world is active on some form of social media platform. (Smart Insights)
80% of marketers use visuals in social media marketing.(SocialMediaExaminer)
65% of users in the US make one or more purchases a month after discovering a new product on social media. (ViSenze)

Facebook

US Facebook ad spend exceeded $31 billion, increasing 5% from 2019. (Business Insider)
1.82 billion users are active on Facebook every day. (Zephonia)
0.9% is the average CTR for Facebook ads. (WordStream)
The average Facebook user is online 38 minutes a day. (eMarketer)
55% of marketers use Facebook as their major marketing platform. (SAG ipi)
85% of Facebook videos are viewed without sound. (WordStream)

Instagram

Instagram is the social media channel with the second-highest ROI for marketers. (HubSpot)
67% of adults 18-29 use Instagram. (Sprout Social)
Instagram followers have an average order value of $65 in comparison to $55 on Facebook. (Ignite Visibility)
There are more than one billion active users on Instagram monthly. (Omnicore)
Photos showing faces receive 30% more likes than images without faces. (Louise Myers Visual Social Media)
71% of US businesses use Instagram. (SAG ipi)

Twitter

The platform has 187 million monetizable daily active users. (Hootsuite)
About 42% of Twitter users are on the platform every day. (Omnicore)
80% of users access the platform from their phone. (Brandwidth)
Brands that use Twitter for business see an average 7% improvement in brand preference. (Twitter)
77% of Twitter users view a brand more favorably if they get a reply to their tweet. (Brandwatch)
82% of content marketers have used the platform for content marketing purposes in the past year. (Hootsuite)
Twitter users spend 26% more time on ads than users on other platforms. (Socialert)
Ad engagement is 23%, and cost per engagement (CPE) is 12%. (Socialert)

US LinkedIn ad spend reached $1.02 billion in 2019, a 40% increase form 2016. (eMarketer)
73% of social media users think that LinkedIn protects their privacy and data, compared to 53% for Facebook. (Hootsuite)
57% of LinkedIn’s traffic is mobile. (Hootsuite)
55% of decision-makers use LinkedIn to vet organizations. (Influencer Marketing Hub)
In Q1 of 2021, LinkedIn revenue increased 23% year over year. (LinkedIn)
In Q3 2020, content-sharing rose by 50% on LinkedIn. (LinkedIn)

YouTube

One billion hours of video are viewed daily on YouTube. (YouTube)
69% of marketers expect to increase their use of YouTube Video. (Elite Content Marketer)
YouTube ranks second in popularity after Google. (Alexa)
80% of the total time spent watching videos on YouTube is done on mobile. (Social)
70% of viewers used YouTube during 2020 to watch online replacements for live events. (Visual Content Marketer)
And 56% of live streamers agreed that watching events on YouTube can be just as good as being at live events. (Visual Content Marketer)
Comedy, gaming, and positive-themed videos on YouTube did especially well last year. (Visual Content Marketer)

Pinterest has 450 monthly active users. (Statistica)
Pinterest ranks fourth after YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. (Pew Research)
77.1% of Pinterest users are women, 14.5% men, 8.4% unspecified. (Statistica)
Visits increased from 856.08 million between July 2019 and December 2019 to 1.20 billion in the same time period in 2020. (SimilarWeb)
The platform has an average visit of almost 5 minutes and a bounce rate of 48.26%. (SimilarWeb)
86% of millennials use Pinterest to plan events in their life and 63% use it to discover new products. (Pinterest)

TikTok

US users spend an average of 850 minutes per month on the app. (Statistica)
23% of US Internet users have used TikTok or seen TikTok videos. (Statistica)
An estimated 18% of global Internet users age 18-64 use the app. (GlobalWebIndex)
TikTok is now the sixth-largest social network. (Hootsuite)
More than 1 billion videos were viewed on the app in the last year. (Oberlo)
The app has a 29% engagement rate. (Mediakix)

Pay Per Click (PPC)

With competition from social media and search engines along with restrictions of privacy laws, PPC advertising is increasingly competitive.

50% of people who arrive from paid ads are more likely to buy than people who come from an organic link. (unbounce)
89% of Google Ad traffic is not replaced by organic clicks when the ads are paused. (Google AI blog)
In 2019, brands’ spend on search advertising reached $106.5. (Statista)
PPC is among the top 3 sources of on-page conversions. (Form Stack)
Google paid ads receive an 11.38% click-through rate. (Sparktoro)
The average CPC on Bing is $1.54, about 33% less than on Google. (WordStream)
Small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) that use Google Ads spend an average of $9,000 – $10,000 a month. (WordStream)
65% of SMBs have active PPC campaigns. (Clutch)
10% of Google Ads accounts are optimized on a weekly basis. (WordStream)
72% of businesses haven’t reviewed their ad campaigns in more than a month. (Neil Patel)
49% of users click on text ads, making them the most popular kind of PPC ad. (Search Engine Land)

Email Marketing

With more than half the world expected to have email by 2023, this is still an important tool for marketers, especially small businesses.

Every dollar spent on email marketing gets an average return of $42. (Direct Marketing Association)
81% of small businesses rely on email as their main source for customer acquisition and 80% for customer retention. (Emarsys)
Welcome emails have an 82% open rate. (GetResponse)
The average email open rate is 21%. (MailChimp)
9 in 10 marketers use email to distribute organic content. (Content Marketing Institute)
Emails with a personalized subject line have 50% higher open rates. (Yes Lifecycle Marketing)
Emails with a video can increase CTR by 300%. (Martech Advisor)
49% of consumers would like to get promotional emails from brands they like on a weekly basis. (Statistica)
Sending three abandoned cart emails results in 69% more purchases than one email. (Omnisend)

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

Conversion rate optimization has always been a challenge for marketers. Is it the button placement, color, or message? Is it the website graphics? Is it the form? There are so many factors, it is sometimes hard to tell. So, the first stat on this list should surprise no one.

A mere 17% of marketers A/B test landing pages to improve conversion rates. (HubSpot)
Moving up one spot in search results can improve CTR by 30.8%. (Backlinko)
Bounce rates increase by 50% if the site takes over 2 seconds extra to load and conversion rates drop by 12% for each extra second a site takes to load. (Junto)
Title tags between 15 and 40 characters have an 8.6% higher CTR. (Backlinko)
URLs that include a keyword have a 45% higher CTR than those that don’t. (Backlinko)

This year is likely to be as unusual as last year was as we make our way towards a new normal. What that new normal will be is anyone’s guess. Only time will tell which of these marketing statistics will hold and which won’t. But until then, at Lamark, we use them to help guide us in developing strategies and making decisions that put us ahead of the current trends and create new ones.

Sources:

https://www.hubspot.com/

https://www.brighttalk.com/

https://backlinko.com/

https://www.statista.com/

https://emarsys.com/

https://www.getresponse.com/

https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/

https://www.emarketer.com/

https://www.martechadvisor.com/

https://unbounce.com/

http://ai.googleblog.com/

https://www.wordstream.com/