Video Marketing Statistics for 2026: Usage, ROI, and Trends

Video marketing statistics for 2026 confirm what most marketers already sense — video is the default format. 91% of businesses use it, ROI remains strong, and AI is reshaping how content gets produced. Here's what the data actually shows.

These numbers draw from Wyzowl's annual survey, DataReportal's global data, Wistia and Vidyard benchmarks, and IAB advertising reports. They cover adoption, consumer preferences, platform performance, AI impact, and ad spend trends.

Video Marketing Usage Statistics

How Many Businesses Use Video

Video adoption hit 91% in 2026 — matching the all-time high first reached in 2023 after a slight dip in 2025. According to Wyzowl's annual report, 93% of video marketers consider video an important part of their overall strategy.

The trajectory tells the bigger story. In 2016, only 61% of businesses used video for marketing. By 2018 that jumped to 81%, and it's hovered between 85% and 91% every year since. The growth phase is over. Video isn't emerging — it's infrastructure.

On the consumption side, the numbers are even more saturated. DataReportal's Digital 2026 report shows 94.6% of online adults watched some form of online video in the past 30 days. 91.1% watched within the past week.

Why Some Businesses Don't Use Video

The 9% who don't use video cite predictable barriers. The two biggest reasons are "don't feel it's needed" and "too expensive," both at 24%. Lack of time follows at 19%. Smaller concerns include unclear ROI (10%), not knowing where to start (10%), and difficulty convincing decision-makers (5%).

But here's the thing — 67% of those non-users say they plan to start using video in 2026. That figure has held steady for years, which suggests some of these businesses keep planning without executing. Still, the intent is there.

Video Types and Production Statistics

Most Popular Video Formats

Live action dominates. 51% of video marketers have mostly created live action video, followed by animated (23%) and screen-recorded (19%).

How businesses create video is shifting too. A clear majority — 59% — produce video in-house. Only 10% rely exclusively on external vendors, while 32% use a mix of both. The rise of accessible editing tools, smartphone cameras, and AI-assisted workflows has made in-house production more viable than ever.

Most Common Video Use Cases

Social media videos are the most popular use case, with 69% of video marketers creating them. Explainer videos follow closely at 68%.

The full breakdown shows a wide spread across purposes: testimonial videos (57%), presentation videos (48%), video ads (48%), teaser videos (45%), product demos (39%), sales videos (37%), videographics (27%), customer service videos (24%), training videos (23%), customer onboarding (23%), app demos (17%), and employee onboarding (16%).

That's a lot of different video types serving a lot of different goals. What it tells you is that video isn't just a marketing channel — it's a communication format being used across sales, support, training, and onboarding.

Video Marketing ROI Statistics

How Marketers Measure Video ROI

82% of marketers say video marketing has delivered a good ROI. That's a meaningful drop from last year's all-time high of 93%, but it's still a dominant majority. The dip is worth paying attention to — it may reflect rising expectations as video becomes standard, or it could signal that increased competition is making it harder to stand out.

When it comes to measuring that ROI, the methods vary widely. Views lead at 67%, followed by engagement metrics like likes, shares, and reposts (63%), leads and clicks (52%), customer engagement and retention (40%), brand awareness (36%), and bottom-line sales (32%).

That last number is telling. Only a third of video marketers connect their work directly to sales. Most still rely on proxy metrics. It's a known weakness in video measurement — and one that matters more as budgets come under tighter scrutiny.

What Video Delivers Across the Funnel

The self-reported outcomes are strong across the board. 93% of video marketers say video has increased brand awareness and user understanding of their product or service. 85% say it has helped generate leads. 83% report direct sales increases. 82% say video has boosted web traffic and dwell time. And 57% say video has reduced support queries.

These are impressive numbers, but they are self-reported. They reflect marketers' perceptions, not controlled experiments. That doesn't make them unreliable — it just means they should be read as directional indicators rather than precise measurements.

Consumer Video Behaviour Statistics

How Consumers Use Video to Make Decisions

The consumer data is where the case for video becomes hardest to argue against. 96% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service.

85% say they've been convinced to buy something after watching a video. And 80% have purchased or downloaded an app after watching a demo video.

When asked how they'd most like to learn about a product or service, 63% choose a short video. That's far ahead of text-based articles (12%), infographics (7%), sales calls (5%), ebooks or manuals (4%), and webinars (4%).

84% of consumers say they want to see more videos from brands in 2026. That figure has been consistent to within 8% for the past eight years, which suggests it's not a passing preference — it's a structural expectation.

Video Quality and Trust

89% of consumers say video quality impacts their trust in a brand. That's a stat that deserves more attention than it usually gets.

As video becomes ubiquitous, production quality shifts from a differentiator to a baseline requirement. Consumers are exposed to so much video content that they can quickly distinguish between something carefully produced and something thrown together.

That doesn't mean every video needs cinematic polish — but it does mean that clear audio, decent lighting, and confident delivery aren't optional anymore. They're conversion inputs.

AI in Video Marketing Statistics

AI Tool Adoption for Video

AI adoption in video marketing jumped significantly in the past year. 63% of video marketers say they've used AI tools to help create or edit marketing videos, up from 51% the year before. That's a 12-percentage-point jump in a single year.

On the tactical side, 51% of marketers use AI for ideation and scripting, and 85% say videos with AI elements — like AI-generated captions and visual effects — perform better than those without.

AI's Impact on the Video Landscape

The advertising side shows even more aggressive AI adoption. According to IAB, 86% of ad buyers are using or planning to use generative AI to build video ad creative. Buyers project that GenAI creative will account for 40% of all ads by 2026.

What this means practically is that AI is lowering the production floor. More teams can produce more video, faster. But that also raises the bar for standing out. When everyone has AI tools, the differentiator shifts from having video to having video that's clearer, faster to the point, and more trustworthy. AI handles the workflow. Humans still own the strategy.

Video Marketing Spend and Advertising Statistics

Budget Allocation and Spend Trends

Budget patterns across video marketers vary more than you'd expect. Most marketers (46%) allocate a third of their budget or less to video content. Surprisingly, 17% aren't tracking their video spend at all — which makes it difficult to meaningfully assess ROI.

The spending direction, though, is clear. 92% of marketers plan to spend the same or more on video in 2026. Of that, 49% plan to spend more and 43% plan to maintain current levels. Only 8% plan to reduce.

41% of marketers have spent money on video ads this year, up from 36% the prior year. That's a steady climb in paid video investment.

Digital Video Ad Spend

At the macro level, U.S. digital video ad spend grew 18% year-over-year in 2024 to $64 billion, according to IAB's reporting. The projection for 2025 is $72 billion, growing two to three times faster than total media.

IAB also highlights a structural shift: digital video is set to capture nearly 60% of all U.S. TV/video ad spend, up from 29% in 2020. Connected TV is a big part of this — 56% of marketers globally plan to increase CTV spending, moving it from experimental branding into a standard part of the media mix.

Video Marketing Platform Statistics

Most Used Platforms

YouTube remains the king of video marketing. 82% of businesses upload their video to YouTube. LinkedIn follows at 70%, then Instagram (69%), Facebook (66%), webinars (56%), and TikTok (40%).

At the bottom: interactive video (31%), X (29%), VR (19%), 360 video (18%), and Snapchat (16%).

Most Effective Platforms

Effectiveness rankings largely mirror usage, but not perfectly. YouTube leads at 69%, followed by Instagram (56%), Facebook (55%), LinkedIn (50%), and webinars (42%).

The biggest gap between usage and effectiveness? TikTok. Despite 40% of marketers using it, only 29% rate it as effective. X, Snapchat, and VR all score under 16% on effectiveness — suggesting these platforms haven't found their video marketing groove yet despite having large user bases.

The practical takeaway: YouTube for evergreen and search-driven content, Instagram and TikTok for short-form discovery, LinkedIn for B2B trust-building, and webinars for lead capture. Match the platform to the goal, not the trend.

Conclusion

Video is the default marketing format, not an emerging one. ROI is strong but measurement maturity still lags. AI is accelerating production while raising the quality bar. The businesses that win with video in 2026 will be the ones that treat it as a system — not a one-off asset.

Frequently Asked Questions

What percentage of businesses use video marketing?

91% of businesses use video as a marketing tool in 2026, matching the all-time high. On the consumer side, 94.6% of online adults watched online video in the past 30 days.

Does video marketing have a good ROI?

82% of marketers say video marketing delivers a good ROI, according to Wyzowl's 2026 survey. This is down from 93% the prior year but remains a strong majority.

What is the best platform for video marketing?

YouTube is both the most widely used (82%) and highest-rated for effectiveness (69%). Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and webinars also rank highly for both usage and results.

How long should a marketing video be?

71% of marketers believe videos between 30 seconds and 2 minutes are most effective. However, longer content can work well for consideration-stage formats like demos, tutorials, and webinars.