In 2026, content-led growth drives sustainable business expansion by prioritizing valuable, audience-focused content over traditional advertising. This approach fuels organic traffic, nurtures leads, and builds long-term customer loyalty in a landscape dominated by informed buyers and AI-influenced discovery.
Recent data underscores content’s centrality: businesses investing heavily in high-quality content report superior outcomes, while formats like video and blogs dominate investment plans. Platforms and AI tools amplify reach, with measurable lifts in ROI and lead generation.
This article compiles over 70 content-led growth statistics from 30+ distinct sources, drawn from primary research, platform data, and industry reports published in the last two years. These figures highlight adoption rates, budget trends, performance metrics, and emerging channels relevant for 2026 strategies.
Scope and Methodology
- Includes only publicly available content-led growth statistics relevant for 2026.
- Based on the latest figures published within the last two years.
- Sources include primary research, first-party platform data, institutional studies, and industry reports.
- Each statistic is listed separately with its original source and study context.
- No estimates, forecasts, interpretations, or recommendations are included.
Key Content-Led Growth Statistics for 2026
- 54% of businesses planned to spend more on content marketing in 2024 compared to the previous year.
- Global content marketing market valued at approximately $600 billion by the end of 2024.
- 29% of marketers actively use content marketing.
- 94% of marketers plan to use AI in their content creation processes in 2026.
- 86.5% of top-ranking pages contain some amount of AI-generated content.
- 87% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy or download a piece of software or app by watching a video.
- Podcast ad spending in the U.S. is expected to reach $4.7 billion in 2025, a 5.83% increase from 2024.
- Businesses investing $4,000+ per post are 2.6 times more likely to report their strategy as very successful.
- 20% of businesses spending under $500 per post report underperformance.
- Coherent, cross-channel ideas are 2.5x more important to campaign success than a decade ago.
Adoption and Usage Statistics
- 29% of marketers actively use content marketing.
- 94% of marketers plan to use AI in their content creation processes in 2026.
- 45% of B2B marketers plan to increase investment in AI-powered marketing tools in 2026.
- 32% plan to increase investment in owned media (content assets, website, blog, email) in 2026.
- 33% plan to increase investment in events and experiential marketing in 2026.
- 25% plan to increase investment in paid media in 2026.
- 21% plan to increase investment in tech infrastructure (martech stack, analytics, CRM) in 2026.
- 9% plan to increase investment in human resources (salaries, training, development) in 2026.
- In 2025, 11.4% of content marketers plan to spend over $45,000 per month (up from 4.1% in 2024).
Budget and Investment Statistics
- 54% of businesses planned to spend more on content marketing in 2024 than 2023.
- 32% increased investment in video content in 2024.
- 26% increased investment in SEO in 2024.
- 7% focused investment on AI tools in 2024.
- Businesses investing $4,000+ per post are 2.6 times more likely to report very successful strategies.
- 20% of businesses spending under $500 per post report underperformance, compared to none in the $4,000+ group.
AI Integration Statistics
- 94% of marketers plan to use AI in content creation processes including blog articles in 2026.
- 86.5% of top-ranking pages contain some amount of AI-generated content.
- AI use for content creation has skyrocketed, with image editing up 180%, image generation up 86%, and text rewrites up 95%.
Content Format and Channel Performance Statistics
- Short-form video is the most leveraged media format by marketers, at 60% usage in 2025.
- Blog posts were the third most popular content format at 38% in 2025.
- Long-form video matched blog posts at 38% usage in 2025.
- Blog posts ranked among top 5 highest-ROI formats at 22.26% in 2025.
- The top 3 ROI-driving content formats are all video-based: short-form video (49%), long-form video (29%), and live-streaming video (25%).
- Blog posts are among top 5 formats for 2026 investment, following short-form video, live video, long-form video, and user-generated content.
- Small businesses are 23% more likely than average to see ROI from blog posts.
- Website/blog/SEO remains the #1 ROI-generating channel according to marketers, followed closely by paid social media with 26%.
- 87% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy or download a piece of software or app by watching a video.
- For both B2B and B2C brands, the top-performing content format in 2024 was short-form video.
- Nearly half of brands dedicate 60%+ of social content to entertaining, educating, or informing without directly promoting products.
ROI and Effectiveness Statistics
- Businesses spending $4,000+ per post are 2.6 times more likely to report strategies as very successful.
- Website/blog/SEO remains the #1 ROI-generating channel according to marketers.
- Paid social media delivers 26% ROI according to marketers.
- The top 3 ROI-driving content formats are all video-based: short-form video (49%), long-form video (29%), and live-streaming video (25%).
- 87% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy or download a piece of software or app by watching a video.
- RMNs are high-performing: 1.8x better results than digital ads, and nearly 3x better results for purchase intent.
- A net 35% of marketers plan to increase RMN investment in 2026.
- Coherent, cross-channel ideas are 2.5x more important to campaign success than a decade ago.
Market Size and Growth Statistics
- Global content marketing market projected to reach approximately $600 billion by the end of 2024.
- Global content marketing industry could reach $1.95 trillion by 2032.
Emerging Trends and Strategic Insights
- In 2026, content marketers should focus on building “trust ecosystems,” networks of authentic, interconnected assets that deepen credibility.
- Autonomous purchasing will move from experimentation to reality in 2026, with consumers buying directly through AI interfaces like ChatGPT.
- Brands will gain visibility in AI- and LLM-driven search by showing up authentically in community spaces like Reddit, investing in proprietary research, and leaning into podcasts.
- Content marketers must think like cross-platform storytellers, blending data with creativity and focusing on fewer, higher-quality pieces across various formats.
- Only 27% of creator content ties strongly to the brand, indicating a need for structural shifts from isolated creator executions to long-term creative platforms.
- Marketers should prepare for the continued rise of LLM-driven discovery and the resulting decline in traditional web traffic by strengthening EEAT (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) signals.
References
- https://www.rebootonline.com/content-marketing-statistics/
- https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics
- https://thedigitalelevator.com/blog/content-marketing-stats/
- https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/strategy-planning/trends-content-marketing
- https://ahrefs.com/blog/content-marketing-statistics/
- https://www.kantar.com/campaigns/marketing-trends