Content Marketing Statistics 2025: What’s Working Now

Content marketing is more than just publishing articles or posts; it drives measurable results for brands that commit to it. In one case study, content strategies like blogs and videos have been reported to significantly boost qualified leads. In today’s competitive landscape, marketers who base decisions on data gain a stronger edge. Let’s explore key statistics shaping content marketing today.

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In 2025, 82% of marketers report using content marketing in some form.
Around 70% of marketers say their content marketing delivers measurable ROI.
Global content marketing industry revenue will reach $72 billion in 2025.
Companies using blogs generate up to 67% more website visitors on average than those that don’t.
62% of marketers use AI for brainstorming, 44% for drafting, and 41% to optimize content, while 38% use AI for emails and social content.
41% of marketers measure the effectiveness of their content marketing strategy through sales.
45% of marketing and media leaders plan to increase their content budget in the next twelve months.

Recent Developments

In 2025, 88% of marketers use AI daily in content marketing, with 81% reporting boosted brand awareness and sales due to AI.
Almost 50% of marketers worldwide expect content marketing budgets to rise in 2025.
Video remains the top content type created by marketers for four consecutive years.
Short-form video content is now considered the most effective ROI driver by about 21% of marketers in 2025.
The shift away from third-party cookies and rising paid media costs are accelerating content-marketing spend and audience building.
Investments in content software (analytics, dashboards, headless CMS) now dominate over pure campaign spend in some sectors.
Marketers are tracking new KPIs beyond clicks and downloads, such as pipeline contribution and brand equity impact.
A 2025 trend, content teams emphasize quality over quantity, with 83% believing high-quality content outperforms higher volume.

AI in Content Creation: How Marketers Use It

62% use AI to brainstorm new topics for content ideas.
53% use AI to summarize and repurpose existing content.
44% rely on AI to write article drafts quickly.
41% use AI to optimize content for SEO and readability.
38% use AI to write email copy for marketing campaigns.
34% leverage AI to create social media posts consistently.
32% use AI to outline assignments for better structure.
32% employ AI to repurpose old content for new formats.
27% use AI for proofreading and grammar accuracy.
12% use AI to analyze data or performance metrics.
10% use AI to build buyer personas for personalization.
9% rely on AI to create graphics for visuals.
4% use AI to produce videos due to higher complexity.
5% use AI for other niche content tasks.
11% of marketers don’t use AI tools in their workflows.

Content Marketing Overview

Content marketing is defined as creating, publishing, and distributing content for a targeted audience to attract attention, build trust, and drive action.
Businesses use content marketing to support goals like lead generation, customer retention, and brand authority.
The vast majority of marketers (over 80%) say they use content marketing in some form.
Among small-to-medium businesses, roughly 80% say they write content themselves.
Up to 77% of marketers say content marketing is effective for lead generation in the B2B sphere.
Marketers track metrics such as website visits (53 %), engagement (53 %), and conversions when measuring content marketing performance.
The landscape of content marketing now spans blogs, videos, podcasts, interactive tools, and more, meaning complexity and reach are both increasing.

Market Size & Growth

The global content marketing market is estimated to reach approximately $72 billion by 2025.
In 2022, the market was valued at roughly $413.2 billion.
North America held around 40.83% of the global market revenue share in 2024.
The Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow fastest, with a projected CAGR of around 14%-15% from 2025 to 2030.
In 2024, the software component of the content marketing market (CMS, analytics) represented around 60.37% of spend.
One research report suggests the market was anticipated to be approximately $600 billion by the end of 2024.

Content Marketing ROI

For every $1 spent, content marketing returns an average of $3, while email marketing generates an average of $36 ROI in 2025.
Companies that publish content weekly experienced a 3.5× increase in conversions compared with monthly publishers.
A report shows 41% of marketers report content marketing drives more ROI than any other channel (paid ads or email).
Around 70% of businesses report positive content marketing ROI.
Companies that blog receive 67% more leads than those that don’t, though this data may date back to the early 2010s.
Less than 15% of marketers in 2023 said content marketing delivered their largest ROI.
A key challenge is that only about 26% of marketing leaders say they have a very clear picture of how their content performs.

Budgets & Spending

45% of marketing and media leaders planned to increase their content budget in the next 12 months.
Nearly 50% of marketers indicate their content marketing budget will go up in 2025; just 8% say it will go down.
58% of companies across industries invest between $5,000 and $10,000 per month on content marketing.
On average, 55% of businesses allocate between 11% and 50% of their marketing budget to content marketing.
79% of companies considered “very successful” spend more than 10% of their marketing budget on content.
The average cost of a content audit ranges between $100 and $700.
Paid channels accelerate content distribution for 63% of businesses.
49% of marketers use video to tell customers more about their product or service.

Impact of AI Tools on Content Quality

47% of marketers reported a moderate improvement in content quality after using AI tools.
32% observed a significant improvement, showing strong confidence in AI-driven enhancements.
13% noticed no change, suggesting results vary by use case or tool quality.
5% experienced a moderate decline in quality, possibly due to overreliance or poor implementation.
2% were not sure about the impact, indicating uncertainty or mixed outcomes.
Only 1% saw a significant decline, proving that major quality drops from AI use are rare.
Overall, the data shows that nearly 8 in 10 marketers experienced some level of improvement in content quality with AI adoption.

Content Marketing Strategies

80% of “very successful” companies have a documented content marketing strategy in place.
Only 47% of all respondents say their organization has a documented content strategy.
62% of content marketers say they set goals that align with their organization’s broader objectives.
53% of marketers say they can measure and demonstrate content performance effectively.
48% of social marketers reuse or adapt content across platforms rather than creating unique content each time.
29% of marketers say content strategy is a top challenge for them.
More than 40% of companies say they have plans to grow their content-marketing team in 2025.
83% of marketing leaders believe high-quality content outperforms high quantity.
61% of marketers say they have “somewhat clear” metrics on how content performs, but only 26% say they have a very clear picture.

Goals & Objectives

77% of B2B marketers report that content marketing helps generate leads.
83% of B2B marketers say content marketing helps build brand awareness.
53% of content marketers say they measure performance in terms of content’s ability to achieve stated goals.
45% of marketers plan to increase their content marketing budgets to meet strategic goals.
41% of marketers measure success by sales generated from content marketing.
50% of marketers plan to increase investment in content marketing in 2024-25 to match objectives.
69% of content marketers consider “understanding their audience” a key objective.
70% of “top performers” in content marketing say they produce high-quality content consistently.

Content Marketing Trends

93% of marketers plan to either maintain or increase their video marketing budget in 2025.
Short-form video content is cited by 21% of marketers as providing the best ROI in 2025.
Over 80% of marketers globally are already using AI in their digital marketing strategies.
63% of businesses use paid channels to accelerate content distribution.
29% of marketers say content strategy usage remains relatively low; only 29% actively use content marketing in a strategic sense.
24% of high-performing websites publish one article per day or more.

Marketing Challenges

33% of marketers say creating high-quality content is their biggest challenge.
Only 26% of companies say they have a very clear picture of how their content performs.
29% of marketers identify content strategy as a top challenge.
42% of organizations say they have difficulty scaling content creation across teams.
45% of marketers say achieving efficient workflows from AI is a challenge.
Many businesses still struggle to align content goals with business outcomes; 62% set aligned goals, leaving 38% that do not.
31% of content marketing teams say they lack the right technology to manage content across their organization.
17% of companies say their content creation model does not create the desired outcomes.

Content Formats & Types

49% of marketers use video to tell customers more about their product or service.
21% of marketers in 2025 say short-form video delivers the best ROI.
Businesses see up to 67% more leads from regular blogging, driving robust growth in site engagement and conversions.
79% of B2B marketers say blog posts are an effective channel for content distribution.
Podcasts are growing; in one survey, 46% of weekly podcast listeners said they purchased after hearing about a product or service on a podcast.
In 2025, 91% of marketers plan to maintain or increase their investment in podcasts and audio content.
48% of social marketers reuse or adapt content across platforms instead of creating fully unique formats.
80% of small business owners say they write content themselves.
60% of video marketers list engagement rate as a top KPI, followed by conversion rate (56%) and click-through rate (52%).

Social Media Content Marketing Statistics

There are approximately 5.42 billion social media users worldwide in 2025.
The average person uses about 6.83 different social networks per month.
Globally, 63.9% of the population uses social media, with an average usage time of 2 hours and 21 minutes daily (February 2025).
Social media advertising spend is projected to reach $276.7 billion in 2025, with 83% of that on mobile by 2030.
48% of consumers say they interact with brands more often on social media than six months ago.
The market for social listening tools is projected to grow from $9.61 billion in 2025 to $18.43 billion by 2030 (13.9% CAGR).
62% of social marketers use social listening tools, ranked as their second-highest priority behind audience engagement.
Short-form video and generative AI content are gaining prominence on social platforms; more than 80% of marketers globally are already using AI in their digital marketing strategies.
More than 60% of social content now aims to entertain, educate, or inform, rather than promote directly.

Email Marketing Statistics

Worldwide email users are projected to reach 4.6 billion in 2025.
Email marketing generates an average return of €42 for every €1 invested (≈ 4200% ROI).
Approximately 60% of emails are read on mobile devices.
81% of small and medium-sized enterprises use email marketing for customer communications.
89% of marketers use email as a primary channel for lead generation.
On average, email open rates vary by industry, with typical targets around 34.23%.
Email marketing campaigns show an average ROI of about $36 for every $1 spent.
The global email marketing market is projected to grow, reaching $36.3 billion by 2033.
99% of users check their inboxes daily, highlighting the importance of consistent communication.

B2B Content Marketing Statistics

97% of B2B marketers say content marketing is part of their organization’s marketing strategy.
92% of B2B marketers use short articles or posts, 76% use videos, and 75% use case studies or customer stories.
84% of B2B marketers say LinkedIn delivers the best value for their organization.
83% say content marketing helps build brand awareness, and 77% say it generates demand or leads.
91% of B2B marketers collect first-party data, but only 37% have an established data strategy.
Only 28% of B2B marketers rate their content marketing success as “extremely” or “very” successful, with 57% reporting moderate success.
17% of B2B marketers say the quality of AI-generated content is excellent or very good.
55% of B2B marketers now leverage influencer marketing and creator partnerships.

B2B Content Marketing Channels & Outcomes

B2C Content Marketing Statistics

In 2025, 87% of marketers say content marketing helped increase brand awareness.
45% of marketers say video is the top-performing content format.
65% of B2C brands say they frequently or always differentiate their content from competitors.
23% of marketing professionals say content marketing had the biggest impact on their multichannel strategy.
The average blog post length is 1,427 words, over 70% longer than a decade ago.
94% of blog posts earn zero backlinks, underscoring the need for promotion and outreach.
62% of B2C content marketers use thought leadership or educational formats to engage audiences.

SEO & Content Marketing Statistics

More than 75% of users never click past the first page of search results.
51% of marketers measure their content marketing effectiveness via sales.
Blogging is used by 90% of marketers to meet their content marketing goals.
In 2025, 94% of blog posts receive zero backlinks, indicating SEO remains a key challenge.
The global content marketing market is projected to reach approximately $1.95 trillion by 2032.
The most tracked metrics for content marketing are social media engagement and website engagement, both at 53%.
Only 26% of companies report having a very clear understanding of how content performs.
Content marketing ranks as the third-most significant source of customer retention at 32%, behind email (58%) and social media (32%).

Influencer Marketing & Content Promotion

The global influencer marketing market is estimated at $32.55 billion in 2025, with an average ROI of 5.78×.
55% of B2B marketers use influencer marketing and creator partnerships.
Niche Instagram influencers deliver ROI second only to Facebook, as reported by 22% of marketers.
User-generated content and creator-driven campaigns are expected to surpass traditional media in ad revenue share in 2025.
Campaigns with influencer-collaborated content show 30–40% higher engagement and conversion than non-influencer content.
Brands increasingly invest in micro-influencers (under 100k followers) for cost-effective and authentic promotion.
79% of brands say earned media value from influencer campaigns is either increasing or stable in 2025.
46% of Gen Z consumers are more interested in brands using AI-influencers.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What percentage of marketers say content marketing helps build brand awareness in 2025?

83% of B2B marketers say content marketing helps build brand awareness.

What share of marketers say content marketing generated demand or leads in 2025?

77% of B2B marketers say content marketing generated demand or leads.

What percentage of marketers use AI tools to optimize content (email campaigns to SEO) as of 2025?

51% of marketers use AI tools to optimize content from email campaigns to SEO.

Conclusion

As we move through, content marketing remains a cornerstone for both B2B and B2C organizations. The statistics show clear momentum in formats like social media, email, video, and influencer-driven content. At the same time, measurement, strategy clarity, and adoption of new technologies like AI are emerging as critical differentiators. Businesses that combine high-quality content with intelligent distribution and robust measurement frameworks are best placed to capture value. For any marketer looking to refine their approach, these numbers provide a grounded roadmap to plan smarter and act faster.