Digital Marketing Statistics 2026: Results From 2,600+ Agency Case Studies

Most digital marketing statistics pages collect survey results and vendor reports: how much marketers plan to spend, which channel they say works best. Very few tell you what agencies actually delivered for real clients.

This page does. Every number below is counted from 2,648 case studies published by 75 marketing agencies, all indexed in OpenServed's directory. Each case study names a client, lists the services involved and states the results the agency reported.

Data as of October 2026. These are results agencies chose to publish, so they show what a successful campaign looks like, not what an average one does. The directory keeps growing, so if you cite a number, please cite the date.

Digital marketing statistics at a glance

• 2,648 case studies from 75 agencies, covering 58 services, 166 industries and clients in 56 countries and territories.
• 88% is the median reported gain across every percentage result agencies publish. 47% of those results are a doubling or more.
• 94% is the median reported increase in website traffic, across 844 case studies.
• 90% is the median reported increase in conversions or leads, across 555 case studies.
• 94% is the median reported increase in revenue, across 516 case studies.
• 40% is the median reported cut in cost per acquisition or lead, across 252 case studies.
• SEO appears in 41% of case studies, more than any other service. PPC follows at 31%.
• 62% of case studies bundle two or more services.
• Small businesses report the largest gains: a median 114% increase in traffic and 100% in conversions or leads.
• Only 3.8% of case studies are Client-verified, and only 1.1% say how long the work took.

Digital marketing services statistics

SEO appears in 41% of agency case studies, and PPC in 31%. Of the 2,648 case studies, 1,090 include SEO and 818 include PPC. Social Media Ads (20%) and Content Marketing (19%) follow. After that the drop is steep: Web Design appears in 15%, Web Development in 10%, CRO in 6% and Email Marketing in 6%.

62% of case studies bundle two or more services. 38% list a single service, 31% list two, 26% list three and 5% list four or more. The average case study lists 2.0 services.

PPC and SEO is the most common pairing. The two appear together in 339 case studies (13%). Next come Content Marketing and SEO (232), SEO and Web Design (229), and PPC and Social Media Ads (206).

When an agency features just one service, half the time it's SEO or PPC. Of the 996 single-service case studies, 301 are SEO alone (30%), 206 are PPC alone (21%) and 129 are Social Media Ads alone (13%).

AI search services are still rare. GEO appears in 57 case studies (2.2%), AI in 38 (1.4%) and AEO in 13 (0.5%). Counted together, 104 case studies (3.9%) include at least one of the three. For a closer look, see The Rise of GEO.

What digital marketing case studies report

Traffic is the result agencies report most. 38% of case studies include a website traffic stat. Conversions or leads appear in 33%, revenue or sales in 26%, keyword rankings in 15% and cost per acquisition or lead in 13%. Conversion rate, impressions, and social engagement and reach each appear in 12%, and ROAS and click-through rate in 6%.

Only 54% of case studies report a business outcome. That means revenue, leads or conversions. The other 46% stop at traffic, rankings, reach or engagement.

Only 22% report an efficiency metric, such as cost per acquisition, cost per click, ROAS or ROI.

68% of result stats are percentages. The 2,648 case studies carry 8,318 result stats, an average of 3.1 each. Another 5% lead with a dollar figure, 3% use a multiplier such as "7x", and 24% are plain counts or other formats.

Digital marketing results statistics

The median reported gain is 88%. Across the 4,526 result stats that state a percentage increase, a quarter are 38% or lower and a quarter are 228% or higher. 47% claim at least a doubling, and 259 (6%) claim 1,000% or more.

Traffic, revenue and conversions all sit close to a doubling. Median reported gains for the most common metrics, with the middle half in brackets:

• Website traffic: 94% (42% to 245%), 844 case studies
• Revenue: 94% (40% to 219%), 516 case studies
• Conversions or leads: 90% (45% to 230%), 555 case studies
• Conversion rate: 53% (25% to 139%), 259 case studies

Visibility metrics show the biggest percentages. The median reported gain is 207% for keyword rankings (195 case studies) and 146% for impressions (152 case studies). Both start from small bases, which inflates the percentage.

Organic traffic grows slightly more than traffic overall. Where the stat specifies organic traffic, the median gain is 101% (550 case studies), against 94% for all traffic stats.

The median reported cut in cost per acquisition or lead is 40%. 252 case studies state one, with the middle half between 25% and 59%. The median cut in cost per click is 36% (56 case studies).

The median reported increase in ROAS is 69%. 95 case studies state one. Where agencies give the ROAS itself, the median is 7.7x across 67 case studies, with the middle half between 3.7x and 12x.

Social and paid engagement gains are smaller. The median reported gain is 80% for social engagement and reach (154 case studies) and 76% for click-through rate (114 case studies).

Digital marketing statistics by channel

The figures in this section use every case study that includes a service, so a case study listing SEO and PPC counts toward both. We report a service only when it has at least 20 data points for the metric.

Email marketing and web development case studies report the highest median revenue gain, at 118%. Median reported revenue gain by service, with the middle half in brackets:

• Web Development: 118% (55% to 345%), 49 case studies
• Email Marketing: 118% (47% to 244%), 52 case studies
• SEO: 110% (50% to 296%), 227 case studies
• Social Media Ads: 106% (44% to 303%), 123 case studies
• PPC: 106% (48% to 283%), 230 case studies
• Content Marketing: 88% (29% to 186%), 54 case studies
• Web Design: 82% (54% to 200%), 47 case studies
• CRO: 74% (29% to 183%), 34 case studies
• Amazon Marketing: 70% (31% to 287%), 31 case studies
• Programmatic Advertising: 50% (32% to 98%), 22 case studies
• Data & Analytics: 37% (20% to 56%), 21 case studies

SEO, web design and web development case studies report the biggest gains in conversions or leads. Median gain by service, with the middle half in brackets:

• GEO: 241% (51% to 500%), 20 case studies
• Web Development: 129% (48% to 265%), 47 case studies
• SEO: 124% (60% to 300%), 221 case studies
• Web Design: 124% (56% to 272%), 91 case studies
• Email Marketing: 102% (42% to 171%), 24 case studies
• Social Media Ads: 97% (44% to 218%), 123 case studies
• Content Marketing: 95% (48% to 193%), 82 case studies
• PPC: 88% (46% to 232%), 324 case studies
• Local SEO: 77% (48% to 282%), 30 case studies
• CRO: 70% (35% to 160%), 82 case studies

GEO tops the list on only 20 data points, and GEO is almost always sold together with SEO, so many of these are organic lead gains. Read it as an early signal, not a benchmark.

Content marketing case studies report the highest traffic gains. The median reported increase in website traffic is 118% for Content Marketing (212 case studies), 104% for Local SEO (53), 94% for SEO (635), 92% for Social Media Ads (71) and 87% for PPC (234). Web Design (69%, 213 case studies) and Web Development (58%, 138) report the lowest, which fits redesign projects that aim at conversion more than traffic.

What each channel reports

• SEO: a median 102% increase in organic traffic and 227% growth in keyword rankings. See SEO Statistics 2026.
• PPC: a median 39% cut in cost per acquisition or lead and an 82% increase in ROAS. See PPC Statistics 2026.
• Social Media Ads: a median 42% cut in cost per acquisition or lead (82 case studies), a 71% increase in ROAS (51), a 104% increase in click-through rate (36) and a 134% gain in engagement and reach (53).
• Content Marketing: a median 130% increase in organic traffic (151 case studies) and a 165% increase in impressions (30).
• Email Marketing: a median 118% increase in revenue (52 case studies) and a 50% gain in open and click rates (25).
• CRO: a median 39% increase in conversion rate (59 case studies) and a 37% cut in cost per acquisition or lead (45).
• Web Design: a median 51% increase in conversion rate (43 case studies).
• Local SEO: a median 95% increase in organic traffic (43 case studies), 164% growth in keyword rankings (25) and a 73% increase in leads (20).

SEO vs PPC vs social media ads

Bundled case studies blur which channel did the work. Case studies that list a single service give a cleaner comparison.

SEO-only case studies report larger percentage gains than PPC-only ones. Across every percentage gain they publish, the median is 130% for SEO-only case studies, 94% for social-ads-only and 78% for PPC-only.

• SEO alone: 105% traffic (173 case studies), 105% revenue (67), 98% conversions or leads (44)
• PPC alone: 80% revenue (42 case studies), 74% conversions or leads (106), 38% lower cost per acquisition or lead (81)
• Social Media Ads alone: 128% revenue (21 case studies), 67% conversions or leads (23)

This doesn't show that SEO outperforms PPC. Organic channels often start from a small base, which makes percentage gains larger, and PPC results are more often framed as cost savings than as growth.

Single-service vs multi-service campaigns

Multi-service case studies report bigger lead gains; single-service ones report bigger traffic gains. The median gain in conversions or leads is 100% for multi-service case studies (356) against 76% for single-service ones (198). For traffic it is the reverse: 90% for multi-service (589) against 107% for single-service (254). Revenue gains are close, at 95% and 90%.

Digital marketing statistics by industry

To make 166 industry labels comparable, we rolled them up into 13 groups (see methodology).

No single industry group holds more than 18% of case studies. Retail & Ecommerce leads with 18% (479 case studies), followed by Software & Technology (14%), Fashion, Beauty & Jewelry (11%), Healthcare & Wellness (11%) and Industrial & Manufacturing (8%). Those five groups make up 62% of case studies. On its own, SaaS is the most common single industry at 7.6% (201 case studies), with Fashion at 5.3% (141).

SEO leads or ties for the lead in 11 of the 13 industry groups. Its share runs from 60% of Industrial & Manufacturing case studies to 23% of Media & Entertainment ones. The exceptions are Food & Beverage, led by Social Media Ads (34%), and Media & Entertainment, led by Content Marketing (26%).

Industrial and manufacturing clients report the highest median gain in conversions or leads, at 140%. Median gain by industry group, with the middle half in brackets:

• Industrial & Manufacturing: 140% (59% to 332%), 60 case studies
• Healthcare & Wellness: 102% (46% to 286%), 99 case studies
• Professional & B2B Services: 96% (46% to 278%), 35 case studies
• Financial Services: 95% (44% to 255%), 48 case studies
• Fashion, Beauty & Jewelry: 86% (38% to 112%), 23 case studies
• Home, Property & Local Services: 81% (48% to 240%), 59 case studies
• Education & Nonprofit: 81% (44% to 184%), 27 case studies
• Retail & Ecommerce: 78% (41% to 205%), 58 case studies
• Software & Technology: 77% (35% to 198%), 94 case studies

Revenue gains are highest where few case studies report revenue. The median reported revenue gain is 170% for Industrial & Manufacturing (23 case studies) and 154% for Healthcare & Wellness (28). In the groups that report revenue most, it is lower: 102% for Food & Beverage (44), 94% for Fashion, Beauty & Jewelry (127) and 84% for Retail & Ecommerce (200).

Home services and financial clients report the largest traffic gains. The median reported increase in traffic is 142% for Home, Property & Local Services (62 case studies) and 131% for Financial Services (52). Fashion, Beauty & Jewelry reports the lowest, at 72% (79 case studies).

Healthcare and software clients report the biggest cuts in acquisition cost. The median cut in cost per acquisition or lead is 54% for Healthcare & Wellness (48 case studies), 48% for Software & Technology (52), 40% for Retail & Ecommerce (31) and 32% for Financial Services (20).

Consumer brands report revenue; B2B and service businesses report leads. A revenue stat appears in 55% of Fashion, Beauty & Jewelry case studies, 51% of Retail & Ecommerce ones and 48% of Food & Beverage ones, but only 8% of Software & Technology ones. A conversion or lead stat appears in 49% of Software & Technology and Home, Property & Local Services case studies, but only 12% of Fashion, Beauty & Jewelry ones.

SaaS case studies report a median 90% gain in conversions or leads and 99% in traffic. 66 SaaS case studies state a conversion or lead gain and 79 state a traffic gain. For fashion, the median reported revenue gain is 110% across 65 case studies.

Digital marketing statistics by client size

Client size is the client's employee count. It is recorded for 2,216 of the 2,648 case studies (84%).

Small businesses are the largest client group, at 40%. Of the 2,216 with a known size, 888 involve small businesses (1 to 50 employees), 426 medium businesses (51 to 200), 382 large businesses (201 to 1,000) and 520 enterprises (more than 1,000).

Small businesses report the largest gains in conversions or leads. Median gain by client size, with the middle half in brackets:

• Small (1 to 50 employees): 100% (55% to 287%), 168 case studies
• Medium (51 to 200): 74% (38% to 195%), 112 case studies
• Large (201 to 1,000): 82% (43% to 178%), 91 case studies
• Enterprise (1,000+): 73% (38% to 197%), 85 case studies

Small businesses also report the largest traffic gains. The median reported increase in traffic is 114% for small businesses (347 case studies), 76% for medium (148), 70% for large (126) and 92% for enterprise (78).

Revenue gains fall for the biggest clients. The median reported increase in revenue is 94% for small businesses (188 case studies), 105% for medium (70), 75% for large (54) and 56% for enterprise (77).

The cut in acquisition cost is about the same at every size. The median cut in cost per acquisition or lead is 38% for small businesses (68 case studies), 39% for medium (48), 42% for large (53) and 36% for enterprise (36).

What agencies sell changes sharply with client size. SEO appears in 55% of small-business case studies but only 18% of enterprise ones. Content Marketing goes the other way: 12% of small-business case studies and 29% of enterprise ones, where it is the most common service.

Enterprise case studies talk about reach more than traffic. A social engagement, impressions or brand awareness stat appears in 32% of enterprise case studies, against 16% of small-business ones. A traffic stat appears in 27% of enterprise case studies, against 44% of small-business ones.

Smaller clients buy single services. A single service is listed in 46% of small-business case studies, 37% of medium, 32% of large and 23% of enterprise ones.

Digital marketing statistics by country

Country is the client's location, not the agency's. It is recorded for 2,445 of the 2,648 case studies (92%).

83% of case studies are for US clients. 2,023 of the 2,445 located case studies are in the United States. The other 422 are spread across 55 countries and territories, led by the United Kingdom (85), Canada (49), Australia (26) and Germany (24).

US and international clients report similar traffic and revenue gains. The median reported increase in traffic is 92% for US clients (715 case studies) and 96% for international ones (82). For revenue it is 90% for US clients (396) and 81% for international ones (59).

US clients report larger gains in conversions or leads. The median is 92% for US clients (466 case studies) and 62% for international ones (47 case studies, middle half 32% to 91%).

No single country outside the US has enough data for its own benchmark. Canada and the United Kingdom come closest, with 18 and 17 case studies that state a traffic gain. We'll add country figures once each passes 20 data points.

California is the single biggest state, with 25% of US case studies. California has 501 case studies, ahead of New York (190), Texas (173) and Florida (134).

Within the US, reported gains vary by state. The median gain in conversions or leads is 154% for Texas (50 case studies), 108% for New York (42), 90% for California (104) and 90% for Florida (26).

New York is the top city. New York has 119 case studies, San Francisco 78, and Chicago and Los Angeles 53 each. London is the largest city outside the US, with 34.

What the data can't tell you: time and budget

Only 1.1% of case studies say how long the work took. Just 29 of the 2,648 state an engagement length. That is too few to say how fast any channel delivers, so we don't try.

Only 19% mention any time period at all. 495 case studies include a time reference somewhere in their result stats, such as "year over year" or "in 6 months". The other 81% give a result with no window.

Budgets and client quotes are rarer still. Only 3 case studies state a budget range, and 47 (1.8%) include a client quote.

If you're comparing agencies, ask for the timeframe and the spend behind every number. A result without them isn't comparable to anything.

The agencies behind the data

Three agencies account for 22% of all case studies. Coalition Technologies (298), KlientBoost (166) and Merkle (118) together contribute 582 of 2,648. Hawke Media (116), Monks (110) and NP Digital (96) follow.

The typical agency has 19 case studies in the directory. Five agencies have more than 100, and 27 of the 75 have 10 or fewer.

The headline numbers hold without the largest publishers. Coalition Technologies supplies 192 of the 844 traffic data points and 129 of the 516 revenue ones; without it, the median gain is 102% for traffic and 84% for revenue. KlientBoost supplies 133 of the 555 conversion and lead data points; without it, that median is 94%.

How much of this data is verified?

Only 3.8% of case studies are Client-verified. 100 of the 2,648 carry OpenServed's Client-verified badge, meaning the named client confirmed the results. The other 96.2% are agency-reported.

So far, verified case studies don't report smaller gains. The median reported traffic gain is 194% for verified case studies (26) against 94% for agency-reported ones (818). For conversions or leads it is 141% (25 verified case studies) against 90% (530).

That comparison is still fragile. It rests on about 25 data points per metric, 21 of the 100 verified case studies come from one agency, and more than half of those with a known size involve small businesses, which report larger gains anyway. What it does show is that client confirmation hasn't pulled the numbers down.

Keep this in mind with every number on this page. A published case study is an agency's best work, described in the agency's words. Without a client confirming it, it's a claim, not a benchmark.

What this means if you're hiring a digital marketing agency

• Treat a doubling as the typical published win, not a promise. The median case study reports gains of about 90% in traffic, leads and revenue, and case studies are the campaigns that went well.
• Ask for a business outcome. Only 54% of case studies report revenue, leads or conversions. Traffic and rankings are easier to grow and easier to show.
• Ask what it cost. Only 22% report an efficiency metric, and only 3 case studies state a budget.
• Be careful with very large percentages. Keyword and impression gains have medians above 140% because they start from small bases. A 500% gain can be a small result.
• Ask which service did the work. 62% of case studies bundle services, so a headline number rarely belongs to one channel.
• Compare like with like. Reported gains differ by client size and industry. A small manufacturer and an enterprise retailer should not expect the same percentage.
• Ask for the timeframe, and whether the client confirmed it. Only 1.1% of case studies state a duration, and only 3.8% are Client-verified.

You can browse every case study behind these numbers in OpenServed's agency directory, and filter by service, industry, client size and location.

Methodology

• Source: all 2,648 case studies in OpenServed's directory as of October 4, 2026, from 75 agencies. Each links to the agency's own published case study.
• Result stats: each case study carries the result stats the agency published, as free text. We assigned each stat to a metric by keyword matching: traffic, conversions, leads, revenue, conversion rate, cost per acquisition, cost per lead, cost per click, ROAS, click-through rate, keyword rankings, impressions, and social engagement and reach.
• Percentages only: medians use stats that state a percentage change. Plain counts, dollar figures and before-and-after pairs are left out. The one exception is the ROAS figure, read from stats such as "6x ROAS".
• Direction: cost metrics count reductions; every other metric counts increases. Claimed cost reductions above 100% are excluded as impossible. Comparisons with a goal, target or industry average are left out.
• One data point per case study: if a case study has several stats for the same metric, we use the first one listed. Conversions and leads are combined, using whichever comes first.
• By channel: a service's figures use every case study that lists it, including bundles. Figures here can differ by a point or two from our SEO and PPC statistics pages, which exclude stats that name another channel.
• Median and middle half: we report the median, not the average, because a handful of gains above 1,000% would distort an average. The middle half is the range from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
• Minimum sample: we report a segment only when it has at least 20 data points for that metric.
• Industry groups: we merged 166 industry labels into 13 groups for the roll-up figures. Client size uses employee count: small is 1 to 50, medium 51 to 200, large 201 to 1,000 and enterprise more than 1,000.
• Missing data: client size is known for 2,216 case studies (84%) and location for 2,445 (92%). Percentages in those sections use the known subset as the base.
• Selection bias: agencies publish their wins, and the directory is not a random sample of the industry. Large, prolific publishers are over-represented.
• Agency-reported: except for the 100 Client-verified case studies, results are as published by each agency and haven't been independently confirmed.

Cite this data: OpenServed, "Digital Marketing Statistics 2026: Results From 2,600+ Agency Case Studies", October 2026, https://openserved.com/blog/digital-marketing-statistics