Digital marketing can sometimes seem like a vague and ever-changing set of practices that may or may not help your business’s bottom line. Maybe last year you jumped around from strategy to strategy and it was difficult to tell if they made a difference or if you implemented the tactic correctly. If you’ve ever felt directionless and ungrounded in your business’s digital marketing efforts, it’s good to return to hard data and statistics so you can know what really works, what strategies are growing, and make informed, confident decisions that make digital marketing work for you.

In 2023, we anticipate exciting growth for digital marketing and its effectiveness. We’ve put together the most motivating and valuable predictive statistics to build your business’s digital marketing efforts around this year.

1. Social Media

It’s a myth that social media marketing adds a small contribution to sales and customer retention. Social media marketing is growing and keeps its status as a major player for digital marketers to invest in.  

Here are some statistics to keep in mind:

• TikTok was the fastest growing social media platform in 2022, and it’s not slowing down in 2023. In 2022, 40% of businesses incorporated TikTok into their digital marketing strategy and that percentage is expected to grow this year.
• 49% of businesses reported growth in revenue after adding video marketing to their strategies and it's the most popular form of content marketing right now.
• At least 91% of businesses are on social media, meaning, if yours isn’t, it's time to make those profiles to stay competitive and relevant.
• Almost half of social media users trust brand recommendations from influencers.
• 25% of TikTok users have researched a product or service after having seen a TikTok about it.
• Snapchat users are 60% more likely to make an impulse buy and they are opening the app at least 30 times a day.
• LinkedIn is the most trusted social media platform and has the most powerful audience targeting for ads.
• Facebook video ads are a wide-open marketing space. Under 5% of businesses take advantage of them.
• Typically, businesses set aside about 14% of their marketing budgets for social media marketing.

These are only a few statistics showing the power of social media. A few trends that are important to note from these statistics:

• Video marketing is king.
• Gen Z and Millennials spend more because of social media.
• The social media market share is near $72 billion and growing.

Strategizing how to stand out in the social media space is a worthwhile venture to capitalize on all the opportunities it has to offer this year! If you need inspiration for your business’s social media marketing, check out RevLocal’s resources. RevLocal also handles social media marketing for small businesses and multi-location brands.

2. Paid Advertising

Paid advertising can offer significant ROIs. With this strategy, conducting A/B tests frequently is even more important to harvest all the potential that paid ads have to offer.

• Overall, PPC marketing returns $2 for every $1 spent. That’s a 200% ROI.
• PPC traffic is twice the amount of traffic brought in by SEO strategies.
• Display ads result in a 155% increase in the likelihood of a consumer continuing their search for a product.
• Display ads increase conversion potential by 59%
• Retargeting ads are 70% more likely to generate a purchase than other ads.
• Brand awareness can increase by 80% by using digital ads.
• On average, 15% of a business’s traffic comes from paid search ads.
• $3.53 is the average cost per click across all industries.
• 82% is the average conversion rate via PPC for all industries.

While paid advertising can offer big growth for your business, it’s important to do it well and right to avoid potential pitfalls:

• Less than 20% of digital marketers do A/B testing to improve conversion rates and ROI from their paid ad campaigns.
• Google ads has an average click through rate of only 18%.
• Most online consumers ignore digital ads, making it imperative that ad best practices are followed to create a compelling piece.

Having a trusted digital marketing partner is key to succeeding with paid ads. RevLocal creates personalized paid advertising strategies for small businesses and multi-location brands. Learn more here!

3. Website

Without a strong and optimized website for your business, all of your digital marketing efforts will be significantly less effective. Your business’s website is the new storefront for your brand. It takes less than one second for an online user to form an opinion about your business’s website, and thus, your business. Use these statistics to help create a more compelling website:

• Website design is directly linked to a business’s credibility in consumers’ minds. Three-quarters of consumers will deem your business as reputable or not based on design alone.
• Excellent user experiences result in a 400% increase in conversions.
• Close to 40% of online users won’t interact or engage with your business’s website if the layout is unattractive or difficult to navigate.
• Only 72% of small businesses have a website.
• 40% of online users will bounce from a website if it takes too long to load. Consumers expect a loading speed no longer than 2 seconds.
• A poor website experience can send 90% of website traffic to a competitor.
• Superior user experience can result in reaping $100 for every $1 spent.
• Only 43% of small businesses with websites plan on improving their site this year.
• Poor website experiences can lead to negative word of mouth marketing. 44% of online users will tell others about their bad experience with a poorly set up website.

Your business’s website is where the rubber meets the road and where valuable conversions are taking place. Investing in not only your website but also appropriate landing pages for ads, emails, and social media posts should be your first order of business this year for your digital marketing plans.

RevLocal builds optimized and compelling websites and microsites for almost every industry! Learn more about what sets our website’s apart here. 

Final Thoughts

Social media, paid advertising, and websites are only a few of the digital marketing strategies to pay attention to this year. Email marketing, organic SEO, review marketing, marketing analytics are all necessary components to a powerful and healthy digital marketing strategy.

To learn more about what it’s like to have RevLocal handle your business’s digital marketing needs, contact us for a free consultation or browse our resources!