Rand Fishkin's "Audience Influence Spending" Slide

Rand Fishkin, founder of SparkToro and also famous SEO guy had this slide at a conference that shows: Where is your audience influenced -vs- Where companies allocate their budget.

For example it's showing not a ton of people are influenced by Google Search as much, but MOST of the budget is going towards it.

And A LOT of people are being influenced by emails and newsletter, but only 1% of the budget is going towards it.

The slide compares where audiences are influenced (inner circle) versus where marketing budgets are allocated (outer circle). Here's a breakdown of the data:

• Google Search Keywords (Unbranded)

  • Influence: 33% (145K)

  • Budget Allocation: High

• Industry Websites & Blogs

  • Influence: 15% (140K)

  • Budget Allocation: Low

• Social Feeds (Social Media Platforms)

  • Influence: 15% (140K)

  • Budget Allocation: High

• YouTube Channels

  • Influence: 6% (110K)

  • Budget Allocation: Low

• Email Newsletters

  • Influence: 1% (100K)

  • Budget Allocation: Low

• Social Ads

  • Influence: 3% (90K)

  • Budget Allocation: High

• Conferences & Events

  • Influence: 7%

  • Budget Allocation: Medium

• Slack, Facebook & WhatsApp Groups

  • Influence: 4%

  • Budget Allocation: Low

• ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google Discover & Apple News

  • Influence: Growing

  • Budget Allocation: Low

• Traditional News Media

  • Influence: 8% (75K)

  • Budget Allocation: Medium

• Podcasts

  • Influence: 2% (45K)

  • Budget Allocation: Low

• SubReddits

  • Influence: 2% (40K)

  • Budget Allocation: Low

• Comparison Sites

  • Influence: 2% (35K)

  • Budget Allocation: Low

Key Takeaways from the data:

1. Google Search (Unbranded) is the most influential but also receives high budget allocation.

2. Industry Websites & Blogs have strong influence but receive relatively lower budget allocation.

3. Social Media Feeds (15%) receive a lot of budget despite being less influential than Google Search.

4. YouTube is a significant influencer (110K) but receives low budget allocation.

5. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI news aggregators are emerging, but investment is currently low.

6. Podcasts, Reddit, and Comparison Sites have small but noteworthy influence, yet budgets remain minimal.