Data & Research March 17, 2026 • Updated: 6 November 2026

B2B marketing
statistics 2026

50+ data points on B2B marketing, each linked to its source. From budgets and lead costs to the buyer journey, content and ABM. Compiled from research by Gartner, Forrester, the Content Marketing Institute, 6sense, LocaliQ and Eurostat, and interpreted by our B2B marketing agency.

7.8%

of company revenue goes to marketing (2026 average)

Source: Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2026

13

internal stakeholders in a typical B2B buying decision, plus 9 external influencers

Source: Forrester, State of Business Buying 2026

$93.69

average cost per lead in search ads (Google and Microsoft Ads) for business services (US)

Source: LocaliQ, 2026 (US)

Statistics overview

B2B buying is changing fast. Buying groups are large, buyers do most of their research before they talk to a vendor, and AI is now part of both the buying and the marketing. But how much do companies spend on marketing? What does a lead cost? And how do Dutch companies compare with the rest of Europe?

This page brings together 50+ current B2B marketing statistics, every one checked against the original report and linked to it: Gartner, Forrester, the Content Marketing Institute, 6sense, LocaliQ, Momentum ITSMA, Eurostat and DDMA. Whether you're building a B2B lead generation strategy, making the case for marketing budget, or simply staying sharp on industry benchmarks, you'll find the data you need right here.

Section 1

B2B marketing budgets & spend

7.8%

of company revenue goes to marketing in 2026 (2025: 7.7%)

Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2026

15.3%

of marketing budgets is allocated to AI initiatives

Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2026

56%

of CMOs say they lack the budget for their 2026 strategy

Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2026

40%

of B2B marketers are spending more on owned media than last year

CMI, B2B Insights for 2027

Where B2B marketers plan to invest more in 2027

Investment area % of B2B marketers Change vs. 2026
Owned media (content, website, blog, email) 42% +10 pts
Events and experiential marketing 35% +2 pts
AI-powered tools 30% -15 pts
Paid media 30% +5 pts
Social and earned media 25% n/a
Tech infrastructure 20% n/a
Research and insights 18% n/a

Source: CMI / MarketingProfs, B2B Content and Marketing Trends: Insights for 2027 (861 B2B marketers, fieldwork June to August 2026). Change vs. the 2026 edition where CMI reports it.

  • 56% of CMOs say their marketing organization lacks the budget to deliver its 2026 strategy, and 54% report insufficient resources (Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2026)
  • AI-ready marketing organizations put 21.3% of their budget into AI and have a marketing budget of 8.9% of revenue, against 15.3% and 7.8% on average (Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2026)
  • Events are back in the budget: 82% of B2B marketers allocated budget to experiences in 2026 (2025: 78%), and 31% gave them a large or majority share (2025: 17%) (CMI, B2B Insights for 2027)
  • AI tools were the top investment priority for 2026 (45% of B2B marketers), ahead of events (33%) and owned media (32%); for 2027 owned media has taken over (CMI, B2B Insights for 2026)
  • 70% of CMOs call becoming an AI leader a critical goal for 2026, but only 30% report mature AI readiness (Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2026)
Section 2

B2B lead generation statistics

Business services
$93.69

average cost per lead, Google and Microsoft Ads

Conversion rate: 4.85% CPC: $5.87

Source: LocaliQ, 2026 (US)

Industrial & commercial
$75.19

average cost per lead, Google and Microsoft Ads

Conversion rate: 8.20% CPC: $5.87

Source: LocaliQ, 2026 (US)

All industries
$66.69

average cost per lead, Google and Microsoft Ads

Conversion rate: 8.18% CPC: $5.42

Source: LocaliQ, 2026 (US)

Cost per lead in search advertising by industry (US, 2026)

Attorneys & legal services $131.63
$131.63
Business services $93.69
$93.69
Industrial & commercial $75.19
$75.19
Finance & insurance $74.44
$74.44
All industries $66.69
$66.69

Source: LocaliQ Search Advertising Benchmarks 2026 (US advertisers, Google Ads and Microsoft Ads)

61%

of B2B marketers using paid channels say search ads (SEM/PPC) produced the best results

Source: CMI, B2B Outlook for 2025

79%

of B2B buyers initiated the first contact with vendors themselves

Source: 6sense Buyer Experience Report 2025, via CustomerThink

  • Social advertising and sponsorships follow search: 49% and 48% of B2B marketers say these paid channels produced the best results; 84% use paid channels at all (CMI, B2B Outlook for 2025)
  • Buyers usually buy from their favourite: 77% bought from the vendor they ranked first, after evaluating five vendors on average (6sense Buyer Experience Report 2025, via CustomerThink)
  • Cost per lead in search fell across industries for the first time in five years, while the average cost per click rose to $5.42 (LocaliQ, 2026)
  • 56% of B2B marketers who measure content performance find it hard to attribute ROI to content (CMI, B2B Outlook for 2025)

Want to learn more about effective B2B lead generation? Read our complete strategy guide.

Section 3

B2B channel effectiveness

Most effective B2B content distribution channels (% of B2B marketers)

In-person events
52%
Webinars
51%
Email
42%
Organic social media
42%
Corporate blog
41%
Email newsletters
37%

Source: CMI / MarketingProfs, B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends: Outlook for 2025 (980 B2B marketers)

85%

of B2B marketers say LinkedIn delivers the best value of all social platforms (Facebook: 28%)

CMI, B2B Outlook for 2025

76%

name LinkedIn the most effective channel for thought leadership

CMI, B2B Insights for 2026

35%

of marketing leaders earn $10 to $36 back per $1 spent on email; another 30% earn $36 to $50

Litmus, 2025

  • LinkedIn use is still growing: 68% of B2B marketers increased their use of LinkedIn in the past year, far ahead of YouTube and Instagram (CMI, B2B Outlook for 2025)
  • Search ads convert at 4.85% on average for business services and 8.20% for industrial and commercial companies in the US (LocaliQ, 2026)
  • Email ROI is mostly high, but often unmeasured: 5% of marketing leaders earn more than $50 per $1, while 21% do not measure email ROI at all (2023: 36%). For software and technology Litmus found 36:1 in its 2020 survey (Litmus, 2025 and 2020)
  • Thought leadership runs on LinkedIn, newsletters and events: 76%, 54% and 52% name these the most effective channels, and 96% of B2B organizations create thought leadership (CMI, B2B Insights for 2026)

See also our services for LinkedIn Ads and Google Ads.

Section 4

B2B buyer journey

13

internal stakeholders in a typical buying decision (plus 9 external)

Forrester, State of Business Buying 2026

~10

members in the average B2B buying group

6sense, 2026

61%

of the buying process is done before buyers first contact a vendor (was 69%)

6sense, 2025

10.1

months average B2B buying cycle in 2025 (2024: 11.3)

6sense, 2025

Where B2B buyers get their information

Source Share of buyers Study
Vendor websites 35.9% 6sense 2026
Industry events and conferences 33.4% 6sense 2026
Product review sites 31.4% 6sense 2026
LLMs to identify vendors 26% 6sense 2026
Generative AI in a recent purchase 45% Gartner 2026

Sources: 6sense Buyer Experience Report 2026, via Agile Brand Guide, Gartner, May 2026

Section 5

B2B content marketing

Most effective B2B content types (% of B2B marketers)

Video 58%
58%
Case studies / customer stories 53%
53%
E-books / white papers 45%
45%
Research reports 45%
45%
Short articles / posts 43%
43%

Source: CMI / MarketingProfs, Outlook for 2025 (980 B2B marketers; the later CMI editions no longer ask this question)

97%

of B2B marketers have a content strategy; 61% of them saw it improve

Source: CMI, B2B Insights for 2026

88%

use AI-powered content creation tools

Source: CMI, B2B Insights for 2027

60%

rate their marketing effective (12% highly, 48% somewhat)

Source: CMI, B2B Insights for 2027

  • Useful, practical information builds the most trust (64%), ahead of demonstrated expertise (59%) and customer stories (50%) (CMI, B2B Insights for 2027)
  • AI search is costing traffic: website traffic fell for 31% of B2B marketers in the past year, and 79% of them blame AI-powered search (CMI, B2B Insights for 2027)
  • AI brings speed, not quality: 78% name speed as its main contribution, only 17% quality; 65% felt more pressure to produce content faster (CMI, B2B Insights for 2027)
  • 75% of B2B marketers worry that AI makes audiences more skeptical of online content, yet 52% have no AI disclosure policy (CMI, B2B Insights for 2027)
Section 6

Account-based marketing (ABM)

72%

of ABM practitioners say ABM delivers higher ROI than other types of marketing

Momentum ITSMA, 2023

28%

of the 2022 marketing budget went to ABM

Momentum ITSMA, 2023

66%

say ABM is significantly improving marketing and sales alignment

Momentum ITSMA, 2023

17%

of ABM programs are fully embedded in the go-to-market strategy

Momentum ITSMA, 2023

Section 7

B2B marketing technology

15,384

marketing technology solutions on the 2025 landscape (+9%)

chiefmartec, 2025

49%

average martech utilization in 2025

Gartner Marketing Technology Survey, 2025

20.0%

global CRM market share of Salesforce in 2025, number 1 for the 13th year

IDC via Salesforce, 2026

How B2B marketers use AI tools (% of AI tool users)

Content creation 89%
89%
Creative assets 53%
53%
SEO 41%
41%
Social media 38%
38%

Source: CMI / MarketingProfs, Insights for 2026 (1,015 B2B marketers; 95% use AI-powered applications)

  • Only 15% of organizations qualify as martech high performers that meet their strategic goals with a positive ROI (Gartner Marketing Technology Survey, 2025)
  • 81% of martech leaders are piloting or have implemented AI agents, but 45% of those with agents say vendor-offered agents miss their promised performance, and half lack the technical and data readiness (Gartner, October 2025)
  • AI agents are moving into content work: 59% of B2B marketers use or test AI agents (a year earlier 28%), and 13% call them a core part of their strategy (CMI, B2B Insights for 2027)
  • The martech landscape grew 100x since 2011, from about 150 solutions to 15,384 in 2025 (chiefmartec, 2025)
Section 8

B2B marketing in the Netherlands

41.5%

of Dutch companies (10+ employees) pay to advertise online, against 32.6% in the EU (2024)

Eurostat, 2024

54.1%

of Dutch companies use CRM software, almost twice the EU average of 28.5% (2025)

Eurostat, 2025

9.3%

LinkedIn's share of Dutch B2B social ad budgets in H1 2026, down from 52.7% in 2024

DDMA Social Advertising Benchmark, 2026

Dutch companies vs. EU average (companies with 10+ employees)

Website (NL)
91.8%
Website (EU)
79.0%
Social media (NL)
83.8%
Social media (EU)
63.6%
CRM software (NL)
54.1%
CRM software (EU)
28.5%
Paid online ads (NL)
41.5%
Paid online ads (EU)
32.6%

Sources: Eurostat, website 2025, social media 2025, ads 2024, CRM 2025. All companies with 10+ employees, not only B2B.

  • Meta remains the largest B2B social platform in the Netherlands with 41.2% of B2B media spend, and B2B budgets moved from traffic and engagement (41.2% to 18.6%) to awareness and conversion. The benchmark covers 674,000 campaigns worth EUR 511 million from 19 agencies (DDMA Social Advertising Benchmark, 2026)
  • 70% of Dutch marketing professionals say their organization uses AI for marketing (a year earlier 62%); text creation is the most common use (46%), and 66% now have an AI policy (DDMA DDMO, 2026)
  • Dutch companies target ads more often: 32.1% pay for ads based on keywords or page content, against 25.7% in the EU (2024) (Eurostat, 2024)
  • Dutch websites are more personal and multilingual: 18.1% show personalized content to returning visitors (EU 8.9%) and 37.9% offer content in two or more languages (EU 29.5%) (Eurostat, 2025)
  • Social networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook are used by 82.2% of Dutch companies, against 59.0% in the EU (2023) (Eurostat, 2023)
Summary

Key takeaways

1

Budgets are flat, AI takes a bigger share

Marketing gets 7.8% of revenue in 2026 (2025: 7.7%), and 15.3% of that goes to AI. 56% of CMOs say it is not enough for their strategy.

2

LinkedIn delivers value, but ad budgets move

85% of B2B marketers call LinkedIn the most valuable social platform. In the Dutch B2B ad market LinkedIn's share fell to 9.3% in H1 2026 and Meta leads with 41.2%.

3

Buying groups are large

13 internal stakeholders and 9 external influencers per decision, and contact with a vendor only after 61% of the process. Reach the whole group before the shortlist forms.

4

ABM pays off for most teams

72% of ABM practitioners see higher ROI than from other marketing and 66% see better sales alignment, but only 17% of programs are fully embedded.

5

Content is still king

97% have a content strategy and video and case studies rate as the most effective formats. Practical, useful information builds the most trust (64%).

6

The Netherlands leads in digital

Dutch companies use CRM almost twice as often as the EU average (54.1% vs. 28.5%) and pay for online ads more often (41.5% vs. 32.6%).

Methodology & sources

Every statistic on this page was checked against the original report on 6 November 2026 and links to it. Figures we could not find in a source we could open have been removed. Most survey data is international or US-based; Dutch figures are labeled as such. Key sources:

  • Gartner: CMO Spend Survey 2026, B2B buyer surveys (March and May 2026), Marketing Technology Survey 2025, martech AI agents survey (October 2025)
  • Forrester: The State of Business Buying, 2026
  • Content Marketing Institute / MarketingProfs: B2B research editions Outlook for 2025, Insights for 2026 and Insights for 2027
  • 6sense: B2B Buyer Experience Report 2025 and 2026 (via CustomerThink and Agile Brand Guide; the report itself is behind a form)
  • LocaliQ: Search Advertising Benchmarks 2026 (US)
  • Momentum ITSMA: ABM Benchmarking Study (March 2023)
  • Eurostat and DDMA: ICT usage in enterprises (2023 to 2025), DDMA Social Advertising Benchmark 2026 and Data-Driven Marketing Onderzoek 2026
  • Other: chiefmartec, IDC via Salesforce, Litmus, Grand View Research, Gartner via destinationCRM

Disclaimer: All figures come from the most recent editions of the reports cited that we could open; the year in each source link shows when the data was published. Forecasts are the source's own projections. This page is compiled for informational purposes and does not constitute financial or strategic advice. For tailored B2B marketing guidance, contact Searchlab.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What percentage of revenue do B2B companies spend on marketing?

B2B companies spend on average 7.8% of company revenue on marketing in 2026, up slightly from 7.7% in 2025, according to the Gartner CMO Spend Survey (401 CMOs in North America, the UK and Europe). Of that budget, 15.3% goes to AI initiatives. 56% of CMOs say the budget is not enough to deliver their 2026 strategy.

What is the average cost per lead in B2B marketing by channel?

There is no reliable public benchmark for cost per lead across all B2B channels. For search advertising LocaliQ reports (US, 2026) an average cost per lead of $66.69 across all industries, $93.69 for business services, $75.19 for industrial and commercial companies, $74.44 for finance and insurance and $131.63 for legal services. Lead-to-customer conversion rates differ substantially across channels. Ready to generate leads? Request a growth analysis and discover what works for your industry.

How many touchpoints does the average B2B buyer journey have?

Research no longer counts touchpoints, but it does show how big and how late the process is. A typical B2B buying decision involves 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers (Forrester, 2026). Buyers make first contact with a vendor when they are 61% through the process, and the average buying cycle took 10.1 months in 2025 (6sense). 67% of B2B buyers prefer a buying experience without a sales rep (Gartner, 2026).

Which channel delivers the best ROI for B2B marketing?

Among B2B marketers who use paid channels, 61% say search advertising (SEM/PPC) produced the best results, ahead of social advertising (49%) and sponsorships (48%) (CMI). For email, 35% of marketing leaders earn $10 to $36 per $1 spent and 30% earn $36 to $50 (Litmus, 2025). LinkedIn is the social platform that delivers the best value for 85% of B2B marketers. The best strategy typically combines multiple channels.

How does the Netherlands perform in B2B marketing?

Dutch companies are more digital than the EU average. According to Eurostat (companies with 10+ employees), 54.1% use CRM software (EU 28.5%), 83.8% use social media (EU 63.6%) and 41.5% pay to advertise online (EU 32.6%). In Dutch B2B social advertising, LinkedIn's share of budgets fell from 52.7% in 2024 to 9.3% in H1 2026, while Meta remains the largest B2B platform at 41.2% (DDMA). 70% of Dutch marketing professionals say their organization uses AI for marketing (DDMA, 2026).

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Ruud ten Have

Compiled by

Ruud ten Have

Ruud is a digital marketer with 10+ years of experience in online advertising and AI implementation. At Searchlab, he combines strategic thinking with hands-on AI tooling to deliver measurable results for businesses.

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