Gitnux/Report 2026

B2B Marketing Industry Statistics

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B2B Marketing Industry Statistics
Samuel NorbergWritten by Samuel Norberg·Fact-checked by Maya Johansson
Published
How this report is researched
01Editorial Scope

An editor sets the topic, the inclusion criteria, and the evaluation framework before research starts.

02Source Research

AI search agents locate sources and extract each figure together with the document it came from.

Read our full methodology →

Search agents attach provenance to every extracted figure.

Next review: within 31 days

01 Industry overview

The b2b marketing industry at a glance

B2B marketing is increasingly digital and AI-enabled: US B2B digital advertising is forecast to reach $25.72 billion in 2027, although growth is expected to moderate.

$44.35B[3]
US B2B ad spend, 2025
$25.72B[77]
US B2B digital ads, 2027
421,600[78]
US marketing managers, 2025
7.7%[13]
Marketing budget share, 2025
Market size
US B2B advertising spend is forecast at $44.35 billion in 2025. Worldwide B2B digital advertising spend is forecast at $43.62 billion in 2025, up 12.8% year over year.[3]
Forecast & CAGR
US B2B digital advertising spend is forecast to reach $25.72 billion in 2027. Annual growth is expected to slow from 14.6% in 2024 to 11.1% in 2027; the source reports annual growth rather than a multi-year CAGR.[77]
Market share & regions
India, Mexico and Spain are forecast to record the fastest B2B advertising-spend growth in 2025, while Japan, Australia and South Korea are expected to be the slowest-growing markets. The available source does not provide comparable regional market-share percentages.[3]
Segmentation
B2B digital advertising is shifting across formats: video and display are growing faster than search. Among North American enterprise B2B marketers, search accounts for 30.3% of paid-channel allocation, social for 28.5% and programmatic for 20.6% of digital budgets.[77][41]
Pricing
Marketing-manager compensation provides a labor-cost benchmark: the US median annual wage was $166,790 in May 2025. Median wages were $192,600 in information, $172,580 in management of companies and enterprises, and $170,050 in professional, scientific and technical services.[78]
Trends, drivers & challenges
AI is a major investment priority: 96% of marketers in a 2026 B2B trends survey reported using AI, while 47% ranked it as the trend they were most excited about. In a separate 2025 survey, 58.0% said ad waste was an issue and 50.2% identified reaching the right buying groups as the top ROI challenge.[79][3]
Consumer behavior & competition
B2B competition is balancing short-term lead generation with longer-term brand building. In a 2025 survey of enterprise B2B marketing executives, 58.2% said at least half of their budgets went to lead generation, while 40.0% expected to increase brand-building budgets over the following 12 months.[41]
Latest news
The latest available industry research indicates that AI adoption has moved into mainstream B2B marketing workflows. Emerald’s 2026 survey found that 96% of marketers use AI, but also identified data gaps and difficulty proving return on investment as continuing constraints.[79]
report visual · Comparison

Revenue of the largest b2b marketing companies

Microsoft leads with $281.7B in annual revenue (group level, converted to USD).

Microsoft$281.7B
Salesforce$41.5B
Adobe$23.8B
WPP$17.2B
Publicis Groupe$15.7B
Dentsu$8.0B
source-verifiedmicrosoft.com · investor.salesforce.com · adobe.com · sec.gov · publicis-groupe.publispeak.com · group.dentsu.com2026

02 Ranking

Top 10 Companies in the B2b Marketing Industry

The leading companies in the b2b marketing industry, ranked on market impact, performance, momentum, innovation and brand popularity.

Updated November 10, 2026 · Next review December 10, 2026

Verdict

Microsoft leads Gitnux's 2026 b2b marketing ranking with an Overall score of 9.7, with operating margin 45.62%. Adobe is the highest-ranked digital experience platform at 9.5, backed by R&D at 18.06% of revenue.

Ranked by Overall score · How we score ↓

Editor's top 3 picks

Where to start, by need.

  1. #1 Overall · Leader in B2B ad platforms

    Microsoft

    US

    Ranked #1 · 9.7 · B2B ad platforms

    Why we picked it: It sells LinkedIn B2B advertising and marketing reach, paired with reported 45.62% operating margin signals.

    See in ranking ↓Visit microsoft.com ↗

  2. Leader in digital experience software

    Adobe

    US

    Ranked #2 · 9.5 · Digital experience software

    Why we picked it: Its digital experience platforms for managing and measuring customer experiences align with 18.06% R&D spend.

    See in ranking ↓Visit adobe.com ↗

  3. Leader in CRM and marketing automation

    Salesforce

    US

    Ranked #3 · 9.4 · CRM and marketing automation

    Why we picked it: Its CRM and marketing automation and campaign orchestration products map to reported 9.6% revenue growth.

    See in ranking ↓Visit salesforce.com ↗

Pick 1 is the #1 company overall. Picks 2 and 3 are the highest-ranked companies in the top 5 that add a new segment.

Full ranking

Sort by
Top 10 companies in the b2b marketing industry, 2026 – Gitnux ranking
#CompanyOverall ↓Company snapshot
1

Microsoft

B2B ad platforms · US

9.7
2

Adobe

Digital experience software · US

9.5
3

Salesforce

CRM and marketing automation · US

9.4
4

HubSpot

CRM and marketing automation · US

9.0
5

Publicis Groupe

Creative and media services · FR

9.0
6

Demandbase

Account-based marketing and pipeline intelligence · US

8.2
7

ZoomInfo

B2B data, intent and go-to-market intelligence · US

8.2
8

Dentsu

Global media, creative and customer experience · JP

8.1
9

6sense

B2B intent, account intelligence and revenue AI · US

8.0
10

WPP

Global advertising, media and marketing services · GB

7.8

How we score

  • Impact (30%): scale and weight in the market (revenue, market share, employees, market position).
  • Performance (20%): recent revenue growth and operating margin; an analyst assessment where a company does not publish them.
  • Momentum (20%): growth trajectory and future potential.
  • Innovation (15%): R&D intensity and how technologically advanced the company is.

Popularity (brand search demand, 15%) counts toward Overall but is not published as a column. Overall leaves out what is not known.

Scale Scores are shown on a 7–10 scale with one decimal; bars start at 7.0.

Cadence Recalculated when new figures are published; next review December 10, 2026.

Independence. Rankings are editorially independent. Scores, ranks, picks and the verdict follow the method above; no company can pay to change them.

Cite this ranking

APA

Samuel Norberg. (2026, November 11). Top 10 companies in the b2b marketing industry. In B2B Marketing Industry Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/b2b-marketing-industry-statistics/#top-companies

04 Statistics

Technology & Innovation

AI adoption is broad and operational: 96% of major brands used AI in marketing in 2026, including 80% for content creation and 54% for media buying or optimization.

AI in the b2b marketing industry

  • 34% of B2B organizations use generative AI to craft emails, messages and other copy, based on a survey of 615 B2B practitioners.[1]
  • 52% of B2B marketing organizations use AI for data analysis in 2026.[2]
  • 30% of B2B organizations use generative AI to personalize images, infographics or video content.[1]
  • 48% of B2B marketing organizations use AI for marketing automation in 2026.[2]
  • 44.6% of surveyed B2B marketers use AI for data-driven insights such as segmentation, market research and predictive analytics.[3]
  • 58% of B2B marketing organizations use AI for pay-per-click activities in 2026.[2]

Automation in the b2b marketing industry

  • 33% of B2B organizations use AI-driven chatbots to deliver real-time customer support.[1]
  • 7% of B2B marketing leaders report impact from automated experimentation optimization.[4]
  • 28% of B2B organizations update offers in real time using customers’ browsing and purchase behavior.[1]
  • 19% of B2B marketing leaders report impact from AI-enabled email-delivery optimization.[4]
  • 12% of B2B marketing leaders report impact from AI-enabled paid-media bid optimization.[4]
  • 34.6% of surveyed B2B marketers use AI to automate manual marketing workflows.[3]

Digital Transformation in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • Among German digital-industry companies, 76% expected marketing automation to become more important in the future in 2025.[5]
  • 57% of companies in the marketing sector were in the emerging stage of digital transformation in the U.S. in 2024, meaning new technology was not yet integrated into processes.[6]
  • Across 15 countries, 72% of organizations were using generative AI extensively or to a limited extent in their marketing departments in 2025.[7]
  • Across 15 countries, 70% of organizations used generative AI to measure and track customer and marketing metrics in 2025.[7]
  • Across 15 countries, 77% of organizations used generative AI for marketing content creation in 2025.[7]
  • 30% of agencies, brands and publishers had fully integrated AI across the media campaign lifecycle in the advertising industry in 2025.[8]

Technology Adoption in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • 96% of major brands used AI in marketing in 2026, including 80% using it for content creation and 54% for media buying or optimization.[9]
  • 77% of marketers reported using AI in 2024, up from 57% in 2023, based on Digiday+ Research surveys.[10]
  • 63% of multinational brand owners were already using generative AI in marketing in 2024, most commonly for content creation, ideation and task automation.[9]
  • 83% of advertising executives said their companies had deployed AI in the creative process in 2026, up from 60% in 2024.[8]

Cloud Computing in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • 85% of EU enterprises using cloud computing used it to host email systems in 2025.[11]
  • 72% of EU enterprises using cloud computing used it for office software in 2025, while another 72% used it for file storage.[11]
  • 85% of large EU businesses used paid cloud computing services in 2025, compared with 52% of small and medium-sized enterprises.[11]
  • 52.74% of EU enterprises used paid cloud computing services in 2025.[11]

Big Data in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • 40% of EU enterprises performed data analytics internally or through another organization in 2025.[11]
  • 25% of enterprises in Poland performed data analytics internally or externally in 2025, the lowest share among the EU countries reported.[11]
  • 60% of enterprises in Denmark performed data analytics internally or externally in 2025, the highest share among EU countries.[11]
  • 33% of EU enterprises used data analytics performed by their own employees in 2025.[11]

05 Statistics

Data & Analytics

Data constraints show up in measurement: 76% of B2B marketers report tying performance data to goals as a measurement challenge, alongside 77% citing difficulty extracting insights.

Business intelligence in the b2b marketing industry

  • 38% of marketers use CRM or account-based-marketing tools to target accounts, according to HubSpot’s 2024 State of Marketing report.[12]
  • 41% of marketers use website analytics to target accounts, according to HubSpot’s 2024 State of Marketing report.[12]
  • 59% of marketers say their tools are fully integrated, according to HubSpot’s 2024 State of Marketing report.[12]
  • 26% of marketers say data increases the return on investment of their marketing efforts, according to HubSpot’s 2024 State of Marketing report.[12]
  • 77% of marketers agree that audience data is important to marketing, according to HubSpot’s 2024 State of Marketing report.[12]
  • 47% of available customer-data-platform capabilities were being used by organizations that had adopted those platforms, according to Gartner’s 2023 survey.[13]

Data analytics in the b2b marketing industry

  • 76% of B2B marketers say tying performance data to goals is a measurement challenge.[14]
  • 70% of advanced marketers trust their data at face value, compared with 36% of other marketers, in the MMA’s 2025 marketing-analytics study.[15]
  • 13.9% was the growth rate of the global data-and-analytics market in 2024, reaching $175 billion, according to Gartner.[13]
  • 29% of marketers can trace decisions back to a data-supported rationale, according to the MMA’s marketing-analytics study.[15]
  • 33% of marketing-data-and-analytics decision makers frequently cherry-pick information to support data and analytics choices, according to Gartner’s survey.[13]
  • 77% of B2B marketers say extracting insights from data is a measurement challenge.[14]

Data Quality in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • 31% of CMOs say data completeness is the biggest data-quality problem affecting their marketing organizations across the surveyed markets in 2025.[16]
  • 67% of marketing professionals report that poor data quality disrupts lead handoffs between marketing and sales.[17]
  • 45% of CMOs estimate that the marketing data their teams use for decisions is incomplete, inaccurate, or outdated; the survey covered marketers across the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 2025.[16]
  • 30% of CMOs identify improving data quality as the biggest lever for improving marketing performance across surveyed marketing organizations in 2025.[16]
  • 73% of marketers say at least 10% of their lead data is inaccurate or outdated, based on a survey of more than 200 marketing operations and demand-generation professionals.[17]

Data Governance in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • 14% of organizations in the Dutch marketing sector report using data governance in 2024, down from 16% in 2022.[18]
  • 58% of organizations with data-governance programs report improved data quality in 2024, based on a global survey of data and analytics professionals.[19]
  • 45% of respondents identify regulatory compliance as a goal of their data-governance program in 2024, in a global survey of data and analytics professionals.[19]
  • 92% of marketing decision-makers report investing in automated data-governance platforms, according to a survey of more than 200 marketing operations and demand-generation professionals.[17]
  • 49% of advertising and data decision-makers at U.S. brands, agencies, and publishers are creating or planning dedicated teams or departments in response to privacy and data-governance requirements in 2024.[8]
  • 71% of global respondents report that their organization has a data-governance program in 2024, up from 60% in 2023.[19]

KPIs in the b2b marketing industry

  • 22% of B2B marketers say they are focused on the wrong KPIs, according to LinkedIn’s 2024 benchmark research.[20]
  • 38% of B2B marketers say they are under pressure to prove return on investment in too short a period, according to LinkedIn’s 2024 benchmark research.[20]
  • 73% of B2B marketers use conversions to assess content performance, according to the Content Marketing Institute’s 2024 research.[14]
  • 29% of B2B marketers track the cost to acquire a lead, subscriber or customer, according to the Content Marketing Institute’s 2024 research.[14]
  • 69% of B2B marketers use website engagement to assess content performance, according to the Content Marketing Institute’s 2024 research.[14]
  • 37% of B2B marketers struggle to deliver metrics showing marketing’s bottom-line value to the C-suite, according to LinkedIn’s 2024 benchmark research.[20]

06 Statistics

Strategy & Growth

Sales influence is limited early in the purchase journey: 69% of the B2B purchase process happens before buyers engage with sellers globally in 2024.

Differentiation in the b2b marketing industry

  • 71% of hidden B2B decision-makers said they had little or no interaction with sales representatives in 2025.[21]
  • 62% of B2B buyer-group members said they would reject a lesser-known brand when products and prices were similar.[22]
  • 64% of hidden B2B decision-makers said they trusted a company’s thought leadership more than its marketing materials in 2025.[21]

Mergers and acquisitions in the b2b marketing industry

  • 120 public-relations-and-communications M&A deals were recorded globally in 2024.[23]
  • 241 martech M&A deals were recorded globally in 2024.[23]
  • 162 events-and-experiential M&A deals were recorded globally in 2024.[23]
  • 328 agency-services-and-strategy M&A deals were recorded globally in 2024, up 32% from 2023.[23]
  • 314 traditional-media M&A deals were recorded globally in 2024, up 44% from 2023.[23]
  • 308 digital-agency M&A deals were recorded globally in 2024.[23]

Strategic partnerships in the b2b marketing industry

  • 42% of surveyed channel partners prioritized identifying market trends with data analytics in 2026.[24]
  • 57% of surveyed channel partners prioritized tracking customer behavior and preferences as a data-analytics application in 2026.[24]
  • 24% of UK channel-partner respondents viewed data-driven consulting services as the most promising digital-transformation revenue stream in 2026.[24]
  • 68% of marketing leaders said they were reassessing their agency or brand partnerships in 2024.[25]
  • 50% of surveyed channel partners prioritized refining marketing and sales strategies with data analytics in 2026.[24]

07 Statistics

People & Workforce

Workforce and skills are shifting with technology: 74% of surveyed B2B marketing professionals are prioritizing AI and marketing technology for upskilling.

Hiring in the b2b marketing industry

  • 21.3% of marketing leaders say identifying the best people is their biggest people challenge.[26]
  • 22.7% of marketing leaders whose main challenge is hiring cite compensation that is too low as a cause.[26]
  • 39.4% of marketing leaders whose main challenge is identifying talent cite difficulty finding the required skill set.[26]
  • 12.1% of marketing leaders whose main challenge is hiring cite competitive offers as a cause.[26]
  • 41.3% of marketing leaders say hiring the best people is their biggest people challenge.[26]

Employee retention in the b2b marketing industry

  • 9.1% of marketing leaders whose main challenge is retention cite a high level of company change.[26]
  • 9.1% of marketing leaders whose main challenge is retention cite culture challenges.[26]
  • 33.3% of marketing leaders whose main challenge is retention cite limited career growth.[26]
  • 18.2% of marketing leaders whose main challenge is retention cite compensation that is too low.[26]
  • 24.2% of marketing leaders whose main challenge is retention cite competitive offers.[26]

Remote Work in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • Among U.S. marketing, advertising and public-relations office job postings, 12.2% were advertised as remote in 2024.[27]
  • Across marketing organizations, 37.8% reported working from home all the time in Fall 2024, according to a U.S. CMO survey.[28]
  • Across management, marketing and sales respondents, 20% reported working fully remotely in the State of Sales and Marketing Report.[29]
  • Across marketing organizations, 55.6% reported working from home some of the time in Fall 2024, according to a U.S. CMO survey.[28]

Hybrid Work in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • Among marketers, 68.7% said in 2024 that their current balance of office and home-working days was appropriate.[30]
  • Across advertising professionals, 64% preferred hybrid work over fully remote or fully on-site work in the 2024 Myers Report survey.[31]
  • Across management, marketing and sales respondents, 57% said their employer offered a hybrid work option to at least some employees.[29]
  • Across advertising professionals, 74% reported working in hybrid situations in the 2024 Myers Report survey of 3,462 respondents.[31]

Upskilling in the b2b marketing industry

  • 74% of surveyed B2B marketing professionals are prioritizing AI and marketing technology for upskilling.[32]
  • 76% of surveyed B2B marketing professionals judge training by performance gains rather than credentials or novelty.[32]
  • 54% of B2B marketers say training and skill-building would help them use AI more effectively.[33]
  • 60% of B2B marketing leaders cite the need for new skills or training as an AI challenge.[34]
  • 47% of B2B marketers say improved data quality and integration would help them use AI more effectively.[33]

Employee Engagement in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • Across organizations with low-activation communications strategies, 23% reported increased employee engagement in Gallagher’s 2026 global survey.[35]
  • Across organizations with highly activated communications strategies, 40% reported increased employee engagement in Gallagher’s 2026 global survey.[35]
  • Across the global workforce, 21% of employees were engaged in 2024, according to Gallup’s worldwide workplace measure.[36]
  • Across organizations surveyed globally, 32% reported an increase in employee engagement from their previous survey in Gallagher’s 2026 Employee Communications Report.[35]

DEI in the b2b marketing industry

  • More than 75% of B2B marketing leaders say their teams are age diverse.[20]
  • 78% of B2B marketing leaders say their advertising is inclusive.[20]
  • Five in ten B2B marketing leaders reported in 2023 that DEI was very important to their marketing team and company.[20]

08 Statistics

Customer & Sales

Buyer self-service is dominant: 85% of global B2B buyers had established purchase requirements before contacting sales in 2024.

Customer experience in the b2b marketing industry

  • 69% of the B2B purchase process happens before buyers engage with sellers globally in 2024.[37]
  • 85% of global B2B buyers had established purchase requirements before contacting sales in 2024.[37]
  • 81% of global B2B buyers had selected a preferred vendor before speaking with sales in 2024.[37]
  • 2 times more likely to feel overwhelmed were buyers who experienced personalization during a recent purchase journey across four markets in 2024.[13]
  • 61% of B2B buyers preferred an overall rep-free buying experience in a survey conducted in the United States and other markets in 2024.[13]

Customer retention in the b2b marketing industry

  • 17.2% was the reported customer-retention growth rate for B2B services companies in Fall 2024.[28]
  • 7.7% was the reported customer-retention growth rate among surveyed companies in Spring 2025.[38]
  • 13.1% was the customer-retention growth rate for B2B services companies in Spring 2025.[38]
  • 5.3% was the customer-retention growth rate for B2B product companies in Spring 2025.[38]
  • 10.5% was the reported customer-retention growth rate among companies surveyed in Fall 2024.[28]

Customer acquisition in the b2b marketing industry

  • 7.5% was the reported customer-acquisition growth rate among surveyed companies in Spring 2025.[38]
  • 10.1% was the reported customer-acquisition growth rate for B2B services companies in Fall 2024.[28]
  • 7.0% was the reported customer-acquisition growth rate among companies surveyed in Fall 2024.[28]
  • 9.1% was the customer-acquisition growth rate for B2B product companies in Spring 2025.[38]
  • 8.1% was the customer-acquisition growth rate for B2B services companies in Spring 2025.[38]

Customer loyalty in the b2b marketing industry

  • 73% was the B2B buyer loyalty level reported for the United States in 2025.[39]
  • 69% was the B2B buyer loyalty level reported for the United Kingdom in 2025.[39]
  • 71% of B2B buyers were loyal to at least one supplier globally in 2025.[39]
  • 68% was the B2B buyer loyalty level reported for Taiwan in 2025.[39]
  • 67% was the B2B buyer loyalty level reported for Germany in 2025.[39]

Lead generation in the b2b marketing industry

  • 47% of surveyed US and UK B2B marketers used digital display advertising for lead generation in H2 2024.[40]
  • 30.3% of surveyed B2B marketers' budgets went to paid and organic search in 2025.[41]
  • 61% of surveyed US and UK B2B marketers used social media for lead generation in H2 2024.[40]
  • 26.4% of surveyed US B2B marketers identified paid social as their largest current digital investment area in 2025.[41]
  • 39.1% of surveyed US B2B marketers identified paid search as their largest current digital investment area in 2025.[41]

09 Statistics

Marketing & Brand

Budgeting remains split across lead generation and brand building: 18% of B2B marketing budgets were allocated to events and sponsorships in LinkedIn's 2024 benchmark.

Marketing in the b2b marketing industry

  • 8.4% of revenue was the median B2B marketing expense budget reported for 2024.[42]
  • 67% of B2B chief marketing officers reported they were likely to undergo a reorganization in 2024.[20]
  • 18% of B2B marketing budgets were allocated to events and sponsorships in LinkedIn's 2024 benchmark.[20]
  • 21% of B2B marketing budgets were allocated to creative development in LinkedIn's 2024 benchmark.[20]
  • 64.9% of surveyed B2B marketers and agencies said their overall advertising budget increased in 2025.[3]

Digital marketing in the b2b marketing industry

  • 52.4% of surveyed B2B marketers and agencies estimated advertising waste at 16% to 45% in 2025.[3]
  • 61% of B2B buyers preferred a rep-free buying experience in research conducted in 2024.[13]
  • 44.6% of surveyed B2B marketers and agencies used AI for data-driven insights such as customer segmentation in 2025.[3]
  • 69% of B2B buyers completed the majority of their purchase process before engaging sellers in 2024, emphasizing digital self-service.[37]
  • 75% of B2B buyers preferred a rep-free sales experience in Gartner research published in 2024.[13]

Branding in the b2b marketing industry

  • 22% of B2B marketers described their content marketing as extremely or very successful in 2025.[14]
  • 76% of B2B marketers used video content during 2025.[14]
  • 92% of B2B marketers used short articles or posts in their content marketing during 2025.[14]
  • 87% of B2B marketers said content marketing created brand awareness during the previous 12 months in 2025.[14]
  • 58% of B2B marketers rated video as the most effective content type in 2025.[14]

Social media in the b2b marketing industry

  • 49% of B2B marketers said social media advertising or promoted posts produced the best paid-channel results in 2025.[14]
  • 27% of B2B marketers increased their use of Instagram during the 12 months preceding the 2025 study.[14]
  • 31% of B2B marketers increased their use of YouTube during the 12 months preceding the 2025 study.[14]
  • 73% of B2B marketers used social media advertising or promoted posts as a paid content channel during 2025.[14]
  • 89% of B2B marketers used organic social media platforms for content distribution during 2025.[14]

Influencer Marketing in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • $37 billion in U.S. creator advertising spend is projected for 2025, growing four times faster than the broader media industry.[8]
  • 74% of surveyed brands, agencies and creators reported year-over-year creator-marketing budget increases in the 2025 survey covering nine countries.[43]
  • Six in 10 multinational brands had dedicated influencer-marketing budgets globally in 2025, up from 37% in 2019.[9]
  • 54% of multinational marketers expected influencer-marketing budgets to increase over the following 12 months in 2025, with average projected growth of 23%.[9]
  • 58% of global marketers reported dedicated and growing budgets for creator or influencer partnerships in Nielsen’s 2026 survey.[44]

10 Statistics

Operations & Execution

Operational gaps persist around data and throughput of attribution: 67% of B2B marketing professionals report poor data quality disrupts marketing-to-sales lead handoffs in 2025.

Process optimization in the b2b marketing industry

  • 47.2% of B2B marketers used group-based targeting in 2025.[3]
  • 31% of B2B marketing-operations professionals used AI for real-time campaign optimization in 2024.[45]
  • 39% of B2B organizations enabled self-service options to reduce service costs in 2024.[1]
  • 35% of B2B organizations sought to consolidate martech and customer-experience tools to reduce licensing costs in 2024.[1]
  • 35% of B2B organizations used dynamic asset reuse to limit new content costs in 2024.[1]

Operational efficiency in the b2b marketing industry

  • 58.0% of B2B marketers and agencies said advertising waste was an issue in 2025.[3]
  • 52% of B2B marketing professionals cited low confidence in data, data-quality pressure, and incomplete attribution visibility as leading operational concerns in 2023.[46]
  • 64.9% of B2B marketers and agencies reported that their overall advertising budget increased in 2025.[3]
  • 42% of enterprise B2B leaders identified poor sales-and-marketing alignment on lead qualification as a significant gap in 2026.[47]
  • 82% of enterprise B2B leaders agreed that clean data, defined processes, and reliable routing are prerequisites for scaling AI in 2026.[47]

Quality management in the b2b marketing industry

  • 63% of enterprise B2B marketers reported difficulty attributing return on investment to content efforts in 2025.[14]
  • 67% of B2B marketing professionals reported that poor data quality disrupted marketing-to-sales lead handoffs in 2025.[17]
  • 55% of B2B marketing teams relying on built-in CRM tools still struggled to maintain data accuracy in 2025.[17]
  • 66% of enterprise B2B marketers reported difficulty tracking customer journeys in 2025.[14]
  • Nearly 73% of B2B marketing professionals said at least 10% of their lead data was inaccurate or outdated in 2025.[17]

Outsourcing / Offshoring in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • 63.1% of marketers outsourced work to an agency or third party during the previous 12 months in the 2025 survey, covering more than 3,500 respondents globally.[30]
  • 45% of marketing respondents outsourced design functions fully or partly in 2024, according to the Marketing Benchmark Survey.[48]
  • 93% of companies used third-party resources such as agencies or contractors for content to some degree in 2024, while 57% planned to outsource more than half of content creation.[49]
  • 67.5% of B2B brands outsourced work to an agency or third party during the previous 12 months in 2025, compared with 60.2% of B2C brands.[30]
  • 49% of marketing respondents outsourced digital content production fully or partly in 2024, according to the Marketing Benchmark Survey.[48]

11 Statistics

Finance & Pricing

Return on marketing is frequently challenged: 63% of enterprise B2B marketers reported difficulty attributing return on investment to content efforts in 2025.

Pricing strategy in the b2b marketing industry

  • 60% of product-led B2B SaaS companies used value-based pricing in 2024.[50]
  • 80% of B2B SaaS companies changed their pricing in the previous 12 months or were changing it in 2026.[51]
  • 90% of B2B SaaS leaders said competitor pricing shaped their own pricing in 2026.[51]
  • 62% of B2B SaaS companies had no single pricing owner in 2026.[51]
  • 33% of B2B SaaS companies used value-based pricing in 2024.[50]

Cost reduction in the b2b marketing industry

  • 58.0% of B2B marketers and agencies identified advertising waste as an issue in 2025.[3]
  • 45% of B2B organizations improved analytics use to inform resource allocation in 2024.[1]
  • 38% of B2B organizations identified workflow inefficiencies that waste budget in 2024.[1]
  • 48% of B2B market leaders enabled self-service options to reduce service costs in 2024.[1]
  • 35% of B2B organizations consolidated martech and customer-experience tools to reduce licensing costs in 2024.[1]

Profitability in the b2b marketing industry

  • 35% of B2B technology marketers reported marketing returns on investment of 6% to 10% in 2024.[52]
  • 50.2% of B2B marketers identified reaching the right buying groups as their top challenge to maximizing return on investment in 2025.[3]
  • 17.3% of B2B marketers said their buyer-journey stages were fully mapped in 2025.[3]
  • 20% of B2B technology marketers reported marketing returns on investment of 1% to 5% in 2024.[52]
  • 26% of B2B technology marketers reported marketing returns on investment of 11% to 15% in 2024.[52]

Financial planning in the b2b marketing industry

  • 35% of B2B technology companies spent 6% to 9% of revenue on marketing in 2024.[52]
  • 3% of B2B technology companies spent less than 2% of revenue on marketing in 2024.[52]
  • 14% of B2B content marketers increased their content budgets by more than 10% in 2025.[49]
  • 10% of B2B technology companies were unsure what share of revenue they spent on marketing in 2024.[52]
  • 64.9% of B2B marketers and agencies reported increased overall advertising budgets for 2025.[3]

12 Statistics

Product & Service

Product-information depth is a recurring requirement: 99% of surveyed B2B business leaders reported at least one product-information challenge in 2024.

Product development in the b2b marketing industry

  • 70% of B2B marketers use product content, making it one of the three most-used content types in a 2024 benchmark survey.[53]
  • Nearly 75% of respondents planned to allocate more resources to product innovation in 2024, according to a global new-product-development survey.[54]
  • 99% of surveyed B2B business leaders reported at least one product-information challenge in a 2024 global survey.[55]
  • 47% of surveyed B2B organizations use customer surveys and feedback to refine product information.[55]
  • 53% of B2B marketers conduct targeted research on product development and feedback, according to a 2024 benchmark survey of U.S. respondents.[53]

Product lifecycle in the b2b marketing industry

  • 42% of B2B organizations prioritize predictive analytics to forecast and prevent churn in 2024.[56]
  • 42% of B2B organizations prioritize improving customer-support quality and responsiveness, according to the B2B retention-strategy breakdown in Chargebee’s 2024 report.[56]
  • 34% of B2B organizations prioritize introducing freemium or online try-to-buy subscription models in 2024.[56]
  • 45% of B2B organizations prioritize improving new-customer onboarding and training as a retention or growth strategy in 2024.[56]
  • 36% of B2B organizations prioritize building and expanding customer-success teams and processes in 2024.[56]

After-sales in the b2b marketing industry

  • 45% of B2B organizations prioritize improving new-customer onboarding and training as a post-sale retention strategy in 2024.[56]
  • B2B high-tech support departments are more likely to proactively reach out to customers than other support structures, according to Deloitte’s customer-service research.[6]
  • 42% of B2B organizations prioritize predictive analytics for early churn forecasting and prevention in 2024.[56]
  • B2B front-runners report customer-retention rates 21 percentage points higher than less-effective competitors, according to Deloitte’s B2B commerce research.[52]
  • 36% of B2B organizations plan to build or expand customer-success teams and processes in 2024.[56]

Value proposition in the b2b marketing industry

  • 77% of B2B buyers made a purchase within the previous 12 months in the 2024 B2B Buyer Behavior Benchmark Survey.[57]
  • 53% of analyzed B2B advertising content incorporated a call to action, according to Gartner’s analysis of 346 digital advertisements.[13]
  • 64% of B2B sales professionals offer self-service tools to help buyers guide their purchase decisions, according to HubSpot’s 2024 sales research.[58]
  • 8% of digital advertisements from 30 leading B2B brands delivered catalytic value to buyers in Gartner’s analysis of 346 ads.[13]
  • 25% of B2B buyers recall experiencing any valuable digital interaction with a supplier, according to Gartner’s 2024 research.[13]

13 Statistics

Sustainability & Ethics

Sustainability spend is small but tracked: 1.9% of marketing budgets were spent on sustainability or climate-related issues in 2024 in the United States.

Sustainability in the b2b marketing industry

  • 3.7% of B2B services marketing budgets were spent on sustainability or climate-related issues in 2024 in the United States.[26]
  • 39.4% of B2B product companies reported taking no action to reduce climate-change risk in 2024 in the United States.[26]
  • 52.1% of companies taking climate action reported changing products or services in the 2024 CMO Survey of United States marketers.[26]
  • 1.9% of marketing budgets were spent on sustainability or climate-related issues in 2024, up from 1.2% one year earlier, across surveyed companies in the United States.[26]
  • 40.3% of companies taking climate action reported changing marketing promotions in the 2024 CMO Survey of United States marketers.[26]

ESG in the b2b marketing industry

  • 61% of organizations reported that leadership or the board focused on governance issues in 2024, according to an ESG survey of corporate leaders.[59]
  • 42% of B2B decision-makers said they had chosen a provider because of its social or environmental stance in a 2025 United States survey.[60]
  • 44% of private companies provided ESG disclosures in 2024, down from 70% in 2023, according to an ESG survey of corporate leaders.[59]
  • 18% of marketing leaders ranked diversity, equity and inclusion as a top priority in 2023, according to a global marketing-leader survey.[61]
  • 18% of marketing leaders ranked environmental sustainability as a top priority in 2023, according to a global marketing-leader survey reported in 2024.[61]

Ethics in the b2b marketing industry

  • 75% of large companies’ marketing codes addressed diversity and inclusion in a 2023 World Federation of Advertisers survey.[9]
  • 35% of B2B marketing respondents identified lack of human expertise or creativity as an AI challenge in the 2024 Endeavor Business Media survey.[48]
  • 26% of B2B marketing respondents identified ethical or privacy concerns as an AI challenge in the 2024 Endeavor Business Media survey.[48]
  • 78% of organizations in the advertising and marketing sector reported having AI ethics policies in a 2025 B2B marketing AI survey.[62]
  • 47% of respondents had metrics to assess compliance with responsible-marketing frameworks in a 2023 World Federation of Advertisers survey.[9]

CSR in the b2b marketing industry

  • 26.2% of companies reported investing in environmentally friendly products or services in the 2024 CMO Survey.[26]
  • 22% of B2B decision-makers said diversity, equity and inclusion policies influenced their purchasing decisions in a 2025 United States survey.[60]
  • 40.3% of companies taking climate action reported changing marketing promotions in the 2024 CMO Survey.[26]
  • 18.5% of companies taking climate action reported changing market selection in the 2024 CMO Survey.[26]
  • 10.1% of companies taking climate action reported changing their brand in the 2024 CMO Survey.[26]

Carbon footprint in the b2b marketing industry

  • 4.5% of marketing budgets are expected to be allocated to sustainability or climate-related issues within five years in the CMO Survey.[26]
  • 25.6% of companies reported adopting climate-related metrics in 2024, up from 18.7% two years earlier, in the CMO Survey.[26]
  • 1.9% of marketing budgets were allocated to sustainability or climate-related issues in 2024 in the CMO Survey.[26]

15 Statistics

Globalization & Expansion

Translation operations are common in global B2B marketing: 34% of B2B content marketers said their organizations translate content into different languages in 2022.

Globalization in the b2b marketing industry

  • 37% of B2B organizations that translate content used enterprise translation services in 2022.[72]
  • 46% of B2B organizations that translate content used an in-house team or regional offices in 2022.[72]
  • 20% of B2B organizations that translate content used automated translation technology in 2022.[72]
  • 34% of B2B content marketers said their organizations translate content into different languages in 2022, covering global-market content operations.[72]
  • 38% of B2B organizations that translate content used ad hoc freelance translators in 2022.[72]

Cultural adaptation in the b2b marketing industry

  • 73% of B2B organizations that translated content also localized it for local cultures or target markets in 2022.[72]
  • 49% of senior marketers spent less than 5% of their marketing budget on creative adaptation and cross-cultural localization in 2017.[73]
  • 22% of B2B organizations that localized content used an enterprise translation or localization service in 2022.[72]
  • 82% of B2B organizations that localized translated content used an in-house team or regional offices in 2022.[72]
  • 31% of B2B organizations that localized content used ad hoc localization freelancers in 2022.[72]

Stakeholder management in the b2b marketing industry

  • 12% of surveyed B2B marketing decision-makers said their organizations were researching or piloting buying-group strategies in 2026.[74]
  • 42% of surveyed B2B marketing decision-makers said their organizations had partially implemented buying groups in 2026.[74]
  • 38% of surveyed B2B marketing decision-makers said their organizations had fully implemented buying groups in 2026.[74]
  • 92.5% of surveyed B2B buyers said the final purchasing call was typically made by an individual rather than by consensus in 2024.[75]
  • 76% of B2B buyers said more than three people were involved in a new-vendor decision in 2025.[76]

Distribution channels in the b2b marketing industry

  • 46% of surveyed B2B marketers used digital events to distribute content in 2024.[20]
  • 36% of surveyed B2B marketers identified social media as the most effective channel for meeting marketing needs in 2024.[20]
  • 61% of surveyed B2B marketers used email to distribute content in 2024.[20]
  • 75% of surveyed B2B marketers used social media to distribute content in 2024.[20]
  • 42% of surveyed B2B marketers used blogs to distribute content in 2024.[20]

Key questions about the b2b marketing industry

What is the US B2B advertising spend for 2025?
The US B2B advertising spend is forecast at $44.35 billion in 2025.
How is US B2B digital advertising expected to change by 2027?
US B2B digital advertising spend is forecast to reach $25.72 billion in 2027. Annual growth is expected to slow from 14.6% in 2024 to 11.1% in 2027.
Which companies lead the b2b marketing industry?
Microsoft leads Gitnux's 2026 b2b marketing ranking with an Overall score of 9.7, with operating margin 45.62%. Adobe is the highest-ranked digital experience platform at 9.5, backed by R&D at 18.06% of revenue.
What share of B2B marketing organizations use AI for data analysis in 2026?
52% of B2B marketing organizations use AI for data analysis in 2026.
How much of B2B paid allocation goes to major search and social channels in North America?
Among North American enterprise B2B marketers, search accounts for 30.3% of paid-channel allocation, social for 28.5%, and programmatic for 20.6% of digital budgets.
What is a common attribution or data-performance constraint in marketing measurement?
76% of B2B marketers say tying performance data to goals is a measurement challenge.
Reference

Cite This Report

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APA
Samuel Norberg. (2026, November 11). B2B Marketing Industry Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/b2b-marketing-industry-statistics
MLA
Samuel Norberg. "B2B Marketing Industry Statistics." Gitnux, 11 Nov 2026, https://gitnux.org/b2b-marketing-industry-statistics.
Chicago
Samuel Norberg. 2026. "B2B Marketing Industry Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/b2b-marketing-industry-statistics.

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