100+ Top SMS Marketing Statistics: 2023 Industry Data

Curious about the state of SMS marketing this year?

We’ve updated our roundup of SMS marketing statistics with all the essential facts and figures from the latest industry reports.

Below, you’ll find dozens of stats that reveal interesting insights like:

• The current size of the SMS marketing industry
• How customers feel about SMS marketing this year
• SMS marketing benchmarks (i.e. open rates, click-through rates, etc.)
• New trends that are shaping the industry

And much more. Ready? Let’s jump into it.

General SMS marketing statistics

First, let’s take a look at some general SMS marketing stats that tell us more about the industry as a whole.

According to data and forecasts from Grand View Research:

• The US SMS marketing market was valued at around $4.98 billion in 2020…
• …and is expected to reach a market cap of $12.58 billion in 2025
• That’s an estimated CAGR of 20.3%

Source: Grand View Research

This meteoric growth is being driven by the increasing penetration of SMS marketing across industries, and the advent of AI-enabled SMS marketing tools.

Mobile advertising spending (which includes SMS advertising) is also growing fast:

• Total mobile advertising spend reached $360 billion this year…
• …which is up from $327 billion last year

Source: Statista²

SMS marketing usage statistics

How many businesses are using SMS marketing?

The majority of them, according to data from Simple Texting. Their latest survey found that:

• 86% of companies have used SMS marketing in the last year
• That’s a 56% increase compared to the year before

Not only that, but businesses also seem to be spending more on SMS marketing this year:

• 67% of companies surveyed by Simple Texting said they plan to increase their SMS marketing budget this year
• 52% of companies surveyed by Attentive said they plan to increase their SMS marketing budget this year
• That’s greater than any other paid channel. For comparison, only 38% plan to increase their email marketing budget, and 45% plan to increase their social media marketing budget.

Source: Simple Texting, Attentive²

And businesses also seem to be sending more SMS messages:

• Ecommerce brands sent 62.3% more SMS messages in 2022 than the year before according to internal data from Omnisend

Source: Statista¹

How many people subscribe to SMS marketing messages?

SMS marketing isn’t just becoming more popular amongst brands. 

The statistics show that more and more consumers are also seeing the benefits of opting into SMS marketing messages:

• 91% of consumers have signed up for an SMS program (or are interested in doing so) as of 2023
• In comparison, only 81% of surveyed consumers had opted into at least one brand’s text message marketing program as of 2022
• And only 55.9% of surveyed consumers had opted into at least one brand’s SMS program as of 2021

Source: Attentive³, Attentive⁴

How many SMS programs do consumers subscribe to?

Both Klaviyo and Attentive conducted surveys to find out the average number of SMS programs that consumers subscribe to. 

Here’s what Attentive found:

• 5% of consumers are subscribed to over 30 brand’s SMS marketing programs
• 7.9% are subscribed to 20-29 SMS marketing programs
• 32.7% are subscribed to 5-19 SMS marketing programs
• 35.6% are subscribed to less than 5 SMS marketing programs
• 18.8% are not subscribed to any SMS marketing programs

Source: Attentive⁴

And here’s what Klaviyo found: 

• 52% of consumers are subscribed to SMS messages from 2-3 brands
• 28% are subscribed to 4-5 SMS marketing programs
• 10% are subscribed to 1 SMS marketing program
• 5% are subscribed to 6-7 SMS marketing programs
• 5% are subscribed to 7+ SMS marketing programs

Source: Klaviyo

Is SMS marketing effective?

Next, let’s look at some statistics that highlight how effective SMS marketing is:

• 58% of surveyed consumers say text message is the most effective business communication channel for reaching them quickly…
• …that’s higher than both email (21%) and phone calls (21%)

Source: Blogging Wizard

• 53% of surveyed marketers say SMS is one of their top three revenue-driving channels
• 22% of surveyed marketers say more than a fifth of their revenue comes from SMS marketing
• 73% of surveyed marketers say SMS drives incremental business revenue
• Almost a third of surveyed marketers say SMS increases their average order value or overall customer lifetime value

Source: Attentive²

How does SMS marketing impact purchases?

The stats below reveal how effective mobile messaging can be at driving sales.

• 73% of consumers have made a purchase after receiving a text from a brand…
• ..and 55% of those who have, have done so 2-3 times

Source: Klaviyo

• 52% of surveyed consumers have been influenced to buy a product after receiving a text/SMS message from a brand
• 38% of surveyed consumers have been influenced to purchase a service
• 23%  of surveyed consumers have been influenced to purchase a subscription
• Only 25% have not been influenced to buy any of the above

Source: Validity

• 57% of consumers say they’ve waited a long time for SMS offers/incentives before making a purchase to no avail…
• …and 32% of these consumers end up purchasing from a competitor instead if they don’t receive an SMS offer fast enough

Source: Validity

• 61% of consumers say that the most they’ve spent on a purchase they made due to a marketing text message was $50-$500.
• 31% say the most they’ve spent is $0-50
• 7% say the most they’ve spent is $500+

Source: Attentive³

How does SMS marketing help with customer retention?

SMS marketing doesn’t just help you to get new customers. As the statistics below show, it can also help you to retain and re-engage your existing customers.

When asked how SMS marketing supports their retention strategy:

• 58% of marketers say it helps to re-engage lapsed customers
• 47% say it powers segmentation and personalization efforts
• 28% say they use it to collect data, which informs their retention strategy

Source: Attentive²

• 56% of surveyed consumers said they’ve been reminded about a brand they’d forgotten thanks to an SMS message

Source: Validity

• 24% of brands that use SMS have made it part of their loyalty program.
• Over 20% of a brand’s SMS subscribers are repeat customers

Source: Attentive²

How does SMS marketing help with customer service?

Aside from being an effective marketing channel, SMS can also be a great customer support channel:

• 25% of marketers already use SMS as a customer service channel
• 86.6% of consumers say they’d like to be able to have a 1:1 SMS conversation with a brand when having checkout issues.

Source: Attentive²

• 22% of consumers in the UK currently interact with brands via text message for customer service
• That’s still less than other channels (75% get customer service via email, 52% via live chat, 32% via social media, 30% via phone call, and 28% via mobile apps), but…
• …58% of UK consumers say they’d be likely to interact with a brand via text message for customer service if they offered it
• Of those, 28% say they’d be extremely likely to do so.

Source: Attentive¹

How do brands use SMS marketing data?

Attentive asked brands/marketers how they use the data they get from their SMS subscribers, and found that:

•  58% use it to segment their SMS audience
• 44% use it to uncover consumer insights and trends
• 44% use it to personalize content
• 42% use it to build/refine their text marketing strategy
• 42% use it to optimize their overall marketing strategy

Source: Attentive²

They also found that:

• 49% of companies already use phone numbers to identify consumers for marketing purposes
• And a further 38% of companies are interested in doing the same

Source: Attentive²

Do consumers like SMS marketing?

The statistics show that, for the most part, consumers seem to like SMS marketing:

• 19% of surveyed consumers say SMS is their most preferred brand communication channel 
• This makes it consumer’s second-favorite brand communication channel overall
• It comes second only to email (52%), but above social media (16%), direct mail (6%), and app notifications (6%)

Source: Validity

However, consumers don’t like bad SMS marketing. And the consequences for getting it wrong can be rough:

• 96% of consumers have occasionally felt annoyed by SMS marketing messages
• 56% of consumers have reduced their purchases or stopped purchasing from a brand completely after receiving an annoying text message

Source: Validity

What do customers like about SMS marketing?

Attentive also asked consumers why interacting with brands through text positively impacts their shopping experience. They found that:

• 79.6% said it positively impacts them by allowing them to discover deals and new products
• 66.8% said it allows for a curated shopping experience
• 58.4% pointed to limited-time releases and launches as the main benefit
• 58.1% said they appreciated restock messages
• 56.7% benefited from personalized responses to their questions

Source: Attentive⁴

What types of SMS messages do customers like?

While consumers seem to feel positive about SMS marketing on the whole, the stats also show that they like certain types of messages more than others:

• 52% of customers say the type of text they most prefer to receive from brands is shipping notification messages
• 45% say they most prefer sales and promotions texts
• 30% say they most prefer special occasion acknowledgments (e.g. happy birthday messages)
• 26% say they most prefer win-back messages (incentives to complete a purchase, like discounts)
•  22% say they most prefer new product announcements
• 15% say they most prefer post-purchase thank you messages
• 15% say they most prefer abandoned cart reminders
• 13% say they most prefer welcome messages

Source: Validity

• 1 in 3 customers prefer SMS for messages about their orders/purchases
• 64% of consumers say they want to receive delivery confirmations via SMS more often
• 60% of consumers say they want to receive shipping confirmations via SMS more often
• 50%  of consumers say they want to receive order confirmations via SMS more often
• 50%  of consumers say they want to receive coupons/promo codes via SMS more often
• 39%  of consumers say they want to receive birthday deals via SMS more often

Source: Klaviyo

What types of SMS messages do customers dislike?

Now that we’ve looked at the type of SMS messages customers like, let’s look at the type of messages they don’t like, according to the latest statistics.

According to a survey from Klaviyo:

• 49% of consumers want to receive interesting/helpful articles via SMS message less often
• 44% want to receive ‘item in card reminders’ less often
• 37% want to receive event announcements less often
• 36% want to receive messages based on their actions less often
• 36% want to receive new product announcements less often

Source: Klaviyo

And according to Validity’s global survey, here are the factors that customers dislike most in brand text messages:

• 49% of consumers say they’re most likely to become annoyed when a brand messages too frequently. This makes it the number one subscriber complaint.
• 35% say they’re most likely to be annoyed after receiving messages from companies they haven’t interacted with
• 34% say they’re most likely to be annoyed when they receive messages that aren’t relevant to their needs or interests
•  29% say they’re most likely to be annoyed by duplicate/repetitive messages

Source: Validity

The risks of SMS marketing

Here are some statistics about what consumers think the biggest risks of SMS marketing are:

• 70% of consumers are concerned about the data security risks posed by SMS marketing messages
• 66% of survey respondents say their biggest concern regarding SMS messages is companies selling their data
• 66% of survey respondents said their biggest concern was the danger of clicking links due to scammers.
• 61% said their biggest concern was data breaches
• 41% said their biggest concern was ransomware attacks

Source: Validity

SMS marketing in the US

US consumers seem to be particularly open/receptive to SMS marketing messages, according to the stats:

• US consumers are 15% more likely than consumers in the AU/NZ to be influenced to make a purchase due to a marketing text message…
• … and 357% more likely to be influenced to purchase a service

• US consumers are 28% more likely than those in the UK to be influenced to make a purchase due to a marketing text message…
• …and 433% more likely to be influenced to purchase a service
• US consumers are 750% more likely than those in the UK and 1600% more likely than those in AU/NZ to appreciate welcome messages

Source: Validity

SMS marketing opt-in statistics

Next, we’ll take a look at some SMS marketing statistics that relate to opt-ins and the factors that make customers more likely to subscribe.

• 41% of consumers say they’ve signed up to receive marketing text messages in order to receive shipping notifications.
• 38% say they’ve signed up to find out about special offers and promotions
• 33% say they’ve signed up because they were offered a discount for subscribing
• 31% say they’ve signed up to receive birthday or anniversary gifts
• 30% say they’ve signed up to join a rewards program

Source: Validity

According to Klaviyo, consumers are more likely to subscribe when:

• They’re being offered a discount (69%)
• They’re being offered a unique experience or product (42%)
• They’re able to ask questions and receive faster responses via SMS (38%)
• They get personalized messages (32%)
• They know there’s a person on the other end of the message (26%)

Source: Klaviyo

Klaviyo also found that: 

• 50% of consumers are more likely to subscribe after making a purchase
• 27% are more likely to subscribe before they make a purchase if offered a discount
• 23% are more likely to subscribe before they make a purchase no matter what

Source: Klaviyo

Validity asked what the minimum discount consumers would need to be offered from a brand in order to sign up for SMS messages, and found that:

• 41% want 10% off
• 14% want 20% off
• 13% want 15% off
• 9% want 5% off
• 8% want 25% off
• 8% want 30% off
• 4% want 35% off
• 3% want 40%+ off

Source: Validity

Here are a few more interesting opt-in statistics worth knowing:

• 85% of people that subscribe to a brand’s SMS messages also subscribe to their email

Source: Attentive³

• 84% of consumers have received marketing text messages from a company they don’t recall signing up with.

Source: Validity

• 30% of surveyed consumers say brands often fail to set proper expectations about the type of messages they will send when they sign up, and a further 11% say they constantly do that.
• 84% of surveyed consumers say they’ve received marketing texts from companies without subscribing

Source: Validity

SMS marketing opt-out statistics

We’ve looked at some stats about the factors that encourage people to opt-in, now let’s look at what makes them opt out of SMS marketing programs.

According to a Klaviyo survey:

• 73% of consumers would unsubscribe from an SMS marketing program due to too many messages
• 69% would unsubscribe if they received the same message many times 
• 62% would unsubscribe if they receive messages that don’t have a purpose
• 53% would unsubscribe if they receive messages about topics and products they’re not interested in
• 50% would unsubscribe if they received messages that don’t seem to be intended for them

Source: Klaviyo

Validity also found that:

• 58% of consumers that get irritated with a brand’s SMS marketing messages will unsubscribe, and…
• 52% will delete those messages without reading them
• 38% will report them as spam or junk
• 28% will stop doing business with the brand completely
• 28% will reduce purchases from the brand
• 15% will send negative feedback privately
• 14% will leave a negative public review

Source: Validity

Worryingly, Validity also found that despite the fact that regulations require brands to allow their subscribers to opt out of marketing communications: 

• 26% of surveyed consumers say brands fail to respect opt-outs
• 18% of these say they do so often
• 8% say they do so constantly

Source: Validity

How often should you send SMS marketing messages?

Here are some statistics that reveal insights about how frequently consumers like to receive SMS marketing messages.

• 19% of surveyed consumers would prefer to receive marketing texts weekly
• 17% only want to receive them when there’s an important announcement
• 16% would like to receive them 2-3 times per week
• 15% would like to receive them daily
• 12% would prefer to receive them 2-3 times per month
• 12% would prefer to receive them monthly
• 4% would prefer to receive them quarterly

Source: Validity

Validity also found that brands seem to be missing the mark when it comes to text messaging frequency:

• 20% of surveyed consumers say brands often text at inappropriate times
• 5% say brands constantly text at inappropriate times
• 97% of respondents say they’d prefer to be able to customize the frequency at which they receive brand SMS text messages…
• …and 81% say if they could, they’d be more likely to purchase from a brand

Source: Validity

SMS marketing benchmarks

Various reports and studies have analyzed the data to try to figure out what the average SMS marketing click-through rate (CTR) and open rates are. Here’s what they found.

According to Klaviyo:

• Promotional texts have an average CTR of 36%
• That’s 8x greater than email (4.5%)

Source: Klaviyo

Statista’s data is slightly more pessimistic. According to them:

• The average click rate of SMS messages is around 10.66%
• The average conversion rate of SMS messages is around 0.19%

Source: Statista¹

Attentive took a deeper dive into the data to determine the average CTR for different industries/niches. 

They found that CTR varies substantially by message type. But to keep things simple, here is the average CTR of a typical welcome message by industry:

• Apparel: 6.6% – 24.7%
• Footwear: 8.5% – 31.7%
• Health & beauty: 5.8% – 27%
• Home & office: 7.6% – 26.8%
• Children & baby apparel: 4.1% – 19.9%
• Pets: 4.8% – 20.6%
• Jewelry & accessories: 7% – 27%
• Electronics: 6.9% – 30.5%
• Sports & fitness: 8.9% – 28.3%
• Food & beverage: 5.4% – 29.8%
• Grocery: 6.9% – 35.8%
• Restaurants: 5% – 30.4%

Source: Attentive²

SMS marketing integration statistics

Here are some statistics relating to how brands integrate their SMS marketing tools/campaigns

• 93% of surveyed brands integrate SMS with other tools in their tech stack
• 78% integrate SMS with their e-commerce solution (making this the #1 most common integration)
• 26% integrate SMS with their CRM (customer relationship management) solution
• 25% integrate SMS with their ESP (email service provider)
• 9% integrate SMS with their CDP (customer data platform)

• While only 25% of businesses have a technical integration between their SMS tools and their ESP, 79% still align their SMS campaigns with email marketing campaigns. 
• 33% also align their SMS marketing campaigns with their social media marketing efforts

Source: Attentive²

AI in SMS marketing

One of the biggest trends of the last few years has been the increasing use of AI (artificial intelligence) within SMS marketing. Here are some stats that tell us more:

• 83% of companies using SMS marketing have incorporated AI this year
• 81% of companies have used ChatGPT or other generative AI to help them write SMS marketing messages

• 57% use AI in their SMS campaigns for customer satisfaction surveys and review requests
• 50% use it for appointment reminders
• 39.5% use it for billing/collections
• 37.3% use it for customer service / text-for-info
• 33.8% use it for new offerings/announcements

Source: Simple Texting

SMS marketing statistics sources

• Attentive¹
• Attentive²
• Attentive³
• Attentive⁴
• Blogging Wizard
• Grand View Research
• Validity
• Klaviyo
• Simple Texting
• Statista¹
• Statista²

SMS marketing statistics: Final thoughts

That concludes our roundup of SMS marketing statistics. We hope you found them useful!

While you’re here, you might want to check out some of our other statistics roundups:

• Digital marketing statistics
• Social media statistics
• Email marketing statistics
• Content marketing statistics
• Live chat statistics
• Marketing automation statistics
• AI statistics

Enjoy!