The ROI of Different Digital Marketing Channels Analysed

There are several online marketing channels through which you can generate inbound leads and make better sales. Each of these channels has unique properties that set them apart from the rest. They also sell to different markets. The cost of advertising through these channels depends on the type of business you run and the channel. With proper understanding of these channels and platforms, you can reach out to a bigger audience, minimize costs, and maximize ROI.

Here’s an analysis of popular online marketing channels and their different ROI.

Website (SEO/Content Marketing)

Your business website is a very important lead generation channel. With better copywriting and optimised website, you can generate multiple leads and increase your conversion rate. This is done with proper content writing and SEO.

For every $1 you spend on proper SEO marketing, you earn $2.80 in revenue. This means an ROI of 280%. With proper website optimization, you also gain relevance and more audience which means more revenue in the long run.

Social Media

Social media is one of the best ways to reach a bigger audience amongst all the marketing platforms. On average Google attracts a majority of online traffic, but is followed by social media. About 78% of total internet users are also social media users. This shows the importance of social media in online marketing.

Facebook

Facebook with its potentials and wide reach is a good option for organic and paid opportunities. The platform attracts more daily active users than most platforms. Facebook has a 26.8% average paid content reach vs total reach and a 10.7% average content organic reach vs page like.

An effective Facebook ad campaign has the potential to yield between 400% - 600% ROI. This requires proper understanding of the platform and a foolproof marketing strategy. The average click-through rate for Facebook ads is 0.90% while the conversion rate is 9.21%.

Twitter

Twitter is the next best social media advertising platform after Facebook. While it has a different system from Facebook, it undoubtedly yields great results if you understand the platform well. You stand to gain more leads if your twitter marketing content is aimed at generating discussion.

In a study carried out by Twitter, a study made $2.70 for every dollar spent on Twitter ads. This means a 270% ROI and is 40% higher than the average ROI generated by all other media platforms when combined together. Twitter also highlighted than using videos in ads triples the engagement and returns.

Instagram

Instagram is the third best social media advertising platform. It is owned by Facebook so it’s possible to run combined ad campaigns on both platforms. Instagram, however, works in a different manner and has a different ad algorithm.

Instagram ads cost a bit higher than Facebook ads, and are capable of generating more engagements. In the end it boils down to the kind of business you run and your target audience. But on average, Instagram yields about the same average ROI as Facebook.

PPC

Pay per click advertising is the biggest online advert channel. Organic search accounts for over 94% of total web traffic. Marketers bid on search users and place ads which are shown on websites all over the internet. The number of people who make use of online search compared to social media shows just how influential search platforms are. Top online search engines for PPC advertising are Google and Bing.

Google

Google is the king of online advertising earning nearly $100 billion for the company annually. They offer business and website owners the chance to advertise their brands to the millions of web users daily. This means that with proper ad copywriting, SEO, and Google Adwords skill, you can have access to more engagements at lesser costs.

For every $1 you spend on Google Adwords, you earn $2. This is besides the brand reach and other long term benefits. However, a proper knowledge of the advertising platform and of PPC advertising is needed in order to minimize costs and maximize revenue.

Email

Email marketing is still regarded as one of the best marketing channel. Marketers and business organizations prefer to add customers to their mailing list and then follow them up. This means email marketing will remain relevant for many years to come.

The value of one email subscriber is $12.41 while that of a share on social media is worth $5.62. This shows how much value placed on email marketing. The average ROI on email marketing is 3800% which is very impressive and shows how effective the platform is.

Video

Videos are currently the latest trend in online marketing, with most platforms altering their algorithms to favour the channel. Besides that, people are much likely to view your video than to read a text. This is exploited by video platforms to sell products to users. Top video platforms for best video marketing results include YouTube, Vimeo, and Tumblr.

YouTube

YouTube is one great platform for businesses that utilise more of videos in their marketing campaigns. There method of advertising is disliked by most users, but also seem to be quite effective. In an analysis conducted by Google, YouTube was found to offer more ROI than TV in more than 80 of the cases. This meta-analysis involved 56 case studies across 8 countries. This shows the influence YouTube has over Video.

When compared to other social media platforms, YouTube is the best video marketing platform. This is because the platform is the 2^nd largest online search engine. Unlike other social media platforms, your video doesn’t get deleted after some time, and users spend more time on your videos. This means that YouTube yields better ROI on a long term basis.

Final Thoughts

The best marketing channel to employ for advertising depends on the type of business you run and your audience. The ROI for each channel depends on a lot of factors such as amount of ad spend and quality of marketing campaign. Focus on optimizing your campaigns for each chosen platforms and watch your revenue rise appropriately.