Top B2B Video Marketing Trends to Inform Your Video Marketing Strategy [+ Data & Expert Insight]

With 91% of businesses leveraging video and consumers preferring video over all other forms of content, you can’t afford to miss out.

While we all know lots of video marketing is used in the B2C space, it can be equally effective in the B2B space if properly leveraged for your target audience.

So what strategies, goals, platforms, and metrics are B2B marketers using for their videos? I dug into the results of the HubSpot Blog’s 2024 research that surveyed over 500 U.S. marketers to find out.

Below I highlight the key trends we discovered and how you can apply these insights to your video marketing strategy.

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Moreover, most B2B buyers prefer doing their own research before connecting with a sales rep, so producing engaging content to reach those in the market for your product or service is key to turning them into leads.

Strong ROI

Video marketing also provides a strong return on investment (ROI).

Of the marketers we surveyed, 52% reported a high ROI and 47% an average ROI on their video content. Overall, 22% said the ROI of video content is higher than other types of marketing content.

Although video production can be more demanding than producing other types of content, I think these numbers speak for themselves in terms of how video can boost your marketing efforts.

Effective in Reaching Business Goals

An impressive 73% of respondents find video marketing effective or very effective in helping them reach their business goals.

They found it particularly effective in these three areas:

• Improving the understanding of their product or service (79%).
• Engaging their audience (77%).
• Generating leads (79%).

If you’re aiming to improve any of these metrics for your business, I think video is a must.

Other Benefits

Additionally, I want to highlight a few other notable reasons why video marketing is beneficial, according to marketers.

• 41% say videos help customers understand their product or service.
• 29% claim videos boost their SEO ranking and drive organic web traffic.
• 26% have found videos improve their customers’ onboarding and/or training experience.

I spoke with Mira Nathalea, chief marketing officer at SoftwareHow, who emphasizes the importance of videos for B2B products from the SaaS, tech, and manufacturing sectors. I think she nicely sums up the benefits I just noted.

She says, “Using product demo videos for our B2B makes it so much easier to clarify complex features. A product demo video breaks down the features and functionality of the solution in a way that’s easy for prospects to digest.”

Nathalea notes that video also speeds up the decision-making process.

“Instead of relying on a sales team to explain the product over the phone or via email, customers can view a demo at their own pace, enabling them to make more informed decisions,” Nathalea says.

Short-form videos, such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, are the big winners for B2B videos.

A whopping 83% of the marketers surveyed use this format. Furthermore, the majority report the highest ROI (71%), the highest engagement (66%), and the most leads from their short-form videos (60%).

Long-form videos are the second most popular, used by 39% of marketers. Of those, 22% reported getting the highest ROI and the highest engagement from long-form videos, and 28% the most leads.

Live videos are not so popular, with only 14% saying they use them, with 6% having the highest ROI and 12% reporting the highest engagement and number of leads.

Most B2B marketers share their videos on social media.

Once you make a video, where is the best place to share it with your audience? There actually seems to be several popular options. Here’s what I learned:

• 81% post their videos on social media.
• 63% use YouTube or Vimeo.
• 56% post on their blog or website.
• 24% share via email.
• 1% use other means.

Of those who post videos on social media, Instagram takes the cake. 76% of marketers use Instagram, reporting the highest ROI, the highest levels of engagement, and the greatest number of leads out of any social media platform.

However, only 4% reported producing ephemeral content like IG stories that disappear after 24 hours.

Other popular social media platforms boast the following stats:

• 67% of marketers use YouTube. It takes second place for highest ROI and third for engagement and leads.
• 60% use Facebook, with the fourth highest levels of ROI, engagement, and leads.
• 54% use TikTok and report the third highest ROI, second for engagement and leads.

While 38% of marketers use X and 21% use LinkedIn, they didn’t report high levels of ROI, engagement, or leads. Other social platforms fare even worse, according to our survey.

91% of B2B marketers leverage AI when creating videos.

With the advent of AI, I guess this stat comes as no surprise. But how exactly B2B brands are employing AI is what I find interesting. Check it out:

• 37% are using AI to generate video descriptions, titles, or tags to make their videos more searchable.
• 36% are using it to improve or generate visual effects layered on their videos.
• 27% use AI to generate text, titles, transitions, or other light visual features.
• 26% use it for lighting, color correction, or other automatic improvements.
• 24% use it to create outlines for their videos.

Pro tip: Are you interested in using AI to help with your video creation process? Check out HubSpot’s AI-powered Clip Creator.

Marketers are tracking engagement and watch time.

All marketers know metrics are the proof in the pudding of how well your content is doing. Here are the metrics video marketers think are most important to track:

• Engagement, such as likes, comments, and shares (43%).
• Watch time (39%).
• View count (32%).
• Audience retention (27%).
• Follower/subscriber growth (25%).
• Average view duration (22%).
• Average watch percentage (22%).

Our survey also revealed that marketers tend to pay less attention to CTR, conversion rate, and play rate. I think this aligns with our finding that brand awareness and online engagement are their primary goals.

Most brands use videos to showcase their product or service.

What are B2B brands using their videos for?

We asked marketers to share what content is in their videos and which they think is most effective at reaching their goals. Over half say the most important and most effective content is showcasing their product or service.

• 54% make video content to showcase their products/services.
• 39% produce relatable content.
• 36% prefer educational or informational content.
• 32% go for funny content.
• 31% focus on trendy content (e.g., cultural moments, news stories).
• 29% make video content that reflects their brand’s values (diversity, inclusivity, equality, etc.).

Pro tip: Want to understand consumers’ perspective on video marketing? Check out how video consumption is changing.

Now, let’s see how you can put these insights into action with a video marketing strategy.

1. Set goals to guide your video marketing.

To create an effective strategy, you first need to determine what you hope to achieve with video marketing. Your goals will guide the rest of your decisions in the planning and creation process. I suggest you consider goals such as:

• Increasing brand awareness.
• Increasing revenue/sales.
• Growing your online community/following.
• Fostering relationships with your customers.
• Improving customer understanding of your products/services.
• Generating leads.
• Increasing website traffic.
• Establishing thought leadership.
• Educating your audience.

Pro tip: Vahbiz Cooper, a digital marketer for Demandbase, shares this piece of advice: “If you’re just starting out, don’t stress about making it perfect. Start small. Pick one goal — like building awareness or generating leads — and one format, maybe a customer testimonial or a how-to video.”

Cooper says teams should focus on understanding their audiences.

“What’s their pain point? How can you help? Once you’ve got something, put it out there, track how it performs, and refine as you go. The key is just to start. Your first video doesn’t need to be a masterpiece — it just needs to be real and useful,” Cooper says.

2. Brainstorm video content ideas.

Now for the fun part! Brainstorm ideas for your video content.

Surprisingly, 34% of marketers cite the lack of video content ideas as the biggest challenge of video marketing. I recommend writing down anything that comes to your mind and then sifting through it and narrowing it down later.

Before you fill in the details of your project, I suggest deciding on what kind of video you want to make. Here are some popular B2B video types:

• Customer testimonials.
• Brand videos.

• Explainer videos.
• Case study videos.
• Launch videos.
• How-to videos.
• Product demos.

• Recorded webinars.
• Expert interviews.

Keep in mind the popularity of short-form video cited above, but don’t be afraid of long-form if your content requires that format.

Pro tip: Experiment with different types of video to discover what works best for your purposes and what resonates with your audience.

“You won’t always know what will perform well until you see the performance metrics, so don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty and dig into as many different opportunities as possible,” advises Elise Montanari, head of organic growth at Wrike.

3. Work within your budget.

Now for the not-so-fun part: determining your budget. How much are you (or your company) willing to invest in video marketing?

The good thing is you don’t need an exorbitant budget or top-tier equipment to make powerful videos. What I heard over and over again from the experts I talked to is that overly polished, salesy videos don’t come across well. Wistia research supports this finding, sharing that audiences prefer authentic, low-budget videos.

Take it from Deni Ivanov, digital marketing manager at Royal Clean: “What doesn’t work for us is highly polished, overly produced videos. Our audience values authenticity, so we’ve pivoted to low-budget but relatable content filmed with smartphones or basic equipment.”

Here are a few hard numbers to give you a sense of video marketing spend:

• 8% of businesses spend under $100K per quarter.
• 45% spend between $20K and $100K.
• 47% under $20K.

Pro tip: If you want to create good quality videos in-house, consider tools like Clip Creator, Vidyard, Vimeo, and Wistia. They can help you produce and measure high-impact videos that convert.

4. Set a schedule.

Time is of the essence. More than a third of marketers find the lack of time to create video content the biggest challenge — even more than money.

I recommend creating both a production timeline so you create your videos in a timely manner and a posting schedule so you’re consistently putting out content.

Pro tip: Check out these tips from HubSpot’s video marketing team.

5. Write a compelling script.

As I mentioned above, authentic video content resonates with audiences more than fancy but empty videos. In fact, 37% of marketers think that creating engaging storytelling is the most important key to creating effective videos.

Take the time to craft a compelling script and consider how the shots, visuals, music, and audio all contribute to telling the story you want to share.

Pro tip: Generative AI can be super helpful in brainstorming script ideas or writing a first draft. However, don’t just run the script AI provides. Be sure to edit it to make sure your brand voice and message come through.

6. Edit your video for effective storytelling.

After filming your video, it’s time to edit. A good edit can make a good video better, while a poor edit can turn your viewers away. In fact, 40% of marketers say engaging video editing is most important for creating effective videos.

Two things to keep in mind: The first few seconds are the most crucial to capturing viewers’ attention, according to 51% of marketers. Then, making videos concise is key to keeping their attention until the end.

Adil Advani, associate product owner at Securiti.ai, highlights this point:

“We use video to simplify complex concepts through explainer videos. What works well is focusing on concise, value-driven content that answers specific customer pain points. For example, switching from a 5-minute demo to a 90-second highlights video increased our engagement rates by 45%.”

Pro tip: Editing is another area where marketers find AI helpful. It can greatly speed up the editing process and add effects for top-notch quality on a budget. Check out these video editing tools.

7. Promote your video on the right channels.

After all your work creating the video, you want to be sure your audience sees it! You have many options for how to promote your video from social media to paid ads to email.

Here’s how other marketers choose to share their videos:

• 69% promote their videos on social media platforms.
• 48% add their videos to their website or blog.
• 46% run paid ads for their videos.
• 44% optimize their title and description for SEO/organic search.
• 43% integrate their videos into email campaigns.

My advice would be to go where your audience is. If you already have a solid social following, use that. If customers are more likely to interact directly with your website, post there.

The type and purpose of your video can also determine its placement. A brand awareness video would be better placed on social media or pushed with paid ads, while an explainer video could be more effective on your website or in an email.

Pro tip: Discover the nuts and bolts of video marketing with HubSpot’s ultimate guide.

8. Track performance.

Finally, it’s time to track how your video does. You’ll focus on different metrics depending on your goals, but popular video metrics to keep an eye on are:

• Engagement. How many likes, comments, and shares?
• Watch time. How long do viewers stick around to watch your video? Are they watching the whole thing or moving on before it’s finished?
• View count. How many people are viewing your video?

Pro tip: These tools can make tracking and analyzing your video performance easier.

9. Repurpose your video content.

The best news about making video content? You can expand its value by repurposing it. Taylor Scher, a B2B SEO consultant, offers some ideas. He says he always records his podcast in video form, which allows him to do the following:

• Turn it into clips for social.
• Turn it into clips for YouTube Shorts.
• Use the transcript as a basis for new blog content.
• Use the keypoints and create a LinkedIn carousel.
• Have his guests share clips to increase his reach.
• Integrate clips into email newsletters.

“There’s just so many different ways that you can repurpose video content,” Scher concludes, “It’s honestly my main engine for managing multiple channels. I definitely could not do this if I were creating unique content for each channel.”

Pro tip: You can reverse engineer Scher’s advice and repurpose blogs, knowledge base articles, product explainers, or other marketing collateral into the basis of your videos.