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Original study
Publisher
Evidence:
Vendor interest:
Sample:
Methodology
Geography
Data period
PublishedStrategy review & optimizationTrend
TrendLead quality and MQLs are the top KPI marketers track overall
The 2026 State of Marketing Report
Original study- Publisher
- HubSpot
- Evidence:
- Self-reported behaviour
- Vendor interest:
- Moderate
- Sample:
- HubSpot surveyed 1,505 marketers in September 2025 across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, spanning seniority levels and industries; fieldwork run in collaboration with the research firm Datalily. The report does not disclose how the sample splits by region, industry or seniority, so every published figure is a single global average. It does report cuts by company size - small business, mid-market and enterprise.
- Methodology
- Disclosed
- Geography
- Global
- Data period
- 01.09.2025 – 30.09.2025
- Published
- 2026
Summary:
This source is HubSpot's annual State of Marketing Report, the 2026 edition.
HubSpot is a CRM and marketing software vendor, and this report works as a lead-generation asset: most sections end by pointing you at a HubSpot tool or AI agent to try.
What it is built on: a survey HubSpot ran in September 2025 with 1,505 marketers across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, spanning seniority levels and industries, carried out with the research firm Datalily. The report never breaks that sample down by region, industry or seniority, so each headline figure is a single global average. It does report cuts by company size - small business, mid-market and enterprise.
Key takeaways:
• AI is now baseline equipment rather than an edge: 80% use it for content creation and 75% for media production, and 61% call this the biggest disruption marketing has seen in twenty years.
• Because everyone has the same tools, the report argues the next advantage is a distinct brand point of view - 61% say taste and POV are a necessary part of an AI strategy.
• It also reports the flip side plainly: 52% think AI has made content so easy to produce that it is less effective overall, and 53% cannot get their own content to stand out.
• Search is shifting rather than dying: 49% see less traffic from search because of AI answers, while 58% say the traffic that does arrive from AI has more buying intent.
• Short-form video and creator partnerships are where the money is going - 89% worked with a creator in 2025, up from 50% a year earlier.
Worth knowing before using the numbers. Everything here is self-reported, so each figure is what marketers say rather than what was measured. Three of the report's own numbers do not reconcile with its own data. Its summary says 75% use five or more channels while its own breakdown adds to 69%. It says 40% have not defined their value proposition while a later page says 52% have. And its prose says 65% "met or exceeded" their goals, while the chart on the same spread shows 65% exceeded them and 92% met or exceeded. One sentence is also unfinished in the published text ("convert 3 times better than XYZ"). And the platform statistics on page 11 - TikTok and Instagram user counts, YouTube Shorts views - are retold from other sources, not measured in this survey.
Cards from this research
Shortlisting creatorsTrend
Micro-influencers remain marketers' most successful creator size, though their lead has narrowed
Budget allocationTrend
AI chatbots are the top channel for planned increased investment next year: 38% of teams are betting on this source of trafficContent formatsTrend
Short-form video's perceived ROI more than doubled in a single year, from 24% to 49%
Content formatsTrend
Open full graphShort-form video is the most-used content format overall, well ahead of long-form video and blog posts
Channel mix & planningIdea
IdeaWhen marketers rank channels by segmentation and personalization value, social shopping tools take the top spot
Optimisation methodsIdea
60% of marketers say visitors arriving from AI need a purchase experience as frictionless as the AI they came fromStrategy review & optimizationTrend
62% of marketers say campaigns now run as continuous cycles rather than one-off pushesWorkflow & automationIdea
80% of marketers use AI to create content and 75% use it for media productionBudget allocationTrend
Traditional formats are where teams plan to cut: physical ads 23%, direct mail 22%, print 21%Positioning & messagingIdea
40% of teams have never written down what makes them differentPositioning & messagingTrend
93% of marketers say personalization improves leads or purchasesChannel mix & planningTrend
Only 6% of marketers still use just one or two marketing channels for communications and acquisitionStrategy review & optimizationTrend
Enterprise marketing teams check campaign performance weekly more than any other size
Channel mix & planningTrend
Budgets are under more scrutiny for 73% of teams, yet 93% expect theirs to hold or growChannel validationTrend
89% of companies worked with a creator in 2025, up from 50% the year beforeWorkflow & automationIdea
Only 13% of teams hyper-personalize marketing using advanced techniquesChannel mix & planningTrend
Website, blog, and SEO is the most-used marketing channel overall in 2026
Channel mix & planningTrend
Brand awareness campaigns deliver the highest branding ROI overall, say 29% of marketers
Channel validationTrend
Instagram and Facebook are neck-and-neck as marketers' most-used social platforms
Channel validationTrend
Instagram overtook Facebook as the highest-ROI social platform in 2026, with TikTok's ROI surging too
Content productionTrend
Rewriting SEO for how search now works is the top trend marketers are exploringChannel validationIdea
45% of teams put between a tenth and a fifth of their budget into testing new channelsPositioning & messagingIdea
61% of marketers say a distinct brand point of view is a necessary part of an AI strategyLists and segmentationIdea
Only 14% of teams segment or personalise at least half of their contentChannel mix & planningTrend
94% of teams tried new marketing channels last yearChannel mix & planningTrend
75% of marketers use five or more marketing channelsChannel validationTrend
58% of marketers say AI referral traffic has more buying intent than organic searchChannel validationTrend
49% of marketers agree that web traffic from search has dropped due to AI answersStrategy review & optimizationTrend
Small business marketers focus on leads, conversion rate, and website traffic as their top KPIs
Strategy review & optimizationTrend
Most marketing teams review campaign performance weekly
Channel mix & planningTrend
SEO, paid social, and organic social top the 2026 channel ROI ranking, while mobile messaging ranks lowest
Channel mix & planningTrend
Website, blog, and SEO deliver the best marketing ROI of any channel
Budget allocationTrend
77% of teams plan to put more money into influencer marketing in 2026Organic reach & algorithmTrend
TikTok grew fastest of any social channel: 62% more teams used it this year, with LinkedIn up 53% and Twitter/X up 43%Channel mix & planningIdea
Four in ten teams say their most effective change last year was moving from broad platforms to niche communitiesContent formatsIdea
63% of marketers say they need more unique, human-made content to stand outChannel mix & planningIdea
71% of teams say AI lets them produce far more content, and 52% say that same ease is what made content less effectivePositioning & messagingIdea
85% of marketers revisit their brand identity at least once a year