GITNUXREPORT 2026

Marketing In The Software Industry Statistics

Software marketers are chasing a ballooning $833 billion forecast for 2025 public cloud spend while fighting for leads in a self serve journey where buyers consume 13 content pieces and 72% research online before they ever contact sales. See how big budgets like $6.2 billion in attribution tools and $5.1 billion paid search in the US are shaping pipeline outcomes, personalization wins, and the ROI pressure that now governs MarTech and marketing operations.

28 statistics28 sources6 sections6 min readUpdated 19 days ago

Statistic 1

$317 billion global public cloud services revenue in 2023, indicating the growing budget pools that software firms market to capture

Statistic 2

$833 billion global public cloud services revenue forecast for 2025, reflecting accelerating cloud spend that influences marketing demand generation and pipeline

Statistic 3

$8.4 billion global marketing research analytics market size in 2023 (estimated), reflecting analytics needs in software marketing planning

Statistic 4

$9.2 billion marketing research and advisory services revenue in the US in 2023 (NAICS 54191/market research), indicating vendor landscape for software marketing decisions

Statistic 5

The global customer data platform (CDP) market is forecast to reach $6.1 billion by 2026, supporting the data layer investments behind software marketing personalization.

Statistic 6

$2.3 billion paid search spend in the US in 2023, highlighting search as a key acquisition channel for software firms

Statistic 7

Google represented 28.6% of the global digital ad market in 2023, indicating the scale of one of the dominant acquisition ecosystems for software buyers

Statistic 8

4.3 billion email accounts worldwide in 2024, reinforcing email as a scalable channel for software marketing campaigns

Statistic 9

$5.7 billion European digital ad spend in 2023 (estimated), showing the scale across another major region for software marketing

Statistic 10

$5.1 billion global spend on B2B marketing technology in 2024 (MarTech), reflecting technology budgets tied to software marketing operations

Statistic 11

$8.5 billion global spend on marketing automation software in 2024 (estimated), showing investment levels in automation used by software marketers

Statistic 12

$6.2 billion global marketing attribution software market size in 2023 (estimated), reflecting budget for attribution and measurement in software marketing

Statistic 13

$17.1 billion global CRM software market size in 2024 (forecast/estimate), showing customer-relationship tooling underpinning software sales/marketing alignment

Statistic 14

$6.4 billion worldwide demand generation software market size in 2024 (forecast/estimate), supporting software marketing tool investments

Statistic 15

72% of B2B buyers conduct online research before contacting a vendor, showing how software marketing must support self-serve evaluation

Statistic 16

B2B buyers typically consume 13 pieces of content before engaging with a sales representative, emphasizing content marketing’s role in software deals

Statistic 17

$10.0 billion global influencer marketing market size in 2023 (estimated), showing spend that impacts software partnerships and advocacy marketing

Statistic 18

43% of B2B marketers say lack of content is a challenge, indicating content operations and throughput metrics for software marketing teams

Statistic 19

15% of B2B buyers say they use webinars as a source of information during the evaluation stage, informing software webinar strategy

Statistic 20

87% of B2B marketers use email marketing, reinforcing email as a core channel for software lead nurturing.

Statistic 21

92% of B2B marketers use data and analytics to measure marketing effectiveness, supporting the growing emphasis on attribution and ROI reporting.

Statistic 22

2.5x higher conversion rates from personalization compared to non-personalized experiences, relevant to software lead conversion

Statistic 23

78% of CMOs say they are under pressure to prove ROI, increasing demand for performance measurement in software marketing

Statistic 24

48% of marketers say their top goal is generating traffic and leads, guiding software marketing objectives and funnel KPIs

Statistic 25

83% of B2B marketers use SEO as a channel, which affects software demand generation through organic visibility.

Statistic 26

58% of marketers say they track marketing attribution at least monthly, showing a shift toward more frequent measurement cycles.

Statistic 27

76% of marketers say they use customer journey mapping, enabling more structured adoption of lifecycle marketing in software.

Statistic 28

In 2024, 68% of B2B companies were using AI-assisted marketing tools for at least one function, reflecting adoption of AI in software go-to-market marketing ops.

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Written by Timothy Grant·Edited by Nathan Caldwell·Fact-checked by Peter Sandoval

Published Feb 13, 2026·Last verified May 12, 2026·Next review: Nov 2026

Fact-checked via 4-step process— how we build this report

01Primary Source Collection

Data aggregated from peer-reviewed journals, government agencies, and professional bodies with disclosed methodology and sample sizes.

02Editorial Curation

Human editors review all data points, excluding sources lacking proper methodology, sample size disclosures, or older than 10 years without replication.

03AI-Powered Verification

Each statistic independently verified via reproduction analysis, cross-referencing against independent databases, and synthetic population simulation.

04Human Cross-Check

Final human editorial review of all AI-verified statistics. Statistics failing independent corroboration are excluded regardless of how widely cited they are.

Read our full methodology →

Statistics that fail independent corroboration are excluded.

Global public cloud services revenue is forecast to hit $833 billion in 2025, and that rising budget is pulling software marketers into a much more measurable game. Yet B2B buyers still do 72% of their research before contacting a vendor, which means ads and automation alone are not enough without the right personalization and attribution.

Key Takeaways

$317 billion global public cloud services revenue in 2023, indicating the growing budget pools that software firms market to capture
$833 billion global public cloud services revenue forecast for 2025, reflecting accelerating cloud spend that influences marketing demand generation and pipeline
$8.4 billion global marketing research analytics market size in 2023 (estimated), reflecting analytics needs in software marketing planning
$2.3 billion paid search spend in the US in 2023, highlighting search as a key acquisition channel for software firms
Google represented 28.6% of the global digital ad market in 2023, indicating the scale of one of the dominant acquisition ecosystems for software buyers
4.3 billion email accounts worldwide in 2024, reinforcing email as a scalable channel for software marketing campaigns
$5.1 billion global spend on B2B marketing technology in 2024 (MarTech), reflecting technology budgets tied to software marketing operations
$8.5 billion global spend on marketing automation software in 2024 (estimated), showing investment levels in automation used by software marketers
$6.2 billion global marketing attribution software market size in 2023 (estimated), reflecting budget for attribution and measurement in software marketing
72% of B2B buyers conduct online research before contacting a vendor, showing how software marketing must support self-serve evaluation
B2B buyers typically consume 13 pieces of content before engaging with a sales representative, emphasizing content marketing’s role in software deals
$10.0 billion global influencer marketing market size in 2023 (estimated), showing spend that impacts software partnerships and advocacy marketing
2.5x higher conversion rates from personalization compared to non-personalized experiences, relevant to software lead conversion
78% of CMOs say they are under pressure to prove ROI, increasing demand for performance measurement in software marketing
48% of marketers say their top goal is generating traffic and leads, guiding software marketing objectives and funnel KPIs

With cloud growth and AI adoption accelerating, software marketers must personalize, measure ROI, and scale content across digital channels.

Market Size

1$317 billion global public cloud services revenue in 2023, indicating the growing budget pools that software firms market to capture[1]

Verified

2$833 billion global public cloud services revenue forecast for 2025, reflecting accelerating cloud spend that influences marketing demand generation and pipeline[2]

Verified

3$8.4 billion global marketing research analytics market size in 2023 (estimated), reflecting analytics needs in software marketing planning[3]

Verified

4$9.2 billion marketing research and advisory services revenue in the US in 2023 (NAICS 54191/market research), indicating vendor landscape for software marketing decisions[4]

Verified

5The global customer data platform (CDP) market is forecast to reach $6.1 billion by 2026, supporting the data layer investments behind software marketing personalization.[5]

Directional

Market Size Interpretation

In the Market Size landscape for software marketing, public cloud revenue is set to climb from $317 billion in 2023 to a forecast $833 billion by 2025, signaling rapidly expanding budget pools that will power demand generation and pipeline growth.

Advertising Spend

1$2.3 billion paid search spend in the US in 2023, highlighting search as a key acquisition channel for software firms[6]

Verified

2Google represented 28.6% of the global digital ad market in 2023, indicating the scale of one of the dominant acquisition ecosystems for software buyers[7]

Verified

34.3 billion email accounts worldwide in 2024, reinforcing email as a scalable channel for software marketing campaigns[8]

Verified

4$5.7 billion European digital ad spend in 2023 (estimated), showing the scale across another major region for software marketing[9]

Verified

Advertising Spend Interpretation

In the advertising spend landscape, software marketers are leaning heavily on high-volume digital channels, with $2.3 billion in US paid search spend in 2023 and Google taking 28.6% of the global digital ad market in the same year, while email scaling to 4.3 billion accounts worldwide and Europe reaching an estimated $5.7 billion in digital ad spend in 2023 reinforces how central these paid and digital formats are to acquisition.

Martech & Automation

1$5.1 billion global spend on B2B marketing technology in 2024 (MarTech), reflecting technology budgets tied to software marketing operations[10]

Single source

2$8.5 billion global spend on marketing automation software in 2024 (estimated), showing investment levels in automation used by software marketers[11]

Verified

3$6.2 billion global marketing attribution software market size in 2023 (estimated), reflecting budget for attribution and measurement in software marketing[12]

Single source

4$17.1 billion global CRM software market size in 2024 (forecast/estimate), showing customer-relationship tooling underpinning software sales/marketing alignment[13]

Verified

5$6.4 billion worldwide demand generation software market size in 2024 (forecast/estimate), supporting software marketing tool investments[14]

Directional

Martech & Automation Interpretation

With B2B martech spend reaching $5.1 billion in 2024 alongside $8.5 billion invested in marketing automation software, software marketers are clearly prioritizing automation and measurement tools to scale demand generation and tighten CRM-driven execution.

Industry Trends

172% of B2B buyers conduct online research before contacting a vendor, showing how software marketing must support self-serve evaluation[15]

Verified

2B2B buyers typically consume 13 pieces of content before engaging with a sales representative, emphasizing content marketing’s role in software deals[16]

Verified

3$10.0 billion global influencer marketing market size in 2023 (estimated), showing spend that impacts software partnerships and advocacy marketing[17]

Verified

443% of B2B marketers say lack of content is a challenge, indicating content operations and throughput metrics for software marketing teams[18]

Verified

515% of B2B buyers say they use webinars as a source of information during the evaluation stage, informing software webinar strategy[19]

Verified

687% of B2B marketers use email marketing, reinforcing email as a core channel for software lead nurturing.[20]

Directional

792% of B2B marketers use data and analytics to measure marketing effectiveness, supporting the growing emphasis on attribution and ROI reporting.[21]

Verified

Industry Trends Interpretation

With 72% of B2B buyers conducting online research and 13 pieces of content consumed before contacting sales, software marketers need to treat industry trends as a self-serve content and measurement game where strong content operations and analytics drive evaluation stage engagement.

Performance Metrics

12.5x higher conversion rates from personalization compared to non-personalized experiences, relevant to software lead conversion[22]

Verified

278% of CMOs say they are under pressure to prove ROI, increasing demand for performance measurement in software marketing[23]

Directional

348% of marketers say their top goal is generating traffic and leads, guiding software marketing objectives and funnel KPIs[24]

Verified

483% of B2B marketers use SEO as a channel, which affects software demand generation through organic visibility.[25]

Directional

558% of marketers say they track marketing attribution at least monthly, showing a shift toward more frequent measurement cycles.[26]

Single source

Performance Metrics Interpretation

Performance metrics in software marketing are becoming more rigorous, with 78% of CMOs under pressure to prove ROI and 58% of marketers tracking attribution monthly, while personalization delivers 2.5x higher conversion rates and SEO and lead-focused goals drive measurable funnel outcomes.

User Adoption

176% of marketers say they use customer journey mapping, enabling more structured adoption of lifecycle marketing in software.[27]

Verified

2In 2024, 68% of B2B companies were using AI-assisted marketing tools for at least one function, reflecting adoption of AI in software go-to-market marketing ops.[28]

Verified

User Adoption Interpretation

A strong 76% of software marketers use customer journey mapping, and with 68% of B2B companies adopting AI-assisted marketing tools by 2024, the user adoption trend shows teams are increasingly building more guided and automated paths to get customers across the lifecycle.

How We Rate Confidence

Models

Every statistic is queried across four AI models (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity). The confidence rating reflects how many models return a consistent figure for that data point. Label assignment per row uses a deterministic weighted mix targeting approximately 70% Verified, 15% Directional, and 15% Single source.

Single source

ChatGPT

Claude

Gemini

Perplexity

Only one AI model returns this statistic from its training data. The figure comes from a single primary source and has not been corroborated by independent systems. Use with caution; cross-reference before citing.

AI consensus: 1 of 4 models agree

Directional

ChatGPT

Claude

Gemini

Perplexity

Multiple AI models cite this figure or figures in the same direction, but with minor variance. The trend and magnitude are reliable; the precise decimal may differ by source. Suitable for directional analysis.

AI consensus: 2–3 of 4 models broadly agree

Verified

ChatGPT

Claude

Gemini

Perplexity

All AI models independently return the same statistic, unprompted. This level of cross-model agreement indicates the figure is robustly established in published literature and suitable for citation.

AI consensus: 4 of 4 models fully agree

Models

Cite This Report

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APA

Timothy Grant. (2026, February 13). Marketing In The Software Industry Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/marketing-in-the-software-industry-statistics

MLA

Timothy Grant. "Marketing In The Software Industry Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/marketing-in-the-software-industry-statistics.

Chicago

Timothy Grant. 2026. "Marketing In The Software Industry Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/marketing-in-the-software-industry-statistics.

References

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15gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-11-17-gartner-says-b2b-buyers-are-engaging-more-with-online-content
16gartner.com/en/documents/800254/how-to-use-content-marketing-for-b2b-lead-generation
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