58 Mind-Blowing Digital Marketing Stats You Need to Know

Updated May 2019

While there are several forms of traditional marketing, including print, radio, and television, statistics show that digital marketing is taking over, in terms of popularity and success. In fact, by 2021, it’s projected that marketing leaders will spend 75% of their total marketing budget on digital marketing, rather than traditional marketing.

Digital marketing statistics

In this post, we’ll share 58 of the top digital marketing statistics every company needs to know.

Source: We Are Social

Email marketing statistics

Email marketing is one of the most successful online digital marketing platforms. Here are some of the top statistics that’ll show you just how vital email marketing is to your digital marketing strategy.

• Gmail alone has over 1 billion users, and it’s expected to grow to 3 billion users by 2020 (Statista).
• Email marketing is king of all digital marketing channels, with ROIs as high as 4400% (Campaign Monitor).
• The number of active email accounts worldwide was roughly 4.1 billion in 2014 and is expected to increase to nearly 5.6 billion towards the end of 2019 (Statista).
• The New York Times has over 30 email newsletters, with around a 70% open rate, and brand-new newsletters dedicated to unique audiences like college students and runners (Digiday).
• The most popular days to send emails are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, but, since these days are so popular, you may have a better chance at an open rate if you send them on Mondays and Fridays instead (CoSchedule).
• Open rates are highest, around 24%, from the hours of 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. or after work (Campaign Monitor).
• Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened (Experian).

• The average professional sends and receives 121 emails a day (The Radicati Group).
• 2% of company emails sent to private clients contain emojis in the subject line (Medium).
• Eighty percent of survey respondents said email etiquette played an important role in their decision to interact with a stranger (Marketing Land).
• People over the age of 45 (nearly 70%) were more receptive to humor in a subject line than a younger audience (Marketing Land).
• Eighty percent of respondents indicated grammatical errors were one of the biggest email faux pas. Next on the list included: profanity, irregular fonts, capitalized subject lines, excessive punctuation, and lack of subject line, which 70% of respondents said was unacceptable (Marketing Land).

Mobile marketing statistics

Mobile device use is increasing every day, so optimizing your marketing efforts for mobile should be a top priority. Here are some of the most interesting stats that’ll urge you to take a second look at your mobile strategy this year.

• The number of unique monthly searches is over 100 billion, and over half of those come from a mobile device (DMR).
• Eighty percent of internet users own a smartphone (Smart Insights).
• The number of emails being opened on mobile devices is rising, with 53% of email marketing emails being opened on mobile devices (Campaign Monitor).
• Thirty-one percent of marketers say they open at least half of their emails on a mobile device. This means subject lines need to accommodate smartphones. (2015 State of Marketing Report).
• Only 47% of B2C brands are fully optimizing their preheader text for easy reading on mobile devices (Salesforce Marketing Cloud).
• Nearly 80% of time spent on social media platforms happens on mobile devices (Marketing Land).
• Over 50% of smartphone users grab their phone immediately after waking up in the morning (Express Pigeon).
• In 2019, people are using their mobile devices more frequently and for longer periods of time than their desktop computers. A great majority of Americans alone (95%) now own a cellphone of some kind, with 77% of them owning a smartphone. This is up from 35% back in 2011 (Pew Research).
• The number of new smartphone subscriptions growing by 20% each year (Campaign Monitor).
• Sixty-one percent of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site if they had a problem accessing it, and 40% will go to a competitor instead (McKinsey & Company).

Social media marketing statistics

Social media is changing the face of marketing culture in several ways. With social media, it’s easier to collect useful data on consumers, build a visible and popular brand, and sell products on various social media platforms.

The following statistics will help you understand the importance of getting your social strategy right this year.

• Facebook has over 1.66 billion monthly smartphone users (DMR).
• By mid-2015, half of all comments on Instagram included an emoji. (World Emoji Day)
• Thirty-two percent of teenagers say Instagram is the most important social network, and 81% of Millennials check Twitter at least once a day (Pew Research Center).
• Twenty-two percent of the world’s population uses Facebook, with North America being in first place and Africa coming in last. (Statista).
• YouTube, on mobile alone, reaches more 18-34 and 18-49-year-olds than any cable network in the US (YouTube).
• 90% of mobile opens occur on an Apple device (Campaign Monitor).
• Fifty-nine percent of Americans with social media accounts say that social customer service makes it easier to get issues resolved and questions answered (Hootsuite).
• Twenty-eight percent of Americans with a social media account would rather engage with a brand on social media than go to a physical location (Hootsuite).

Display advertising statistics

When it comes to digital marketing, you can’t leave one of the oldest forms of online advertising out of the equation: display ads.

While it’s true that display advertising can be one of the fastest ways to drive traffic to your website, it’s also important to note that there are several obstacles in place. If you’re looking into display advertising this year, here are some statistics you should know to help make sure you’re on the right path.

• The average person now spends more time online than with all other media outlets combined (Branding Bricks).
• Total spending on internet advertising is said to grow 12.9% next year, as the internet is now the largest medium for advertising (MediaPost).
• Fifty-four percent of survey respondents said they didn’t trust banner ads (Banner Snack).
• Additionally, 58% of users say they don’t click on ads because they aren’t relevant, and 57% are concerned about security and privacy (Market Wired).
• Thirty-three percent of internet users can’t stand display ads (Page Fair).
• The average clickthrough rate of display ads is %0.06 (Display Benchmark Tool).
• There are 198 million active internet users around the world using an ad block software (Page Fair).
• Ninety-eight percent of advertisers are wasting money on display ads (Unbounce).
• Native ads are a more productive investment than banner ads, considering they’re viewed 53% more than banner ads (Dedicated Media).
• Retargeting campaigns can result in a high ROI (Retargeter).
• Users who are retargeted are 70% more likely to actually convert (Digital Information World).
• Native ads that also include rich media can boost conversions by 60% (Adweek).

When it comes to display advertising, there’s certainly a wrong way and a right way to advertise. Rather than focusing on un-targeted banner ads, consider investing in native ads to help boost your conversion rates.

Content marketing statistics

Content marketing continues to evolve as an effective piece of the digital marketing puzzle. As such, becoming familiar with trends, patterns, and top statistics can help guide your content strategy. Here are some surprising statistics that every marketer will enjoy.

• Blog posts are getting more visual and longer, with the average post length being about 1050 words (Orbit Media Solutions).
• However, the average blog reader only spends 37 seconds reading a blog post (NewsCred Insights).
• Thirty-three percent of marketers average 2 to 5 blog posts a month (LookBook HQ).
• Seventy percent of B2B marketers are planning to create more content in 2017 (Content Marketing Institute).
• Seventy-five percent of marketers are using interactive content this next year, while 24% have plans for it to remain the same, and only 1% are planning a decrease in the use of this type of content (Content Marketing Institute).
• Almost 60% of marketers reuse content 2 to 5 times (LookBook HQ).
• Sixty-nine percent of companies say their video budget is increasing (Ascend2).
• The demand for Infographics increased 800% last year (Unbounce).
• Eighty-one percent of marketers plan to increase their use of written content (Social Media Examiner).
• Twenty-eight percent of marketers want to learn more about podcasting (Social Media Examiner).

Customer satisfaction statistics

It’s futile to talk about the top digital marketing statistics without highlighting the importance of the number one reason for marketing in the first place—customer satisfaction. The following statistics will give you insight into the marketer and consumer relationship.

• Loyal customers are 9 times as likely to try a new offering, 5 times as likely to repurchase, 5 times as likely to forgive, and 4 times as likely to refer someone (Temkin Group).
• Churn can increase by up to 15% if companies fail to respond to customers via social media (Gartner).
• Seventy-three percent of consumers say friendly customer service representatives can make them fall in love with a brand (RightNow).
• By the year 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key differentiator (Walker).
• Eighty-seven percent of customers say brands need to put more effort into providing a consistent customer experience (Kampyle).

More Statistics

Let’s take a look at other statistics that’ll better help you understand the state of digital marketing.

Campaign Monitor

SEO statistics

While some marketers dismiss SEO, it’s actually a critical element of digital marketing. Organic traffic is the most valuable traffic on the internet. These are the SEO stats you need to know.

• Organic search is responsible for 51% of all website traffic. As for the rest, 10% comes from paid search, 5% from social media channels, and 34% from other sources. (BrightEdge)
• Google dominates the search engines, accounting for 92.42% of all global desktop search traffic. It’s followed by Bing 2.61%, Yahoo 1.9%, and Baidu 1.03%. (StatCounter)
• The first result of any search gets about 20.5% of the total clicks on the page. (Ignite Visibility)
• Brands and agencies in the United States shelled out $72.02 billion for SEO services in 2018. (Borrell Associates)

Digital strategy and technology adoption stats

The industry is in a phase where traditional marketing and digital marketing strategies co-exist. How well are marketers harnessing technological advancements and integrating digital into their marketing strategy?

• Thirty-six percent of marketers are actively trying to integrate their digital and traditional marketing activities. Twenty-five percent say they have limited integration, while 13% say the approach to digital is ad hoc. A mere 15% say they’re fully integrated. (Smart Insights)
• CRM, marketing automation, and website visitor intelligence are the top three used marketing-technology tools for companies that are advanced in account-based marketing (ABM) strategies. (Terminus)
• Marketers who plan digital marketing campaigns when executing their strategy are 356% more likely to succeed. (CoSchedule)
• Eighty-three percent of B2B purchasers prefer communicating via email, as opposed to 17% who prefer an online chat platform. (Content Marketing Institute)

General digital marketing statistics

• Forty-nine percent of marketers use A/B testing to research and improve customer journey success rates. (Smart Insights)

Source: Campaign Monitor

• Email marketing and SEO have been cited by most marketers as the two top sources of e-commerce traffic. (Marketing Sherpa)
• By the end of 2019, mobile will account for about 72% of all digital ad spend in the US. (eMarketer)
• Video will be responsible for 80% of all web traffic by 2021. (CISCO)
• Fifty-nine percent of B2B marketers cite email as the most effective marketing channel when it comes to generating revenue (Emma).

Wrap up

Digital marketing is rising as the most effective way to reach customers and to influence customer satisfaction.

To make sure you’re getting the most out of your digital marketing strategy, take the time to learn the trends and review the crucial digital marketing stats in this post.

Looking to ride the wave of success in the digital marketing era? Did these digital marketing statistics inspire you?

Then check out our guide on how to use email marketing in your next digital marketing campaign.