New data from Outbrain shows that 11% of external referrals are from social media sites, lagging significantly behind the 41% of referrals that come from search and nearly 33% from other content sites, as reported by eMarketer.
According to the study, referrals from social sites are mainly for news (42%) and entertainment (30%) stories. However, Outbrain acknowledges that “Results may be skewed towards news and entertainment sites, as they constitute more than 50% of the publishers” working with the company and included in the survey.
Those referred via social media were less engaged than those from search or other content sites, with fewer page views per session and a higher bounce rate.
Social media referrals were also less than half as likely to be “hyperengaged” (viewing at least five pages per session) as referrals from content sites or search.
