Revealing the UK’s Digital Desires: The Most Sought-After Marketing Services by City

With digital growth becoming a priority for many businesses across the UK, we wanted to understand what people are looking for and which services are most in demand.

We took SEO, PPC, social advertising, email marketing and web design. 

We found out which were the most popular services by city, why web design is so in demand right now and which city loves social advertising more than London.

Keep reading to see how we found the most popular digital marketing services in the UK and the most in-demand service in your city.

See the results by city.

Results

When we started our research, we were always expecting London to top the charts

It’s safe to say we weren’t wrong! 

The capital city made up 32.0% of all digital marketing searches across these five sectors.

However, what we were not expecting was to see Birmingham (the UK’s second-largest city by population) feature only fourth overall for digital marketing searches.

Web design was the most popular digital marketing service with 40.4% of all digital marketing searches going to this service.

We can see the full breakdown of the services here:

• Web Design – 40.4%
• SEO – 33.1%
• Social Media Marketing – 19.4%
  • Facebook – 9.4%
  • Instagram – 2.4%
  • Meta – 1.1%
• Pay Per Click – 4.4%
• Email Marketing- 2.7%

So why do so many people search for web design and SEO? 

And where has the demand for pay-per-click advertising gone?

Let’s break this down even further.

Why Does Web Design Dominate the Search Results?

Web design is an integral part of any digital business. It has the ability to bring in more leads and reach millions of people across the globe.

If your business is looking to implement digital marketing, you want to get your website in order before bringing in the traffic. 

That is because if your website isn’t optimised for conversions, you could end up wasting a lot of money bringing in potential buyers whose first impression of your brand isn’t a good one.

Web design is a highly technical process that requires companies to build stunning designs that are technically sound. 

Without input from specialist designers and developers, it’s incredibly difficult to create a website that can grow with the business.

We must note as well that as with the terms selected, some of the search volumes could have been impacted by more general search terms that may include students and courses.

What Paul at Blaze says: “With more options than ever to build your own websites, there has been a huge increase in new websites going live at the drop of a hat.

However, that doesn’t mean that everyone has the skills required to build a professional and scalable website. 

I think part of this web design search domination is businesses looking to stand out with a well-built website that is scalable and has the support of skilled designers and developers overseeing the projects”.  

Why Does SEO Dominate the Active Marketing Services?

At Blaze, we have seen an increase in businesses enquiring about our SEO services. 

With the cost of living and inflation increasing, it’s no surprise that businesses are looking to build longevity into their business.

SEO helps long term brand growth and increases the organic traffic through to a website. 

With a well implemented SEO strategy, your business can increase its online users without the need to spend advertising money.

Like most forms of marketing, they can be implemented by the business themselves.

However, it’s a time consuming process. 

There are many different aspects to consider with SEO and without up-to-date industry knowledge, your strategy is likely to have minimal impact.

Why is the PPC Share So Low?

When we look at the trends of PPC keywords over the last 5 years, it has always been lower compared to its organic counterpart, SEO. 

While there are many intricacies to crafting the perfect advert for optimal performance, the Google platform itself offers a lot of support and guides to get started.

This means that a lot of businesses keep their PPC advertising in house and have dedicated teams for this type of advertising. 

For many businesses, PPC is the main source of revenue for their online business, so understandably, they want to keep a close eye on this and have full control of their advertising efforts.

What Mustafa at Blaze says: “Google makes a lot of revenue through selling advertising in the search results. Because of that, it puts a lot of resources into simplifying the process for new and existing customers.

The introduction of PMAX advertising has allowed people to share their pay-per-click ads across the whole Google umbrella with just a few clicks.

Because of this, we are seeing a lot of companies keeping their PPC ads in house while outsourcing other marketing activities such as SEO and social media ads that require more time and resources.

However, by using an experienced ad agency, you can be more efficient and get more for your money. If you do not have a dedicated PPC team, it can be hard to understand the ins and outs of the Google Ads platform to get the best insights and the best results.” 

Take Control of your Marketing with Blaze Media

Each business has its marketing requirements and often a combination of different services will ensure that you get the most for your money.

At Blaze, we often see the best results for our clients when they use a combination of SEO, PPC and web design. 

This targets the key pillars of a business to ensure long term success with conversions and quick revenue in mind.

Get in touch to see how we can help you take control of your digital marketing strategy.

Most Popular Cities for Each Digital Marketing Service

Overall Digital Marketing Services

Web Design

Search Engine Optimisation

Pay Per Click

Social Advertising

Facebook Advertising

Instagram Advertising

Meta Advertising

Email Marketing

The Most Popular Digital Marketing Services in Each City