68% of web traffic in Europe generated by advertising
Digital advertising channels remain a key source of traffic for websites in Europe, generating the majority of visits (68%), according to an Adobe Digital Insights study.
The latter shows that just over half (54%) of European websites have seen their traffic increase over the last three years, even if aggregate web traffic over this period has recorded a slight decrease.
The study also notes that mobile advertising is catching up in Europe: while it generated just over half of smartphone traffic three years ago, it now accounts for two out of three visits to these devices.
Furthermore, Europe is lagging behind North America in using more targeted or personalized advertising tactics (email, paid search, social media advertising, etc.) to generate traffic to websites. Indeed, three out of four visits are generated by non-targeted tactics such as organic search and redirection from links offered on other websites.
European websites that have seen traffic growth over the past three years are seeing 8% more traffic from personalized advertising channels than others. While in the US, growing sites are seeing 36% more traffic from these same channels, proving that adoption of targeted tactics is faster in this market.
The study highlights a correlation between the growth in web traffic and the use of more personalized forms of advertising: in Europe, sites with increasing traffic are seeing 2.6 times more traffic through tactics like social advertising (and nearly 1.2 times more traffic through paid search) than sites with decreasing traffic.
A similar correlation is observed with mobile traffic: sites that have been growing for three years have 50% more visits on smartphones than sites that are declining.
The study finally highlights the fact that Europeans remain receptive to advertising. Among those who use ad blockers, 44% do so because they find ads annoying and/or distracting. The majority of British, French and German consumers do not want to watch ads that automatically play music or sound, with the French (66%) the most reluctant, followed by the British (60%) and Germans (59%).
