• by Lee Vann , Columnist, August 13, 2015

Earlier this week, I was happy to receive the 12th annual Ad Age Hispanic Fact Pack. Each year, I analyze the Hispanic Fact Pack from a digital lens and, once again, it contains clear and compelling data for marketers to allocate budgets to target online Hispanics.

Here are five reasons marketers should be targeting digital Hispanics that I gleaned from this year’s Hispanic Fact Pack:

1. Hispanics are voracious consumers of digital content

Targeting Hispanics via digital channels makes sense because Hispanics spend a ton of time consuming it. The 2015 Hispanic Fact Pack tells us:

• Internet usage on a home computer is 3.5 hours per day for Hispanics vs. 3.3 for non-Hispanics

• Internet usage on a mobile phone is 2.1 hours per day for Hispanics vs. 1.7 hours per day for non-Hispanics

• Watching online videos, Hispanics spend 2.7 hours per day vs. 1.6 for non-Hispanics

2. Hispanics are mobile super-users

For marketers thinking about targeting digital Hispanics, it is clear that they should be thinking mobile first. Hispanics are leading the way across the vast majority of mobile usage categories analyzed by Ad Age. Take a look:

• 66.1% of Hispanic smartphone users visit APP stores each month vs. 60.2% of non-Hispanics

• 65.5% of Hispanic smartphone owners view online videos each month vs. 59.5% of non-Hispanics

• 79.7% of Hispanic smartphone owners use social media each month vs. 77.2% of non-Hispanics

Brand marketers should pay special attention to the fact that Hispanics are more likely to engage with brands via social media on their mobile devices. The 2015 Hispanic Fact Pack found that 25% of Hispanics agree that social media is a way for them to tell people about companies and products they like vs. 22.5% of non-Hispanics. In addition, 22.6% of Hispanics agree that they like to follow their favorite brands or companies via social media vs. 21.9% of non-Hispanics.

3. Hispanics are more likely to buy online

Digital advertising can drive many benefits for brands including awareness, brand lift, engagement, traffic driving, list building, increased consideration and sales lift. It can also be used to drive online sales and Hispanics are a great target for e-commerce because they are more likely to buy online. We recently discussed reasons why CPG brands should start e-commerce with U.S. Hispanics and the 2015 Hispanic Fact Pack provides even more reasons to target online Hispanics with e-commerce offerings.

• 54.1% of Hispanics have purchased electronics on a PC vs. 53.5% of non-Hispanics

• 24.8% of Hispanics have purchased food on a PC vs. 23.% of non-Hispanics

• 18.4% of Hispanics have purchased personal care items on a cell phone vs. 10.8% of non-Hispanics

4. Your competitors are targeting online Hispanics

If you are not targeting digital Hispanics, it is likely that your competitors are. Smart marketers have realized that winning with Hispanics is critical for growth and are increasingly investing in targeting Hispanics, including digital. Ad Age reports that expenditures on measured Hispanic media increased 12% in 2015 vs. 0.7% for non-Hispanic media; all told marketers invested nearly $9.5 billion targeting Hispanics in 2014.

Digital media expenditures grew the fastest year over year at 18.3% with marketers investing nearly $700 million in Hispanic digital media. Who is leading the way? Here are the top 10 advertisers on Hispanic websites according to Ad Age:

1. AT&T
2. Nissan
3. Procter & Gamble
4. General Motors
5. Fiat Chrysler
6. Verizon
7. Microsoft
8. American Express
9. Toyota 
10. Core Digital Media

5. There are myriad efficient ways to target digital Hispanics 

At this point marketers should not be asking themselves if they should be targeting digital Hispanics, they should be asking how. Fortunately, there are many efficient and measurable ways to target digital Hispanics including websites, social media, mobile, programmatic and video. The Hispanic Fact Pack illuminates many of the ways marketers can target digital Hispanics including highlighting the largest U.S. multi-platform players including:

• Google, 36 million unique Hispanic visitors, 95% reach

• Facebook, 33 million unique Hispanic visitors, 86% reach

• Yahoo!, 31 million unique Hispanic visitors, 80% reach

If you are looking to grow your business, pick up Ad Age’s 2015 Hispanic Fact Pack and start targeting digital Hispanics.