60+ Essential B2C Content Marketing Statistics

If you’re on the fence about investing in B2C content marketing, then this rundown is about to tip you confidently into the “let’s do it” camp. Creating high-quality content such as blog posts, whitepapers, seminars or videos may sound like a daunting task, but it’s a surefire way to ensure your target audience understands what you can do for them.

Granted, there’s definitely a wrong way to do content marketing – where you spend shovel loads of cash, fail to see a return on investment, and end up damaging your customers’ trust in you. But with some wisdom – and awareness of the potential pitfalls – it’s a fantastic way to start generating leads and expanding the avenues through which you can reach customers. And, if you’re unsure how to go about it, scheduling a call with a digital marketing company to discuss your business objectives and get an idea of costs for these services can be a great place to start.

Here’s the good news: customers already want, expect, and even enjoy content marketing – especially when you’re producing helpful, useful, and engaging content. Don’t worry if you’ve not got the skills to handle it in-house, either – in 2024, plenty of companies offer digital marketing services on a third-party basis.

In this article, we’ll discuss content marketing statistics that illustrate its value to businesses, as well as the latest need-to-know data on video, social media, and podcast marketing.

Key B2C Content Marketing Statistics

If you’re short on time, we’ve got the major takeaways for you right here:

B2C product and service sectors spend 17.8% and 15% of their respective budgets on marketing in 2024
AI usage is increasing fast in B2C content marketing, up from 38% in 2023 to 87% in 2024
67% of business owners, managers and CEOs said they use AI for content marketing and/or SEO, with 68% attributing an increased Return On Investment (ROI) to it.
91% of businesses use video as a marketing tool in 2024, with short-form video the most profitable format
64% of podcast listeners pay full attention to podcast ads, but only 3% of content marketers leverage podcasts in their content marketing strategies
51% of marketers worked with influencers on social media last year, with B2C the most likely sector to work with them
Only 33% of B2C content marketers always use data in their distribution strategies

What’s the Value of Content Marketing?

Finding information remains the top reason people use the internet across all age groups, according to 2024 research from Data Reportal. That proves web users are already looking for answers – and your content could help to find them.

Content marketing looks different for every business. But it’s worked well for one medical equipment business leader, in particular. Here’s what Robert Leonard, CEO of Aimvein had to say about how his company have benefitted from content marketing:

“Content marketing has helped me to attract new customers and grow my audience. By creating engaging and informative content, I have been able to reach new people and persuade them to try my products or services. Content marketing has helped me to build trust and credibility with my target audience. By providing valuable information and demonstrating my expertise, I have been able to gain the trust of potential customers, which is crucial in converting them into paying customers.”

Robert Leonard, CEO

Content Marketing Strategy Statistics

There can be a lot of pressure to get your game plan right before the busier seasons of work come rolling through. And with good reason – successful content marketing relies on sharing enough high quality content at regular intervals to keep your audience watching.

Let’s look at some stats relating to strategy.

Just 37% of B2C marketers have a documented content marketing strategy
78% of content marketers use paid channels
61% plan to invest in social media/community building in 2024
77% of B2C marketing leaders will invest in video in 2024
Only 3% of content marketers leverage podcasts in their strategies

Types of B2C Content Marketing

“Content” is such a broad term it’s easy to forget all the things it can encompass. While it’s exciting to brainstorm creative ideas with your team, it’s important to be practical about the skills and software realistically available. That said, if you’re open to experimenting with new formats, you could hit the jackpot with a new way to engage your audience.

While the rising cost of doing business reduced the appetite for paid media in 2023, with only 63% of B2C marketers using paid media last year, things are on the up: now 70% of B2C marketers use paid media content marketing in 2024. While that’s not the same level as the 78% figure we saw in 2022, it’s a welcome return to form.

Although, with 53.3% of all web traffic coming from organic search, and only 27% from paid search, there is an argument for focusing on organic, unpaid channels.

With an estimated 5.17 billion total social media users worldwide in 2024, paid social adverts do have more potential than ever before, even if the amount of time internet users spend on social media has declined slightly in 2024, down from 151 to 143 minutes per day.

It seems that increasing social media marketing costs are putting off more businesses from investing in paid channels these days. Everyone is looking for ways to reduce costs, as well as keeping a closer eye on return on investment (ROI) and return on advertising spend (ROAS).

It’s worth remembering that free tools such as video, image, and audio editors are becoming more widely available. On top of that, many bodies offer free marketing templates to download and customize according to your branding. You may not find these as hard to use as you may think.

Social Media Marketing Content Statistics

Publishing content on social media allows you to show up where your audience already is. It’s a brand’s way of taking part in conversations that are already going on around them. If you’re not already there, you’re in a tiny minority of businesses;

Here are the social media marketing stats you need to know:

62.3% of the world’s population uses social media, while the average daily usage is 2 hours and 23 minutes in 2024 when considering the global audience
17% of social media users report buying a product on social media in 2024
Social media users (outside China) said WhatsApp (21%) was their favorite platform, followed by Instagram (21%), Facebook (20%), TikTok (9%) and Twitter (5%).

And now, here’s some statistics about what companies are doing concerning social media:

Sharing content on social media is one of the top tactics for content promotion, used by 56% of those surveyed
50 million companies around the world (excluding China) use WhatsApp as a marketing channel, with WhatsApp messages having a 58% open rate
Over 67 million companies are listed on LinkedIn in 2024, while there are over 200 million companies on Instagram
Businesses allocate around 17% of their marketing budget to social media marketing
51% of marketers say their company worked with creators or influencers on social media last year, with B2C the most likely sector to use them
47% of those marketers used ‘micro-influencers‘ specifically, accessing a smaller but more dedicated following at a lower cost
Worldwide ad spending in the Social Media Advertising market is projected to reach US$234.10bn in 2024 and is expected to increase annually by 8.11% thereafter.
Average Click Through Rates for social media in 2024 vary by channel: around 0.65% for YouTube, 1.11% for Facebook and 0.22% for LinkedIn.

Video Marketing Content Statistics

89% of consumers want to see more brand videos in 2024
75% of people watch short-form video content on their mobile, with videos between 30 and 60 seconds deemed most effective by 39% of marketers
66% of viewers will finish a video if it’s under 1 minute long, while the average click-through rate for video CTAs is 3.21%
84% of marketers say YouTube is their preferred way to share videos, meanwhile, 239 million US YouTube viewers (and around 2 billion globally) regularly engaging with the platform as of April 2024
Users spent 28 hours per month watching videos on the YouTube mobile app across 2023
64% of consumers who watched branded videos on social media made a purchase afterwards

Short-form videos are becoming an indispensable vehicle to drive your digital marketing strategy and reach wider audiences. It’s no surprise video is an effective tool for marketing – snappy, visual pieces of information are quick and easy ways to get your message across to potential customers.

Here are some more business-specific video marketing stats, highlighting just how essential it has become in 2024:

91% of businesses used video as a marketing tool in 2024, while 68% of those who didn’t say they plan to start this year
39% of marketers said the biggest challenge to creating marketing videos is a lack of time, followed by a lack of strategy (33%) and having few content ideas (29%)
Social media is the most common way for marketers to share videos
90% of those marketers say video marketing has given them a good ROI, with 32% claiming video’s ROI is better than other types of content
Ad spending in the global video advertising market will be around US$191.3bn in 2024
69% said they would increase their investment in video marketing in 2024

Video marketing can be quicker and cheaper than you think, too. Although 49% of marketers feel the costs of video marketing are on the rise, costs are generally cheaper when using an in-house team.

On average, it costs around $5,400 to create an explainer video when using an external team, while 42% of video marketers in general say they spend between $0 and $500 per video.

Today, 38% of video marketers create their videos in-house, 24% exclusively use external vendors, and 38% use a mixture of the two.

Using an in-house team of video content producers and a low average spend, you should be able to embed quick and cheap video into your marketing game plan and work at scale.

Podcast Marketing Statistics

Where’s the best place to find listeners? The largest podcast platforms in the US are: Spotify, SiriusXM Podcast Network, and iHeartRadio according to data from Edison Research.

A podcast advert costs $10-$50 on average, although advertisers will ask for a minimum investment. For instance, you’ve got to spend at least $250 for a campaign on Spotify.

Here’s what else you need to know about reaching podcast listeners:

Millennials are the largest listener demographic of podcasts (32%), although Gen Z is set to overtake them by 2027 (in 2024, 28.9% of Gen Z is tuning in).
Listeners aged 55 and above are growing fast, increasing by 22% between 2021 and 2023.

And what impact did podcast advertisements have?

61% of Gen Zers visited a company’s website after hearing a podcast ad, with Gen Z podcast enjoyers listening to podcasts frequently: 75% listened in the last week and 28% listened nearly every day.
64% of consumers pay full attention to podcast ads and a huge 95% of regular listeners take action after hearing one
70% of listeners aged 13-24 wanted to purchase the product they heard advertised on a podcast
38% of retail marketers said podcast advertising gave the best ROI of any media channel

Despite this vast audience and promising ROI reports, podcasts remain something of an untapped resource. Only 3% of content marketers leverage podcasts in their content marketing strategies.

Organic Search Marketing Statistics

When it comes to organic search, you’ve got an advantage because readers have come looking for your content. That gives a high likelihood of them engaging with your work – because they really want to know what the options are.

In the world of organic search marketing – also known as search engine optimization (SEO, for short) – marketers usually focus on “commercial intent” to find the most ready-to-buy consumers.

For example, an ecommerce SEO strategy would include creating web content like “Best Ride-on Lawnmowers to Buy this Year” or “Noise-Cancelling Headphones Recommendations” to draw in customers.

Here are the stats for organic search marketing in 2024:

Organic traffic is responsible for 53.3% of a website’s traffic
53% of shoppers always research better options before buying something
85% of consumers say pictures and product info are important for buying decisions
69% of marketers dedicate budget to SEO
75% of people will never go past the first page of the Google results page, with the first result getting 31.24% clicks on average.
88% of those already investing in SEO plan to continue this year
73% of B2C marketers carry out keyword research to inform content creation

Key Takeaways for Content Marketing in 2024

As ever, in 2024, content creation is king. Although you may operate in a crowded marketplace, you can find ways to stand out from your competitors with the unique qualities of your content output.

Video content is increasingly popular, with short videos (under one minute) keeping more viewers until the end. Podcasts are gaining interest from those aged 20 to 35, and becoming slightly less popular with the over 55s.

As agency costs have been increasing – particularly in the realm of social media management – businesses are looking to carry out more work in house. Organic content creation (to be distributed through unpaid channels) proves consistently popular with B2C marketers as companies look to lower outgoings.