As companies navigate a highly competitive landscape defined by rising customer expectations and the rapid evolution of AI-powered technologies, new data from Contentsquare’s 2025 Digital Experience Benchmarks released today suggests that turning traffic into conversions is a growing challenge across industries.
The report, which analysed 2024 online experience data, found brands spent 13.2% more on digital ad spend last year yet the increased investment has not translated into better results. This year’s annual report, which analysed over 90 billion user sessions across 6,000 websites, found that the cost of an online visit surged 9% this year, amounting to a 19% increase within the past two years, while conversion rates have dropped 6.1% year-over-year. The culprit? A perfect storm of declining organic traffic, increased dependence on paid channels (especially paid social), and most crucially, the challenge of meeting customers’ growing demands for faultless interactions.
The report reveals that in 2024, 40% of all online visits were plagued by user frustration, leading to abandoned sessions and lost customers. While frustration decreased slightly compared to last year (-1.8%), it remains a trend that is likely to persist unless actively addressed. Slow-loading content was a key contributor to bounces, causing 53% of users to exit after viewing just a single page. With 73% of consumers citing poor customer experience (CX) as the primary reason they would avoid making a purchase from a company, and in a market saturated with alternatives, any kind of digital friction is becoming increasingly costly.
“In 2025, almost half of online visits will continue to suffer from preventable friction, which is, at best, cutting journeys short, and at worst, driving customers away entirely,” said Jean-Christophe Pitié, chief marketing and partnerships Officer of Contentsquare. “Relying on paid channels to drive traffic without addressing the customer journey itself is a short-term fix. The true value lies in nurturing online experiences that are frictionless, engaging, and that keep customers coming back.”
Paid channels accounted for 39% of all digital traffic analysed by Contentsquare in 2024, up from 37% in 2023, while paid social media drove a remarkable 12% spike in traffic. Businesses that increased reliance on paid social saw higher bounce rates (+9.2%), fewer page views (-8.7%), and lower conversions (-10.6%), underscoring a crucial point: realising the full potential of paid traffic requires an equal focus on crafting frictionless customer journeys.
Amidst these challenges, a cohort of ‘digitally disciplined’ organisations — those actively monitoring and managing digital experience performance — are showing the way forward. These leaders:
- Decreased load time frustration by 22%
- Minimised rage clicks by nearly 5%
- Reduced friction 4.5x more effectively than their peers
Similarly, websites that increased session depth (or the number of pages viewed) by 10% or more saw an average 5.4% boost in conversions.
“Digital experience has transcended marketing to become a core business imperative, and as our data shows, it now directly impacts the bottom line,” continued Pitié. “In 2025 and the years ahead, and with advancements in AI and how users interact online, we expect to see a widening gulf between organisations that prioritise experience vs. those that don’t. With acquisition costs soaring and consumer patience waning, companies that will thrive will be those that make understanding and optimising every customer interaction a fundamental part of their business strategy moving forward.”
Contentsquare’s 2025 Digital Experience Benchmarks Report analysed 90 billion sessions, 389 billion page views, and 6,000 websites across the globe. The analysis compares Q4 2023 vs. Q4 2024 (October-December) insights. Strict aggregation measures are employed to ensure anonymity.
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