Content marketing statistics for 2026

61% of B2B marketers with a content strategy say its effectiveness improved, though only 13% report significant improvement.

Survey of 1,015 B2B marketers, mostly North America, June–August 2025

59% of B2B marketers rate their marketing efforts as at least somewhat effective, leaving nearly half neutral or struggling.

Survey of 1,015 B2B marketers, mostly North America, June–August 2025

96% of B2B marketers say their organization creates thought leadership content.

Survey of 1,015 B2B marketers, mostly North America, June–August 2025

97% of content marketers say their content marketing program is successful to some degree, up from 73% a year earlier.

Survey of 353 marketing professionals, November–December 2025

61% of marketers believe marketing is going through its biggest disruption in 20 years because of AI.

Survey of 1,500+ marketers across industries, regions and company sizes

37.9% of marketers say leadership views marketing as less important to the business than in past years.

Survey of 1,500+ marketers across industries, regions and company sizes

27% of content marketers call their content marketing program very successful, up from 11% a year earlier.

Survey of 353 marketing professionals, November–December 2025

The share of content marketers publishing blog posts two to six times per week fell from 28% in 2014 to 12% by 2022.

Annual survey of 1,042 content marketers and bloggers

79.2% of marketing teams expect their 2026 budget to increase at least slightly over 2025, and just 6% expect a decrease.

Survey of 1,500+ marketers across industries, regions and company sizes

73% of marketers say their budget receives more scrutiny now than in the past.

Survey of 1,500+ marketers across industries, regions and company sizes

45% of B2B marketers name AI-powered marketing tools among their top three areas for increased investment in 2026.

Survey of 1,015 B2B marketers, mostly North America, June–August 2025

46% of B2B marketers who know their budget expected their content marketing budget to increase in 2025 versus 2024.

Survey of 980 B2B marketers, mostly North America, June–August 2024

30% of B2B content marketers spend less than $5,000 per month on content marketing, compared with 26% of B2C marketers.

Survey of 353 marketing professionals, November–December 2025

52% of content marketers plan to shift more spending toward video or multimedia content in 2026.

Survey of 353 marketing professionals, November–December 2025

39% of content marketers say they are shifting spending away from blogs or long-form content in 2026.

Survey of 353 marketing professionals, November–December 2025

57% of companies were investing more in video in 2025, while only 5% were reducing their video budget.

14 million videos, 100,000 businesses and a survey of 1,300 professionals

35% of content marketers say they are not changing how they spend their content budget in 2026.

Survey of 353 marketing professionals, November–December 2025

The share of content marketers saying their blog delivers strong results fell from 26% in 2022 to 14% in 2026.

Annual survey of 1,042 content marketers and bloggers

Nearly one in five content marketers say they don't know whether their blog delivers results, up from 9–14% over the previous decade.

Annual survey of 1,042 content marketers and bloggers

33% of marketers name measuring the ROI of marketing activities as a top challenge, the most-cited challenge.

Survey of 1,500+ marketers across industries, regions and company sizes

51% of B2B marketers who measure content performance agree their organization measures it effectively.

Survey of 980 B2B marketers, mostly North America, June–August 2024

Only 37% of social media marketers say it is easy to tie social activity to business outcomes.

Survey of 1,100+ social media professionals

34% of video marketers rank engagement rate as their number one video success metric, followed by conversion rate at 29%.

14 million videos, 100,000 businesses and a survey of 1,300 professionals

Demo bookings generated through webinars rose 73% in 2025.

ON24 platform data on webinars and virtual events, 2025

The share of video marketers using social engagement as a success metric nearly doubled, from 12% to 22%, in one year.

Survey of nearly 1,000 marketers and 13 million+ hosted videos

25% of content marketers spend less than $100 a month on LLM visibility measurement tools, and 24% spend $100 to $249.

Survey of 353 marketing professionals, November–December 2025

Almost 45% of SEO professionals who use AI content say its SEO performance improved over the past year; only 6% report a decline.

Survey of 224 SEO and content marketers

95% of B2B marketers say their organizations use AI-powered applications.

Survey of 1,015 B2B marketers, mostly North America, June–August 2025

89% of B2B marketers whose organizations use AI use it for content creation tools that generate or optimize written content.

Survey of 1,015 B2B marketers, mostly North America, June–August 2025

86.4% of marketing teams say they use AI in at least a few marketing areas, and only 1.7% neither use nor plan to use it.

Survey of 1,500+ marketers across industries, regions and company sizes

62.7% of marketers believe more unique, human-centered content is needed to compete with AI content.

Survey of 1,500+ marketers across industries, regions and company sizes

93% of surveyed marketers use AI to create or help create content, up from 87% a year earlier.

Survey of 301 marketers, 2026

69% of marketers say they publish a larger share of AI content than a year ago.

Survey of 301 marketers, 2026

Only 2.7% of marketers trust AI-generated content without human review; 66% trust it only after a human reviews it.

Survey of 301 marketers, 2026

Companies using AI published a median of 17 articles per month, 42% more than the 12 published by companies not using AI.

Survey of 879 marketers

74.2% of newly created English-language web pages contain some AI-generated content.

AI-detector analysis of 900,000 new English pages from April 2025

70% of SEO teams say faster production is the top benefit of AI, but only 19% say AI improves content quality.

Survey of 224 SEO and content marketers

64% of SEO professionals use a human-led, AI-assisted content workflow, while 23% create content entirely without AI.

Survey of 224 SEO and content marketers

92% of content marketers use AI, yet AI users and non-users are equally likely to say their blog delivers strong results.

Annual survey of 1,042 content marketers and bloggers

Only 1% of content marketers say their work is 100% AI-generated.

Survey of 353 marketing professionals, November–December 2025

AI-generated articles made up 39% of newly published English articles just 12 months after ChatGPT launched.

AI-detector analysis of 65,000 English articles from Common Crawl, 2020–2025

58% of B2B marketers rate videos as the most effective content type, ahead of case studies and customer stories at 53%.

Survey of 980 B2B marketers, mostly North America, June–August 2024

How-to videos see the highest engagement, with videos under one minute reaching an 82% engagement rate versus 58% for 5–30 minute videos.

14 million videos, 100,000 businesses and a survey of 1,300 professionals

41% of brands use AI for video creation, up from 18% in 2024.

14 million videos, 100,000 businesses and a survey of 1,300 professionals

58% of Americans aged 12 and older have consumed a podcast in the last month, an all-time high.

National survey of 2,050 Americans aged 12+, January 2026

57% of Americans aged 12 and older have both listened to and watched a podcast.

National survey of 2,050 Americans aged 12+, January 2026

The average webinar drew 239 attendees in 2025, an 11% increase year over year.

ON24 platform data on webinars and virtual events, 2025

Webinars converted 60% of registrants into attendees on average in 2025, with average engagement holding at 49 minutes.

ON24 platform data on webinars and virtual events, 2025

67% of webinar attendees joined live in 2025, while 43% chose to watch on demand.

ON24 platform data on webinars and virtual events, 2025

Three out of four companies now host webinars, and one in three marketers rank them among the most impactful video types.

Survey of nearly 1,000 marketers and 13 million+ hosted videos

LinkedIn carousel posts earn a median engagement rate of 21.77%, roughly three times that of LinkedIn video and image posts.

Analysis of 52 million+ posts published through Buffer across 10 platforms

84% of B2B marketers distributed content through blogs on their corporate websites, and 71% through email newsletters.

Survey of 980 B2B marketers, mostly North America, June–August 2024

B2B marketers rate in-person events (52%) and webinars (51%) as their most effective content distribution channels.

Survey of 980 B2B marketers, mostly North America, June–August 2024

68% of B2B marketers increased their use of LinkedIn over the previous 12 months.

Survey of 980 B2B marketers, mostly North America, June–August 2024

70% of brands use Instagram for marketing, making it the most-used platform ahead of Facebook at 69.6%.

Survey of 1,500+ marketers across industries, regions and company sizes

49.4% of marketing teams reuse the same content across platforms, while 39.5% tailor content for each platform.

Survey of 1,500+ marketers across industries, regions and company sizes

41% of social media marketers say it is harder than ever to stand out organically.

Survey of 1,100+ social media professionals

TikTok is the most-used social platform among Americans aged 12–34, preferred by 29% of that group.

National survey of 2,050 Americans aged 12+, January 2026

LinkedIn accounts that reply to comments see up to 30% higher engagement than accounts that don't reply.

Analysis of 52 million+ posts published through Buffer across 10 platforms

60% of companies make webinar replays available on landing pages, and 60% cut social clips from their webinars.

Survey of nearly 1,000 marketers and 13 million+ hosted videos

96.55% of pages in a 14-billion-page web index get no traffic from Google, and 1.94% get one to ten visits a month.

Analysis of about 14 billion pages in Ahrefs' Content Explorer

Only 2,997 of roughly 20 million pages with no referring domains get more than 1,000 search visits per month.

Analysis of about 14 billion pages in Ahrefs' Content Explorer

Organic social media drives about 5% of trackable website traffic, roughly one-eleventh as much as organic search.

Analysis of traffic across BrightEdge enterprise client websites

Only 360 of every 1,000 Google searches in the US lead to a click on a website Google doesn't own and isn't an ad.

Datos clickstream panel of US and EU desktop and mobile searches

70.2% of marketers believe they can adapt their strategy to changes in organic search such as AI Overviews.

Survey of 1,500+ marketers across industries, regions and company sizes

The average visitor from AI search is worth 4.4 times the average traditional organic search visitor, based on conversion rate.

Study of 500+ digital marketing and SEO topics across AI and search

Pages cited by ChatGPT search rank in Google positions 21 or lower for related queries almost 90% of the time.

Study of 500+ digital marketing and SEO topics across AI and search

AI referrals account for 1.08% of all website traffic across 10 industries, or about 1 in 100 visits.

3.3 billion sessions across 13,770 domains, May–September 2025

Generative AI referrals to US retail sites converted 31% better than other traffic sources during the 2025 holiday season.

Adobe Analytics data on visits to US retail websites

Publishing original research raises a content marketer's likelihood of reporting strong blog results by 50%.

Annual survey of 1,042 content marketers and bloggers

Content marketers who collaborate with influencers beat the strong-results benchmark by 2.6x, yet only 7% still do it, down from 25% in 2017.

Annual survey of 1,042 content marketers and bloggers

80% of blog posts ranking first on Google are human-written, versus 9% classified as purely AI-generated.

AI-detector analysis of 42,000 top-10 blog pages for 20,000 keywords

94% of the blog posts studied had zero external links pointing to them.

Analysis of 912 million blog posts with BuzzSumo data

Content longer than 3,000 words earns 77.2% more referring domain links on average than content under 1,000 words.

Analysis of 912 million blog posts with BuzzSumo data

List posts generate 218% more social shares than how-to articles and 203% more than infographics.

Analysis of 912 million blog posts with BuzzSumo data

In videos under 60 seconds, calls to action placed in the first quarter convert nearly 40% of viewers.

14 million videos, 100,000 businesses and a survey of 1,300 professionals

Businesses using personalization averaged 125 on-demand webinar attendees versus 97 for those not using it, a 25% increase.

ON24 platform data on webinars and virtual events, 2025

Content marketers who use six or more of the tracked content strategies are nearly three times as likely to report strong blog results.

Annual survey of 1,042 content marketers and bloggers

56% of marketers who use AI say human-written content is better quality than their AI content.

Survey of 301 marketers, 2026

45% of B2B buyers used generative AI during a recent purchase, mainly to gather information on vendors and products.

Survey of 645 B2B buyers, August–September 2025

49% of B2B buyers say they are more likely to get misleading information from a sales rep, versus 51% from generative AI.

Survey of 645 B2B buyers, August–September 2025

61% of B2B buyers prefer an overall rep-free buying experience.

Survey of 632 B2B buyers, August–September 2024

73% of B2B buyers actively avoid suppliers who send irrelevant outreach.

Survey of 632 B2B buyers, August–September 2024

69% of B2B buyers report inconsistencies between information on a supplier's website and what its sellers tell them.

Survey of 632 B2B buyers, August–September 2024

94% of business buyers use AI in their buying process, up from 89% a year earlier.

Forrester Buyers' Journey Survey, 2025

61% of business buyers report using private AI tools provided by their organization.

Forrester Buyers' Journey Survey, 2025

On average, 13 internal stakeholders and nine external participants influence a B2B buying decision.

Forrester Buyers' Journey Survey, 2025

B2B buyers first contact sellers 61% of the way through the buying journey, down from 69% a year earlier.

Global survey of nearly 4,000 B2B buyers, 2025

95% of the time, the winning vendor in a B2B purchase is already on the buyer’s Day One shortlist.

Global survey of nearly 4,000 B2B buyers, 2025

63% of hidden B2B buyers spend more than an hour a week consuming thought leadership.

Edelman-LinkedIn survey of nearly 2,000 global business professionals

95% of hidden B2B buyers say strong thought leadership makes them more receptive to sales and marketing outreach.

Edelman-LinkedIn survey of nearly 2,000 global business professionals

79% of hidden B2B buyers are more likely to back a vendor's RFP proposal if it consistently produces high-quality thought leadership.

Edelman-LinkedIn survey of nearly 2,000 global business professionals

51% of B2B software buyers now start their research with an AI chatbot more often than with Google, up from 29% in April 2025.

Survey of 1,076 B2B software buyers and decision-makers, March 2026

69% of B2B software buyers chose a different vendor than initially planned based on AI chatbot guidance.

Survey of 1,076 B2B software buyers and decision-makers, March 2026

57% of Americans aged 12 and older have used a generative AI assistant.

National survey of 2,050 Americans aged 12+, January 2026

Google users who see an AI summary click a traditional result link in 8% of visits, versus 15% when no summary appears.

Browsing data of 900 US adults, 68,879 Google searches, March 2025

Google users click a link inside an AI summary in just 1% of visits to pages that show one.

Browsing data of 900 US adults, 68,879 Google searches, March 2025

Google users end their browsing session after 26% of searches with an AI summary, versus 16% with only traditional results.

Browsing data of 900 US adults, 68,879 Google searches, March 2025

18% of Google searches by US adults produced an AI summary in March 2025.

Browsing data of 900 US adults, 68,879 Google searches, March 2025

34% of US adults have used ChatGPT, roughly double the share in 2023, including 58% of adults under 30.

Survey of 5,123 US adults, February–March 2025

For every 100 clicks a top-ranking page could historically earn, Google now keeps 58 when an AI Overview appears.

300,000 keywords, Google Search Console CTR data, December 2023 vs December 2025

Brands cited in an AI Overview earn 35% more organic clicks and 91% more paid clicks than brands not cited.

3,119 informational queries across 42 client organizations, June 2024–September 2025

Organic CTR averaged 0.61% on informational queries with AI Overviews in September 2025, versus 1.62% on queries without them.

3,119 informational queries across 42 client organizations, June 2024–September 2025

58.5% of Google searches in the US and 59.7% in the EU ended without a click in 2024.

Datos clickstream panel of US and EU desktop and mobile searches

80% of consumers rely on zero-click results for at least 40% of their searches, cutting organic web traffic by an estimated 15% to 25%.

Survey of 1,117 US consumers with Dynata, December 2024

68% of LLM users use the platforms to research and summarize information, and 42% use them for shopping recommendations.

Survey of 1,117 US consumers with Dynata, December 2024

AI Overviews appeared for 6.49% of keywords in January 2025, peaked near 25% in July, then fell to 15.69% by November.

Analysis of 10M+ keywords with Datos clickstream data, January–November 2025

For the same keywords, the zero-click rate fell from 33.75% to 31.53% after AI Overviews started appearing.

Analysis of 10M+ keywords with Datos clickstream data, January–November 2025

85% of B2B software buyers think more highly of a vendor when an AI chatbot includes it in an answer.

Survey of 1,076 B2B software buyers and decision-makers, March 2026

76% of B2B organizations have a dedicated content marketing team or person on staff.

Survey of 980 B2B marketers, mostly North America, June–August 2024

76% of marketers say they are doing the work of more than one job.

Survey of 600+ marketers for CMI's 2026 career and salary report

21% of content marketers outsource 75% to 100% of their content budget, up from 5% a year earlier.

Survey of 353 marketing professionals, November–December 2025

14% of content marketers don't outsource any of their content budget, down from 29% in 2023.

Survey of 353 marketing professionals, November–December 2025

The median annual income of content marketers is $100,000, down almost 5% from $105,000 the previous year.

Survey of 316 content marketers, 61% US-based

13% of in-house content marketers say they were laid off in the past year, down from 16% the year before.

Survey of 316 content marketers, 61% US-based

New US job postings for content marketing managers dropped 73% compared with 2023.

Analysis of 8,000 US content marketing job listings on Indeed, November 2025

34% of senior content marketing job listings mention AI, as do nearly 20% of execution-level roles.

Analysis of 8,000 US content marketing job listings on Indeed, November 2025

83.5% of marketers say they are expected to produce more content because of AI, and 35.7% say much more.

Survey of 1,500+ marketers across industries, regions and company sizes

About 23% of content marketers surveyed work as full-time freelancers.

Survey of 316 content marketers, 61% US-based

Free tools and calculators earned 2.11× the Google click-through rate of the same website’s articles at the same positions, across 6.2 million pages.

Same-site comparison at Google positions 4 to 10, 6.2 million pages from 3,332 sites.

Free tools got 14.2% of Google impressions but 34.1% of clicks in a study of 6.2 million pages.

6.2 million pages from 3,332 sites in Google Search Console, classified by URL.

Blog articles got 35% of Google impressions but only 9.6% of clicks in a study of 6.2 million pages.

6.2 million pages from 3,332 sites in Google Search Console, classified by URL.

“What is” definition pages earned 0.52× the Google click-through rate of the same website’s other articles at the same positions.

Same-site comparison at Google positions 4 to 10, 6.2 million pages from 3,332 sites.

“Best X” listicles earned 0.69× the Google click-through rate of the same website’s other articles at the same positions.

Same-site comparison at Google positions 4 to 10, 6.2 million pages from 3,332 sites.

Across 415 websites tracked in Search Console, median Google impressions grew 2.18× between October 2025 and August 2026, while clicks grew only 22%.

Google Search Console data for 415 sites, October 2025 to August 2026, median site.

Google click-through rate fell 40% for the median website tracked between October 2025 and August 2026.

Google Search Console data for 415 sites, October 2025 to August 2026, median site.

Marketing & advertising websites lost 52% of their Google click-through rate between October 2025 and August 2026, the steepest drop of any niche tracked.

41 sites in the niche, median per niche, niches with at least 12 sites.

75.4% of websites gained Google clicks after they started using Outrank, an AI SEO agent.

1,383 sites, latest 28 days vs the 28 days before joining, 90+ days of data after.