31 Demand Generation Statistics, Trends, and Data Points for 2026
This research brief compiles verified demand generation statistics on budgets, top channels, content’s role, pipeline and ROI, and the brand-versus-demand split, drawn from primary survey publishers including Demand Gen Report, the Content Marketing Institute, Gartner, Forrester, HubSpot, and the LinkedIn B2B Institute. Most figures below come from self-reported practitioner surveys, which carry sampling and recall limitations, so each statistic is attributed to its publisher, year, and geography. Numbers are quoted as published; none are invented or estimated.
Executive Summary
- Marketing budgets fell to 7.7% of overall company revenue in 2024, down from 9.1% in 2023, across North America and Europe. Source: Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2024.
- 35% of demand generation practitioners said their budgets increased slightly heading into 2025, in a predominantly North American B2B sample. Source: Demand Gen Report, 2025 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey.
- 74% of B2B marketers said content marketing generated demand or leads in the prior 12 months. Source: Content Marketing Institute, B2B Content Marketing Outlook for 2025 (fielded mid-2024, mostly North America).
- 54% of B2B marketers cited a lack of resources as their top content challenge for 2025. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025.
- 86% of B2B purchases stall during the buying process, and 81% of buyers were dissatisfied with their chosen provider. Source: Forrester, The State of Business Buying, 2024.
- The optimal B2B budget split is 46% to brand building and 54% to short-term activation. Source: LinkedIn B2B Institute with Les Binet and Peter Field, The 5 Principles of Growth in B2B Marketing.
- Only 5% of potential B2B buyers are in-market at any given time, leaving 95% out-of-market. Source: LinkedIn B2B Institute and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute.
- Only 29% of demand marketers reported a fully integrated approach to brand and demand marketing in 2025. Source: Demand Gen Report, 2025 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey.
Key Findings
- CMO budgets averaged 7.7% of company revenue in 2024, versus an 11% average in the four pre-pandemic years, across North America and Northern and Western Europe. Source: Gartner, 2024.
- Paid media grew to 27.9% of marketing budgets in 2024, up from 25.6% in 2023. Source: Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2024.
- Marketing technology fell to 23.8% of marketing budgets in 2024. Source: Gartner, 2024.
- 64% of CMOs said they lacked the budget to fully execute their 2024 strategy. Source: Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2024.
- 46% of B2B marketers expected their content marketing budget to increase in 2025, while 41% expected it to stay flat. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025.
- 61% of B2B marketers expected to increase investment in video content in 2025. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025.
- 40% planned to increase investment in AI for content optimization, and 39% in AI for content creation, in 2025. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025.
- 74% of B2B marketers said content generated demand or leads in the prior 12 months, second only to 87% for brand awareness. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025.
- In-person events (52%) and webinars (51%) were rated the most effective B2B distribution channels, ahead of email and organic social (both 42%). Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025.
- Only 22% of B2B marketers rated their content marketing extremely or very successful. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025.
- 57% of demand marketers chose case studies as their top-performing content format in 2025. Source: Demand Gen Report, 2025.
- 28% of demand marketers projected total revenue growth of 11% to 20% for 2025. Source: Demand Gen Report, 2025.
- 86% of B2B purchases stalled during the buying process in Forrester’s 2024 research. Source: Forrester, 2024.
- On average 13 people were involved in a B2B buying decision, and 89% of purchases involved two or more departments. Source: Forrester, The State of Business Buying, 2024.
- The research-backed optimal B2B budget split is 46% brand building to 54% activation. Source: LinkedIn B2B Institute, Binet and Field.
Demand Generation Budgets
Top-line marketing budgets contracted in 2024 even as most demand teams held or grew their own allocations, a divergence that reflects pressure on CMOs alongside continued investment in acquisition.
Marketing budgets fell to 7.7% of overall company revenue in 2024, down from 9.1% in 2023. Source: Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2024. Gartner’s figure compares with an 11% average across the four pre-pandemic years, signaling a multi-year decline. Source: Gartner, 2024. Despite that, 35% of demand generation practitioners said their budgets increased slightly heading into 2025, and reporting from the same survey noted nearly seven in 10 respondents had budgets that grew or held steady. Source: Demand Gen Report, 2025 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey. In the prior cycle, 57% of respondents planned to allocate more budget to account-based marketing and 54% to content marketing in 2024, up from 46% and 43% respectively in 2023. Source: Demand Gen Report, 2024 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey. The contrast matters: company-wide marketing budgets shrank as a share of revenue while demand-specific budgets were more often defended, which suggests acquisition spend is being prioritized within tighter envelopes.
Top Demand Generation Channels
Channel effectiveness data point to events, webinars, and video pulling ahead, while paid media absorbed a growing share of constrained budgets.
In-person events (52%) and webinars (51%) were rated the most effective B2B distribution channels, followed by email and organic social media at 42% each. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025. Video content produced the best results for B2B marketers in 2024, and 61% expected to increase video investment in 2025. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025. Paid media grew to 27.9% of marketing budgets in 2024, up from 25.6% in 2023. Source: Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2024. On the format side, HubSpot reported short-form video as the highest-ROI content format in 2024, though this draws on a separate self-reported marketer survey and should not be read as directly comparable to CMI’s channel-effectiveness ranking. Source: HubSpot, 2024 State of Marketing Report. The practical read is that high-intent, human-led formats such as events and webinars rate highest for effectiveness while paid media captures a rising budget share.
Content’s Role in Demand Generation
Content sits at the center of demand programs, but marketers report it works better for awareness and lead capture than for closing revenue.
74% of B2B marketers said content marketing generated demand or leads in the prior 12 months, while 87% credited it with brand awareness and 49% with generating sales or revenue. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025. 57% of demand marketers chose case studies as their top-performing content format in 2025. Source: Demand Gen Report, 2025. 52% of B2B marketers expected greater spending on thought leadership content in 2025. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025. The descending pattern from awareness (87%) to demand (74%) to revenue (49%) shows content reliably fills the top and middle of the funnel but converts to revenue for fewer organizations.
Pipeline, Revenue, and ROI
Revenue expectations among demand teams remained positive into 2025, but the buying process itself is where most pipeline breaks down.
28% of demand marketers projected total revenue growth of 11% to 20% for 2025. Source: Demand Gen Report, 2025. 86% of B2B purchases stall during the buying process, and 81% of buyers were dissatisfied with their chosen provider. Source: Forrester, The State of Business Buying, 2024. On average 13 people are involved in a B2B buying decision, and 89% of purchases involve two or more departments. Source: Forrester, 2024. Forrester also predicted that more than half of large B2B transactions of US$1 million or greater would be processed through digital self-serve channels. Source: Forrester, B2B Marketing and Sales Predictions 2025. Taken together, the data suggest the constraint on pipeline ROI is less about generating interest than about navigating large, self-directed buying groups that frequently stall before purchase.
Biggest Demand Generation Challenges
Resource constraints and measurement gaps top the list of reported obstacles, alongside difficulty aligning content to the buyer journey.
54% of B2B marketers cited a lack of resources as their top content challenge for 2025. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025. 47% reported difficulty measuring content results, and 45% struggled to align content with the buyer journey. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025. 55% reported difficulty creating content that prompts the desired action. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025. Only 12% of marketing leaders believed their team’s organizational design would effectively meet revenue targets in the coming year. Source: Forrester, B2B Marketing and Sales Predictions 2025. The clustering of resource, measurement, and alignment problems indicates that execution capacity, not strategy awareness, is the dominant reported bottleneck.
Brand Versus Demand Split
The long-running brand-versus-demand debate now has a frequently cited research anchor, though most teams have not operationally integrated the two.
The optimal B2B budget split identified in IPA-dataset analysis is 46% to brand building and 54% to short-term activation. Source: LinkedIn B2B Institute with Les Binet and Peter Field, The 5 Principles of Growth in B2B Marketing. Only 5% of potential B2B buyers are in-market at any given time, leaving 95% out-of-market. Source: LinkedIn B2B Institute and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, the 95-5 rule. Despite this, only 29% of demand marketers reported a fully integrated approach to brand and demand marketing in 2025. Source: Demand Gen Report, 2025. The gap between the recommended near-even split and the 29% integration rate is the clearest tension in the dataset: the research argues for balanced investment, yet most teams still run brand and demand as separate programs. For a deeper operational treatment, see our B2B demand generation playbook.
Original Synthesis
The following derived insights combine the verified figures above. Each states its formula, inputs, and limits, and none should be treated as a precise statistic.
1. The brand-demand integration gap
Logic: compare the research-recommended brand share (46%) against the share of teams reporting a fully integrated brand-and-demand approach (29%). Inputs: LinkedIn B2B Institute (Binet and Field) 46/54 split; Demand Gen Report 2025 integration figure of 29%. Reading: roughly seven in 10 demand teams operate without full brand-demand integration even though the most cited effectiveness research argues for a near-even split. Limitation: the two figures come from different surveys with different samples and define their terms differently, so this is a directional contrast, not a like-for-like ratio.
2. The content effectiveness decay from awareness to revenue
Logic: track the same survey’s outcome percentages down the funnel. Inputs: Content Marketing Institute 2025, where content delivered brand awareness for 87%, demand or leads for 74%, and sales or revenue for 49%. Derived: a roughly 38-point drop from awareness to revenue, with most of the fall occurring between lead generation and revenue. Reading: content is widely effective for attention and lead capture but converts to revenue for under half of organizations. Limitation: these are self-reported attributions within a single survey, not measured conversion rates, and respondents may overstate top-funnel wins.
3. Budget pressure versus defended demand spend
Logic: contrast the company-wide marketing budget trend with demand-specific budget movement. Inputs: Gartner 2024 (marketing fell to 7.7% of revenue from 9.1%); Demand Gen Report 2025 (35% reported slight budget increases, with nearly seven in 10 holding or growing). Reading: overall marketing budgets compressed at the company level while demand teams more often protected or grew their own lines, implying acquisition is being prioritized inside shrinking totals. Limitation: Gartner surveys large enterprises (median revenue above US$5 billion) while Demand Gen Report skews to a broader practitioner base, so the populations differ and the comparison is interpretive.
Demand Generation Statistics by Source
| Statistic | Value | Year | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing budget as percent of company revenue | 7.7% | 2024 | Gartner |
| Paid media share of marketing budget | 27.9% | 2024 | Gartner |
| Content generated demand or leads | 74% | 2025 outlook | Content Marketing Institute |
| Expect content budget to increase | 46% | 2025 outlook | Content Marketing Institute |
| Top content challenge: lack of resources | 54% | 2025 outlook | Content Marketing Institute |
| Demand budgets increased slightly | 35% | 2025 | Demand Gen Report |
| Fully integrated brand and demand approach | 29% | 2025 | Demand Gen Report |
| B2B purchases that stall | 86% | 2024 | Forrester |
| Optimal brand-to-activation split | 46% / 54% | IPA dataset | LinkedIn B2B Institute (Binet and Field) |
Sources for table: Gartner CMO Spend Survey 2024; Content Marketing Institute B2B Content Marketing Outlook for 2025; Demand Gen Report 2025 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey; Forrester The State of Business Buying 2024; LinkedIn B2B Institute, The 5 Principles of Growth in B2B Marketing.
Budget Allocation Shifts, 2023 to 2024
| Budget line | 2023 | 2024 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing as percent of revenue | 9.1% | 7.7% | Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2024 |
| Paid media share | 25.6% | 27.9% | Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2024 |
| Planned to raise ABM budget | 46% | 57% | Demand Gen Report Benchmark Surveys |
| Planned to raise content budget | 43% | 54% | Demand Gen Report Benchmark Surveys |
Note: martech fell to 23.8% of marketing budgets in 2024. Source: Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2024.
Charts to Build
- Title: Marketing budget as a share of revenue, pre-pandemic to 2024. Data needed: 11% pre-pandemic average, 9.1% in 2023, 7.7% in 2024. Source: Gartner. Insight: a sustained multi-year decline in marketing’s revenue share. Citation-worthy because it quantifies budget pressure with a single primary-source series.
- Title: Content marketing outcomes by funnel stage. Data needed: 87% awareness, 74% demand or leads, 62% nurturing, 52% loyalty, 49% revenue. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025. Insight: effectiveness decays from awareness to revenue. Citation-worthy because it visualizes where content stops converting.
- Title: Most effective B2B distribution channels. Data needed: events 52%, webinars 51%, email 42%, organic social 42%. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025. Insight: human-led formats lead. Citation-worthy as a clean channel ranking.
- Title: The brand-demand integration gap. Data needed: 46% recommended brand share versus 29% reporting full integration. Sources: LinkedIn B2B Institute; Demand Gen Report 2025. Insight: practice lags the recommended split. Citation-worthy because it frames an actionable gap.
- Title: Where B2B deals break down. Data needed: 86% of purchases stall, 81% buyer dissatisfaction, 13 average buying-group members. Source: Forrester, 2024. Insight: pipeline friction concentrates in the buying process. Citation-worthy for its primary-source authority.
Content marketing outcomes, 2025 outlook (Content Marketing Institute)
Methodology
Source selection prioritized primary survey publishers and the institutions that conducted the original research: Gartner, Forrester, the Content Marketing Institute, Demand Gen Report, HubSpot, and the LinkedIn B2B Institute. Inclusion required a named publisher, a dated study, and a figure quoted as published. Statistics were excluded when a number could not be traced to its originating publisher or when only third-party aggregations were available without the primary figure. Conflicting numbers were handled by attributing each to its specific survey rather than blending them; for example, CMI channel-effectiveness rankings and HubSpot ROI-by-format claims are reported separately because they use different questions and samples. Derived insights in the Original Synthesis section are flagged as interpretive and combine figures from different surveys, so they are directional rather than precise. The dominant limitation across this brief is that most figures are self-reported by marketers and buyers, which introduces recall bias and selection effects, and several samples skew to large North American and European organizations. Last updated June 2026.
Source Quality
Tier 1 (primary research firms and original survey publishers): Gartner CMO Spend Survey; Forrester, The State of Business Buying 2024 and B2B Predictions 2025; LinkedIn B2B Institute analysis of the IPA dataset with Binet and Field; the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute. Tier 2 (credible industry research bodies and vendor surveys with disclosed methodology): Content Marketing Institute B2B benchmarks; Demand Gen Report benchmark surveys; HubSpot State of Marketing. Tier 3 (reputable secondary commentary): trade-press summaries used only to locate primary figures, not cited as the source of any statistic.
Most Quotable Statistics
- Marketing budgets fell to 7.7% of company revenue in 2024, down from 9.1% in 2023. Source: Gartner.
- 86% of B2B purchases stall during the buying process. Source: Forrester, 2024.
- The research-backed optimal B2B split is 46% brand to 54% activation, yet only 29% of demand teams are fully integrated. Sources: LinkedIn B2B Institute; Demand Gen Report 2025.
- Only 5% of B2B buyers are in-market at any one time. Source: LinkedIn B2B Institute and Ehrenberg-Bass.
- 74% of B2B marketers say content generated demand or leads. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025.
Data Limitations
Most figures here are self-reported survey responses, which carry recall and social-desirability bias, and respondents may overstate top-funnel effectiveness. Several samples skew to large North American and Western European enterprises; Gartner’s respondents reported median revenue above US$5 billion, so its budget ratios may not generalize to small and mid-market firms. The brand-demand integration comparison combines figures from separate surveys with different definitions and is therefore directional. Forrester’s stall and dissatisfaction figures describe buyer experience, not a measured conversion rate. Year labels reflect each report’s outlook period, so a 2025 outlook was typically fielded in 2024.
Recommended Dataset Fields
- statistic_name (text)
- value (numeric or percentage)
- metric_type (budget, channel, outcome, challenge, buyer-behavior, split)
- publisher (text)
- study_title (text)
- report_year (year)
- fielded_period (date range)
- geography (text)
- sample_size (integer where disclosed)
- source_tier (1, 2, or 3)
- source_url (URL)
- self_reported_flag (boolean)
Press Summary
Demand generation in 2026 is shaped by tighter budgets and harder-to-navigate buying processes. Gartner found marketing budgets dropped to 7.7% of company revenue in 2024 from 9.1% a year earlier, yet most demand teams protected their own spend, with 35% reporting slight budget increases into 2025 according to Demand Gen Report. Content remains central: 74% of B2B marketers credit it with demand or leads, though only 49% link it to revenue, per the Content Marketing Institute. The biggest reported obstacles are resource constraints (54%) and measurement (47%). Forrester data show 86% of B2B purchases stall and buying groups now average 13 people. The most cited effectiveness research, from the LinkedIn B2B Institute with Binet and Field, recommends a 46% brand to 54% activation split, but only 29% of demand teams are fully integrated. Most figures are self-reported and should be read with that limitation in mind.
Suggested Headlines
- Marketing Budgets Fell to 7.7% of Revenue in 2024 as Demand Teams Defended Their Spend
- 86% of B2B Deals Stall: What the Buying-Process Data Reveals for 2026
- The 46/54 Rule Most B2B Teams Still Ignore: New Demand Generation Data
- Content Drives Leads for 74% of B2B Marketers, Revenue for Just 49%
- Events and Webinars Top the 2025 B2B Channel Effectiveness Rankings
FAQ
What share of revenue do companies spend on marketing?
Marketing budgets averaged 7.7% of overall company revenue in 2024, down from 9.1% in 2023. Source: Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2024.
Are demand generation budgets growing or shrinking?
35% of demand practitioners reported their budgets increased slightly heading into 2025, with nearly seven in 10 holding or growing budgets. Source: Demand Gen Report, 2025.
What are the most effective demand generation channels?
In-person events (52%) and webinars (51%) rated most effective, ahead of email and organic social at 42% each. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025.
How important is content to demand generation?
74% of B2B marketers said content generated demand or leads in the prior 12 months. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025.
Why does content underperform on revenue?
Only 49% of B2B marketers credited content with generating sales or revenue, versus 87% for awareness. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025.
What is the biggest demand generation challenge?
54% of B2B marketers cited a lack of resources as their top content challenge for 2025. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025.
How often do B2B deals stall?
86% of B2B purchases stall during the buying process. Source: Forrester, The State of Business Buying, 2024.
How many people are in a B2B buying group?
On average 13 people are involved, and 89% of purchases span two or more departments. Source: Forrester, 2024.
What is the recommended brand versus demand budget split?
The optimal split is 46% brand building to 54% activation. Source: LinkedIn B2B Institute with Binet and Field.
What share of B2B buyers are ready to buy right now?
Only about 5% of potential buyers are in-market at any given time. Source: LinkedIn B2B Institute and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute.
About This Research
This brief was compiled by CO Consulting (christopholivierconsulting.com), a research-driven growth-consulting firm. If you want help applying these benchmarks to your own demand program, you can book a consultation.