2026 State of Marketing Report.
HubSpot's survey of more than 1,500 B2B and B2C marketers shows AI is now standard practice, short-form video gives the best returns, and Instagram has overtaken Facebook as brands' most-used platform. Proving ROI is still the biggest challenge.
By HubSpot · Apr 10, 2026
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HubSpot's survey of more than 1,500 B2B and B2C marketers shows AI is now standard practice, short-form video gives the best returns, and Instagram has overtaken Facebook as brands' most-used platform. Proving ROI is still the biggest challenge.
Key findings
- 86.4% of marketing teams use AI in at least some areas, most heavily for content creation (42.5%).
- Short-form video delivers the highest ROI of any format (48.6%), well ahead of long-form video (28.6%).
- Instagram (70% of brands) has narrowly overtaken Facebook (69.6%) as the most-used platform for brands.
- 33% say measuring marketing ROI is their biggest challenge, and 40.6% rank adapting SEO to search changes as a top trend.
- 79.2% expect their budget to rise at least slightly in 2026, and only 6% expect a cut.
Why it matters
It gives practical benchmarks for content and channel choices, especially the case for putting more into short-form video and Instagram.
About this report
Published by HubSpot, 2026-04-10. Free, with sign-up. Get the full report from HubSpot