Publishers’ challenge of building audiences and generating revenue from those audiences is harder than ever online. An increasing array of publishers is vying for users’ attention, making those all important eyeballs more difficult to come by. What’s more, online ad prices continue to fall, and the majority of publishers are nowhere near figuring out how to make money from their mobile traffic. Here are 15 alarming stats about online publishing:
There are 14.3 trillion webpages live. (WorldWideWebSize.com)
Over 5.3 trillion display ads were served to U.S. users last year. (ComScore)
The average effective cost per thousand impressions on the desktop Web is about $3.50; it’s $0.75 on mobile. (Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers)
23.1 percent of traffic to U.S. websites comes from mobile devices. (Walker Sands)
10 percent of U.S. advertisers’ budgets goes to mobile. (Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers)
Average online video ad prices for top-tier sites fell 10-15 percent last year, compared with 2011. (Brightroll)
6 percent more ad impressions were served in the fourth quarter of 2012 than the fourth quarter of 2011. (ComScore)
The top 10 Internet ad sellers control 72 percent of the market. (IAB)
Taking out Google and Facebook, display advertising grew 3.8 percent in 2012. (Pivotal Research)
Without spending by e-commerce companies, online advertising grew less than 10 percent. (Pivotal Research)
31 percent of ad impressions served are never seen by consumers. (Comscore)
29 percent of U.S. website traffic comes from bots. (Solve Media)
The Huffington Post publishes a story every 58 seconds. That’s as many as 2,000 pieces a day. (Digiday)
By 2015, over 25 percent of online display advertising dollars will be spent through real-time bidding. (IDC)
39 percent of search traffic from Google now has search terms withheld, making it difficult for publishers to figure out where their audience is coming from. (Optify)
Image via Shutterstock
More in Media
Q&A with Jessica Chan, Perplexity’s head of publisher partnerships
Perplexity’s new head of publisher partnerships Jessica Chan shares how the AI tech company is wooing publishers, from what the program offers now to what she hopes to add to the program next year.
Media Briefing: Publishers’ strategy on Bluesky is TBD
Some publishers are seeing more referral traffic from Bluesky than from Threads already. But both platforms are still “small potatoes” when it comes to referring traffic to their sites.
Digiday+ Research Lifestyle Subscription Index 2024: Time, Vogue and The Atlantic choose between divesting or investing in subscriptions
The 2024 Subscription Index examines and measures publishers’ subscription strategies across several different digital touch points. This third installment of the research series looks at some of the top lifestyle-focused publications in the U.S.