50 Visual Content Marketing Statistics You Should Know in 2021

At the end of each year, we enjoy reading through some of the top inbound marketing, content marketing, social media, and online behavior reports.

It’s amazing how quickly things can change in just a year or two, and this year there are a number of surprising statistics to ponder.

This year we’ve seen the continued importance of visual content, underscored by the changes in almost every major social network, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. At the same time, videos continued to grow as powerful tools for brands wanting to communicate more easily with their readers, and virtual reality (VR) is finding its place as a marketing tool in numerous companies.

To keep up with these trends, let’s take a look at some visual content marketing statistics that show the impact visual content has on reach, engagement, and revenue. You can jump to the following categories to view statistics on that category:

50 Visual Content Marketing Statistics You Should Know

General visual content statistics

• 70% of companies invest in content marketing, which could include visual marketing strategies. ((HubSpot)
• The main form of media used in content marketing is video. (HubSpot)
• A quarter of marketers invest in content marketing related to product promotion, while just over 20% invest specifically in brand storytelling. (HubSpot)

Source: HubSpot

• Marketers spend most of their time creating content for Facebook or their own company website. (HubSpot)

• Design and visual content are the biggest challenge for 23.7% of content marketers. (Adam Enfroy)

• 49% of marketers rate visual marketing as very important to their marketing strategy, and 22% think it is important, and 19% say their strategy is nothing without visual content. (Venngage)
• 49% of marketers use mostly visual content on blogs and websites, followed by social channels like Facebook and Instagram. (Venngage)
• When people hear information, three days later they will likely only remember 10% of that information. However, when a relevant image is paired with the same information, users would retain 65% of the information three days later. ((Brain rules)
• 40% of marketers predict that between 51% and 80% of businesses will rely heavily on visual content by 2021. (Venngage)

Video Marketing Statistics

• Mobile video consumption has increased 17 times since 2012. (Cisco)
• Cisco estimates that global video traffic will account for 82% of total consumer Internet traffic by 2022. (Cisco)
• 70% of YouTube viewers watch videos to “get help with a problem” they have in their hobby, study or job. (Think with google)
• Globally, YouTube is the leading source of consumer video content at 83% (Facebook ranks second at 67%). (HubSpot)
• Video streaming has increased significantly in recent years. The live streaming platform Twitch saw a 14.3% year-over-year growth in 2020, recording up to 1.645 billion watch hours per month. (eMarketer, The Verge)
• In a 2018 HubSpot survey, 54% of consumers wanted to see more video content from a brand or company they support. (HubSpot)

Source: HubSpot research

New visual marketing trends

• In 2019, 42.9 million people in the United States used a VR product and 68.7 million people used AR once a month. ((eMarketer)
• Corporate VR spending is projected to hit $ 9.2 billion by 2021, outperforming leisure spending. (FinancesOnline)
• A quarter of VR users believe it has strong potential for brands and marketers. (GlobalWebIndex)
• 64% of consumers say VR has the greatest potential for gaming, while 52% see the potential for film and television. (GlobalWebIndex)
• 57% of marketers used live video in 2019. (Social Media Examiner)
• Facebook lives generate ten times more engagement than traditional videos. (BloggingX)
• 90% of all video games on Twitter are played on mobile devices. (HubSpot)
• 73% of the videos are two minutes or less. (Vidyard)
• 85% of adults consume content on multiple devices at the same time. (Think with google)
• According to Lowes hardware store, instructional videos shown in virtual reality (VR) had a 36% higher recall rate from viewers than people who just watched the YouTube video. (HubSpot)

Infographic Statistics for Visual Content Marketers

• Infographics are the fourth most common type of content marketing. ((HubSpot)
• Infographics have seen the largest increase in usage among B2B marketers in the past four years – now at 67%. (Content Marketing Institute)
• People who follow instructions with text and images do 323% better than people who follow instructions without images. Take, for example, content marketer Ryan Robinson’s Guide to Starting a Blog, where he teaches readers the process of creating a blog using a combination of text, images, and infographics. (Jumper)

Source: NeoMam

Social media statistics for visual content marketers

• In a general survey of over 250 consumers, 70% said they saw Facebook stories more often than Instagram or Snapchat stories. ((HubSpot)
• Over 500 million Instagram accounts use Stories every day, and 4 million businesses use Stories ads every month. 58% of respondents say they are more interested in a brand / product after seeing it in stories. (Instagram Business)
• As of January 2021, the largest U.S. Instagram user population was between 25 and 35, representing 33.1% of the Instagram user base in the United States (Statista).
• In 2019, Instagram accounted for around 31.8% of Facebook advertising revenue, up from 13.2% in 2016. (Statista)
• Of the Instagram story formats people prefer the most, 35% say they are most likely to engage with short, narrative-style stories, followed by interactive stories that focus on quizzes and polls. (HubSpot)

Data Source: Clear software

• According to Verizon Media, 69% of consumers watch online video with the sound turned off. (Forbes)
• In a survey of 300+ consumers, 56% said they “sometimes” watch social media stories with the sound on, while 29% “always” do so. (HubSpot)
• 72% of teenagers use Instagram and almost as many (69%) use Snapchat. Both have increased by more than 20% since 2015. (Pew Research)
• Tweets with video get ten times more engagement than those without. ((Twitter business)
• In analyzing over 1 million articles, BuzzSumo found that articles with a picture every 75 to 100 words received twice as many social media shares as articles with fewer pictures. (Buzzsumo)
• Facebook posts with pictures see 2.3 times more engagement than those without pictures. (Buzzsumo)

Source: Buzzsumo

• More than 500 million Instagram users are active every day. (Statista)
• 15% of all Facebook content is videos – an increasing percentage. (Social insider)
• The optimal video length for better engagement on Facebook is between 2 and 5 minutes. (Social insider)
• As of 2020, Snapchat had 249 million active Snapchat users every day. (Statista)
• Advertisers can reach more than 169 million people on Pinterest. (Hootsuite)

Source: Hootsuite

• Pinterest Shopping Ads revenue grew 100% in 2019. (Pinterest)

• Pins that show a product or service in action are 67% more likely to increase sales. (Pinterest Business)
• YouTube reaches more than 18 year olds during prime time than any other cable TV network. (Think with google)
• Half of YouTube subscribers between the ages of 18 and 34 dropped everything they did to watch a new video from their favorite channel. (Think with google)

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in April 2020 and has been updated for completeness.