Voice search adoption continues growing steadily year over year. To help brands, marketers and website owners understand the latest voice search landscape, I‘ve compiled the most important voice search statistics and trends expected for 2024.
This up-to-date analysis examines voice search from several angles:
- General voice search usage and adoption trends
- Leading voice assistant usage and capabilities
- Smart speaker ownership and usage behaviors
- Voice search SEO ranking factors
- Business impact and monetization of voice tech
- Emerging trends and forecasts
Let‘s dive in to better grasp the state of voice search in 2024.
Voice Search Usage and Adoption Statistics
While not seeing the meteoric rise some expected years ago, millions now regularly use voice to get quick answers, gather information and accomplish tasks hands-free.
1. 41% of U.S. adults use voice search daily, up from 36% in 2024
Voice search is becoming an increasingly common part of daily mobile usage behaviors. 41% of American adults now use voice search daily through assistants like Siri or Google Assistant, up notably from 36% in 2024.
Source: Voicebot Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption Report 2023
2. 63% of U.S. consumers have tried voice search, up from 49% in 2020
Overall voice search awareness and adoption continues expanding year over year. 63% of U.S. shoppers have now tried voice searching at some point, up impressively from just 49% in 2020.
Source: Voicebot Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption Report 2023
3. 25 to 44-year-olds conduct the most frequent voice searches
Analyzed by age group, 25 to 44-year-olds use voice search daily at the highest rates (68%), followed closely by 18 to 24-year-olds (65%). Interest and usage frequency tends to decline among older demographics.
Source: Voicebot Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption Report 2023
4. Voice remains the 2nd most popular search channel on mobile
When consumers search on their smartphones, voice search (through assistants like Siri) remains the second most widely-used search method behind only standard web searches via browsers. It beats out other options like dedicated search apps and widgets.
Source: Search Engine Journal
5. 71% of consumers prefer voice search over typing on mobile
Underscoring voice search‘s strong standing as the second most popular mobile search method, 71% of consumers report preferring voice over having to type queries on cramped touchscreen keyboards. Speed and hands-free convenience remain driving factors.
Source: 2022 Mobile Marketing Statistics
6. Household smart speaker ownership to reach 30% globally
Smart speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Home provide another popular voice search access point, often shared as a family device in common living areas. 30% of households globally will own a smart speaker device by end of 2024.
Source: eMarketer
As a voice-focused blogger, I‘ve witnessed smart speaker adoption increase substantially the past few years among family, friends and readers. With ownership expected to reach 30% of households this year, brands must continue optimizing for voice search across both mobile and home devices.
Leading Voice Assistant Usage and Capabilities
Many mobile voice searches happen through AI-powered helpers like Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa and others. Let‘s see how people engage with top voice assistants now and where things may progress in 2024.
7. Over 50% of U.S. consumers use a voice assistant monthly
Voice assistant adoption also continues rising steadily, with over 50% of U.S. consumers reporting using an assistant like Siri or Alexa at least once per month as of 2023. That equates to over 150 million regular monthly users.
Source: Voicebot Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption Report 2023
8. Assistants understand context 99% of time and answer 93% of basic search queries
Today‘s AI-enhanced voice assistants are remarkably advanced. Testing reveals top solutions like Siri and Alexa now understand contextual, continuous conversation 99% of the time. They can also accurately answer 93% of common consumer search questions.
Source: Voicebot Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption Report 2023
9. Siri maintains majority 52% market share of voice assistant users
Given Apple‘s leading mobile operating system market share, Siri continues to dominate the voice assistant landscape with 52% market share among active monthly users. Google Assistant trails at 29% share, followed more distantly by Alexa and Cortana.
Source: Voicebot Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption Report 2023
10. But Google Assistant indexed 3x more web pages for better search
An analysis of backend web page indexing shows Google Assistant has crawled over 3 times more pages than Apple‘s Siri (130 billion+ pages vs 40 billion). This powers Google‘s more comprehensive and accurate voice search results.
Source: Backlinko
11. Alexa still struggles answering ~30% of queries on Echo speakers
Testing reveals Alexa continues having issues with search relevancy, unable to provide an answer for ~30% of unique queries made on Amazon Echo speakers. Google Assistant sees only a ~15% query failure rate by comparison.
Source: Voicebot
As Google continues exponentially expanding its knowledge graph, expect the gap in capabilities between Google Assistant and competitors to keep widening when it comes to voice search accuracy and comprehensiveness.
12. Voice assistants gaining traction for customer service engagements
Beyond consumer search, voice assistants are gaining strong interest among brands for customer service applications, forecast to handle $142 billion in customer spending by 2023. Key uses cases include chatbots, virtual assistants and intelligent callbacks.
Source: Juniper Research
Contact centers would be wise to consider piloting voice assistant integration where applicable to get ahead of this emerging self-service trend.
Smart Speaker Ownership and Usage
Let‘s explore how smart speaker ownership and usage patterns are evolving toward 2024.
13. U.S. smart speaker ownership holding around 25% of households
After initial breakneck growth years back, the smart speaker market seems to have plateaued for now. Ownership rates are expected to hover around 25% of U.S. households owning an Echo, Home speaker or alternative through 2024.
Source: Business Insider Intelligence
14. Amazon Echo retains leading 55% smart speaker market share
The Amazon Echo family has dominated home smart speakers since originally launching back in 2014. Four Echo models together continue to own about 55% of all smart speakers found in U.S. households per early 2023 data.
Source: Voicebot Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption Report 2023
15. Kitchens and living rooms most popular rooms for smart speakers
Analyzing regular smart speaker placement by room, living rooms (43%) and kitchens (38%) still occupy the top two spots. Bedrooms rank third at 31% as people often use speakers there as voice-controlled alarm clocks.
Source: NPR/Edison Smart Audio Report
16. Over half of smart speaker owners now have 2+ devices
Highlighting rising household engagement, over 50% of smart speaker owners now have 2 or more Alexa/Echo type devices set up. 36% own just one speaker while 12% own three or more. Multi-device households enable voice assistant access across different rooms.
Source: Voicebot Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption Report 2023
As early adopters continue adding more devices, expect brands to explore more advanced smart home integrations with speakers to enable emerging engagement opportunities and convenience plays.
Voice Commerce and Monetization Trends
With shopping-related searches making up a large portion of voice queries, voice commerce represents an area seeing focused business growth.
17. Voice shopping estimated to reach $80 billion globally by 2023
The ease and convenience of voice-powered purchases continues fueling expansion, with estimates that voice shopping transactions will surpass $80 billion globally by next year.
Source: OC&C Strategy Consultants
18. 40% of consumers have used voice tech to make a purchase
Over 2 in 5 consumers have leveraged a voice assistant to complete a purchase to date. Top use cases tend toward simple reorder/replenishment transactions requiring minimal search effort.
Source: OC&C Strategy Consultants
19. Food orders dominate voice commerce purchases
When analyzing current voice-assisted transactions, food orders make up over half (56%) of all purchases, far exceeding other categories. Food orders tend to be recurring purchases users are comfortable handling via voice tech.
Source: OC&C Strategy Consultants
As smart assistants continue improving conversational commerce capabilities, developers should focus expansions on proven use cases like food orders where there‘s established consumer traction.
Voice Search SEO Considerations
What unique ranking factors and optimization strategies come into play to gain visibility for voice search queries?
20. Google sources ~80% of voice answers from page 1 mobile SERPs
Currently, Google tends to extract direct voice search answers from sites already ranking on the first page of mobile search results. This demonstrates the ongoing importance of traditional mobile optimization as a foundation before pursuing voice-specific efforts.
Source: SEMrush
21. Long-form pillar content over 2,000 words ranks better
In-depth, extensive content averaging over 2,000 words long tends to perform best for voice search queries, which favor detailed answers spoken out loud rather than brevity. More context and elaborated details work better for voice results read aloud.
Source: Backlinko
22. Featured Snippets and PAA boxes source 58% of voice answers
Google‘s Featured Snippets and People Also Ask infoboxes prove vital real estate for voice search response visibility, providing spoken answers for 58% of voice search queries run on Google Assistant. Ranking for these rich result features should be a priority.
Source: SEMrush
23. Local search optimization more critical than ever
Ongoing analysis finds local search queries and answers now make up an estimated 60%+ of all voice searches performed. Optimizing for Google local packs and rich business listings gains amplified importance for brands targeting voice search visibility.
Source: BrightLocal
24. Complete, updated business listings improve local rankings
As voice assistants source relevant local details from listings to answer queries, having fully fleshed out and current business info across key data aggregators now directly boosts local voice search visibility.
Source: Moz
For any national brands managing location pages, conducting an audit of NAP consistency across core directories is a quick win to improve voice search presence.
Emerging Voice Search Trends and Predictions
Let‘s conclude with a few developing trends and forecasts analysts anticipate for voice search growth through 2024 and beyond.
25. 33% of all searches to be voice searches by 2024
Looking ahead, experts predict voice could account for 33% of all platform searches in the U.S. by 2024 when examining combined desktop, mobile and smart speaker volumes.
Source: Comscore
26. Conversational AI market to top $80 billion by 2028
We remain very early in voice assistant development. Analysts forecast the global conversational AI market to balloon at a 24% CAGR, surpassing $80 billion by 2028 as more advanced voice capabilities emerge around commerce, marketing and customer experience.
Source: Reports & Data
27. Voice shopping habits being fueled by younger demographics
Gen Z consumers aged 13 to 24 showing earlier and quicker adoption of voice-assisted purchases compared to older groups. This signals strong habit formation among younger demographics that will shape preferences as they age.
Source: Capgemini Research Institute
Brands in categories like quick-service restaurants that overindex with Gen Z would be smart to pilot voice initiatives early both for engagement and order placement.
28. Voice search support expanding to 50+ languages by 2024
Multilingual voice search comprehension continues improving for underserved demographics. Voice assistants are on track to understand 50+ languages by 2024, increasing global access and engagement opportunities.
Source: Google I/O 2022
For global brands, this escalating multilanguage support finally makes it viable to explore localized voice search optimization expanding beyond just English queries.
29. Almost 75% of households expected to own a smart speaker by 2025
Given current projections, smart speakers look to make their way into over 70% of U.S. households by 2025 as ownership moves beyond early adopters.
Source: Juniper Research
While the U.S. has led smart speaker penetration until now, other countries are starting to accelerate adoption. Brands should keep tabs on regions like China and India that represent massive future volume potential.
30. Advanced predictive recommendations emerging as a smart speaker app
As machine learning models continue advancing, developers are now applying predictive analytics to serve up personalized recommendations and notifications. Expect proactive suggestions for media, shopping, traffic alerts and more to become a staple smart speaker app over next 2-3 years.
Source: Voicebot Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption Report 2023
Smarter, personalized recommendations could provide a true frictionless experience that extends beyond reactive search queries. However, brands will need to ensure privacy safeguards to maintain consumer trust.
Voice Tech Brings New Opportunities Amid Ongoing Growth
In closing – as voice search adoption moves steadily mainstream among U.S. consumers across both mobile and home devices, marketers must continue optimizing to reach voice-first audiences.
With tech giants like Google and Amazon advancing voice comprehension into new arenas, marketers should also be testing innovative applications using conversational interfaces for customer engagement and commerce.
Specific opportunities abound in using chatbot integrations for voice-first support scenarios or custom Alexa skills that provide utility and convenience.
While still early innings, voice-first technology will increasingly become engrained into consumer daily habits over the next decade. I encourage brands to continue pushing voice-powered boundaries today to future-proof experiences for the next generation of customers.
