Rand Fishkin's "Audience Influence Spending" Slide

Rand Fishkin showed this killer chart comparing where audiences are influenced vs where marketers spend money. Spoiler: they don’t match up.

The real insight from the chart

Marketers dump cash into social ads and Google Search, but audiences say they’re swayed more by blogs, YouTube, and even good ol’ email newsletters. It’s a perfect snapshot of “everyone copies everyone” budgeting instead of looking at real influence.

Why this hits hard

• Budget often follows hype, not ROI
• Owned media (email, blogs) punch above their weight
• Small influence channels can have big trust impact
• Attention ≠ persuasion

Real-world examples

• Morning Brew: 4M+ subscribers, built mostly via email referrals
• MrBeast: leverages YouTube as his core influence engine
• HubSpot: massive SEO + blog authority drives millions in leads
• SparkToro: wins attention through high-value newsletters, not ads