Top 10 Pros and Cons of Digital Marketing in 2025

Be it any company in today’s time, digital marketing has provided a variety of pros and cons. Moreover, digital marketing has provided businesses with significant access to the entire global market. Of course, the pros of digital marketing have outweighed those of traditional marketing.

The advent of the Internet and the development of various digital technologies have had fruitful consequences in the twenty-first century. It is true that our lives have become easier because of digital technology. 

Digital marketing has assisted in the overall development of the digital market. It has acted as a backbone of the marketing and advertising section. Digitalization has evolved into a highly effective advertising technique.

For businesses and newly established firms who want to get exposed to the digital world out there, digital marketing has become the most efficient marketing approach. Several firms out there use digital marketing approaches to research, develop their promotional strategy, and access digital mass marketing in order to compete effectively.

Every company, irrespective of whatever business sector they are into, have their own line of products and services to offer. And because digital marketing definitely assists brand owners in generating money through digital marketing channels and techniques, it’s possible that this is the sole reason why the majority of businesses, be it reputed brands or newly established companies, have jumped into digital marketing and started incorporating its various effective tactics. 

As digital marketing is evolving and developing constantly, the rules and criteria keep changing. For a business or a digital marketer wanting to be successful, one should stay updated and keep on modifying their digital approach on a regular basis. Digital marketing is important, as we all know, but it comes with its own pros and cons.

Keeping the context of the above paragraphs, let us start this article with the basics and fundamentals of digital marketing before getting into the crucial statistics and the pros and cons of digital marketing.

Let’s go!

What Is Digital Marketing?

The term “digital marketing” basically describes the practice of advertising products and services using digital channels in order to reach a larger and more targeted audience in the digital market. Using search engines, social media, websites, mobile devices, and other digital channels to promote your business in the digital market is always a good idea.

Businesses used to market their products through newspapers, television, and radio. These options, however, are still accessible and are used by a number of retailers and business owners today. Changes in how businesses connect with their consumers have resulted in the advent of the Internet. However, this is where digital marketing comes into play. This sort of marketing is exemplified by websites, social media, search engines, apps, and many more.

As the Internet grew in popularity and reached billions of users across the world, small and reputable businesses were forced to rethink their marketing strategies and adapt to a variety of digital marketing platforms. Facebook is a good illustration of this (now Meta). Businesses might acquire critical information about their target audience and supply what they want as a result of the introduction of social media platforms like these.

So, What’s A Digital Marketing Strategy?

A digital marketing strategy, in simple terms, is a plan that defines how you, as a business or brand owner, can achieve your essential and expected goals by utilizing digital marketing channels such as paid, earned, and owned media.

Owned media includes things like websites, mobile sites, blog sites, and social media channels, whereas earned media includes things like article mentions, social media shares, reposts, and reviews. PPC advertisements, display ads, retargeting ads, paid influencers, sponsored content promotion, and social media ads are all examples of paid media.

A Few of the Most Popular Digital Marketing Channels

Pay-Per-Click

PPC (pay-per-click) advertising is an internet marketing strategy in which advertisers are charged a fee each time one of their advertisements is clicked. It’s simply a method of buying website traffic rather than trying to acquire them organically. Search engine advertising is one of the most prevalent sorts of PPC.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a strategic marketing method that focuses on creating and distributing useful, relevant, and consistent content in order to attract and retain a target audience and, eventually, produce profitable customer action. It is true that CONTENT IS THE KING.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms to interact with audiences in order to develop a company’s brand, increase sales, and generate website traffic. This covers sponsored, owned, and earned media activities such as developing engaging content for social media accounts, listening to and talking with followers, evaluating results, and running social media commercials.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a type of direct marketing that entails sending mass emails to leads in order to educate and encourage them to do a certain action, such as making a purchase. Email marketing has existed for quite some time.

Video Marketing

Video marketing is a cutting-edge marketing strategy that combines amusing films into your campaigns. Video marketing may help with everything from building customer relations to selling your products, services, or items.

Affiliate Marketing 

Affiliate marketing is a way to make money online by having a consumer buy a product after hearing about it from you as an affiliate marketer. This is an online marketing method that allows you to earn a commission as an affiliate while simultaneously helping the product owner increase sales.

SMS Marketing

The use of text messages to transmit promotional materials or transactional messages for marketing purposes is known as SMS marketing (SMS). These messages are mostly used to convey time-sensitive offers, updates, and notifications to those who have accepted to receive them from your business.

Now that we have understood what is digital marketing and its basics and fundamentals, let us now dive into the most crucial part of this article – The pros and cons of digital marketing.

The Advantage and Disadvantage of Digital Marketing

Let’s see what are the Pros and Cons of Digital Marketing.

Pros of Digital Marketing

1. Brand Loyalty is Increased As a Result of Digital Marketing

The best way a business or a company can increase their brand loyalty is by attracting recurring clients and maintaining a constant/stable relationship with them. Digital marketing may help you build the kind of customer loyalty you’ll need to keep your firm afloat.

In this digitally competitive market, a business has to stand apart and increase its brand loyalty. By providing, nurturing and maintaining relationships, a business increases its business opportunities as a result of increased brand loyalty.

2. Digital Marketing Offers Instant Feedback

It is thoroughly necessary for reputed brand owners and other local shop owners to get constant feedback on what they are providing. Feedbacks are a source of improvement and teach the service providers where they lack and how much they have to improve.

Feedbacks also teach you what your customers and clients are expecting according to their taste and preferences. It will take relatively little time for digital marketing initiatives to reach potential clients. As a result, collecting feedback from clients is very quick and simple. One of the best benefits of digital marketing is instant feedback.

3. Measurable and Trackable Results

Several tools are available to assess the campaign’s effectiveness. For a brand owner or a digital marketer working constantly and effectively to gain results by using digital channels, tracking and measuring results becomes a priority. Digital marketing wouldn’t want their invested money to go to waste. 

One of the pros of digital marketing is the use of online measuring tools. A piece of comprehensive information on how the client uses the website or responds to the advertisement can be obtained.

4. Digital Marketing Increases Engagements

Another benefit of digital marketing is that it helps in increasing engagements. Several digital marketing techniques and tactics which are effectively used at the right time help in keeping the customer’s attention and keep them engaged with the brand. 

Customer engagement activities like as polls, frequent blog posts, event promotions, relevant and real-time social media material, and promotional activities are just a few examples. This makes it much easier for a brand to survive.

5. Brand Growth 

Through digital marketing efforts, it is vital for brand owners and companies to build and maintain their brand image. Customers go for a brand’s credibility and loyalty whenever to wish to shop.

Digital marketing assists in the development of a brand through a variety of direct campaigning and tailored approaches. Customers get more engaged as a result of this strategy, which allows them to feel the brand’s distinctive selling proposition and value.

6. Improved Market Analysis

Information from digital mediums is sufficient for review and studies. For any digital marketer or business development, researching and analyzing is the essential key to gaining success. Understanding the market, competition, and customer behaviours are all necessary questions that are to be answered.

It will aid in the successful promotion of the brand and the expansion of the product’s market. As a result, it is one of the essential benefits of digital marketing.

Cons of Digital Marketing

1. Cut-throat Competition

In digital marketing, there is far too much rivalry. Everybody from over the world is adopting digital marketing channels to advertise and promote their goods and services. Getting the attention of clients is really tough. Methods quickly become obsolete, and responding to client requirements should be swift.

2. Concerns for Security and Privacy

For all businesses, security is a top priority. Even customers, most of them still rely on traditional shopping rather than online shopping. Customers are worried about whether to rely on online products.  Data protection and privacy standards must be followed by an organization.

3. Time Consuming 

Though some digital marketing tools, such as HubSpot, Hootsuite, Ahrefs, and Tweetdeck, can assist you in overcoming time-consuming methods, a digital marketer should make sure that their digital marketing strategies and plans are organized. 

4. Digital Marketing Requires Digital Skills

The individual in charge of the campaign should be well-versed in numerous digital marketing channels. It is not impossible to become digital effective, but it is required for a successful digital marketer to have years of good experience. The tools and trends change all the time, so it’s important to stay up with them. 

5. Comments and Complaints

It’s difficult to provide customer support over the Internet. If a consumer leaves a nasty comment, the entire audience will see it. It will have an influence on the brand’s promotion and credibility.

Now, that we have seen the pro and cons of digital marketing let us now take a look at the crucial digital marketing statistics in 2022.

A Few Crucial Digital Marketing Statistics in 2023

• In 2020, the worldwide digital advertising and marketing industry was forecast to be worth $350 billion, and by 2026, it is expected to be worth $786.2 billion.

• The digital advertising and marketing market in the United States is presently valued at $460 billion.

• From 2020 to 2026, the compound annual growth rate of digital marketing is expected to be 9%t

• Just last year, 63% of firms boosted their digital marketing spending.

• Digital marketing budget expenditure increased by 14% across organizations between 2020 and 2021.

• PPC generates a 200% return on investment for every dollar invested.

• Facebook Ads and Google Ads are the paid ad channels with the highest stated ROI rates.

• Organic search, according to 49% of firms, provides the best marketing ROI.

• For every dollar invested in email marketing, $36 is returned.

• Email marketing, according to small businesses, is the marketing medium that gives them the best return on investment.

• Over 20% of companies claim the volume of leads generated is the most important aspect in determining the performance of their marketing platforms.

• Digital marketing channels receive 72% of total marketing spending.

• Digital marketing accounts for 55% of all marketing. In 2021, total digital advertising spending was $436 billion, compared to $196 billion for traditional advertising.

• People spend 50% more with firms that reply to evaluations on a regular basis.

• Before making a purchase, 93% of consumers examine internet reviews.

• Consumers can stay on a website for up to 5 times longer after reading negative reviews.

• Google has a market share of 91% of the global search engine market.

• 45% of customers purchase items online and pick them up in-store.

• Three-quarters of companies state that their marketing activities have a direct impact on total revenue.

• Ads on the Internet may enhance brand recognition by as much as 80%.

• Following exposure to display commercials, consumers are 155% more likely to seek brand-specific phrases.

• A retargeting ad increases the likelihood of a customer making a purchase by 70%.

• PPC generates a 200% return on investment for every dollar invested.

• When someone does a search after viewing a linked display ad, they have a 59% chance of converting.

• After seeing a display ad, a user’s search activity increases by 155%

• After seeing a display ad, 27%of customers perform a search for the company.

• In 2021, the overall search ad expenditure was $144.8 million.

• Global digital ad spending is expected to reach $441 billion in 2022 and $485 billion in 2023.

• In 2021, digital advertising accounted for 4% of overall advertising spending.

• In 2020, half of all advertising will be done online; offline advertising will cost $196 billion, while digital advertising will cost $378 billion.

• Paid search accounts for 15% of the typical business’s website traffic, whereas paid social accounts for just 5% of total website traffic.

• In 2022, 4% of digital marketers want to boost their sponsored social expenditure.

• A PPC campaign is used by 65% of small and medium-sized enterprises.

• 45% of small firms use a sponsored search approach, and 55% utilize display advertisements.

• Google Ads provide 96% of the company’s income.

• Around 70% to 80% of individuals completely disregard paid internet advertisements.

• 93% of companies use Facebook, and 86% of those who do use Facebook advertising.

• There are 55 million organizations on LinkedIn right now.

• Instagram has more than 200 million business accounts.

• On Snapchat, you may see over 30 million companies.

• A mobile device is used by 91% of users to access social media sites. As a result, you’ll want to integrate social media into your mobile marketing plan.

• Small firms utilize email marketing to reach their ideal consumers in 64% of cases.

• Approximately one out of every five email campaigns is not compatible with mobile devices.

• 8% of marketers prefer not to use social media over email marketing.

• You won’t want to skip out on taking advantage of this low-cost strategy to advertise your brand since 64% of small businesses currently use email marketing.

• Only 33% of people will open an email merely because the subject line is interesting.

• Only 47% of email receivers open an email based only on the subject line.

• A mobile device is used by 91% of users to access social media sites. As a result, you’ll want to integrate social media into your mobile marketing plan.

• Small firms utilize email marketing to reach their ideal consumers in 64% of cases.

• Approximately one out of every five email campaigns is not compatible with mobile devices.

• 80% of marketers prefer not to use social media over email marketing.

• You won’t want to skip out on taking advantage of this low-cost strategy to advertise your brand, since 64% of small businesses currently use email marketing.

• Only 33% of people will open an email merely because the subject line is interesting.

• Only 47% of email receivers open an email based only on the subject line.

• For content marketers, video marketing is the most common media approach.

• When firms use video content, they gain income quicker, according to 49% of them.

• 86% of customers want to see more video content from their favorite businesses.

• Customers are eager to spend more with a business that is completely transparent online, according to 73%of customers.

• Only this year, 76% of companies said they implemented marketing automation.

• In 2021, 35%t of businesses planned to use augmented reality or virtual reality in their marketing campaigns. As a result, 42% want to raise their investment in 2022.

Conclusion

Although everything in this world comes with its own pros and cons, digital marketing moreover can be highly beneficial for brand owners and newly established firms who want to grow their business and perform better compared to their rivals.

We’d like to hear some of your perspectives on digital marketing. Make comments to us down below!

For the same, we recommend you to join Digital Scholar’s online digital marketing course, which could help your transform yourself into this digitally changing world. Here are the upcoming batch details for the digital marketing course.

FAQs Related Pros and Cons of Digital Marketing

What are some pros and cons of digital marketing?
Digital marketing offers increased reach, cost-effectiveness, and valuable data insights. However, it requires constant adaptation due to the ever-evolving digital landscape, and maintaining a strong online presence can be time-consuming.

What are the main advantages and disadvantage of digital marketing for businesses?
Businesses benefit from increased brand visibility, targeted audience reach, and measurable results through digital marketing. However, the competitive nature of the digital space and the constant need for innovation can pose challenges.

What are advantages and disadvantage of digital marketing as a career?
A career in digital marketing offers diverse opportunities, flexibility, and the potential for high earning potential. However, it demands continuous learning to stay updated with the rapidly evolving industry and can be demanding due to the fast-paced nature of the field.

What are pros and cons of digital marketing for startups?
Startups can leverage digital marketing to reach a wider audience with limited budgets, build brand awareness quickly, and gather valuable customer data. However, competing with established brands and staying ahead of the curve in a dynamic market can be challenging for startups.

What are pros and cons of digital marketing for personal branding?
Digital marketing provides a platform for individuals to build their online presence, connect with their audience, and showcase their expertise. However, managing an online persona requires consistent effort, and maintaining a positive online reputation can be challenging.

What are the main advantages of digital marketing?
Digital marketing offers increased reach, cost-effectiveness, measurable results, improved customer engagement, and increased brand awareness compared to traditional methods.

What are the main disadvantages of digital marketing?
The digital landscape constantly evolves, requiring continuous adaptation. Privacy concerns, intense competition, technology dependency, and the potential for negative feedback are key disadvantages.

Is digital marketing more cost-effective than traditional marketing?
Yes, in many cases. Digital marketing channels like social media advertising, email marketing, and SEO often provide more affordable options with targeted reach compared to traditional methods like television or print advertising.

How can I measure the success of my digital marketing campaigns?
Track key metrics like website traffic, conversions, social media engagement, return on investment (ROI), and brand mentions to measure the success of your digital marketing campaigns.

What are the key skills needed for a successful digital marketing career?
A successful digital marketer needs strong analytical, creative, and communication skills, along with technical proficiency in digital marketing tools and a continuous learning approach to stay updated with industry trends.