Content marketing is widely used by B2B organizations, but the latest benchmark figures show a gap between producing content and proving its business value. The CMI B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks 2024 report measures reported practices and expectations among B2B marketers, including use of generative AI, content formats, performance measurement, budgets, and planned investment.
On this page
- How B2B marketers use content
- The formats marketers publish
- What content marketing helps achieve
- Measurement and scaling challenges
- What top performers prioritize
- Budgets and future investment
How B2B marketers use content
The CMI B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks 2024 figures place generative AI at the center of current content operations. Seventy-two percent of B2B marketers said they use generative AI tools. At the same time, 61% said their organization lacks guidelines for generative AI use. This combination points to broad adoption alongside an unresolved governance issue: tools are already present in many workflows, while formal direction has not reached the same level.
Audience fit remains a practical concern. Fifty-seven percent of B2B marketers cited creating the right content for their audience as a challenge. That finding matters because content volume alone does not establish relevance. It also sits alongside the report’s success-factor data: 79% of top performers said knowing their audience is a success factor.
The benchmark also shows that content work is not always organized as a repeatable operating system. Thirty-one percent said they have no structured content production process, and 29% said they lack an editorial calendar with clear deadlines. Scaling problems extend beyond planning. Forty-eight percent identified not enough content repurposing as a scaling hurdle, while 40% cited a lack of communication across organizational silos.
These figures describe reported conditions among B2B marketers in the 2024 benchmark period. They are not a forecast of every organization and should not be read as a universal adoption rate for all businesses.
The formats marketers publish
Short-form written content was the most widely used format in the benchmark. Ninety-four percent of B2B marketers used short articles or posts in the last 12 months. Videos followed at 84%, while 78% used case studies or customer stories. Long articles or posts were used by 71%.
The range of formats suggests that B2B content programs commonly combine quick, repeatable publishing with deeper proof-oriented assets. Visual content and data visualizations were used by 60% of marketers. E-books or white papers reached 59%, and brochures reached 49%. Product or technical data sheets were used by 45%, while 36% used research reports.
Interactive and live formats appeared less often but still formed part of the mix. Thirty-three percent of B2B marketers used interactive content, 29% used audio content, and 25% used livestreaming.
| Content format | B2B marketers using it in the last 12 months |
|---|---|
| Short articles or posts | 94% |
| Videos | 84% |
| Case studies or customer stories | 78% |
| Long articles or posts | 71% |
| Visual content or data visualizations | 60% |
| E-books or white papers | 59% |
| Brochures | 49% |
| Product or technical data sheets | 45% |
| Research reports | 36% |
| Interactive content | 33% |
| Audio content | 29% |
| Livestreaming | 25% |
Format usage and format performance are different measures. The benchmark found that 53% of B2B marketers said case studies or customer stories and videos deliver some of their best results. That does not mean every organization gets the same result from either format, but it does show that two of the more widely used formats were also frequently associated with strong outcomes.
What content marketing helps achieve
The most commonly reported outcome was brand awareness. Eighty-four percent of B2B marketers said content marketing helped create brand awareness in the last 12 months. Seventy-six percent said it helped generate demand or leads, and 63% said it helped nurture subscribers, audiences, or leads.
Revenue-related impact was reported by 58%, who said content marketing helped generate sales or revenue. The progression across these figures is useful for interpreting content programs: awareness and demand were reported more often than direct sales or revenue. That is a pattern in the benchmark results, not a claim that awareness automatically produces revenue.
Reported overall success was mixed. Twenty-eight percent of B2B marketers rated their content marketing approach as extremely or very successful. Another 57% rated it as moderately successful, while 15% rated it as minimally or not at all successful.
| Reported assessment or outcome | Share of B2B marketers |
|---|---|
| Content helped create brand awareness | 84% |
| Content helped generate demand or leads | 76% |
| Content helped nurture subscribers, audiences, or leads | 63% |
| Content helped generate sales or revenue | 58% |
| Approach rated extremely or very successful | 28% |
| Approach rated moderately successful | 57% |
| Approach rated minimally or not at all successful | 15% |
The figures indicate that content marketing can be connected to several stages of the buyer journey, while organizations’ confidence in the overall approach varies. For readers evaluating their own program, the distinction between an activity, an outcome, and a success rating is important: publishing a format is not the same as demonstrating impact from it.
Measurement and scaling challenges
Only 46% of B2B marketers said their organization measures content performance effectively. The most frequently reported measurement challenge was integrating or correlating data across multiple platforms, cited by 84%. Seventy-seven percent said extracting insights from data is a measurement challenge, and 76% said tying performance data to goals is a challenge.
Other reported obstacles included organizational goal setting at 70% and lack of training at 66%. These results show that measurement difficulty is not limited to choosing a metric. It can also involve combining platform data, interpreting the resulting information, connecting it to organizational objectives, and developing the skills needed to do that work.
The performance measures used by marketers varied by channel and business stage. Conversions were used by 73% to assess content performance. Email engagement and website traffic were each used by 71%. Website engagement was used by 69%, while 65% used social media analytics.
| Content performance measure | Share using it |
|---|---|
| Conversions | 73% |
| Email engagement | 71% |
| Website traffic | 71% |
| Website engagement | 69% |
| Social media analytics | 65% |
Scaling has its own operational constraints. Not enough content repurposing was cited by 48%, lack of communication across organizational silos by 40%, no structured content production process by 31%, and no editorial calendar with clear deadlines by 29%. Together, the results describe a program-management problem as well as a reporting problem: teams may need better production coordination and better evidence of performance at the same time.
What top performers prioritize
The CMI B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks 2024 report also identifies factors reported by top performers. Knowing their audience was named by 79% of top performers as a success factor. Aligning goals with organizational objectives followed at 68%, and effectively measuring and demonstrating content performance at 61%.
Thought leadership was identified by 60% of top performers as a success factor. Collaboration with other teams was cited by 55%, while 53% named a documented strategy.
| Success factor among top performers | Share identifying it |
|---|---|
| Knowing the audience | 79% |
| Aligning goals with organizational objectives | 68% |
| Measuring and demonstrating performance effectively | 61% |
| Showing thought leadership | 60% |
| Collaboration with other teams | 55% |
| A documented strategy | 53% |
These are associations reported by top performers, not a tested ranking of causal effects. Still, the pattern is consistent across audience understanding, organizational alignment, measurement, expertise, collaboration, and strategy. A content program built around only production volume would leave several of these reported factors unaddressed.
Budgets and future investment
Content marketing represented different proportions of the total marketing budget across the organizations surveyed. Twenty-four percent of B2B marketers said content marketing takes one-fourth or more of the total marketing budget. Twenty-nine percent said it takes 10% to 24%, while 48% said it takes less than 10%.
Looking ahead from the benchmark’s comparison with 2023, 45% thought their content marketing budget would increase. Forty-two percent thought it would stay the same, and 6% thought it would decrease. These figures are expectations compared with 2023, not measured changes in spending.
Planned investment varied by content or marketing activity. Video led the list, with 69% of B2B marketers expecting to increase investment. Thought leadership content followed at 53%. In-person events were next at 47%, followed by paid advertising at 43%.
Online community building and webinars were each named by 33% as areas where investment would increase. Audio content was cited by 25%, digital events by 21%, and hybrid events by 11%.
| Planned investment area | Share expecting increased investment |
|---|---|
| Video | 69% |
| Thought leadership content | 53% |
| In-person events | 47% |
| Paid advertising | 43% |
| Online community building | 33% |
| Webinars | 33% |
| Audio content | 25% |
| Digital events | 21% |
| Hybrid events | 11% |
For a blogging and online community audience, the online community figure is especially relevant: 33% expected to increase investment in online community building. It sits below planned increases for video, thought leadership, in-person events, and paid advertising, but above digital and hybrid events in this set of reported expectations. The benchmark therefore presents community building as an active investment area, while also showing that it competes with several other priorities.
Taken together, these content marketing statistics describe a field that is broad in format use and increasingly interested in AI and video, but still working through audience fit, governance, process design, measurement integration, and budget allocation. The figures are from the CMI B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks 2024 report and reflect the periods and expectations specified there.