Is Your Marketing Working? See How Your Results Compare with These Digital Marketing Stats

By Hillary Bressler, Travel and Hospitality Marketing Lead, Pinch Hit Partners

Stats are the lifeblood of good marketers. The funny thing is that many marketers got into marketing because they thought they had a lack of solid math skills in school and thus went the route of the non-math related careers in school.  This is a bad joke as we come to find out that the marketer’s entire career revolves around math.  Budgets, column inch, pixels, impressions, conversions, percentages and the good old statistic.

Marketers have come to have a love hate relationship with math, except that of the statistic. The statistic drives us and gives us ideas.  Marketers love statistics.

There are many statistics out there that are completely useless to marketers whose main goal is to increase sales or drive recognition of a brand.  For example, global mobile ad spending is expected to reach 247.4 billion U.S. dollars by 2020.  This stat is interesting to marketers, but it does not help us drive traffic to businesses or our clients. Yes, it tells us that the mobile industry is not going away, and we keep an eye on it to watch for major shifts, but it doesn’t fuel us.

I have compiled stats that fuel marketers and engage the thinking process.  Each one can spark an idea or help marketers convince key stakeholders to move budgets around to support this ever changing digital landscape. If these stats are not a wake-up call, I don’t know what is.

The times in digital marketing are changing….rapidly.

So fast I would consider many strategies, like mobile, to be considered an emergency. With mobile now representing 69% of digital media time spent (comScore​, 2017) the time to shift to mobile was yesterday.

In addition, 37% of all online spending in the United States and Europe is now made through Amazon. This figure is 57% for US consumers (Salmon 2017).

You may hate stats or love them, but you can’t leave them. Here are some of the most worthwhile:

Local Search

• 72% of consumers who did a local search visited a store within five miles. (WordStream, 2016)
• 28% of searches for something nearby result in a purchase. (Google, 2016)
• 18% of local searches done on mobile devices lead to a sale within a day (Junto 2017)
• Leads from search engines have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (ex. cold-calling, direct mail, etc.) have a 1.7% close rate. (Junto 2017)

Lead Generation

• Both desktop and mobile ads deliver branding effectiveness but mobile ads perform better – particularly at the bottom of the funnel (comScore, The Global Mobile report 2017)
• Nearly 80% of companies not meeting their revenue goals attract 10,000 monthly website visitors or less. Those exceeding their revenue goals, 70% report attracting more than 10,000 visitors per month. (HubSpot, 2015)
• The  less companies know about their KPIs, the less likely they are to meet their revenue goals. 74% of companies that weren’t exceeding revenue goals did not know their visitor, lead, MQL, or sales opportunities. (HubSpot, 2015)
• 24% of marketers don’t know whether their efforts resulted in closed-won deals. (BrightTALK, 2015)
• 72% of organizations that calculate ROI say their marketing strategy is effective. (HubSpot, 2016)

Conversion

• Bounce rates increase by 50% if your website takes 2 seconds extra to load. (Junto 2017)
• Conversions fall by 12% for every extra second that it takes your website to load. (Junto 2017)
• Average e-commerce conversion rates are 1% – 2%. Even if you are doing everything right, you can still expect to win the sale around 2% of the time (BigCommerce 2017)
• Advertisers that implemented Influencer Marketing in 2016 received $11.69 in Earned Media Value (EMV) on average for every $1.00 they spent (RhythmOne)
• For the majority of online transactions, the path from awareness to conversion is very short — 71% of consumers make their purchase within a week of awareness or desire  (KPMG Global Survey – the truth about consumers 2017)
• Users who have a bad mobile user experience are 60% less likely to revisit and purchase from that brand in the future (Smart Insights 2017)
• 53% of marketers say blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority. (HubSpot, 2017)
• 64% of consumers say that watching a video on social media influenced them to make a purchase (Animoto, 2017)
• Average page load speed on mobile sites is 22 seconds. A 10 second page load time has a 123% higher bounce rate than a 1 second page load time (Think With Google, 2017)
• Mobile loading times are way behind the 2-second target. (Marketing Charts, Google)

• Global cart abandonment rates have increased 1.3% (up on the previous quarter) to 76.9% (SalesCycle, The re-marketing report)
• Titles with 6-13 words attract the highest and most consistent amount of traffic. (HubSpot, 2016)

Content Strategy

• 47% of buyers viewed 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep. (Demand Gen Report, 2016)
• B2C companies that blogged 11+ times per month got more than 4X as many leads than those that blog only 4-5 times per month. (HubSpot, 2015)
• B2B companies that blogged 11+ times per month had almost 3X more traffic than those blogging 0-1 times per month. (HubSpot, 2015) 62 percent of B2C content marketers outsource at least one part of their company’s content marketing activity. (Content Marketing Institute)
• Companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got about 4.5X more leads than companies that published 0-4 monthly posts. (HubSpot, 2015)
• 78% of B2B buyers use case studies when researching purchases – DemandGen
• The average blog post is now 1,142 words (up 41% since 2014) – Orbit Media
• User-generated content has a 4.5% higher conversion rate (SproutSocial, 2017)

Facebook

• 85% of Facebook users watch videos with the sound off. (SproutSocial)
• Captioned video ads can increase video view time by an average of 12% (SproutSocial)
• The Average CPC for Facebook Ads Is $1.72 and $0.63 for travel & hospitality (WordStream)

• The average click-through rate in Facebook ads across all industries is .90% and is .90% for travel and hospitality. (WordStream 2017)
• People Aged 18-29 Are the Most Prevalent Facebook Users (65+ Is the Least)
• 82% of Facebook Users Have Attended at Least Some College

• Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without images. (Buzzsumo, 2015)
• Facebook sends 82% of social media traffic to longer stories and 84% of social traffic to shorter news articles. (Pew Research Center, 2016)
• The most effective length for an ad title on Facebook is four words, and 15 words for a link description. (SproutSocial)
• 39% of users like or follow a Facebook page to receive a special offer. (SproutSocial)
• 19% of Time Spent on Mobile Devices Is on Facebook (SproutSocial)

LinkedIn

• LinkedIn is the only major social media platform for which usage rates are higher among 30- to 49-year-olds than among 18- to 29-year-olds.  (Pew Research Center, 2015)
• 70% of LinkedIn users are from Outside of US. After US, India, Brazil, Great Britain and Canada has the highest number of LinkedIn users.(Omnicore)
• 59% of Linkedin members have never worked at a company with more than 200 employees. (Omnicore)

Pinterest

• 71% of Pinterest’s users are women. (Search Engine Land, 2015)
• Pinners are just as likely to purchase as users from other social channels, but spend 50% more on average compared to other social channels. (Hub Spot)
• 45% of people on Pinterest use the app while watching TV. (Pinterest, 2016)
• 36% of Pinterest users fall between the ages of 18 and 29. In a close second, Gen Xers make-up 34% of Pinterest’s audience.  (Pinterest 2016)

Snapchat

• 52% of Snapchat users are under the age of 25. (Statista, 2016)
• 79% of US teens (13-18) use Snapchat.  (SnapChat)

• 30% of U.S. millennial internet users use Snapchat regularly. (eMarketer, 2015)
• 80% of Snapchat users use the app at a restaurant.  (eMarketer, 2015)
• 66% of Snapchat users use the app while shopping  (eMarketer, 2015)
• 50% of Snapchat users use the app at gyms (eMarketer, 2015)
• 49%  of Snapchat users use the app at airports (eMarketer, 2015)

Twitter

• 30% of online adults under 50 use Twitter, compared with 11% of online adults ages 50 and older. (Pew Research Center, 2015)
• Twitter has nearly 4X as many users internationally as in the U.S. (Pew Research Center, 2016)

YouTube

• 70% of teenage YouTube subscribers trust influencer opinions over traditional celebrities (Google, 2016)
• On mobile alone in an average week, YouTube reaches more 18+ year-olds during prime time TV hours than any cable TV network. (Google, 2016)
• Two-thirds of YouTube users watch YouTube on a second screen while watching TV at home. (Google, 2016)
• YouTube is more commonly used by larger businesses. For example, 71% of businesses with 100+ employees use YouTube, compared to 38% of the self-employed. (Social Media Examiner, 2015)
• YouTube has over a billion users, almost one-third of all people on the Internet. (YouTube, 2016) In an average month, 8 out of 10 18- to 49-year-olds watch YouTube. (Google, 2016)
• Among millennials, YouTube accounts for two-thirds of the premium online video watched across devices. (Google, 2016)
• The time people spend watching YouTube on their TV has more than doubled year over year. (Google, 2016)

Social Media Management

• By spending as little as six hours per week, 66% of marketers see lead generation benefits with social media. (Social Media Examiner, 2015)
• At least 61% of those investing a minimum of six hours per week in social media marketing saw improvements in search engine rankings. (Social Media Examiner, 2015)

Visual Content

• Visual content is 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content. (Buffer, 2014)
• Articles with an image once every 75-100 words got double the number of social shares than articles with fewer images. (Buzzsumo, 2015)
• Research has shown that when people hear information, they are likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later. (LifeLearn, 2015)
• Infographics are liked and shared on social media 3X more than any other type of content. (Mass Planner, 2015)

Video Content

• 47% of the Value of Facebook Video Ads Happens in the First 3 Seconds (SproutSocial)
• 4X as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. (Animoto, 2015)
• Almost 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store. (Google, 2016)
• 53% of smartphone users feel more favorable towards companies whose mobile sites or apps provide instructional video content. (Google, 2015)
• 4 in 5 consumers believe that demo videos are helpful. Shoppers who view video are 1.81X more likely to purchase than non-viewers. (Animoto, 2015)
• 55% of people consume video content thoroughly. (HubSpot, 2016)
• 43% of people want to see more video content from marketers. (HubSpot, 2016)
• Marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users. (Aberdeen, 2015)
• Nearly two-thirds of consumers prefer video under 60 seconds. (Animoto, 2015)
• 51.9% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI. (Adobe, 2015)

Email Conversion

• The best time of day to send emails is between 4pm and 8pm. (Experian, Marketing Charts)
• Email notifications about abandoned carts have a 40.5% open rate. (eMarketer, 2015)
• As the number of images in an email increases, the clickthrough rate of the email tends to decrease. (HubSpot, 2014)
• PC and tablet users have unique click rates of 3.8%, a 40% increase over the 2.7% mobile click rate (MailChimp, Impact of Mobile use on Email 2017)
• Open rate has increased from 35% to 58%, unique open rate has increased from 15% to 25%, click rate has decreased from 10.8% to 3.8%, unique click rate has increased from 2.1% to 2.5% (SendGrid, 2017 Global Email Benchmark Report)
• Open rates are 14.31% higher in segmented campaigns than in non-segmented campaigns (MailChimp, 2017)

Email Copy

• 64% of people prefer rich text emails. (HubSpot, 2014)
• Email subject lines that include the words “thank you” have the highest above-average engagement levels. (Adestra, 2015)
• Emails that included the first name of the recipient in their subject line had higher clickthrough rates than emails that did not. (HubSpot, 2014)
• The open rate for emails with a personalized message was 17.6%, compared to 11.4% without personalization. (Statista, 2014)
• 66% of unsubscribes occur between 5 and 10 p.m. (Tomasz Tunguz, 2015)

Mobile Email

• Outside of work, Americans most commonly check their email while watching TV (70%), from bed (52%), on vacation (50%), while on the phone (43%), from the bathroom (42%), and even while driving (18%). (Adobe, 2015)
• 75% of Gmail users access their accounts on mobile devices. (TechCrunch, 2015)
• 48% of emails are opened on a smartphone. (Movable Ink, 2015)

Display Advertising

• Across all ad formats and placements Ad CTR is just 0.05% (Smart Insights 2018)
• Rich media Ad CTR is 0.1% (Smart Media 2018)
• 91% of people say ads are more intrusive today than two years ago. (HubSpot, 2016)
• 73% of people dislike pop-up ads. (HubSpot, 2016)
• 72% of consumers say they would have a lower opinion of a brand if they subjected the consumer to a pop-up ad. (HubSpot, 2016)
• 81% of consumers have closed a browser or exited a webpage because of a pop-up ad. (HubSpot, 2016)

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

• Across the Bing and Yahoo search networks, search spend bounced up 32 percent year over year, while click volume growth increased from just 1 percent in Q3 to 14 percent in Q4. CPCs were up 15 percent year over year in Q4 compared to just 5 percent in Q3. (Search Engine Land 2018)
• Businesses make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on AdWords. (Google Economic Impact Report)
• Giant retailers can spend up to $50 million per year on paid search in AdWords. The average small business using AdWords spends between $9,000 and $10,000 per month on their Google paid search campaigns. That’s $100,000 to $120,000 per year. (May 21, 2015)
• 64.6% of people click on Google ads when they are looking to buy an item online. (WordStream, 2016)
• Mobile devices produced 55% of Google search ad clicks in Q4 2017, but just 14% of Bing ads clicks. (WordStream 2017)

• The average cost-per-click (CPA) in AdWords across all industries is $2.32 on the search network and $0.58 on the display network. (WordStream, 2016)
• When it comes to paid social media ads, the overwhelming majority use Facebook ads (84%), followed by Google ads (41%) and LinkedIn ads (18%). (Social Media Examiner, 2015)
• Which marketing trend will be most important to you and your business in 2018?

Here Are My Takeaways..
Mobile will continue to be a major area of focus for advertisers on both search and display. As the price increases, ensure that your landing pages are optimized for load time and experience on mobile.

We see content marketing as the ‘engagement’ fuel that powers all digital communications from search to social to email marketing to creating website experiences which convert.

Speaking of major areas of focus…how ‘bout that Bing?! The unfortunately oft-forgotten search engine clearly became a bigger factor for many advertisers in Q4 2018; as you look to diversify your marketing channels in 2018, be sure to give Bing some serious consideration, particularly if you’ve had success advertising on mobile devices in the past.

I feel fortunate to have followed some of the amazing major changes in digital marketing and technology over the last 20 years. I am a firm believer that it is the companies that are 18 months ahead of the curve that will always be the winners and get the benefit like low CPC before the competition finds out.  Looking back, we’ve seen a phenomenal growth in the importance of organic, then paid search, then social media and more recently, incredible worldwide growth in mobile and particularly smart phone usage. I always encourage companies to take a percentage of their budget and throw it to new and emerging marketing and see what sticks.

Reprinted from the Hotel Business Review with permission from www.HotelExecutive.com.
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