45+ Word of Mouth Marketing Statistics you Should Know in 2024

Have you ever think about the last time you have experienced something and had to tell your friends about it? If yes, it is known as word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM), and we experience it almost every day. That’s the reason that half (48%) of businesses globally rely profoundly on the potential of word-of-mouth marketing. It’s a free form of promotion (in most cases), which employs loyal customers to spread the message about your products/services.

Today we will be discussing the word of mouth marketing statistics that will help you understand how powerful word-of-mouth marketing is.

General Word of Mouth Marketing Statistics

1. 23% of people discuss their favourite products with friends and family every day.
2. Moreover, 78% of people share their favourite recent experiences with people they know at least once per week.
3. 90% of people are much more likely to trust a recommended brand (even from strangers).
4. 88% of people had an immense level of trust in a brand when a friend or family member recommended it.
5. Word-of-mouth comes first when it comes to the top five popular ways to recommend a business followed by Facebook, Google, and Twitter.
6. 26% of people will simply avoid a brand if their friend or family shares a negative story about their experience.
7. 21% of people will lose their trust in a brand, whether they’ve been a user or not, because of bad word-of-mouth.

The Power of Word-of-Mouth Marketing Statistics

1. On average, word-of-mouth leads to $6 trillion in annual global spending and is responsible for 13% of all sales.
2. Word-of-mouth is even more powerful than paid ads, resulting in five times more sales.
3. 28% say that word-of-mouth increases brand affinity (a customer’s common values with a brand).
4. 64% of marketers admit that word-of-mouth is the most effective form of marketing.
5. 70% of marketers are looking to improve their online word-of-mouth spending, while 29% off-line.
6. Most marketers (83%) practice word-of-mouth marketing because it builds brand awareness. 
7. 43% of marketers use word-of-mouth marketing to boost sales.

Brand Discovery Through Word-of-Mouth Statistics

1. Millennials were 38% more likely to find brands through recommendations from friends and family.
2. In Colombia and Mexico, 39% of people discover products for the first time from word-of-mouth recommendations.
3. 32% of people got new podcasts from word-of-mouth recommendations, and 29% particularly from friends’ recommendations.
4. 20% of people become aware of Smartphone apps through word-of-mouth recommendations.
5. Customers knew about Amazon Prime Day in 2020, mostly from Amazon’s website itself. However, 17% of people found out from friends and family.
6. In Australia, 42% of people find new brands through search engines, and 38% through word-of-mouth recommendations.
7. In Romania, WOMM is the least popular method to find new products, with only 28% of the population getting products this way.
8. 16% of Baby Boomers find new brands through word-of-mouth.
9. Generation X is the most to find products through word-of-mouth, with 18% regularly getting products this way.
10. And for Generation Z, only 12% discover new products by word-of-mouth.

Brand Consideration Through Word-of-Mouth statistics

1. 17% of Chinese luxury customers considering which hotel to stay in agree that word-of-mouth is among the top factors in their decision making.
2. 28% of people admitted that visiting a convenience store after mentioned by someone they knew in the U.S. in 2019.
3. Word-of-mouth was the fourth-leading reason for considering visiting convenience stores, according to 17% of Canadians.
4. 23% of customers consider buying their Christmas gifts because of word-of-mouth recommendations.
5. Also, 23% of people consider the gifts they purchase for Valentine’s day, depending on recommendations.

Influence on Purchases Through Word-of-Mouth Statistics

1. Word-of-mouth is responsible for 90% of all purchases directly.
2. 23% of Singaporean shoppers bought something in a physical store in 2019 based on a friend’s recommendation.
3. 37% of Americans decided on which restaurant to eat at based on word-of-mouth recommendations.
4. Likewise, 31% of electronics purchases are heavily influenced by word-of-mouth recommendations.
5. 20% of North Americans who became conscious of a product through word-of-mouth made the purchase immediately.
6. More than half of craft beer drinkers in the U.K. told that they would buy a beer they’ve never tried if friends recommended it.

How Customer Service Drives Word-of-Mouth Statistics

1. If a customer feels happy with their interaction with your business, 96% will return and will be more likely to tell the people around them.
2. On average, customers who have their problems resolved by a business will tell four to six people about their positive experience.
3. Customer loyalty, in most cases, is worth ten times more than a single purchase. 
4. Brands that provide customers with positive experiences receive three times more word of mouth than brands that offer dull experiences.
5. The average customer who has a bad experience tells eight to 16 people about it.
6. Customers who have a second poor experience with a business will tell over 20 people.

Word of Mouth Statistics for Small Business

1. Most businesses become aware of new artificial intelligence technologies from colleagues, networking, and seeing other companies use them. 
2. 8% of B2B marketers find word-of-mouth marketing effective in promoting live events for marketing purposes.
3. Word-of-mouth counts as one of the top traffic sources for small businesses that do affiliate marketing.
4. 20% of businesses intend to use word-of-mouth marketing in their yearly marketing strategy.
5. 65% of businesses use word-of-mouth recommendations to recruit for open positions.
6. Word-of-mouth can be a potent marketing tool for small businesses. A mosquito fumigation service said 76% of their clients come from word-of-mouth recommendations. 
7. When buying business software, 46% of small businesses choose based on colleagues’ recommendations and other companies in the industry.
8. In the U.S., word-of-mouth marketing is in 48% of businesses ’ best marketing tools.

Organic vs Non-Organic Word-of-Mouth

What marketers have to understand is that there are two ways you can build WOM.

Organic WOM starts by consistently presenting customers with great experiences with your brand.

On the other hand, if your business isn’t getting enough organic WOM, you can create amplified WOM through marketing campaigns.

A simple strategy for creating campaigns is getting brand advocates, a.k.a, who actively advertise your product with their networks (mostly on social media platforms).

Tinder is an outstanding example of a WOM marketing campaign. When the app went live in 2012, they relied entirely on brand ambassadors to spread the word. Thanks to WOM, they already had 50 million users just two years after launching.

Employing influencers to spread the message about your brand is another effective WOM marketing strategy.

Audible worked with influencers to target YouTube users. By utilizing influencers from diverse backgrounds, they were able to target people with a variety of interests. They worked with influencers in gaming, entertainment, people and blog, film and animation, etc.

As a result, Audible crossed over 123 million YouTube viewers in one single WOM marketing campaign.

While organic WOM is the most reliable and longest-term strategy for your business, and you can be pretty successful from it, you can kickstart your word-of-mouth strategy by using amplified WOM.

Conclusion

We hope these word-of-mouth statistics helped you to shape an idea of how persuasive WOMM is and give you ideas on how to use it in your business’s future.