Top 10 B2B Marketing Trends for 2025

B2B CMOs and Agencies: What’s Ahead for B2B Marketing 

Ask anyone who works in marketing, business development or revenue operations in the B2B space, and they’ll say the same thing — B2B marketing has changed drastically in recent years. 

But new innovations such as generative AI, increasingly sophisticated account-based marketing (ABM) platforms and other tactics, tech, programs and strategies can help companies succeed in the new B2B buying world. 

Here’s a deep dive into some trends you can expect in 2025. Whether you’re an innovative CMO for a B2B company or a forward-thinking marketing agency account director with a portfolio of B2B clients, this intel will help you stay ahead of the curve — and generate growth — this upcoming year.

1. B2B Ad Spending Will Continue To Plateau 

In 2026, B2B digital ad spending will decrease slightly. 

Before the pandemic, the pre-pandemic average spending was 23.8% from 2017 – 2019. 2020 – 2021 saw a historic jump in spending. But in 2023, ad spending only grew 6.8%. 2024 saw a slight increase despite a predicted plateau, reaching an estimated 12.1%. In 2025, though, ad spending is predicted to decrease by 1.8% compared to 2024 and only grow 10.3% — reaching an anticipated total of $44.35 billion. 

2. Social Media Will Be Key for B2B Marketing Success  

According to a TopRank Marketing and Ascend2 survey, 49% of respondents chose social media marketing as the top tactic that contributes most to the success of B2B marketing programs. Per a February 2024 Anteriad survey, 74% of B2B buyers use social media for both research and decision-making. LinkedIn remains the dominant platform that marketers feel delivers the best value for their organization, followed by Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.  

As younger generations increasingly use social media, it’s imperative for B2B businesses to have a presence on relevant social media platforms. B2B marketers are expected to leverage social media extensively and are poised to invest more in social media marketing in 2025. EMARKETER predicts that B2B social ad spending will increase by 46.2% in 2025 to $9.66 billion.  

Pro Tip: Check out these proven social media tactics to learn how to drive serious results and level up your B2B game.  

3. LinkedIn Will Remain a Dominant Player  

In April 2024, LinkedIn launched connected TV (CTV) ads, enabling marketers to incorporate CTV platforms into their B2B campaigns. Advertisers can integrate CTV into their LinkedIn campaigns through partners like Paramount, Roku and Samsung Ads.  

In addition to LinkedIn’s self-service Campaign Manager, the company offers LinkedIn Premiere, a managed service provided in partnership with NBCUniversal. CTV is an increasingly popular channel for marketers including B2B marketers. LinkedIn highlighted a Demandbase study as part of its reasoning for the move, noting that 90% of B2B marketers who used CTV in 2023 found it effective for reaching customers. 

With new ad formats and the overall popularity of LinkedIn as a business destination fueling its growth, we can expect to see this social media platform dominate in 2025. Per EMARKETER, LinkedIn ad revenues will grow 12.7% in 2025, reaching $5.09 billion, and LinkedIn B2B display ad revenues will grow by 12.5% in 2025 to $4.73 billion. 

4. Video Will Be King for B2B Marketing 

In 2025, as in 2024, video will prove to be a standout tool in B2B marketing, proving to be the most effective content type for B2B marketers. The power of video makes sense — it can be easily shared across various channels like websites, email and social media. When it comes to content distribution strategies, video plays a pivotal role, just behind social media content per a 10Fold survey conducted by Sapio Research.  

The synergy between social media and video is particularly strong, influenced by cultural trends and platform algorithms. Short-form videos shared on social media have become a central part of B2B content strategies for 2025; per a Mach 2024 LinkedIn survey, B2B marketers chose short-form social videos as producing the highest ROI followed by testimonials/case studies and product/service demos. It should be noted that long-form and educational videos aren’t going away — they're vital for YouTube, for example.  

The rise of influencer marketing underscores the importance of video. Influencers and the increasing influence of Gen Z on B2B purchasing decisions highlight the need for video content on platforms like LinkedIn and YouTube.

AI is boosting the efficiency of video marketing by enabling automated production, aiding content creation and enhancing personalization, though there's still room to improve the quality of AI-generated content.  

Tracking the success of video campaigns remains a challenge due to budget constraints, time pressures and the need for effective tracking tools. However, AI and third-party tools are offering potential solutions to enhance ROI and efficiency. 

5. Most B2B Marketers Will Invest in Ads and Content 

According to a May 2024 report by Salesforce, B2B marketers are investing the most in advertising (19%) and content (17%). We can expect this trend to continue in 2025. 

Of the types of content B2B marketers are investing and will invest in, a June 2024 LinkedIn report of 2,001 senior B2B marketers worldwide found that the top five types with the most growth are: 

• Video (65% increase) 
• Influencer content (61% increase) 
• Case studies (60% increase) 
• Visual content — i.e., data visualizations and infographics (56% increase) 
• Thought leadership blog posts/articles (56% increase) 
• Livestream (52% increase)  

6. Data Management Will Be Prioritized in 2025 

Data management will be essential for B2B marketers in 2025 — even in the face of budget constraints. With growing privacy concerns, stricter data regulations and the rise of generative AI, marketers must focus on data quality, governance, predictive analytics and integration. A solid data foundation is vital for crafting effective strategies, measuring ROI, assessing channel performance and creating personalized buyer experiences.  

In B2B marketing, making informed decisions and delivering personalized interactions depend on strong data management. Proper data collection, storage and use are key for personalized campaigns that deliver results. This is especially important when using generative AI to analyze large datasets for customer insights.  

Ensuring data consistency across platforms and customer interactions is a must. To achieve this, marketers should implement a centralized data management system, establish data standards, conduct regular audits, and integrate systems for a smooth data flow. Maintaining consistency not only protects brand integrity but also improves the ability to provide seamless customer experiences.  

However, implementing data standards comes with challenges. As marketers incorporate more generative AI, complexities in integration due to varied data sources, legacy systems, and security compliance can increase, posing challenges for teams and potentially impacting brands and customer experiences. 

7. The Human Touch Will Remain Supreme in 2025  

In 2025, B2B marketers will need to strike a balance between technological advancements and authentic, human-centered marketing to build customer trust. Generative AI should serve as a support tool rather than a substitute for human interaction.  

For instance, even with the advent of AI, the human touch is still relevant — and indeed, may even be more important to break through the proliferation of stale content that could be generated by AI. Live events offer a more personal setting, helping to cut through digital noise and AI-driven communications. Face-to-face (F2F) events, along with webinars and live video sessions, meet the need for social interaction that has grown since the pandemic.  

The increasing necessity for F2F interactions can be attributed to remote work fatigue, reduced employee morale, and fewer genuine networking opportunities. Marketers now recognize the importance of blending the efficiency of AI-generated content with the need for real human connections. 

8. Generative AI Will Transform B2B Marketing 

Generative AI (GenAI) is set to become a key player in B2B marketing, influencing nearly all marketing activities. Its rise will prompt marketers to tackle the challenges of this evolving technology.  

GenAI will bring a renewed emphasis on brand reputation, data quality and the importance of human interactions, such as live events, as a balance to AI-driven campaigns. It’s reshaping content creation, personalization and design in B2B marketing.  

While GenAI can handle routine tasks, it also holds promise for more complex and creative projects as systems advance and marketers receive better training. The technology is evolving rapidly and can be applied to various new scenarios. For example, OpenAI’s GPT-4 with Vision can analyze an image and generate a product description based on it.  

GenAI will play a large role in account-based marketing (ABM), too. “There’s going to be a huge focus on AI integration in ABM tech,” said Emily Stalvey, the associate director of demand generation at Goodway Group. “We’ll see this across the board for everything — channels, reporting, prioritization and more. If AI can do really tight personalization, that’ll be what sells sales teams. But AI hallucinations are still far too prevalent to do AI, automation and personalization at scale. Nevertheless, some are getting closer.”  

As GenAI becomes more integrated into campaigns, processes and workflows, having clear guidelines and a strategic approach will become all the more important. Most B2B firms currently lack these structures. The deeper GenAI is woven into workflows, the more essential it is to establish governance and strategy across the organization to prevent any negative impact on the brand, campaigns and customer data usage. 

9. B2B Marketers Will Still Have To Contend With a Cookieless Future 

Despite Google halting its plans to deprecate third-party cookies, cookie deprecation will most likely still occur, albeit in a different way. Google is transferring the responsibility for phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome to consumers by implementing a consent-based cookie model.  

Based on EMARKETER’s analysis of StatCounter data, nearly 90% of U.S. browsers could eventually operate without cookies. That’s why it’s important not to abandon cookieless strategies. While cookies may technically remain in Chrome, the advertising industry will need to explore alternative methods for audience targeting (contextual targeting, first-party data targeting, publisher data targeting, geo-targeting, etc.) and measurement (incrementality, data clean rooms, media mix modeling, etc.) as cookies become less prevalent. Google will maintain its investment in the Privacy Sandbox, so advertisers and publishers should continue to explore the Sandbox and other privacy-focused solutions. 

This includes having important conversations with B2B marketing platforms such as intent data platforms, marketing automation platforms (MAPs) or ABM platforms. Ask them how they plan to navigate a privacy-by-design world.  

10. B2B Marketers Will Have To Adapt to Longer Sales Cycles, Smaller Budgets and Larger Buying Committees 

According to Demand Generation’s 2024 B2B Buyer Behavior Benchmark Survey, 26% of buyers involved more people in the decision-making process this year, 44% said they’re conducting more detailed ROI analyses, and 34% reported spending more time researching purchase decisions. (Demandbase research validates this, confirming that a B2B committee can involve anyone from three to 20 people.) In 2024 as well, 34% of buyers reported having purchase delays due to budget freezes and having 25% less budget than last year. 

As a result, B2B marketers will need to adjust their marketing strategies to this reality; anticipate the need to develop marketing campaigns and types that reach various types of B2B committee members throughout lengthier sales cycles. To appeal to price-conscious buyers, consider having pricing information readily available on your website and/or provided early by your sales team (86% of buyers said this was the top variable they looked for when evaluating vendors, and open-ended survey responses revealed that B2B buyers wanted to be provided with pricing info faster by sales).  

Gear Up for 2025: More B2B Marketing Resources To Fuel Your Campaigns 

Now that you have a comprehensive understanding of what trends to expect in B2B marketing in 2025, we’ve got even more tools to drive your success. Use these resources to propel your growth: 

• 5 Reasons Why Leads Are Dead and Pipeline Is In 
• Integrating Brand & Demand for Maximum Impact 
• Implement These 7 Building Blocks for a Strong GTM Foundation 

About the Authors: 

Emily Gray is a strategic research analyst at Goodway Group. She got her start in the advertising and marketing world in client services, where she spent a good amount of time managing deliverables, timelines and client requests. Emily really fell in love with strategy and planning when, as an account manager, she had the opportunity to work on Funko, Blue Diamond Almonds and PATH. After a few years away from the industry, where she managed a rock band and worked at a Dallas PR firm, Emily is back in the strategy and research world. At Goodway, she focuses on the B2B vertical and covers the tech, finance and telecom spaces. Emily lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, with her husband, a golden retriever named Po and a new baby on the way. 

Michelle Philippon is a content marketing manager at Goodway Group. A creative and results-driven marketer with a record for producing captivating content, Michelle loves working with Goodway’s internal subject matter experts (SMEs) to provide useful insights to help agencies and brands power their marketing campaigns to achieve meaningful outcomes. Michelle has over 10 years of experience writing for both business and consumer audiences and previously worked at a B2B marketing agency. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio, where she enjoys reading, hiking through Cleveland’s many metroparks, making jewelry from sea glass and drinking way too much coffee.