Digital Marketing Statistics: 2021 Trends, Market Share a...

Posted: July 20, 2021 | Last updated: April 7, 2024

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Digital marketing is an ever-dynamic marketing component. It doesn’t wait for anyone. The various trends, strategies, and technologies are never stagnant. Hence, it’s critical for businesses and marketers to stay updated of novel developments and significant 2021 digital marketing statistics.

Digital marketing is evolving every year, and the number of marketers and brands using this type of marketing is rapidly increasing. Did you know any digital marketing facts 2021? If not, we’ve curated everything for you.

Whether you’re focusing on social media marketing, lead generation, or search engine optimization, these 2021 digital marketing statistics and facts would help you succeed in your marketing and business endeavors.

Digital Advertising Cost and Spending Statistics

Digital Marketing Statistics: 2021 Trends, Market Share and Data — A good business invests in advertising. Likewise, you’re only wasting your online marketing efforts.

Like other advertising efforts, digital marketing and advertising require brands to invest money. Take a look at how much digital advertising has grown in terms of spending.

According to the digital marketing growth statistics 2020, worldwide digital ad spending increased to 2.4%. It’s expected to further increase to 17% this year.
In 2021, global digital advertising spending would reach $389 billion.
Global ad spending is projected to increase to $441 billion in 2022, $485 billion in 2023, and $526 billion in 2024.
For paid search, the average cost per action (CPA) is $49.
Meanwhile, the average CPA for display ads is $75.
In 2020, United States spending on social media ads reached $43 billion. It increased to 20% from 2019.
46% of B2B marketers increased their marketing budget in 2020.
In the same year, the money spent on Facebook ads in the US exceeded $31 billion. This figure represents a 5% increase from 2019.
Moreover, the money spent on mobile display ads amounted to $61 billion in 2020.
55% of businesses plan to increase their CRO budgets.
Meanwhile, 48% of marketers plan to increase their influencer marketing budget this year and in the coming years.
Content marketing generates 3x as many leads as traditional marketing, and it costs 62% less.

Marketing Strategy Challenges Statistics

As much as you want to see the figures on growth and success, it’s also crucial to learn various marketing strategy challenges. That way, you could gauge your marketing strategies properly and conquer different challenges.

The percentage of marketers who believe that their strategies are effective is only 61%.
Meanwhile, 58% of marketers find audience segmentation or targeting challenging.
About 40% of marketing professionals say that the top marketing challenge is proving the ROI of their marketing activities.
Moreover, the percentage of marketers who find optimizing the next-best-action marketing decisions is 57%.
Only a meager 22% of businesses find their conversion rates satisfying.
80% of marketers find their efforts in generating leads slightly effective.
On the other hand, 42% of B2B marketers find their lack of quality data the greatest barrier to generating leads.
Concerning quality data, 23.7% of content marketers say that their biggest challenges are design and visual content.
Moreover, 43% of marketing professionals claim that the consistent production of visual content is most challenging for them.
About 54% of marketing leaders say that possessing larger volumes of projects causes delays.
Concerning the statistics above, the percentage of marketers lacking a consistent marketing strategy or an integrated content strategy is a whopping 70%.
Users of automation tools say that time is their greatest barrier, while marketers who don’t automate say that theirs is budget.
More than 60% of blog content is branded substandard or irrelevant by audiences.
Lastly, 45% of businesses don’t own a well-defined digital marketing strategy.

Digital Marketing Growth and Usage Statistics

What percent of marketing is digital? And how fast is digital marketing growing? Below are some vital 2021 digital marketing statistics to help you analyze and measure digital marketing growth and consumption.

Content Marketing

In content marketing, video is the primary medium for brands. It overtook blogs and infographics.
According to a report on the 2021 digital marketing statistics in India, digital advertising grew by 15.3% and has overtaken print ads.
About 64% of marketers invest in search engine optimization (SEO), while 98% of sales representatives claim to have reached their quotas through social media selling.
Speaking about selling, consumers are 40% more likely to buy from businesses that create content that addresses their needs and preferences.
As for blog posts, 57% of outsourced business blogs are accounted for by guest contributor posts.
80% of people watch a video to get information, and 20% read a text.

Digital Media Consumption and Engagements

In general, users spend an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes on their social media accounts.
Adults in the US spent 7 hours and 50 minutes consuming digital media each day in 2020.
Meanwhile, the percentage of millennials who engage with a brand on social media at least once a month is 30%.
Moreover, 57% of users follow a brand’s account to learn about their new products and services, while 47% follow to get updates on company news.
About 45% of shoppers all over the globe purchase something online and pick up the items in-store.
Because of the growing number of online users and buyers, about 70% of marketers are investing more in digital marketing.
Moreover, 86% of small businesses will employ visuals in their marketing strategy this 2021.
On average, consumers see 5,000 advertisements per day, and 90% of users’ online interactions start with search engines.
Digital marketing makes up 46% of the total ads spent in 2021.
You might ask, “what will marketing look like in 2025?” The artificial intelligence (AI) trend shapes the answer to this. According to Forbes, 75% of businesses using AI and machine learning successfully enhance customer satisfaction by 10%. Check this Vyrill review to start incorporating AI into your marketing efforts.

Importance of Digital Marketing

At this point, you may still wonder how important digital marketing is in 2021. Is it necessary for businesses to dive into digital marketing? Or could they merely stick to traditional marketing? Let these 2021 digital marketing statistics answer your queries:

A whopping 96% of successful marketers claim that content marketing helps establish their credibility and foster audience trust.
Meanwhile, 87% of marketers say that content marketing helped them reach their goals in brand awareness in 2020.
Moreover, 75% of B2B marketers believe that their organization became successful with content marketing.
As opposed to traditional advertisements, 70% of users prefer to learn about products through digital advertising.
90% of marketers say that their efforts in social marketing increased their business exposure, while 75% say it escalated their website traffic.

Social Media Marketing Statistics

In digital marketing, marketers use various tools and strategies to advertise on multiple social media platforms effectively. Want to know the different 2021 digital marketing statistics regarding tools, strategies, and platforms? Check out the facts and figures below:

Tools and Strategies

87% of businesses utilize video as a primary marketing tool, especially in social media engagements.
However, for website traffic, 53% of marketers prioritize blog posts over video content.
As for social media marketing, 71% of users who have experienced excellent customer service with a brand on social media are more likely to recommend it to others.
Moreover, 93% of brands say they receive a new customer through the videos posted on their social media channels.
As part of the cross-promotion strategy, 80% of marketers and business professionals place a clickable social icon in their email signatures.

Platforms

In 2020, the 4th most-used social media platform was YouTube. Twitter comes 3rd, Instagram comes 2nd, and Facebook comes 1st.
With these facts, four million small businesses pay for Facebook advertising and primarily use the platform for content distribution.
In a 2020 survey, 12.8% of branded video posts on Facebook were live videos.
On the other hand, only 18% of marketers utilize Facebook Groups.
The platform with the 2nd-highest ROI among marketers is Instagram.
There are over 25 million business profiles on the platform, and single videos comprise 25% of Instagram ads.
As for Twitter, posts or tweets with attached photos get 35% more retweets than those without images.
LinkedIn is the most effective platform at 82% concerning content delivery and audience security engagement. Twitter comes second at 66%.
As for Google, the first five organic results on the search engine’s first page account for 67% of all search clicks.
Meanwhile, the percentage of Google searchers who would click on the second page is only 0.78%. That’s less than 1%!
After Google, YouTube is the second most popular site worldwide, with over one billion hours of videos watched per day. The video-sharing platform has become another “search engine” because users visit the site to search for something.

Mobile Marketing Statistics

Today, we can’t deny the role of mobile devices in digital marketing. A large percentage of the world population owns mobile devices. And for most people, going online using their phones is a hassle-free experience than opening their personal computers. Hence, most marketers and businesses are quickly investing in mobile marketing.

Mobile Marketing and E-commerce

In general, 80% of consumers use their phones during their in-store shopping.
Mobile devices are used by 51% of consumers to find new brands and products on the market.
40% of online purchases are made through mobile devices, and you can actively prompt these shoppers to rate and share your products through various tools. Check out this VOCO review to get started.
Moreover, 61% of users claimed they immediately moved to another site when they couldn’t find what they were looking for on a particular mobile website.
Meanwhile, 88% of consumers say they didn’t return to a particular website when they experienced something awful, and 40% visit a competitor’s website due to access problems.
Because of the positive impact of mobile marketing on e-commerce, 40% of micro-businesses now possess a mobile application.
Regarding content and design, 57% of consumers say they don’t recommend businesses whose mobile sites are poorly designed.
On the other hand, 89% of users recommend a brand after a positive mobile experience, and 91% claim to have purchased something after seeing a relevant ad.
B2B time can be sped up by 20% through mobile marketing.
80% of shoppers in the US show interest in personalized coupons, discounts, and promotion offers.
A mobile offer is 10x more likely to be used or grabbed than the same offer in print.

Mobile Marketing and Social Media

In general, 71% of marketing professionals say that the core of their business is mobile marketing.
Mobile-optimized templates are utilized by 66% of marketers, while 51% of marketers’ budgets are allotted to mobile and social media ads.
65% of paid-search ads are done through a mobile device.
By 2022, mobile advertising is expected to surpass $240 billion, and mobile-banner advertising is projected to reach $152.6 billion by 2025.
It is predicted that by 2025, mobile traffic will increase by 25%.
91% of social media content is accessed by users using their mobile devices.
In LinkedIn, mobile phones are responsible for 60% of the platform’s traffic.
As for Twitter, users spend 85% of their time on the platform through their mobile devices.
A good 87% of Facebook’s revenue comes from mobile.
Meanwhile, 70% of the total YouTube watch time is done on mobile phones.
The cause of the 7% reduction in online conversions is a one-second delay in page response.
Moreover, 53% of users ditch a mobile page if it takes more than three seconds to load.
The mobile consumption of millennials has now surpassed their live TV consumption.
The early marketer gets the worm because more than 69% of smartphone users immediately reach their phones upon waking up.

Use These Statistics to Your Business’ Advantage

Effective online tactics used in a digital marketing strategy — Digital marketing has many components. If you want to leverage your business through this type of marketing, refer to these most effective online tactics. | **Source**: Torque Magazine

Digital marketing has evolved in many different ways, and it’s continually innovating to connect with audiences and make businesses successful. Therefore, getting ahold of various digital marketing facts for 2021 could provide the significant insights needed to succeed in your marketing endeavors. Make the statistics your starting point to a thorough and deep understanding of the methods, and from there, construct your own powerful digital marketing strategies.

Want to grow your brand on social media? Check these social media marketing statistics for 2021.

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