B2C

B2C

B2B

B2B

A 2012

Company

© 2012

2

These are the results of the 2nd annual

Webmarketing123 State of Digital Marketing

Survey. Over 500 U.S. marketing professionals

— two-thirds B2B, one-third B2C—answered

questions about their objectives, results and

budgeting for three channels of digital marketing:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay Per Click

Advertising (PPC), and Social Media Marketing

(SMM). The results show that generating leads and

sales, as well as increasing brand awareness, are

the top objectives for digital marketers. Across

company size and industry, digital marketers

are adopting more sophisticated systems for

measurement and attribution, boosting

confidence to increase or maintain budgets.

• For B2B, lead generation is the top objective,

and SEO is twice as effective as PPC or SMM

for this purpose.

• For B2C, boosting awareness and reputation

of their brands and products has doubled in

importance since 2011, overtaking online sales

as the top objective for digital marketing.

• Budgets: 90% of marketers will increase or

maintain spending on SEO, PPC, and SMM.

• Still doing SEO in-house? Marketers using an

agency are twice as likely to be highly satisfied

with their campaign performance.

• PPC: Only a quarter of marketers surveyed are

highly satisfied with the performance of

campaigns managed internally, compared to

one-third who work with agencies.

B2C

Generate Leads

Increase Sales

Increase Awareness

#1 oBjeCtive

toP oBjeCtiveS FoR DiGitAL MARKetiNG PRoGRAMS

Each year, brands increase their level of engagement with social media.B2C leads the way, with 42% “very” or “fully” engaged with social media,

compared to 27% for B2B. By a more broad measure, a full two-thirds of

marketers now describe themselves as “moderately” to “fully” engaged with

social media. That said, 1 in 10 marketers still have no social media

presence at all.

• Follow the Money: 9 out of 10 digital marketers are spending money

on Social Media, and 8 out of 10 have reported leads or sales from

their efforts.

• B2C Marketers Discover LinkedIn: The number of B2C marketers

generating leads or sales via LinkedIn has increased 75% since last year,

while the number reporting sales from Facebook has declined nearly 20%.

• As more sophisticated attribution tools become available, the number of

marketers able to attribute leads and sales to particular social channels

more than doubled (leads from 15 to 31%, sales from 23% to 60%). But

4 in 10 B2Cs and 2 in 10 B2Bs continue to find attribution completely

out of reach.

33%

26%

B2B

Increase Awareness

Generate Leads

Increase Sales#1

oBjeCtive

54%

28%10%

22%

© 2012

3

Industry demographIcs

COMPANY SIZE

How many employees does your company have?

<50

51-200

201-1,000

>1,000

23%

21%

23%

32%

Companies responding to the survey include: Sony, Olympus, Phillips, IBM, Hitatchi, Cisco, Agilent, Microsoft, Citrix, Medtronic, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Blue Shield, ADP, Pitney Bowes, Monster.com, Angie’s List, GE, John Deere, Aramark, Thomson Reuters, Federal Express, Bose, and Nestlé.

SURVEY PARTICIPANTS

Is your company primarily B2B or B2C?

65%

35%

B2B

B2C

© 2012

4

While lead generation is by far the most common objective for digital marketing campaigns, brand and product awareness has nearly doubled in importance since last year. as budgets continue to grow, marketers are expanding their focus to include earlier stages in the sales cycle.

Increasing brand and product awareness has become the #1 objective for B2cs online. this is a marked change from last year, when online sales were the top priority.

Top objectives for digital marketing programs

Top objectives for digital marketing programs

54%

22%

10%

26%

28%

33%

6%

11%

0.3%

6%

0.7%

3%

GENERATE LEADS

GENERATE LEADS

INCREASE SALES

INCREASE SALES

INCREASE AWARENESS

INCREASE AWARENESS

GENERATE SITE TRAFFIC

GENERATE SITE TRAFFIC

BUILD ONLINE COMMUNITY

BUILD ONLINE COMMUNITY

OTHER

OTHER

LEAD GENERATION IS THE #1 OBJECTIVE

INCREASING BRAND AND PRODUCT AWARENESS IS THE #1 OBJECTIVE

#1 oBjeCtive

#1 oBjeCtive

B2C

B2B

© 2012

5

compared to last year, nearly 50% more B2Bs now identify social media

as having the most impact on lead generation (2011 vs 2012). In a

similar vein, 20% more B2cs now identify seo as most impactful for

lead generation (2011 vs 2012).

B2B engages more WIth socIal, B2c dIscovers seo

Seo

20%

SoCiALMeDiA

PPC

21%

59% B2B Seo

PPC

49%

26%

25%

B2C

Which makes the biggest impact on lead generation?

SoCiALMeDiA

© 2012

6

16%

21%

63%

20%

27%53%

84% 80%

43%

55%

2%

AGeNCY iN-HoUSe No Seo PRoGRAM

iNCReASe BUDGet

DeCReASe BUDGet

MAiNtAiN BUDGet

45%50%

5%

search engIne optImIZatIon

B2CB2B

B2CB2B

B2CB2B

Got Seo?

AGeNCY oR iN-HoUSe?

BUDGetiNG FoR 2013

YeS YeS

No No

© 2012

7

seo campaIgn measurement

How does your company measure the effectiveness of your SEO program? Check all that apply.

51%

49%

47%

36%

34%

10%

OVERALL VOLUME OF TRAFFIC

Basic: Easy to implement but no measure of financial impact

Advanced: More indicative of financial impact, more challenging to implement

VOLUME OF ORGANIC TRAFFIC

NUMBER OF KEYWORDS ON PAGE 1

NUMBER OF QUALIFIED LEADS

LEADS OR SALES ATTRIBUTABLE TO ORGANIC SEARCH

NOT SURE WHAT TO MEASURE

Are marketers measuring the right things? the most common measures of seo performance are the volume of traffic, organic traffic, and the number of keywords appearing on page 1, which give no insight into financial impact. Fewer marketers are employing more sophisticated measures of seo performance, such as number of qualified leads or sales attributable to organic search.

NOT ALL MEASUREMENT IS CREATED EQUAL

© 2012

8

Without Sophisticated Measurement, Satisfaction and Investment are Lacking

measurIng the success oF seo programs remaIns a challenge

20%

40% 40%

STAGE 1: MEASURES SEO BY MEANS OF 1-3 BASIC METRICS

STAGE 2: MEASURES SEO BY 1-3 METRICS,

INCLUDING 1 ADVANCED METRIC

STAGE 3: MEASURES SEO BY 3-5 METRICS,

INCLUDING 1 OR MORE ADVANCED METRICS

More than 3 in 10 respondents indicate that “difficulty in

measuring SEO results” was their top frustration with SEO.

5 in 10 measurement-challenged marketers feel neutral to

negative about their SEO performance. Marketers who said that

they don’t know how to measure SEO performance are

significantly less satisfied with their results, and less likely to

increase their SEO investment.

7 in 10 companies are unable to accurately attribute leads or

sales to organic search.

1 in 10 companies have no measurement system in place.

THREE STAGES OF MEASUREMENT SOPHISTICATION

While there are many ways to measure

SEO performance, they can be broadly

categorized as basic or advanced (see

previous table, p.7). The survey results

suggest that marketers are likely to be at

one of three stages, with a “measurement

gap” between the least and most

sophisticated. This gap holds true

regardless of company size, industry, and

whether SEO is managed internally or

through an agency. We believe this

reflects a growing gap between companies

with competence in analytics and

attribution and those without.

© 2012

9

64% 73%

31%

58%

11%

40%

52%

8%

36%

20%44%

27%

31%42%

pay per clIcK advertIsIng

B2CB2B

B2CB2B

B2CB2B

Got PPC?

AGeNCY oR iN-HoUSe?

BUDGetiNG FoR 2013

YeS YeSNo No

iNCReASe BUDGet

DeCReASe BUDGet

MAiNtAiN BUDGet

AGeNCY iN-HoUSe No PPC PRoGRAM

© 2012

10

satIsFactIon levels consIstently hIgher When WorKIng WIth agencIes

marketers working with an agency (as opposed to in-house) are twice as likely to be highly satisfied with seo and social media, and significantly more likely to be highly satisfied with ppc.

AGeNCY iN-HoUSe

11%

15%

10%

Seo

PPC

SoCiAL MeDiA

21%highly satisfied

with seo program performance

20%highly satisfied

with ppc program performance

21%highly satisfied

with social media program performance

© 2012

11

90% 91%

41%

56%

3%

52%

46%

2%

socIal medIa

B2CB2B

B2CB2B

B2CB2B

Got SoCiAL MeDiA?

AGeNCY oR iN-HoUSe?

BUDGetiNG FoR 2013

YeS YeS

No No

iNCReASe BUDGet

DeCReASe BUDGet

MAiNtAiN BUDGet

85%

10%5%

83%

14%13%

AGeNCY iN-HoUSe No SoCiAL MeDiA PRoGRAM

© 2012

12

B2B VS. B2C

socIal medIa engagement

How would you describe your company’s engagement with Social Media?

NO INVOLVEMENT SOMEWHAT INVOLVED

MODERATELY INVOLVED

VERY INVOLVED

FULLY INTEGRATED

10% 9%

27%

20%

36%

30%

19%

31%

8% 10%

B2B

B2C

B2c marketers are ahead with 70% moderately to highly engaged (40%

highly engaged), but B2B is catching up, with 63% at those levels of

engagement (27% highly engaged), overall, only 1 in 10 have no social

media program.

PeRCePtioNB2B marketers are far less engaged than B2C

in Social Media B2Bs are closing the gap. 63% of B2Bs are engaged with social media, vs. 70% of B2Cs.

ReALitY

% marketers who are moderately to highly engaged with social media

63% 70%

B2B B2C

© 2012

13

SPENDING MONEY ON SOCIAL MEDIA

MAKING MONEY FROM SOCIAL MEDIA % of marketers who Generated Leads from social media

% of marketers who Generated Sales from social media

B2B

B2B

B2C

B2C

40% 65%

39% 23%

6% 14%

30% 39%

14% 17%

30%14%

23%

44%

39% 67%

9% 21%

19%43%

1%3%

6%

13%

15%7%3%

7%

19%39%

across the board, marketers’ social media expenditures are producing revenue opportunities.

© 2012

14

socIal medIa: Investment contInues, attrIButIon stIll a challenge

Despite the inability to directly attribute revenue to Social Media, 95% of companies intend to increase or maintain their

spending on Social Media next year. B2C marketers are increasing their spending on Social Media faster than B2B, but no one is

taking their foot off the gas (5 in 10 B2C marketers and 4 in 10 B2B marketers will increase budgets).

B2CB2B90% of B2Bs have some level of Social Media engagement,

with 63% describing themselves as moderately to fully engaged,

and 25% “very” to “fully” engaged. The majority of this group

are seeing a return on their investment. Top areas of investment

(for the 60% that spend) are Facebook & LinkedIn (where 40%

are active), and Twitter (30%). On these platforms, nearly

all advertisers are generating leads, and roughly half have

closed deals.

It’s notable that 20% of the marketers active on Social Media

aren’t sure if they’re generating leads, and a full 40% aren’t sure

if they’ve closed sales attributable to Social Media.

Clearly, marketers are still struggling to measure and attribute

the value of their investment. Despite the lack of consistent

results and attribution challenges, 41% of marketers plan to

increase their Social Media budgets, and another 56% will

maintain their budgets.

90% of B2Cs have some level of Social Media engagement,

with 70% describing themselves as moderately to fully

engaged, and 40% “very” to “fully” engaged. Like their B2B

counterparts, the vast majority of B2Cs (90%) are managing

their Social Media in-house, and 70% are spending money

on it. Two-thirds of B2Cs are active on Facebook and

generate leads this way, and more than half of them see

closed deals. Across the board, roughly half of Social Media

efforts see measurable results (for example, 14% of B2C

marketers are active on Pinterest and 6% get sales or deals

from it.) The number of B2Cs generating leads via LinkedIn

has increased 75% since last year, while the number

reporting Facebook as a source of sales declined nearly

20% (from 48% to 39%). 50% of B2C marketers will

increase their investment in Social Media and 47% will

maintain spending.

Social Media Analysis Social Media Analysis

9 out of 10 digital marketers are spending money on Social

Media, and 8 out of 10 have reported leads or sales from their efforts. As expectations rise, marketers are staffing up

and 95% of Social Media engagers now manage their own Social Media campaigns (up from 85% last year).

Attribution challenges continue: 4 in 10 of marketers in our

survey are unable to attribute sales or deals specifically to Social Media marketing.

© 2012

15

The second annual Webmarketing123 State of Digital Marketing Survey was conducted online in July of

2012. Over 500 U.S. participants completed the survey—all individuals who responded to an email

invitation sent to marketing professionals. Participants answered questions using an online survey tool.

For more information about the survey, please contact marketingteam@webmarketing123.com.

ABOUT WEBMArkETIng123

Webmarketing123 is a digital marketing agency that

helps clients convert online visibility into measurable

business results.

In 2012, Webmarketing123 was named by Inc. Magazine as

one of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S.

Our distinctive approach is to pair our metrics-rich

methodology with an understanding of our clients’ unique

business goals and challenges. We combine a deep

expertise across industry verticals, smart use of automation,

and efficient use of analytics to inform data-driven decision-

making. At Webmarketing123, each client has a dedicated

team employing Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click

advertising, and/or Social Media Marketing to create

remarkable, results-driven marketing programs.

COnnECT WITH US

Webmarketing123.com 800.619.1570

A 2012

Company

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