PPC, or pay-per-click advertising, is one of the oldest digital marketing trends to date. 66% of buyer-intent keywords are paid clicks. In industries across the board, the average CPC is $2.32. At least 64.4% of users click on Google Ads when shopping for a product online and with the use of search engines.

A massive 70% of users dislike mobile ads, resulting in a 90% increase in mobile ad blocking each year. 60% of all shoppers click on mobile ads at least weekly, even if they claim to not like them in their feeds. Additionally, two-thirds of consumers have the ability to recall specific products or brands that they have viewed online in the past week.

In an ever-changing tech landscape, it is important to keep ad blockers in mind when crafting a new digital marketing strategy. Ad blockers are used twice as much on desktops and laptops than they are on mobile smartphones. 77% of consumers prefer to ad-filter rather than completely blocking all advertisements on a website. However, 81% of consumers have left a website due to an invasive pop-up. Since 2014, ad blocking in the US has drastically increased from 15% to more than 30%.

Pop-up advertising just isn’t what it used to be and has become outdated and despised by many. 30% of marketers find outbound marketing tactics including pop-up ads overrated. A staggering 72% of all consumers admit to having a lower opinion of a brand if they encounter a pop-up while online. Four out of 5 online users have left a website due to a pop-up ad which they deem annoying or invasive.

Strategic landing pages are used by 68% of B2B businesses to acquire leads, which is why 53% of content marketers choose to use interactive content in their lead generation efforts. 61% of marketers claim that generating traffic and leads is their number one challenge, as 74% of companies that failed to meet revenue goals were unaware of their KPIs. Currently, only 18% of marketers believe that outbound practices provide the highest quality of leads.

Marketing automation solutions help companies see a 10% or more bump in both leads and revenue in just 6 to 9 months’ time. Additionally, 79% of top-performing companies have used marketing automation solutions and software for at least three or more years. As marketing automation solutions become even more effective, overall spending on marketing automation is projected to reach more than $25 billion each year by 2023.

Launching a Facebook page for businesses and brands is a must to maximize online reach and exposure. Those with Facebook pages and marketing strategies receive 22.6% more likes than companies without. 74% of all Facebook users say they use the platform for professional purposes, making it one of the best networks to utilize when promoting a new business or brand.

When creating a Facebook Ads marketing strategy, keep the following statistics in mind for optimal results:

• Create blog posts that are longer than 1,500 words for maximum readability and shareability.
• Use images. Images on Facebook account for 75-90% of effectiveness with Facebook Ads campaigns.
• Share updates and posts on weekdays from 1 to 3 p.m. for the most exposure possible.
• When creating an ad title, use four words, as it is the most effective length. Additionally, use only 15 words for your link’s description before launching your Facebook campaign.

88% of all businesses that currently have more than 100 employees take advantage of Twitter for marketing purposes. Blogs with more than 1,500 words that are shared on Twitter (via link extensions) receive 68.1% more Tweets and engagement. The number of Twitter users located internationally is four times greater than users in the United States. When sharing on Twitter, be sure to use video media, as it is six times more likely to be retweeted than even sharing photos, graphics, or GIF animations.

Instagram is not going anywhere, as its member count is growing at approximately 5% each quarter. Instagram posts that use faces receive 38% more likes than those that skip on sharing pictures or videos of individuals. Currently, 60% of all users on Instagram discover new products via the app itself. 75% of users are likely to take action after viewing a brand’s post, driving them to visit a website or learn more about a business. When using Instagram for a business or brand, the best times to post include weekdays at 5 p.m. and 2 a.m. Use Instagram stories to maximize your reach among followers and Instagram users. Instagram stories have become so popular they have resulted in a 220% increase in annual ad spending on the platform for businesses and independent entrepreneurs alike.

While using LinkedIn is typically reserved for professionals connecting with others, it is still a great way to generate leads. 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn vs. 13% on Twitter and 7% on Facebook. LinkedIn has the ability to generate up to three times the conversions as Twitter and Facebook, making it an optimal choice for B2B marketers. 90% of all B2B marketers were able to reduce their CPL (cost per lead) using LinkedIn’s lead generation forms. Google is extremely fond of LinkedIn, which is why it currently has a 100 domain rating. Any time an article or piece of content is posted to a LinkedIn page, it will become indexed. From 2014 to 2016 alone, LinkedIn’s content consumption has increased by 21%. Using LinkedIn is a great way to spread the word of a business or brand in less time, especially for B2B marketers who have yet to establish their presence online. Currently, LinkedIn is the top channel for B2B marketers (94%) who are interested in distributing and sharing content.

Pinterest users spend 50% more time on the platform than other social media sites. Additionally, they also spend 20% more time than users referred from non-social channels, including top search engines. 80% of millennials admit that Pinterest helps them determine what they should buy and which brands they should support. In total, 47% of women along with 17% of men online currently have a Pinterest account.

Using video is powerful, as product videos have the ability to increase purchase by up to 144%. Almost 50% of all users online browse for videos of services or products before visiting a store online or in person. Four in five consumers believe that demonstration videos are useful.

Social media is great for sharing video content. 45% of users on social media consume more than 1 hour of YouTube or Facebook videos each week. 64% of all consumers say watching demonstration videos or marketing videos on Facebook has influenced their decision to complete a purchase online in the last month alone. Currently, 41% of all marketers intend to add Facebook video to their tier content strategies in the next year.

At least two-thirds of all users on YouTube watch YouTube videos on a second screen such as a TV while at home. YouTube is massive, with more than a billion users, or one-third of all of the individuals who currently have access to the Internet. In the past year alone, the time spent watching videos on YouTube and on TV has more than doubled. 32% of consumers online engage with branded media and video content on YouTube, leading 65% of senior executives to navigate to stores after viewing YouTube videos pertaining to products or services they are interested in.

Videos work. 55% of online users consume video content thoroughly, and 43% of users who shop online prefer to see more video content from brands and marketers. Simply using a video thumbnail within search engines can double the amount of traffic you receive from search engines. Altogether, videos drive a 157% increase in organic traffic for SERPS. By the year 2021, video media will represent 82% of all online traffic.

Email marketing is still one of the most effective tools for reaching prospective customers online. The average open rate for emails in all markets and industries is currently 18.16%, with a bounce rate of 9.60% across all industries. Using segmented email campaigns can result in a 14.37% higher open rate than non-segmented campaigns. Emails that are sent on Tuesdays between 10 and 11 a.m. have the highest open rates among all email campaigns.

86% of professionals prefer email when communicating for business purposes, which is ideal for B2B marketers. 83% of all companies currently use basic segmentation when sending their emails and 49% of all businesses use at least some form of email automation in their digital marketing strategy. Unfortunately, 42% of marketers do not currently send targeted email messages, which can quickly result in a loss of subscribers. Be careful not to appear as spam, as 78% of subscribers of newsletters have unsubscribed due to receiving too many emails.

Mobile technology and email marketing are responsible for at least 50% of all email open rates. 73% of businesses and brands prioritize mobile device optimization and segmentation of emails. Currently, mobile users are checking their email three times as much as those without a mobile device. 80% of all email users are expected to access their email accounts with the use of a mobile device by the end of 2018.

Blogging is a great way to connect with your visitors and prospective customers, as businesses and brands with updated blogs receive 97% more links to their websites than those that do not. The more a blog is updated, the better. One in 10 blog posts are considered compounding, meaning that traditional organic searches help boost the overall ranking and weight of a website over time with enough consistency. Compounding traditional blog posts can ultimately generate up to 38% more organic traffic on your website.

Blog titles that use between six and 13 words are most likely to catch the eye of users, driving more traffic to your website. Additionally, B2C brands and businesses that remain active and post more than 11 times each month receive up to four times the number of leads than those who blog once a week. Putting time and effort into a blogging strategy can pay off quickly with unique, informative, and in-depth articles that are difficult to find anywhere else online.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is one of the most important digital marketing trends to implement with any website or online presence. When a website appears within the first pages of top search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing, it is much more likely to receive visitors.

Focusing on keyword rankings is essential to help boost a website’s position within top search engines such as Google. Did you know that 75% of online users who use Google to search for products and information never click past the first page of results? Additionally, 80% of users who scroll through Google search results ignore any paid advertisements and sponsored posts they see and, instead, prefer organic URLs. Currently, Google is responsible for 94% of all online organic traffic, which is why keyword rankings and SEO matter. Approximately 57% of all B2B (business to business) marketers admit that keyword rankings help to generate more leads than other digital marketing trends, including content and social media marketing. Leads that are generated from search engines such as Google have a 14.6% conversion rate, which drives marketers to tweak their website’s SEO on a regular basis. For those relying on outbound leads, they may be disappointed, as on average, outbound leads only have a 1.7% conversion rate.

When developing an organic search strategy, there are a few factors to keep in mind: 50% of all search queries made are at least four words or longer and the top five search results that appear within the first page of results Google presents receive 70% of online traffic. Only 21% of all searches receive more than one click, making an SEO marketing strategy essential. Businesses also thrive with an effective organic search strategy, earning 40% of their revenue from organic traffic. Altogether, search engines have the power to drive 300% more traffic to websites than social media alone. Whenever Google returns its top page of results, the average page contains approximately 1,890 words. The more detailed your content appears and reads, the more likely you are to receive online traffic.

Local SEO matters, especially for business owners who run local shops and services. 72% of all users who conduct local searches visited stores within 5 miles from them, making local search engine optimization extremely valuable. Additionally, 50% of users conducting local searches using their mobile phones visited a store they were looking for within the same day. Did you know that 28% of searches for items or services nearby results in a purchase? Additionally, a staggering 33% of all mobile searches are actually location-based.

Mobile technologies, marketing tactics, and browsing techniques are continuously shifting and changing. With approximately 46% of all Americans checking their smartphones before even getting out of bed in the morning, it is no surprise that mobile marketing is on the rise. In 2018 alone, 52.2% of all online traffic was accessed via mobile technology, which is an increase from 2017 (50.3%). Now, more than ever, individuals utilize their smartphones to navigate while driving, shop from home, and even order takeout from their favorite nearby fast food establishments. With 48% of consumers who own smartphones researching using search engines, homing in on an SEO strategy is imperative to maximize online reach. While the average mobile search conversion rate with the use of Google Ads is currently only at 3.48%, based on past statistics, the number will continue to rise along with the popularity of mobile technology.