Dive Brief:
- The “Adobe Digital Insights” report released Tuesday found that organic website traffic in North America has only grown by 0.1% over the last three and a half years with 60% of sites seeing increased traffic of 1.1%, but the remaining 40% losing traffic at 1.3%.
- Going deeper into the data, between Q2 of 2013 and Q2 of 2016, websites that increased traffic drew from personalized ads via email, paid search, social and other channels compared to websites that saw shrinking visitors.
- Interestingly, 70% of smartphone visits are coming from ad channels according to the research, a figure up 40% from three years ago.
Dive Insight:
While there's no need to hit the panic button quite yet, slowed organic web traffic of this degree should send a strong signal to marketers that it's time to start thinking more outside the box when trying to attract and keep consumer attention.
Adobe's finding that those websites that did show growth achieved it through "personalized ads" only solidifies that highly targeted, heavily curated experiences are the best method of netting new interest, with an unsurprisingly huge emphasis on mobile.
“The days of organic website traffic growth are reaching an end,” said Tamara Gaffney, principal analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, in a press release for the report. “Marketers need to prioritize personalization of cross-channel ad content and truly focus on mobile advertising or face declining traffic to their branded properties.”
And despite a lot of recent rabble over the declining quality of ads, Adobe also found that U.S. consumers are relatively comfortable with advertising, as 68% of those surveyed reported ads have improved or stayed the same in recent years, with 57% stating marketers are running engaging campaigns.
That doesn't mean any measure of complacency is an option: 78% hammered on improving personalization, and only 28% feel ads are appropriately customized. There's always room for improvement, but getting to work sooner is probably a smart idea before traffic slows further.