66 B2B Marketing Stats & Trends for 2026

B2B — business-to-business — marketing is the primary driver of changes and technological adoption that often sets the tone for marketing in all its other shapes and forms.

In the US alone, companies spend tens of billions of dollars on B2B marketing every year.

But where does all that money go? Which methods actually produce results? And how is the B2B marketing landscape changing in 2026?

Let's start with the key highlights.

Editor’s Picks

• A third of B2B marketers still use live events, narrowly making them the most popular B2B marketing strategy
• 90% of B2B marketers post content on their company’s website
• Just 0.78% of leads are converted into actual deals
• 95% of B2B companies use AI tools
• 60% of them are planning to increase investments in influencer-led marketing
• 25% of B2B marketers don’t measure the performance of their marketing content
• 68% of B2B marketers think the industry has changed more in the last three years than in the previous 50

Where B2B Marketing Happens

97% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn (LinkedIn)

LinkedIn is undoubtedly the most famous “professional” social media platform, so it’s not surprising that the vast majority of B2B marketers use it to market their content. After all, the platform reaches around 200 million users in the US alone.

40% of B2B marketers rate LinkedIn as the most effective channel for lead generation (Sprout Social)

That’s probably why 35% of B2B marketers consider LinkedIn the most important social media platform. Almost two-thirds of B2B marketers told Sprout Social that LinkedIn generates leads for them.

67% of marketers who don’t use video say they plan to start using video in 2026 (Wyzowl)

Already, 91% of business use video for marketing and an increasing number of businesses are seeing the value of leveraging video platforms.

As the buying power of Millennials and Zoomers increases, marketers will increasingly have to go to new places to reach young audiences. That potentially means diversifying from classics like email and LinkedIn to new platforms like YouTube. 

Among those who aren't investing in videos, 24% think it's not needed for their business and an equal number of them think it's too expensive. These are the biggest reasons for companies who haven't yet started their video presence yet.

Physical events continue to be an important marketing channel in B2B, making up 31.6% of the total marketing spend (Stripo)

Trade shows and other physical events remain vital in the B2B marketing space. For event leaders, the priorities are shifting from maximizing attendance to proving event ROI, with 57% of those leading events in high-tech B2B reporting this shift.

Considering that trade shows now account for 45% of lead and sale sources, the ROI problem is already being solved by top event leaders. 

57% of B2B marketers use Facebook (Sage Frog)

That made Facebook the third-most popular social media channel among B2B marketers. This indicates a declining trend as other platforms are replacing Facebook as the most-used platform for marketing, with LinkedIn and YouTube now taking lead in the B2B space.

90% of B2B marketers distributed content on their organization’s website (CMI)

Websites remain the most popular place for distributing marketing content. Blogs, newsletters, and other emails are also popular.

B2B Marketing Timelines

58% of buyers are likely to switch if their current provider is too slow (Zipdo)

The timeline of closing a deal isn’t the only one to consider. Once you’ve got a customer, you need to remain on top of their needs. If you take too long, most of them will simply leave for a vendor who will get them what they want, quicker.

On average, a lead is converted to an opportunity in 84 days (Salesforce)

The process of converting a lead to an opportunity is often painfully long. Remember, 84 days is just the average — in some cases, conversion takes much longer.

But going from opportunity to deal takes an average of 18 days (Salesforce)

It seems the hard part, at least in terms of time spent, is getting to an opportunity. Closing a deal is comparatively much quicker — about four and a half times quicker, in fact, on average.

87% of B2B customers complete their purchase within six months (TrustMedia)

The process takes a little longer for enterprise B2B customers, with 65% completing their purchase within six months, and 87% completing their purchase within a year.

B2B Marketing Success Rates

On average, B2B sales representatives need to make eight cold calls to reach a prospect (Zipdo)

Even high-performing B2B marketers, then, often end up spending more time pursuing leads than closing deals.

69% of B2B marketers have the required data to reach their audience (HubSpot)

Just 12% said they lacked this crucial data. It almost goes without saying, but knowing your audience is a crucial step in effectively reaching them.

Just 13% of leads convert to opportunities (Salesforce)

The poor conversion rate from leads to opportunities underscores the importance of getting as many leads as possible. Ensuring those leads are high quality is also vital.

And just 6% of opportunities convert to deals (Salesforce)

Converting an opportunity into a deal is apparently even more difficult and rare than converting a lead into an opportunity.

Which means that only 0.78% of leads are successfully converted into deals (Salesforce)

The low conversion rate of leads into deals demonstrates the importance of generating as many high-quality leads as possible.

3.6% of leads generated via employee or customer referrals convert to deals (Salesforce)

That might seem low — and it is — but it actually makes referrals the most successful source of leads. Research by Salesforce suggests that company websites and social media are also good lead sources. The worst, at least in terms of the proportion of generated leads that are actually converted to deals, are lead lists, events, and email campaigns.

Content with relevant pictures gets 94% more views than content with no images (MDG)

Pictures are a great way to boost the reach and retention rate of your content. Relevant images will catch more people’s attention, keep them engaged for longer, and make it more likely that they will remember what you were trying to tell them.

But content marketing generates 3x the leads as traditional methods, per dollar spent (Demand Metric)

Content marketing is apparently far more efficient at generating leads than traditional marketing methods. This efficiency is all the more important when considering the fact that the vast majority of leads are not converted into actual deals.

B2B Marketing Methods

75% of customers prefer not having a sales representative involved (Gartner)

This doesn’t mean a totally human-free experience is the way forward, though. Instead, Gartner recommends adopting a hybrid approach, where the “right mix of digital and human interaction” is found to “drive profitable purchase decisions.”

95% of B2B marketing companies use AI tools (CMI)

In just a few years, AI has already been adopted by almost the entire B2B marketing workforce. Many of these tools are coming from fast-growing technology startups that are reshaping how marketing teams operate.

But 61% of B2B marketing organizations have no guidelines for using AI tools (CMI)

A concerningly high number of organizations lack any formal guidance on the use of AI tools, and B2B marketing is no exception.

Landing pages are one of the most popular lead generation methods, with 44% of B2B marketers using them (HubSpot)

Landing pages are a classic lead generation method. They are closely followed by customers or direct purchases, which 34% of B2B marketers reported using for generating leads.

39% of B2B marketers think that videos on landing pages are good for conversion rates (HubSpot)

That’s not an overwhelming number. Whether to utilize video in a landing page is a tricky decision. Videos that play automatically are particularly contentious. They’ve proliferated across the web in recent years, but seem to be widely disliked.

60% of B2B marketers plan to increase investment with influencers in 2026 (HubSpot)

Influencer partnerships are consistently rising trend since the past decade. In 2023, influencer partnerships with B2B wat at 46%. 

But as younger consumers have reported turning to influencers for product recommendations in higher numbers than older consumers, we're seeing an increased interest in influencer-led marketing. B2B influencer use is up 20% year-on-year, with up to 60% of the organizations planning on increasing influencer investments by the end of 2026.

70% of B2B marketers use a formal marketing plan (Sage Frog)

While marketing does require creativity and flexibility, the vast majority of marketers still prefer planning everything out.

73% of B2B marketers use content creation, calendaring, collaboration, or workflow tools (CMI)

Digital tools have exploded in popularity recently, and there are plenty of reasons why. They help marketing teams stay on top of often complex plans.

90% of B2B marketers use short articles or posts (CMI)

That made short-form written content the most popular content asset used by B2B marketers.

It was followed by videos (66%), virtual events and webinars (64%), and case studies (61%). The least popular asset was print magazines or books, which was used by just 17% of B2B marketers — less than those using live-streamed content, in-person events, research reports, and podcasts.

83% of B2B marketers use social media and social media advertising to reach audiences (Sage Frog)

That makes social media the most popular tactic among B2B marketers. Interestingly, print advertising — one of the most dominant forms of marketing for centuries — is used three times less. Today, print is one of the least popular B2B marketing tactics.

20% of B2B marketers get leads from referrals (Sage Frog)

That makes referrals the most popular source of leads for B2B marketers.

61% of B2B marketers use automation software (Sage Frog)

HubSpot was, by far, the most popular marketing automation software among B2B marketers. Some 47% reported using the software, far more than any other individual automation software.

83% of B2B marketing organizations use analytics tools (CMI)

That made analytics tools — which include web analytics, dashboards, and so on — the most popular technology used by B2B marketing organizations to help them market content. Analytics tools were closely followed by social media publishing tech (80%), email marketing software (75%), and content creation workflow tech (73%).

80% of B2B marketers highly value creativity and craft when creating content (CMI)

It seems obvious that creativity and craft would result in better marketing, but a surprisingly high proportion of marketers apparently don’t value them. Interestingly, the percentage of B2B marketers that highly valued these ideals when creating content is far higher in companies with the most successful marketing — 92% — than among those with the least successful marketing — 63%. In this case, “success” was defined by how respondents felt their organization’s marketing had performed.

61% of B2B marketers see a return on investment from social media marketing (Sage Frog)

Social media marketing can be done on the cheap, which might be why almost two-thirds of B2B marketers see an ROI on this marketing tactic.

75% of B2B marketers said their organization measures the performance of their marketing content (CMI)

Measuring the performance of content allows B2B marketers to see what’s working and what’s not — and, therefore, to improve and optimize their ROI.

Top B2B sales performers ask and receive 39% more questions on discovery calls than average (Sales Insights Lab)

Research from the same group also suggests that top sales performers also let the potential customer do more talking. Getting the customer asking questions seems to be important to landing sales.

But they discuss actual product features 50% less (Sales Insights Lab)

This might seem counterintuitive. However, the research clearly shows that sales reps who talk less about product features perform better than average. Perhaps it means more time spent connecting with potential customers or letting them ask questions.

Organic search is making a comeback, jumping up from 15% to 19% in terms of effectiveness as a lead source (Sage Frog)

Despite the difficulties of keeping up with a constantly shifting environment, SEO remains an important source of lead generation in B2B marketing.

For marketers looking to capitalize on that, Semrush offers a free trial — it's one of the most widely used tools for B2B keyword and competitor research.

Remote sales representatives can reach 4x the accounts in the same amount of time (Mckinsey)

That’s probably not that surprising, considering the difficulties of conducting sales physically. However, it also means that remote sales representatives can generate up to 50% more revenue than their in-person counterparts.

44% of B2B SaaS companies use sales-negotiated pricing (Maxio)

This statistic comes from a study of 250 B2B SaaS (Software as a Service) companies. Sales-negotiated pricing is the most popular model. It’s followed by fixed pricing, which is used by 34% of companies, and variable pricing, which is used by 24% of companies.

29.6% of B2B customers consider free trials the most influential resource used during purchase research (TrustRadius)

In total, 40% of B2B customers surveyed in this study used free trials while researching a particular software product. Of that 40%, 74% considered that free trial the most important resource they consulted while deciding whether to buy a product. Despite all that, free trials were not in the top five B2B marketing strategies reported by sellers in the study. Perhaps B2B marketers need to focus more on free trials.

Who Is Involved in B2B Marketing

64% of B2B buyers are Millennials and Zoomers (Digital Commerce 360)

The dominance of young customers will only increase in the coming years. Understanding how to market to them, then, will also become all the more important. And that’s not easy: the same research shows that younger customers are 23.6% more likely to be dissatisfied with at least one thing about their vendor than older customers.

46% hybrid (up from 36%), 32% in-house

46% of companies use hybrid, while 32% use in-house B2B marketing (Sage Frog)

A mix of hybrid and in-house B2B marketing seems to be the most popular approach. That being said, 22% of the companies only outsource B2B marketing, making it the least popular method.

But when companies do outsource, the lack of internal resources is cited as the reason 42% of the time (Sage From)

In 2025, this figure stood at 37%,indicating that slightly more companies are feeling the pressure of constrained internal resources in 2026.

58% of the companies with the least successful marketing had zero full-time employees dedicated to content marketing (CMI)

Just 17% of the companies with the least successful marketing had two or more full-time employees dedicated to content marketing. In comparison, 54% of the most successful companies had a dedicated, full-time marketing team of at least two people.

Where B2B Marketing Money Goes

Website/blog/SEO is the most-leveraged marketing channel, representing 45% of the mix for B2B (HubSpot)

As one of the most popular marketing strategies, it’s no surprise that B2B marketers are investing big bucks into SEO. 

41% of B2B marketers reported website development being the top marketing spend (Sage Frog)

Brands are apparently spending big on digital marketing. Website development, digital marketing in general, and social media were the top three areas of marketing spend.

AI-powered marketing is the top area of investment increases in 2026 (CMI)

Not surprisingly, the top use case (89%) for AI remains generating or optimizing written marketing content. 

Owned media (blog content, website, email) represents top 3 areas of investment priorities for 32% B2B companies in 2026 (CMI)

Investments in content remain a key priority for many B2B teams. However, the content of scope is wider and includes more than just blog content with email also sharing the mix. 

73% of buyers would spend over $50,000 on a single B2B transaction online (McKinsey)

Buyers are willing to spend big — at least according to research from McKinsey. That comfort has increased over time. In 2022, 59% of McKinsey's survey participants expressed comfort in placing orders above $50,000 online. The leap to 73% in 2026 represents growing trust in e-commerce purchases.

Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing (Demand Metric)

Content marketing is significantly cheaper than other, traditional marketing methods. That makes it easier to produce, and to produce lots of it.

US organizations will spend $69 billion on B2B advertising in 2026 (Statista)

Related: Find the top Statista alternatives.

B2B advertising spending by US organizations reached $59.5 billion in 2024. Projections are seeing a growth of $10 billion from 2024 to 2026, with the marketing and advertising spend predicted to cross $69 billion by the end of 2026.

B2B Marketing Targets

83% of B2B buyer shortlists contain 3 products or fewer (TrustRadius)

When B2B customers do their research, they apparently narrow things right down. But what do the buyers ultimately buy from the shortlist?

It's a market leading product 66% of the time. The second most popular choice is a niche product that appeals to highly specific segments of a customer base. 

94% of buyers now ask LLMs before Google (Forrester)

This shows that the vast majority of B2B buying decisions are starting with LLMs, a fundamental shift from Google being the go-to point of initiation in the pre-LLM world. 

However, other research reports show that even though AI isn't a one-stop-shop for buying decisions, with 60% of the respondents saying they only sometimes trust AI for purchases.

Regardless, Google continues to hold an important position. Even when it's not primarily used for discovery, it's still plays a key role in the validation layer for buyers before they commit to a decision.

The implication for B2B marketers, then, is that branded searches might not be as important as people might think.

That also means understanding the specific questions your audience is asking in LLMs, and by extension, on Google. Tools built around "People Also Ask" data, like those covered in this roundup of AlsoAsked alternatives, can help you map content to the exact queries your buyers are using.

79%% of B2B customers choose products they’d heard of before (TrustRadius)

This underscores the importance of brand awareness. Well over three-quarters of enterprise B2B customers end up going with products that they were aware of before they even started researching their purchase.

Knowing where your competitors are building that awareness is half the battle. Our free Competitor Analysis tool breaks down their traffic sources and key metrics so you can see what's working for them.

94% of online users consider easy navigation the most important feature of a website (Clutch)

Websites should look good, sure, but above all else they should be easy to navigate.

Few things are more frustrating than a confusing website, and a difficult design will scare away potential customers.

If you need some design inspiration, you can find the top websites in the world here.

49% of B2B customers consult user reviews when deciding whether to buy a product (TrustRadius)

That represents a slight decline from 2023, when 54% of B2B customers responded the same. However, it’s clear that user reviews remain an important factor in whether B2B buyers decide to purchase a product.

The Changing World of B2B Marketing

40% of B2B marketers think creating content that drives conversions is a top challenge in 2026 (CMI)

The problem of conversion-led content is a persistent one that marketers have always. It's a problem that AI hasn't offered any solutions for either. In fact, a strong argument can be made that the prevalence of AI-generated content adds to the challenge.

Familiar content patterns and the vanishing of unique brand voices is hardly going to help with engagement and conversions.

Interestingly, 39% people see there are resource constraints as another major marketing challenge (CMI)

This is another question mark on AI's ability to solve the resource limitations.

51% of B2B marketers think that it has become more difficult to capture audience attention over the last few years (CMI)

Today, with so many distractions, it’s harder than ever to catch the attention of any audience — let alone your target audience. Many B2B marketers told the CMI that they had adjusted the tone of their marketing to try and respond to this increasing difficulty.

Conclusion

B2B marketing is changing faster than ever before. The rapid adoption of generative AI tools has only increased the rate of change.

What hasn’t changed, however, is the fact that keeping up with the competition will require B2B marketers to be creative when producing content.

That creativity might be applied to producing articles, videos, or any and all of the various kinds of content used in B2B marketing today.

Regardless, it will be crucial to stand out — because B2B marketing is more popular than ever, and it’s not going away any time soon.