There is no shortage of statistics from during the pandemic, showing drastic drops and soaring growth rates as our behaviors shifted so rapidly. But we're now halfway through 2021, well into the (dare we say it) new normal. It's time now to look at which changes have stuck and what we can do about them as marketers.
That's why we've gathered these post-pandemic marketing statistics for 2021 to help you come to a safe landing after a turbulent 2020. In this post, we'll provide
- 12 post-pandemic marketing statistics to know for 2021.
- Explanations for what they mean to marketers and advertisers
- 39 specific actions you can take to align with these statistics and keep up with competitors.
With a better feel for how consumers and advertisers have settled out after the pandemic, you can make the best decisions on meeting your audience's expectations.
Post-pandemic marketing statistics for 2021
These marketing statistics span across search, social, video, and programmatic ads.
1. The average daily time spent with digital media is now almost 8 hours
This is a seven-minute increase from 2020. This is also in contrast to traditional advertising (TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines), which is 5.5 hours and decreasing.
<span><span><span>What this means</span></span></span>
An online existence is not enough. If you want to stay in the minds of potential customers, you need a consistent, multi-channel online presence.
What to do
- Set up a professionally designed, lead-generating website with contact forms and use SEO to drive relevant traffic to it.
- Post regularly to your business blog to increase organic visibility.
- Set up complete, accurate, and consistent online listings—starting with Google My Business.
- Invest in paid advertising, like search ads, social ads, or display ads.
- Consider guest posting to reach a wider audience.
TalkSpace has done its online presence homework, appearing at the top of both paid and organic results.
2. Paid search and social were the only two channels to maintain positive growth rates during the pandemic
What this means
These two channels are clearly the ones advertisers are most confident in—and therefore the most competitive. It’s time to check in and make sure you’re making the most out of the tools available to you!
What you can do
- Use LinkedIn Website Demographics to create super specific audiences for your B2B ads.
- Learn how to run successful Facebook conversion campaigns in iOS 14.
- Try out new Google Ads features like the Insights page or auto-applied recommendations to see if they’re a good fit for your business.
The Google Ads Insights page
3. Digital ad fraud will cause a $15.9 billion loss for US advertisers in 2021
This is a 15.09% increase from 2020 and a four-fold increase from 2011.
What this means
Hackers have become more advanced than ever, using machine learning for fraudulent activities. Advertisers lose money from nonhuman traffic and publishers' ad inventory becomes less valuable.
How to prevent it
- Check if there has been a click fraud in your Google Display Network campaigns and eliminate it.
- Eliminate invalid clicks by adjusting your ad targeting.
- Use ad fraud prevention tools like Adjust, AdPushup, or FraudScore to avoid marketing losses.
4. In 2021, digital ad spend worldwide will reach $389B, which is 14.6% more than 2020
While 2020 digital ad spend grew by only 2.4% in 2020, that increase jumps to 17% in 2021.
What this means
As you invest more money into digital advertising to keep up with competitors, it’s important to make sure you’re making those extra dollars count.
<span><span><span>What to do</span></span></span>
- Make sure you’re using ad scheduling the right way to avoid wasted spend and reach your audience at the most opportune times.
- Avoid budget-wasting Facebook ad mistakes, like over-segmenting or optimizing for the wrong objective.
- Run some low-budget Facebook ad A/B tests to make sure you’re serving the best possible ad to your audience.
- Use our free Google Ads Performance Grader to identify optimization opportunities and plug leaks in your spending.
5. US ecommerce sales grew by 20% in 2020
What this means
Something you already know: that pandemic restrictions and global lockdowns accelerated the growth of ecommerce shopping. But that does warrant an audit of your ecommerce marketing to make sure you're staying competitive.
What to do
- Nail down the proper bidding strategy for PPC ecommerce ads on Google, Amazon, and Bing.
- Learn how to optimize your Google Shopping feed to drive ROI on your ecommerce campaigns.
- Customize your Facebook Dynamic Product Ads for maximum performance (or learn how to get started with social selling on Facebook and Instagram.)
6. By 2024, China is predicted to have the highest increase in ecommerce sales compared to Europe, the US, and the rest of the world
Why does this matter?
Statista analysts say that many Chinese ecommerce platforms now let advertisers pay for personalized search results within their online stores' own search engines, and that “This advertising method will become even more relevant on mobile devices and is already creating whole new revenue streams for eCommerce platforms.”
What to do
Not a whole lot. China’s rapid ecommerce growth is not just the result of personalized search results. They have some of the highest percentages in terms of internet usage, online shopping, mobile penetration, efficient logistics ecosystems, and a lack of physical retail stores in lower-tier cities. So this is more of a trend to be aware of. But you can focus on creating a mobile-friendly ecommerce site.
7. One of the top drivers of increased video usage in 2020 was to find information about a brand, product, or service
What this means
The buyer journey continues to become more research-heavy and independent, and video is playing a growing role for both B2C and B2B marketing.
What to do
- Follow simple YouTube SEO tips, like using keywords in your title and description and adding hashtags, to rank higher in search results.
- Learn the right formats, segmentation strategies, advanced targeting techniques to make your YouTube ads more profitable.
- Leverage these four incredibly useful YouTube Data Studio reports you won’t find in Google analytics.
Not only is video an effective media type, but YouTube Studio reports can provide insights you won't get in Google Analytics.
8. US programmatic display ad spend will rebound to 24% growth in 2021
What this means
After a meager 10% growth in 2020. programmatic advertising is back in the game.
What to do
- Try programmatic video advertising, which is one of the main trends for programmatic advertising in 2021. The main driver of this is 5G connection speed that supports data-intensive video ads, such as 360° panoramas and virtual reality (VR) ads.
- Try private marketplace deals. Some monetization companies like Setupad allow advertisers to get access to premium publisher ad inventory through PMP deals in a programmatic way.
- Invest in automated programmatic campaigns that are more dynamic, with creative and copy variations decided by data.
9. More than 20% of marketers say that the success of their marketing channels in 2020 was measured by the number of leads generated
What this means
This feels a little bit obvious, since generating quality leads is the first step in increasing other metrics in the chart like sales, ROAS, and conversion rates. But more important to note is that the inquiry forms used for lead generation collect first-party data, which is crucial to have in a privacy-first world.
What to do
- Prioritize content creation. Getting a high volume of free leads to your site requires showing up on the first page of Google for searches your audience is performing. And you won’t make it to the first page without quality, optimized content.
- Use live chatbots to capture leads on your website during off-hours.
- Learn how to create Facebook lead ads that convert.
- Try out any of these 24 lead magnets to keep your funnel well-fed.
Downloadable checklists make great lead magnets.
10. 60% of marketers don't know about Core Web Vitals
What this means
Not enough website owners are invested enough in SEO! This is a highly effective and low-cost marketing strategy for your business that only gets better over the years. And the latest page experience update is a big one.
What to do
- Learn about the page experience update and lazy loading, for starters.
- Follow these five steps to improve your Core Web Vitals.
- Get familiar with the SEO basics and learn about local SEO.
11. Mobile accounts for over two-thirds of total US paid search ad clicks across Google and Bing
What this means
You need to be optimizing your ad copy and landing pages for mobile and invest in new ways to get in front of customers on mobile-specific platforms.
What to do
- Make small but important tweaks to create device-specific ad copy. For example, instead of “Shop now,” use “Shop on your phone.”
- Experiment with call-only ads or message extensions.
- Try out new Google Maps ads that rolled out in the 2021 Google Marketing LiveStream.
- Ensure that your banners can be displayed within best performing ad formats like sticky ads and interstitials.
12. TikTok ad spend is expected to grow 44% in 2021, which is 5% more than Facebook
What this means
Advertisers are learning that TikTok is not just for zillennials and can be a lucrative channel for their audiences.
What to do
- Understand the more specific reasons to advertise on TikTok, like versatile ad formats, ease of campaign creation, and brand exposure.
- Follow these five steps to set up a TikTok ad campaign.
- Learn how to create custom reports to ease your weekly reporting.
Post-pandemic digital marketing statistics [recap]
Let's finish off with a recap of the marketing statistics covered in this post:
- The average daily time spent with digital media is now almost 8 hours.
- Paid search and social were the only two channels to maintain positive growth rates during the pandemic.
- Digital ad fraud will cause a $15.9 billion loss for US advertisers in 2021.
- In 2021, digital ad spend worldwide will reach $389B, which is 14.6% more than 2020.
- US ecommerce sales grew by 20% in 2020.
- By 2024 China is predicted to have the highest increase in ecommerce sales compared to Europe, the US, and the rest of the world.
- One of the top drivers of increased video usage in 2020 was to find information about a brand, product, or service.
- US programmatic display ad spend will rebound to 24% growth in 2021.
- More than 20% of marketers say that the success of their marketing channels in 2020 was measured by the number of leads generated.
- 60% of marketers don't know about Core Web Vitals.
- Mobile accounts for over two-thirds of total US paid search ad clicks across Google and Bing.
- TikTok ad spend is expected to grow 44% in 2021, which is 5% more than Facebook.
About the author
Agnese Repule is a passionate Content Marketing Specialist at Setupad, a monetization platform for publishers. She typically covers topics on programmatic advertising, monetization, SEO, and content marketing. Another passion of hers is art—painting in particular. You can follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.
