Digital Marketing Statistics for Businesses (2024) – Shopify

Whether you are a marketer or entrepreneur, it’s a good practice to keep an eye on digital marketing statistics across various marketing channels. This allows you to tap into trends, forecast growth, and refine your business’s marketing tactics for maximum impact. From search engine optimization to email marketing statistics, the right data can give you the clarity you need to stay competitive in the marketing world.

Here are some of the most relevant statistics across marketing channels—including social media, SEO, PPC, and more. Use these statistics as North Stars as you monitor relevant KPIs and optimize your digital marketing efforts.

How can digital marketing statistics help me grow my business?

Digital marketing statistics act as signposts for your business. They can give you benchmarks to strive for and insights to inform not just your marketing decisions but your product and sales strategies as well.

These statistics change over time. Staying on top of them enables you to align with digital marketing industry standards. They also help you create data-informed forecasts to guide your marketing strategy.

For example, if you know your industry’s average email open rate, you can use it to set realistic benchmarks for your email campaigns. Or, if you know TikTok ad revenue is expected to grow this year, you can invest more advertising dollars into that channel.

Ultimately, leveraging digital marketing statistics allows you to develop more effective, realistic digital marketing strategies that result in long-term business growth.

Digital marketing statistics across different channels

Here are important digital marketing statistics, broken down by category:

Email marketing

Email marketing is often one of the highest-ROI digital channels, because it’s low cost (you pay only for the email software) and reaches people who have already opted into hearing from your brand. Here are some stats to keep in mind as you delve into your own email marketing strategy:

• Thursday has the highest open-to-conversion rate of any weekday, according to a Moosend study.

• Email marketing is expected to grow in revenue by $5.57 billion from 2024 to 2027, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13%, according to Statista.

• In a ZeroBounce survey, 88% of people said they use email every day, and 39% check their inboxes three to five times a day.

Social media marketing

Social media marketing is a powerful tool for reaching a global audience. There are billions of users across social platforms. With modern, recommendation-based social media algorithms, these internet users are constantly discovering new accounts to follow and shop on. Social media marketers can leverage Instagram and TikTok’s high engagement rates, for example, to drive conversions and boost brand awareness.

Here are some stats to highlight social media’s momentum:

• As of July 2024, 5.17 billion, or 64% of the world’s population, are social media users, according to Statista.

• In a Facebook survey, 58% of people say they have browsed a brand’s website to get more information after seeing a product or service in a Meta story.

• TikTok ad revenue is expected to double from $8 billion in 2024 to nearly $16 billion by 2026, according to Statista.

SEO

Search engine optimization is foundational to any digital marketing strategy because, when done well, it drives organic web traffic to businesses. The SEO market is experiencing rapid change with the influence of AI, and brands continue to recognize its importance. Here’s what the stats have to say:

• More than half—53%—of all trackable website traffic is sourced from organic search, according to a BrightEdge Research report.

• The organic click-through rate for positions eight through 10 is virtually the same, according to a Backlinko study. Moving up a few spots on the bottom of the first page may not result in more organic search traffic.

Mobile marketing

Today, customers expect websites to perform just as well (if not better) on their mobile devices than on desktops. Ecommerce companies can also capitalize on customers’ reliance on their phones by marketing through SMS. Here are stats to back that up:

• In an Attentive survey, 73% of marketers say SMS drives incremental revenue for their business.

• Smartphones account for approximately 77% of retail site traffic globally and generate two-thirds of online shopping orders, according to Statista.

Video marketing

Video content helps audiences retain more information and engage more deeply with brands than other mediums, like blogs. Marketers can leverage video marketing strategies and YouTube SEO to boost brand visibility.

• In a Wyzowl survey, 78% of marketers see YouTube as an effective channel for video marketing.

• In a Wyzowl survey of video marketers, 39% say they’ve created video testimonials, making this the most popular use case for video marketing in 2024.

• In a Wistia survey, 78% of businesses say they are eager to make more videos in 2024.

Search engine marketing

Search engine marketing (SEM), or paid search, continues to be effective for generating conversions. As search ad spend increases, businesses that leverage digital advertising effectively can see substantial growth.

• The average cost per lead in Google Ads in 2023 was $53.52, according to a WordStream study.

• The average conversion rate on Google Ads is 3.75% for search ads and 0.77% for display ads, WordStream reports.

• Google accounts for 87% of the search market in the United States across all devices, according to Statista.

Content marketing

AI usage has increased content output, resulting in an increased emphasis on content quality. Content marketers continue to invest in various content formats, including videos, articles, and more.

• The three most popular content formats in 2024 are short-form articles (47%), videos (45%), and in-person events (48%), Forbes Advisor reports.

• In a Semrush survey, 79% of businesses saw improved content quality when using AI tools.

• In a Content Marketing Institute survey of B2C marketers, 70% say content marketing is important to their organization, but only 37% have a documented content marketing strategy.

Influencer marketing

Video-first social platforms like TikTok have helped turn influencer marketing into a multibillion-dollar industry. With increasing trust in influencer-generated content, marketers are reaping the rewards of higher engagement and improved brand perception across social media platforms.

• The global influencer market was expected to be worth $24 billion in 2024, per Statista.

• The percentage of Gen Z and millennials who trust social media influencers grew from 51% in 2019 to 61% in 2023, according to a Morning Consult report.

• In an Influencer Marketing Hub survey, 69% of brands that leverage influencer marketing use TikTok, ahead of Instagram (47%), YouTube (33%), and Facebook (28%).

• In 2023, micro-influencers with 1,000 to 10,000 followers had the highest engagement rate (2.19%), compared to the average rate of 1.8%, according to Statista.