Top Content Marketing Statistics for 2023: Trends & Insights

We all know why is content marketing important. But in an ever-evolving field, it’s crucial to always stay ahead of the competition — which means being aware of both the latest and emerging trends. That’s how you separate what, according to your peers, is working from what’s not.

In this post, we’ll explore the latest content marketing statistics that every marketer should know about. We will also discuss popular trends in content consumption and distribution as well as how much of their marketing budgets companies are using on content marketing.

Whether you’re looking to improve your own content marketing strategy or simply want to stay informed about industry developments, this blog post is for you.

Table Of Contents:

• State of Content Marketing in 2023
• SEO Statistics
• Video Content Marketing Statistics
• Blogging Statistics
• Digital Advertising Statistics
• Social Media Statistics
• Influencer Marketing Statistics
• Content Marketing and Artificial Intelligence
• Content Marketing Trends are Shifting
• Content Marketing Outlook for 2023
  • 1. Content Creation Will Become More Automated
  • 2. Visuals Will Remain a Key Part of the Content Strategy
  • 3. SEO Remains an Essential Tool for Organic Traffic Generation
  • 4. Social Media Presence Will Become More Critical
• FAQs – Content Marketing Statistics for 2023
  • What is the success rate of content marketing?
  • What is the average rate for content marketing?
  • Why is content marketing important?
• Automate Your Content Marketing and Stay Ahead of the Competition

State of Content Marketing in 2023

The content marketing industry is rapidly evolving and becoming increasingly competitive as more marketers realize the benefits of using engaging content for organic lead generation.

• 76% of enterprise marketers say content marketing has become more important to their organization.
• 96% of decision-makers say content marketing has been effective for their brand.
• 88% of marketers use content marketing to achieve their goal of increasing brand awareness and building trust and credibility.
• 7 out of 10 marketers actively invest in content marketing.
• 80% of very successful content marketers spend more than 10% of their total marketing budgets on content.
• 71% of content marketers planned to increase their content marketing budgets for 2023.
• Content marketers are increasingly embracing digital channels, with 77% of businesses using social media and 64% using email to reach customers.
• The marketing methods with the highest ROI are search, paid, and email.
• 9 out of 10 consumers expect brands to provide content, but 58% of what’s out there is not considered meaningful content.
• User-generated content (UGC) is one of the most effective forms of content marketing, with close to 80% of consumers saying that UGC highly impacts their purchasing decisions.

SEO Statistics

Content marketers are seeing the growing importance of SEO, especially with over half of website traffic coming from search engines. To stay ahead of the competition, marketers must be vigilant in tracking emerging SEO trends in inbound marketing.

• The global SEO industry was worth $68.1 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach $129.6 billion by 2030.
• SEO drives 1,000 percent more traffic compared to other channels, making it the most effective tool for drawing visitors to a website.
• 93% of web experiences start with a search engine.
• 92.96% of global traffic comes from Google Search, Google Images, and Google Maps.
• Google was visited 88.6 billion times in March 2023 alone.
• Google processes 8.5 billion searches per day, or 99,000 queries per second.
• 92.3% of online users access the Internet from a mobile phone.
• Google has 200 ranking factors, with content, backlinks, and RankBrain being the top three.
• 75% of online users will never scroll past Page One of a Google SERP.
• The top result in a Google SERP gets approximately 32% of all clicks.
• 60% of marketers get their highest quality leads from inbound marketing.
• SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate.
• Fresh content performs better in search, with 27% of high-performing content only a month old or less.

Video Content Marketing Statistics

Visual content is hot right now, with short-form videos particularly popular on YouTube. In fact, 73% of consumers prefer to watch short-form videos when learning about something.

Here are even more video content marketing statistics that truly prove the power and popularity of video content:

• 89% of consumers have been convinced to make a purchase after watching a video.
• 96% of consumers have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service.
• 91% of businesses use video as a marketing tool in 2023.
• 42% of video marketers spend up to $500 on making a video.
• 96% of video marketers say videos impact their ROI by increasing brand and product awareness, generating more leads, driving traffic and sales, and reducing support queries.
• Among marketers who do not engage in video marketing, 30% say they lack the time to do it, 18% don’t know where to start, and 10% think video is too expensive. But that could all change with the arrival of generative AI, specifically text-to-video apps that can generate short videos from just a simple text prompt.
• To take advantage of this trend, 70% of non-video marketers will be creating online videos for the first time in 2023.
• When it comes to video types, 66% of video marketers are doing live-action shorts, 57% produce screen-recorded videos, and 55% are into animation.
• What types of video content are marketers making? 71% of marketers produce social media videos, 70% create explainer videos, 46% shoot testimonial videos, 46% do video ads, 42% launch teaser videos, and 36% focus on product demo videos.
• According to video marketers, the most effective video marketing platforms are YouTube (78%), LinkedIn (69%), and Instagram (67%).
• 91% of consumers want to see more online videos from brands in 2023.

Blogging Statistics

Although other channels like vlogging are hot right now, written content is still the best means to engage and cultivate relationships with potential customers.

These statistics show the enduring importance of blogging for businesses in 2023:

• There are more than 600 million blogs on the Internet.
• WordPress powers over 43.2% of all websites, with roughly 70 million new posts and 77 million new comments added each month.
• 71% of marketing agencies have a documented content strategy in place.
• Companies that blog regularly receive 97% more backlinks and 67% more leads than those that don’t blog at all.
• 92% of content marketers publish blog posts as part of their marketing strategy.
• For B2B businesses, creating and posting more content (52%) and improving content (51%) are the top tactics for gaining more organic traffic.
• Businesses that publish 4 blogs per week get 3.5x more traffic than those that publish less frequently.
• It takes 4 hours and 10 minutes to write an average blog post.
• The ideal length of a blog post is 1760-2400 words.
• Articles with “Everything You Need To Know” titles and comparison articles generate the most organic traffic.
• 97% of bloggers promote their work on social media.
• To amplify content reach, 53% of marketers use email, 51% buy social media ads, 29% invest in sponsorships like webinars and podcasts, 28% use PR and media outreach, 25% leverage influencer marketing, 16% promote on aggregate sites like Reddit, and 11% use guest posting.

Though blogging remains an essential pillar for any content marketing strategy, many marketers admit that they struggle with content creation. Orbit Media says that:

• 52 percent of bloggers struggle to find time to create and promote their content.
• 46 percent of bloggers struggle to generate traffic from their content.
• 39 percent of marketers are unable to create quality content consistently.

Digital Advertising Statistics

The digital advertising market is projected to grow considerably, with mobile devices driving much of this growth as consumers rely on their smartphones for shopping, streaming videos, and other online activities.

According to Oberlo:

• Digital advertising spending in 2023 has grown to $601.84 billion — a 9.5% increase from the previous year.
• The trend will continue for the foreseeable future, predicting growths of 11%, 8.4%, and 6.8% over the next three years.
• Expenditure is expected to reach $876.1 billion by 2026.

Search engine marketing (SEM) continues to be one of the most effective forms of digital advertising due to its ability to target users based on specific keywords or search phrases. It’s also relatively inexpensive compared to other forms of online ads such as banner ads or native advertising which require more creative work upfront.

• PPC generates twice the number of visitors compared to SEO.
• Businesses make $2 for every $1 spent on pay-per-click ads — resulting in a 200% ROI.
• Facebook Ads and Google Ads have the highest ROI rate among paid ad channels.
• Digital ads can increase brand awareness by 80%.
• Customers are 155% more likely to search for brand-specific terms after viewing display ads.
• Customers are 70% more likely to make a purchase from a retargeting ad.

Social Media Statistics

Incorporating social media into content marketing strategies is essential for success in 2023. To maximize your content marketing efforts, it’s important to understand the current social media landscape and its trends.

• 4.59 billion people around the world are on social media — roughly 60% of the world’s population.
• 93% of all internet users are active on social media.
• The average user bounces between 7 different social media networks every month.
• People spend 2.5 hours per day on social media.
• TikTok is the fastest-growing social media platform, with a staggering 100% growth from 2020 to 2022.
• Total spending on social media advertising is projected to reach $207 billion in 2023.
• The most engaging business lines across all the social platforms are the beverage industry on TikTok and Facebook, the food industry on Instagram, and arts & crafts on Twitter.
• Video is the best-performing type of content across all social networks
• TikTok has the highest engagement rate at 4.25%, followed by Instagram (0.60%), Facebook (0.15%), and Twitter (0.05%).
• Facebook is the largest online social network in the world, with roughly 3 billion monthly active users.
• The average American adult spends 33 minutes per day on Facebook.
• Facebook is the most-used platform by marketers worldwide (89%), with Instagram coming in second place (80%).
• Instagram offers the best in-app shopping experience for consumers and the highest ROI for marketers.
• Reels, or short-form videos, account for 30% of the time people spend on Instagram.
• Pinterest is the second-most visited website in the US.
• 465 million people use Pinterest every month.
• TikTok has 1.1 billion monthly active users worldwide.
• Marketers can reach roughly 13.6% of the entire global population with a TikTok ad.
• The average American adult spends 45.8 minutes per day on TikTok.
• 79.6% of TikTok users look for funny or entertaining content on the platform.
• Twitter has around 556 million monthly active users worldwide, with 53% using the platform to read the latest news and discourse on trending topics.
• The average American adult spends 34.8 minutes per day on Twitter.
• YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world next to Google, receiving more searches per month than Bing, Yahoo, AOL, and Ask.com combined.
• YouTube has over 2.5 billion users worldwide.
• YouTube viewers watch over 1 billion hours of videos every single day.
• In the race for short-video supremacy, Google announced that YouTube Shorts now has 50 billion daily views, while Meta‘s Facebook and Instagram Reels continue to dominate with 140 billion daily views combined.
• The average American adult spends 45.6 minutes per day on YouTube.
• Close to 90% of all YouTube visits come from a mobile device.
• Video is the most shareable type of content, with 51% of online users saying they are more likely to share a video with their friends than a social media post, blog post, or product page.
• The short-form video has the highest ROI of any social media marketing strategy.

Influencer Marketing Statistics

Working with influencers can help businesses widen their reach beyond just followers on their own accounts since influencers already have well-established relationships with large numbers of engaged fans who may take an interest in what they have to offer too.

• 1 out of 4 marketers is currently using influencer marketing.
• 72% of Gen Z and Millennials follow influencers.
• 50% of Millennials trust product recommendations from influencers, compared to only 38% from their favorite celebrities.
• 89% of marketers will increase or maintain their investment in influencer marketing in 2023.
• Instagram is the most popular influencer marketing platform for marketers in the US.
• 68% of marketers ran influencer campaigns on Instagram in 2022, followed by Facebook (52%) and TikTok (42%).
• A TikTok video from a macro-influencer (someone with 100,000 to 1 million followers) receives an average of 38,517 views while a mega-influencer (with more than one million followers) gets around 329,382 views worldwide.
• YouTube is the most popular platform for watching influencers in gaming, dance, and music.
• Influencer videos accounted for 60% of all video views on Facebook in the US.
• The average price per post from a mega-influencer is $1,200 on TikTok, $1,200 on Instagram, and $2,500 on YouTube.
• Businesses generate an average of $6.50 in revenue for every $1 spent on influencer marketing.

Content Marketing and Artificial Intelligence

With artificial intelligence having a growing influence on content marketing — allowing for the production and distribution of content at scale — there is an exciting future to look forward to.

• The global AI market is expected to reach $1.87 trillion by 2032.
• 82% of marketers think AI-generated content is just as good (or better!) than human-generated content.
• According to 57% of marketers, it takes less than six months to learn how to use AI technology.
• 88% of marketers are able to save time and money by using AI software.
• 49% of marketers believe AI is good at writing clear or easy-to-read content, but it is not very reliable when it comes to generating accurate or error-free content.
• 75.7% of marketers are already using AI tools for work, with 69% adopting ChatGPT.
• 97% of business owners believe ChatGPT will benefit their business.
• 33% of businesses plan to use ChatGPT to write website content, and 44% will use AI to write content in other languages.
• 71% of marketers say AI can be useful for personalization campaigns.
• 98.1% of marketers agree that understanding AI is important for their job, while 85.1% are already using AI for article writing.
• Adopting AI in sales can increase leads by as much as 50%, reduce costs by up to 60%, and cut back call time by up to 70%.
• 41.29% of marketers believe that AI in email marketing can improve revenue.
• 33% of organizations are already using generative AI in at least one business function, and 40% plan to invest more in the technology.
• The most common use of generative AI tools is in marketing and sales, specifically writing first drafts of text documents, personalized marketing, and summarizing text documents.
• According to a Forrester report, robots will replace 7% of jobs in the US by 2025.
• 32.9% of businesses have already replaced some human tasks with AI solutions, and 81.6% of marketers think content writers’ jobs are at risk because of artificial intelligence.

Content Marketing Trends are Shifting

Content types have shifted dramatically over the past few years, with visual mediums like videos being increasingly popular among consumers who crave engaging experiences when consuming information online.

Video content has seen a dramatic rise in popularity due to its ability to capture attention quickly while still providing valuable insights into topics relevant to viewers’ interests or needs.

Marketers expect this trend will only continue as new technologies make it easier than ever before for people to consume video on any device they choose – making it an invaluable tool for reaching target audiences across multiple channels simultaneously.

Marketers measure success not only through web traffic but also through other metrics such as conversions or leads generated via various pieces of original content distributed across different platforms and formats. They plan their strategy around these key performance indicators (KPIs) while using analytics tools such as Google Analytics to track progress throughout the year so they can adjust accordingly if needed.

Additionally, many marketers are leveraging new technologies like machine learning algorithms which enable them to optimize their campaigns based on user behavior data collected over time — something that was impossible until recently.

Content Marketing Outlook for 2023

The content marketing landscape has been rapidly growing in recent years. Marketers need to be aware of the current content marketing data as the sector continues to develop.

What’s refreshing to note is that 80% of those who considered themselves to be very successful at content marketing have a documented content marketing strategy. It shows that marketers see content marketing to be so essential as to develop and document a strategy for it.

Below is the outlook for the content marketing industry for 2023:

1. Content Creation Will Become More Automated

Automation tools are becoming increasingly popular, and for good reason. These tools help to streamline processes and save both time and costs. By 2023, the majority of firms will be taking advantage of automation technology to help with content production and content distribution.

At BrandWell, we are seeing an increasing awareness of the benefits of automating content creation by our target audience. By using BrandWell to scale content creation, customers are producing 25x more content than traditional manual processes without spending more money.

Other tasks that you could automate and save money and time include everything from keyword research and optimization to creating visuals.

2. Visuals Will Remain a Key Part of the Content Strategy

Images, videos, infographics, and other visuals have long been used by brands as part of their overall content strategies – but this trend is only going to continue in 2023 and beyond.

Studies show that humans retain more information when it is conveyed in a visual manner rather than through text exclusively. So, investing in high-quality visuals will make your content more digestible and help your business stand out from the rest.

3. SEO Remains an Essential Tool for Organic Traffic Generation

SEO remains an integral component of any successful digital marketing approach, even as algorithms evolve. In fact, experts predict that SEO will still be a key factor for driving traffic and engagement with your website or blog in 2023 – so make sure you’re staying up-to-date on best practices.

4. Social Media Presence Will Become More Critical

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have already had a huge impact on the ability of businesses to reach new customers online – but this influence isn’t likely to slow down anytime soon.

According to Sprout Social, 91% of marketing executives anticipate their company’s social media marketing budget will increase over the next three years.

Survey data from Sprout Social also show that 90 percent of marketing executives predict that social media will soon become the primary channel for communication with customers.

Having a strong presence across multiple social media networks can really pay off for brands looking for visibility online. The companies that will see the most benefit from social media will be those that use a multi-channel approach. It will be those who develop strategies specific to every social media network they have a presence on.

Artificial intelligence is one of the top trends in business at the moment. As it will in most other industries, it will play an increasingly crucial role in how the content marketing industry shapes up beyond 2023.

In 2021 the market for AI in marketing was estimated at $15.84 billion. By 2028, it is projected to have increased to more than 107.5 billion. This paints a picture of how fast the influence of artificial intelligence on business is growing.

Also not slowing down in popularity is video content. According to Content Marketing Institute survey respondents, video production costs will make up 62% of their total marketing budget by 2023 – making video one of the most popular content formats today.

To ensure success when producing videos, marketers should consider adding interactive elements like polls or quizzes, which have been proven effective at driving engagement levels.

Traditional marketing remains an important factor in many industries, particularly those where direct sales are involved. Savvy promoters recognize that an organized blend of traditional and contemporary techniques is key to achieving the best ROI from all utilized channels in their promotional plan.

FAQs – Content Marketing Statistics for 2023

What is the success rate of content marketing?

The success rate of content marketing depends on the quality of your content, how well it resonates with your target audience and your distribution strategy. Generally speaking, when done correctly, leveraging content marketing can be highly successful in achieving desired results.

What is the average rate for content marketing?

The rates charged for content marketing work depend on the scope of work and skill level required. Content marketers with specialized knowledge in areas such as social media management or analytics will likely command higher fees than those who specialize in writing alone.

Why is content marketing important?

Content marketing helps to build trust, loyalty, and overall brand awareness. Publishing more quality content that ranks high on search engines also improves your brand visibility online, which helps you generate more organic leads.

Automate Your Content Marketing and Stay Ahead of the Competition

The content marketing industry is rapidly evolving, thanks to emerging technologies like AI and the rise of new content formats such as short-form videos. As we move forward, staying up to date with statistics on both current and emerging trends will ensure that you improve your overall marketing ROI and stay ahead of your competitors.