In this year’s Digital Commerce 360 ​​digital marketing survey, 73 online retailers looked at their budgets, tactics, and success from email to social media. Seeing how this aligns with the 2021 survey results based on 143 companies provides insight into where marketing is headed.

Digital marketing budgets are wide and growing

44% of respondents said they are spending more than 50% of their total marketing budget this year on digital advertising. This is up from 33% who said they invested more than 50% of their overall marketing budget last year.

Meanwhile, a similar percentage (32% this year compared to 34% last year) said they plan to spend between 11% and 50% of their budgets on digital advertising. This year, 16% (compared to 25% of respondents last year) said they plan to spend 10% or less of their marketing budget on digital advertising. In both years, 8% of respondents say they don’t spend money on it.

Retailers’ digital marketing budgets are flat year-over-year

Additionally, 66% of respondents said their digital marketing budgets increased this year. This is compared to 62% who said the same last year. About the same percentage of respondents (24% last year vs. 23% this year) say their digital marketing budgets will stay the same.

More than half (56%) of respondents spend 30% or more of their marketing budget on customer acquisition. This contrasts with 49% who said they spent more than 30% of their digital marketing budget on user acquisition last year.

More than half of retailers use social media advertising to increase sales and build brand awareness. However, in both cases, the proportion of respondents decreased. He said 66% of retailers in 2021 use social media advertising to drive sales. This compares to his 58% in 2022. Also this year, 55% said they would use it to increase brand awareness, down from 62% in 2021.

This year, 44% say they use social media advertising to drive traffic, up slightly from 42% last year. Also, this year he has 42% using it for audience engagement, down from 55% last year. Similarly, this year he said only 40% would use it for audience growth, compared to half last year.

The role of influencers is multifaceted

Brands look to retailers to build awareness and drive traffic to their websites. This year, 26% of his retailers say they use influencers to drive sales. This compares to his 22% in 2021.

A quarter of retailers also said in this year’s digital marketing survey that they are concerned that influencer costs are too high. This makes sense, as 21% said they found online influence interesting, but didn’t see the return on investment they expected. Both numbers are up from last year, when 15% said the influencer costs too much and 18% said he didn’t achieve the ROI he wanted.

It’s been a big problem this year. 23% of him in retailers say it’s hard to find the right influencer for them. That’s up from 18% last year. Similarly, 14% said the influencer was not a good fit for their company (up slightly from 13% last year). And 29% said they would spend time last year understanding how (or if) their business should use influencers. That has dropped to just 10% this year.

Retailers rank themselves in analyzing digital marketing data

Last year, more than two-thirds (69%) of retailers surveyed ranked them above average in their marketing performance data and attribution analysis. Only 61% ranked themselves above average this year.

41% of retailers say analyzing their digital marketing efforts is their biggest challenge this year. And 40% said their biggest challenge is companies constantly changing rules and algorithms, making it difficult to maintain performance levels. This was last year’s top challenge, chosen by 37%.

36% also found it difficult to diversify their marketing mix beyond Facebook and Google this year. This is a significant increase from his 22% last year. Similarly, 32% cite the difficulty of ensuring the profitability of their marketing strategies this year. This is up from 24% last year.

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