Dear Tig,
Bonjour from Paris! I am currently looking for statistics about how web surfers behave (how many clicks they will use to find an information, how long it takes them to read online, what makes people come back to a site, etc.) Would you happen to now where I can get this type of information?
- Curieux
Hi Curieux,
These are quite different questions calling for different pieces of research. My personal favorite source for this sort of thing is CyberAtlas. They have a great set of sections with links to many different types of research, including all the things you've asked.
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Dear Tig,
Are you aware of any statistics that provide guidance as to how much of your total revenue should be allocated toward marketing efforts?
- Percentage Player
Dear Player,
The short answer is no. The proportion of your revenues you should put back into marketing is determined by factors like diminishing media efficiencies and available capital—not arbitrary percentages.
Too often, companies like to have solid benchmarks that help settle internal arguments about how much marketing should be budgeted for certain purposes. Unfortunately, the proper percentages depend very heavily on the unique circumstances of the company, the product category and even the type of brand personality that has been previously cultivated.
Where a realtor may spend only 10 percent on advertising, a travel agent may find 40 percent more appropriate.
That said, you can eliminate some of these variables by conducting competitive marketing research. Using a company like CMR can give you the figure that your cohorts find appropriate, which can go some distance to factor out industry and product category idiosyncrasies.
Theoretically, the capital you spend on marketing should return more revenues, creating a cycle that continues to allow more and more marketing spending until certain diseconomies of scale occur that make further investment unwise.
This all happens independently of the other cost factors within a company, so the absolute percentage of revenues is going to vary a great deal due to arbitrary factors, like newly-won manufacturing economies of scale and variable tax treatments.
In the online world, we have the benefit of a great deal of feedback data telling us how we're doing. That allows us to adjust spending with a fair amount of confidence. But with most other media, this is fundamentally a gut decision. Look up the data you can on your competitors, and then assume they're not doing everything right. Use your gut.
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Dear Tig,
Besides salary.com, where can I find marketing salary ranges?
- Greedy
Dear Greedy,
While it tends to be over-generalized, Ad Age publishes a decent list of advertising related jobs and the average (self-reported) salaries. You can find it here.
You will find it has some interesting trend data over time, and it breaks the salaries out by region.
Do keep in mind that, to some degree, this is mixing up apples and peaches and pears. The “creative director” in a four-person shop in Belfast, Maine is averaged in with the 35-year veteran at a Madison Avenue shop. But, as with all media statistics, with some selectivity and some massaging, I'm sure you'll be able to make your argument.
