A study about the Portuguese Digital Marketing landscape
Karma Network is a consulting firm that specializes in the development of digital strategies for businesses and brands. This study ensues from one of the firm's areas of expertise, the production and analysis of knowledge in the digital marketing arena.
Conducted in partnership with ACEPI (Portuguese Association of Electronic Commerce and Interactive Advertising) the study aims to map and analyze the Portuguese digital marketing landscape by describing the goals, results, investments, channels and practices within the digital marketing framework by the top Portuguese advertisers.
Download here a 20-slide presentation with the study's highligths.
Key Highlights | Summary
Only one third of companies have a clearly defined digital strategy
When questioned concerning their digital strategy the majority of companies surveyed (68%) replied as to not having a clearly defined strategy. The majority of respondents (59%) merely have a strategic orientation and 9% do not have any sort of defined digital strategy. Only 32% of the companies inquired considered they had a digital strategy that is clearly defined, formally documented and shared within the organization.
Companies with a defined digital strategy acknowledge better results and allocate higher investments
When comparing companies with a defined digital strategy to those that do not have one, 81% indicate being ‘Satisfied’ or ‘Very Satisfied’ with the return on investment from their digital marketing activities (versus 65% for those that do not have a defined digital strategy). In addition, investment in the digital channel changes drastically according to the existence of a defined strategy - companies with a defined digital strategy invest on average almost twice as much (22% vs 12%) than companies that do not have one.
On average, 15% of companies' marketing budgets are allocated to digital channels
The average budget allocated to the digital channel is 15% of the total marketing budget. Morever, the majority of companies surveyed (85%) allocate less than 20% of their total marketing budget to digital endeavors. There is nevertheless 6% of companies that allocate more than 40% of their budget to the digital channel mostly belonging from the Travel & Tourism industry.
Websites are the digital media channel with the highest investment
Websites remain the digital media channel with the largest slice of the marketing budget, with an average allocation of 31% of the total marketing budget. Furthermore, social networks, with an average allocation of 15% of the total marketing budget, are catching up with search engines' 18%. Of note is the Mobile channel, which seems to be relatively unexplored by respondents with an average budget allocation of only 5% of the total marketing budget.
Investment in digital marketing is expected to grow, with Social Networks and Mobile as the frontrunners
Despite the still low investments in digital channels, companies plan to increase their investment in the near future - the majority of respondents (70%) are planning to increase their investments in digital marketing channels and tools with Mobile Marketing (70%) and Social Networks (67%) being the media channels for which more companies plan to increase their budget. On the other hand, Email and Affiliates are the channels for which the largest % of respondents plan to maintain their current investment levels.
