Marketing statistics for 2026 point one way: money and attention keep moving to digital, and within digital to video, social, creators and AI. UK advertisers spent £40.5bn on digital advertising in 2025, up 10%. In the US, internet advertising revenue reached $294.6bn, up 13.9%. The average company spends 7.8% of revenue on marketing, and 86.4% of marketing teams now use AI in some way.
This guide gathers the figures people search for most, grouped by channel. We use UK data where it exists and label every US or global figure. Each number shows its source, period and type, so you can tell a measurement from a survey or a forecast. Last verified: 7 November 2026.
In This Guide
- Key marketing statistics at a glance
- Digital marketing and advertising statistics
- Marketing budget and ROI statistics
- Content marketing statistics
- SEO and link building statistics
- Social media marketing statistics
- Email marketing statistics
- Video marketing statistics
- Influencer and creator marketing statistics
- AI in marketing statistics
- B2B and B2C marketing statistics
- Small business and startup statistics
- Ecommerce marketing statistics
- Why marketing statistics differ
- How to verify a statistic
- FAQs
- Methodology, sources and change log
Key Marketing Statistics at a Glance
These are the headline figures. Each one is explained, with its source, in the section named in the table.
| Area | Statistic | Source | Period and place | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK digital advertising | £40.5bn, up 10% | IAB UK / Oliver Wyman | 2025, UK | Measurement and modelling |
| UK total advertising | £46.7bn, up 6.4% | AA/WARC | 2025, UK | Measurement (media owners) |
| US digital advertising | $294.6bn, up 13.9% | IAB / PwC | 2025, US | Measurement (not audited) |
| Marketing budgets | 7.8% of revenue (7.7% in 2025) | Gartner | Jan–Mar 2026, 401 leaders, North America, UK and Europe | Survey |
| AI budgets | 15.3% of marketing budget | Gartner | Jan–Mar 2026 | Survey |
| B2B content | 45% put AI tools in their top three areas for extra 2026 investment | CMI / MarketingProfs | Report published 8 Oct 2025, 1,000+ B2B marketers | Survey (sponsored) |
| Social media | 59.0m UK social media user identities (84.3% of people) | DataReportal | Oct 2026, UK | Estimate |
| £40.96 return per £1 | DMA (via ProfileTree) | 2026, 250 UK marketers | Survey | |
| Video | 91% of businesses use video | Wyzowl | Late 2025, 266 respondents | Vendor survey |
| AI | 86.4% of teams use AI in at least a few areas | HubSpot | 1,500+ marketers, global | Vendor survey |
| Creators | £966m in 2025; £1.217bn forecast for 2026 | IAB UK / IRM | UK | Estimate and forecast |
| Ecommerce | 28.8% of retail sales made online | ONS | Sept 2026, Great Britain | Measurement |
| Business survival | 38.4% still active after five years | ONS | 2019 births, UK | Measurement |
Digital Marketing and Advertising Statistics
Advertising is the easiest part of marketing to measure, so the best data sits here. Two cautions: these figures show money received by media owners, not what every brand spends, and each one covers a single country.
UK digital advertising statistics
- UK digital ad spend reached £40.5bn in 2025, up 10% in a year when UK GDP grew 1.4% (IAB UK with Oliver Wyman).
- Spend was £18.7bn in the first half and £21.8bn in the second half.
- Search is still the biggest format at £17.9bn (44% of spend), but it grew just 6%.
- Social grew 21% to £11.5bn and video grew 20% to £9.3bn. Video makes up 59% of social investment.
- Retail media grew 18% to £3.8bn.
- Mobile took 71% (£13.3bn) of first-half 2025 spend, and programmatic buying made up 78% of display (IAB UK half-year report, 2025).
IAB UK changed its method from the first half of 2025, so 2024 figures were restated. Do not compare these numbers with older IAB UK reports.
Looking ahead, IAB UK forecasts 10.3% growth to £44.7bn in 2026 and £49.1bn in 2027. Forecasts are shown hatched below so they are never mistaken for results. In IAB UK’s sentiment survey, 57% of respondents expected digital budgets to rise in 2026.
You may also see £46.7bn for 2025. That is the Advertising Association/WARC figure for all UK advertising, up 6.4%, so it includes TV, radio and print as well as digital. It is a wider measure, not a conflicting one.
US digital advertising statistics
The IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report is the long-running benchmark for the US. It is not a global figure.
- Total US internet advertising revenue was $294.6bn in 2025, up 13.9%, a record.
- Social: $117.7bn, up 32.6%.
- Search: $114.2bn, up 11%. Growth slowed from 15.9% in 2024, and search made up 38.8% of the total.
- Digital video: $78bn, up 25.4% (19.2% in 2024).
- Commerce media: $63.4bn, up 18%.
- Programmatic: $162.4bn, up 20.5% (reported by PPC Land).
- Creator advertising reached about $37bn (IAB).
The pattern matches the UK: search is still biggest, but social, video and commerce media are growing faster. A worldwide ad-spend total does exist, but it comes from forecasters who disagree with each other, so we do not quote one as fact.
Marketing Budget and ROI Statistics
Marketing budget statistics
- Marketing budgets are flat at 7.8% of company revenue in 2026, up from 7.7% in 2025 (Gartner CMO Spend Survey).
- On average, 15.3% of marketing budgets go to AI initiatives.
- 70% of CMOs say becoming an AI leader is a critical 2026 goal, but only 30% report fully developed AI readiness.
- Companies Gartner calls AI-ready put 21.3% of their marketing budget into AI and spend 8.9% of revenue on marketing.
- In HubSpot’s survey, 79.2% of marketers expect at least a slight budget rise in 2026, yet 73% say their budget faces more scrutiny than before.
| Benchmark | Average spend | Who was asked | Why it differs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gartner CMO Spend Survey 2026 | 7.8% of revenue | 401 marketing leaders in North America, the UK and Europe, Jan–Mar 2026, mostly large companies | Large companies tend to spend a smaller share of revenue |
| The CMO Survey 2026 (Duke, Deloitte, AMA) | About 9.0% average; 5% median | A broader mix of US company sizes | Smaller firms spend a bigger share, and a few high spenders lift the average |
Marketing ROI and performance statistics
- UK marketers report £40.96 back for every £1 spent on email (DMA Marketer Email Tracker 2026, via ProfileTree).
- 82% of video marketers say video gave a good return, down from 93% a year earlier (Wyzowl).
- 48.6% of marketers rank short-form video as the format with the biggest return (HubSpot).
- 17% of marketers do not track their video spend at all (Wyzowl), which shows how patchy ROI measurement still is.
We have not listed one universal ROI, conversion rate or cost per lead. Verified, independent benchmarks are rare, and vendor figures often reflect the vendor’s own customers. Use your own analytics first. If you need click and conversion tracking, a ClickMagick alternative may suit a smaller budget.
Content Marketing Statistics
The best named source is the annual B2B survey from the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs. The 2026 edition was its 16th. It covers 1,000+ B2B marketers, was published on 8 October 2025 and was sponsored by Storyblok. The answers are opinions, not audited results.
- Nearly 9 in 10 marketers already use AI to produce content, but fewer than 4 in 10 say it has improved performance.
- 45% name AI-powered tools as a top-three area for extra investment in 2026. Only 9% name staff pay, training and development, the lowest of all.
- 89% personalise content, yet nearly 60% do it in only one or two channels. 85% use personalised email.
- 96% create thought leadership, but in many companies fewer than 5% of employees contribute to it.
Source for all four points: CMI B2B Content and Marketing Trends: Insights for 2026. Type: survey.
Which content formats earn the best return?
HubSpot asked marketers to pick the formats with the biggest return. Short-form video came first by a wide margin. Percentages add up to more than 100% because marketers could choose several formats.
SEO and Link Building Statistics
No official body counts backlinks or SEO budgets, so most SEO statistics come from tool vendors and surveys. Treat them as clues, not proof.
- Google’s own guide to its ranking systems lists link analysis systems and PageRank among the systems in use, so links still count. Google does not publish how much.
- 35.4% of marketers plan to increase investment in their website, blog and SEO in 2026 (HubSpot).
- In Backlinko’s ranking study, the number one result had on average 3.8 times more backlinks than results in positions two to ten.
- Ahrefs’ earlier backlink growth study found that higher-ranking pages tended to gain links faster, and Ahrefs warned that this cannot prove cause and effect.
- HubSpot’s report says half of consumers use AI-powered search and half of Google searches show an AI overview. That is a vendor claim, so check it against your own search data.
If you track whether your brand appears in AI answers, our guide to AI search visibility tools is a good starting point. To compare SEO platforms, see our lists of Semrush alternatives and SE Ranking vs Moz.
Social Media Marketing Statistics
UK social media audience
- The UK had 59.0m social media user identities in October 2026, equal to 84.3% of the population and up 6.3% in a year. There were 68.5m internet users (97.8% of people), and 86.2% of them used at least one social platform (DataReportal, Digital 2027: UK).
- UK adults spend 4 hours 30 minutes online a day, up 10 minutes. 18 to 24-year-olds spend 6 hours 20 minutes and over-65s spend 3 hours 20 minutes (Ofcom Online Nation 2025).
- YouTube reaches 94% of UK online adults, who spend 51 minutes a day on it. TikTok reached 56% of online adults in May 2025, while X fell to 39% from 45% (Ofcom).
Social advertising and what marketers do
- UK social ad spend was £11.5bn in 2025 (+21%), and US social ad revenue was $117.7bn (+32.6%).
- Instagram is used by 70% of brands in HubSpot’s survey, Facebook by 69.6% and TikTok by 54.5%.
- Paid social was named the most impactful channel by 25.9% of marketers, ahead of organic social (23.5%) and social shopping tools (22.7%).
To plan your posting, see the best time to post on TikTok. For smaller platforms, look at how many people use Snapchat and Pinterest monthly active users before you commit budget.
Email Marketing Statistics
The most useful UK source is the DMA Marketer Email Tracker. The 2026 edition, published in March 2026, surveyed 250 UK marketers across B2B, B2C, agency and client side. We could not open the full DMA report, so we use the figures as reported by ProfileTree.
| Measure | 2026 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| Return for every £1 spent on email | £40.96 | £38.33 |
| Value of each email address | £40.53 | £36.63 |
- 54% of UK marketers say a discount is the most effective way to win an email address, up 18 percentage points since 2021. Brand trust is named by 37%.
- 85% of B2B marketers use personalised email (CMI).
- A global figure of $36 per $1 from Litmus is often quoted next to the DMA number. They are not interchangeable, because one is UK, in pounds, and the other is global, in dollars.
Video Marketing Statistics
Most video statistics come from Wyzowl’s State of Video Marketing 2026. It is a vendor survey: 266 people, a mix of marketers and consumers, in late 2025, with countries not stated. Wyzowl is a video production company, so read its numbers as indicative.
- 91% of businesses use video as a marketing tool, back to its joint all-time high. 93% of video marketers say it is important to their strategy.
- 85% say video helped them generate leads, and 83% say it directly increased sales.
- 71% believe videos of 30 seconds to 2 minutes work best.
- 82% of businesses upload video to YouTube, the most used platform. 63% of video marketers have used AI video tools, up from 51%.
- 46% give video a third of their marketing budget or less.
Independent data tells the same story about scale. UK video ad spend was £9.3bn in 2025 (+20%), and 34% of it went to TV+ (IAB UK). US digital video revenue was $78bn (+25.4%).
Influencer and Creator Marketing Statistics
IAB UK published the first dedicated measure of the UK creator partnerships market in September 2026, working with the Institute for Advertising and Media Statistics.
- Advertisers spent about £966m on creator partnerships in 2025, around 2.4% of the £40.5bn UK digital ad market.
- IAB UK forecasts £1.217bn in 2026, up 26%. Digital advertising excluding creators grew 9.6%, so creators are growing more than twice as fast (Marketing Week).
- In the US, creator advertising reached about $37bn in 2025 (IAB).
- 24% of marketers in HubSpot’s survey rank user-generated content among the formats with the biggest return.
For creators themselves, our guides show how much YouTube pays and what TikTok pays for 1 million views. These are useful context for what brands are paying into.
AI in Marketing Statistics
AI is now normal in marketing teams, but results and confidence lag behind use. The table shows why you should read each AI figure with its definition.
| Statistic | What it measures | Source and sample | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 86.4% | Teams using AI in at least a few areas | HubSpot, 1,500+ marketers, global | Vendor survey |
| Nearly 9 in 10 | Marketers using AI to produce content | CMI / MarketingProfs, 1,000+ B2B marketers | Survey (sponsored) |
| 63% | Video marketers who have used AI video tools (51% a year earlier) | Wyzowl, 266 respondents | Vendor survey |
| 15.3% | Share of marketing budget going to AI | Gartner, 401 leaders | Survey |
| 30% | CMOs reporting fully developed AI readiness (70% call AI leadership critical) | Gartner, 401 leaders | Survey |
- Time and output: in HubSpot’s survey, 26.5% say AI significantly increased their productivity and 66.2% say slightly or moderately. Content creation (42.5%), media creation (37.2%) and ad automation (34.1%) are the most common extensive uses.
- Results: fewer than 4 in 10 CMI respondents say AI improved performance.
- Readiness: Gartner finds AI-ready organisations put 21.3% of budget into AI against a 15.3% average.
- Direction: 48% of IAB UK survey respondents named AI and automation a defining force in advertising over the next decade.
If you are choosing writing tools, our comparison of Grammarly vs ChatGPT shows how they differ. Whatever you use, keep a person in charge of accuracy and tone.
B2B and B2C Marketing Statistics
Most annual surveys cover B2B marketers or mix both groups, so verified B2C-only figures are thinner. The B2B figures above (CMI) are the strongest named data. For a sector example, see our guide to B2B marketing for technology companies.
| Area | B2B | B2C |
|---|---|---|
| Audience | Small groups of buyers and several decision makers | Individual consumers |
| Buying cycle | Usually longer | Usually shorter |
| Common channels | Content, email, LinkedIn, events, search | Social, video, search, email, retail media |
| Content focus | Thought leadership, case studies, guides | Short video, reviews, offers |
| Measurement | Leads, pipeline and revenue influenced | Sales, repeat purchase and return on ad spend |
Small Business and Startup Statistics
Business survival is not a marketing statistic, but readers often look for it here. The key point is definition: official figures measure whether a business is still active, not whether a startup “failed”.
- The UK had about 2.9m active businesses in 2024, with 317,000 births (11.1%) and 280,000 deaths (9.8%, provisional) (ONS Business Demography 2024).
- Of UK businesses born in 2019, 38.4% were still active after five years. The ONS counts a business as surviving if it has employment or turnover in the following year.
- In the US, 34.7% of private-sector establishments born in March 2013 were still operating in March 2023 (BLS), and 15.7% of those born in 2000 survived to 2026 (BLS).
The US figures count establishments (business locations), not companies or funded startups. Do not turn them into a “startup failure rate”. Claims such as “90% of startups fail” have no traceable cohort or definition, so we do not use them.
Ecommerce Marketing Statistics
- 28.8% of Great Britain’s retail sales were made online in September 2026, down slightly from 28.9% in August (ONS retail sales bulletin, released 23 October 2026).
- UK remote purchase card fraud (card-not-present) losses were £423.5m in 2025, up 3%, across 3.2m cases, up 13%. Total UK payment fraud losses were £1.28bn, up 4% (UK Finance Annual Fraud Report 2026).
Always check what a fraud figure counts. Attempted fraud is fraud that was stopped. Confirmed loss is money actually lost. A chargeback is a card dispute, and not every chargeback is fraud. A percentage means little without both the number counted and the total it is divided by.
Why Marketing Statistics Differ Between Sources
Two correct numbers can disagree. The usual reasons are below, each with an example from this guide.
| Reason | Example | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Different scope | £40.5bn (UK digital ads, IAB UK) and £46.7bn (all UK ads, AA/WARC) | Check which media each figure includes |
| Different people asked | 7.8% (Gartner, mostly large firms) and about 9.0% (CMO Survey, broader mix) | Show both and name the sample |
| Different place and currency | £40.96 per £1 (UK email) and $36 per $1 (global email) | Never compare across countries or currencies |
| Different definition | 86.4% of teams use AI (HubSpot) and 63% of video marketers use AI video tools (Wyzowl) | Read the exact question |
| Forecast against actual | £40.5bn measured for 2025 and £44.7bn forecast for 2026 | Keep forecasts separate |
| Method change | IAB UK restated 2024 after changing its method | Only compare figures from the same edition |
| Recycled old data | Some roundups still repeat older AI-adoption figures with no survey date | Find the original and check the date |
Vendor research is useful but not neutral. HubSpot, Wyzowl and Gartner all have products or services connected to their topics, and CMI’s 2026 survey was sponsored. Their samples are often their own customers or audience, so we label every vendor figure. Independent or official data, such as the ONS, Ofcom and IAB UK, is usually broader but covers fewer topics.
How to Verify a Marketing Statistic Before You Use It
- Find the original publisher, not a blog that quotes it.
- Check the publication date and when the data was collected.
- Read the sample size and who was asked.
- Work out exactly what the figure measures.
- Check the country and the currency.
- Decide whether it is a measurement, a survey or a forecast.
- Look for a commercial interest or sponsor.
- Check whether a newer edition exists.
If you cannot complete step one, do not use the figure.
Frequently Asked Questions About Marketing Statistics
What are marketing statistics?
Marketing statistics are numbers that describe how marketing works: how much is spent, which channels people use and what results they get. They come in three main types: measurements (counted data), surveys (what people say) and forecasts (predictions).
Why are marketing statistics important?
They help you set budgets, choose channels and compare your results with a benchmark. A wrong or outdated figure can lead to a poor decision, so the source, date and place always matter.
What are the most important digital marketing statistics?
UK digital ad spend reached £40.5bn in 2025, up 10% (IAB UK). US internet ad revenue reached $294.6bn, up 13.9% (IAB/PwC). Social and video are growing fastest, and search is still the largest format.
Which marketing channel has the best ROI?
No channel wins in every survey. UK marketers in the DMA tracker report £40.96 back for every £1 spent on email, and 48.6% of HubSpot’s respondents rank short-form video as the highest-ROI content format. Both are self-reported, so test channels with your own data.
What percentage of businesses use digital marketing?
We could not verify a current, UK-wide figure from an independent source, so we do not give one. A related figure is that 91% of businesses use video as a marketing tool, according to a Wyzowl survey of 266 people.
How much do companies spend on marketing?
Gartner’s 2026 survey of 401 marketing leaders, mostly at large companies, puts the average at 7.8% of revenue. The CMO Survey, which covers a broader mix of US companies, reports an average of about 9.0% but a median of 5%.
What are the latest content marketing statistics?
In CMI’s 2026 B2B research, nearly 9 in 10 marketers use AI to produce content, 45% name AI tools as a top-three area for extra investment in 2026, and 96% create thought leadership content.
How effective is social media marketing?
Social is the fastest-growing large ad format: UK social ad spend rose 21% to £11.5bn in 2025. In HubSpot’s survey, paid social was named the most impactful channel by 25.9% of marketers. Effectiveness depends on your goal and audience.
How many marketers use AI?
HubSpot’s 2026 survey of 1,500+ marketers found that 86.4% of teams use AI in at least a few areas. Gartner found that only 30% of CMOs say their organisation is fully AI-ready.
What are the latest email marketing benchmarks?
The DMA’s 2026 Marketer Email Tracker, based on 250 UK marketers, reports £40.96 return per £1 spent and £40.53 of value per email address.
What are the biggest marketing trends in 2026?
Video and short-form video, social and creator partnerships, AI in content and advertising, retail media, and flat marketing budgets that must work harder. Each has verified figures in this guide.
Where can I find reliable marketing statistics?
Start with original publishers: IAB UK, the Advertising Association/WARC, the ONS, Ofcom, DataReportal, Gartner and the Content Marketing Institute. Then run the eight-step check in this guide.
Methodology, Sources and Change Log
- We start from original publishers: industry bodies, regulators, government statistics and named research firms. Vendor surveys are included only when we could see the sample or method, and they are labelled.
- We prefer UK data. US and global figures are labelled with their place.
- Where we could not open the original report (we could not open the full DMA report or the CMO Survey data), we name the outlet that reported the figure.
- Forecasts, measurements and surveys are never combined in one number or one chart series.
- Where two credible sources disagree, we show both and explain why. We do not average them.
- Commercial interests: IAB and IAB UK represent the advertising industry; Gartner sells research; HubSpot sells marketing software; Wyzowl sells video production; CMI and MarketingProfs serve marketers and the 2026 survey was sponsored by Storyblok.
- We removed figures we could not trace to a named source and date.
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 7 November 2026 | First publication. All figures checked against the sources listed below. |
| Next review | February 2027, or sooner if IAB UK, IAB/PwC, Gartner, CMI, DMA, ONS or Ofcom publish new data. |
Sources
- IAB UK: Digital Adspend 2025 and half-year 2025 report (In Publishing)
- Advertising Association/WARC Expenditure Report, 2025 results (Advanced Television)
- IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report, full year 2025 (PDF)
- Gartner 2026 CMO Spend Survey and The CMO Survey
- Content Marketing Institute: B2B Content and Marketing Trends 2026
- HubSpot State of Marketing 2026 and Wyzowl State of Video Marketing 2026
- DataReportal: Digital 2027, The United Kingdom and Ofcom Online Nation 2025
- DMA Marketer Email Tracker 2026 (as reported by ProfileTree)
- Marketing Week: UK creator partnerships study (IAB UK / IRM)
- ONS: Business Demography, UK 2024 and ONS: Retail sales, Great Britain, September 2026
- US BLS: 10-year establishment survival and 26-year survival
- UK Finance Annual Fraud Report 2026
- Google: guide to ranking systems, Backlinko ranking study and Ahrefs backlink growth study