The Increasing Importance of Video Marketing in Today's B2B Landscape

The shift from optional to essential happened faster than most B2B marketers anticipated. According to Wyzowl's 2026 State of Video Marketing report, 93% of video marketers now consider video an important part of their overall strategy, whilst 92% plan to maintain or increase video spending this year. The business impact speaks for itself: 85% report video helped generate leads, 83% say it directly increased sales.

For B2B marketers, this creates both opportunity and urgency. Your competitors who aren't optimising video for AI discovery are becoming invisible to tomorrow's buyers. At Whitehat, we've helped clients integrate video strategy with their Answer Engine Optimisation efforts, and the results confirm what the data suggests—video is no longer a nice-to-have.

The state of B2B video marketing in 2026

Consumer behaviour has fundamentally shifted in ways that directly affect B2B purchasing decisions. A striking 96% of people have watched an explainer video to learn about a product or service, whilst 85% have been convinced to purchase after watching brand video content. For B2B specifically, 87% of marketers now use video content, and 70% of B2B buyers actively engage with video during purchasing decisions.

The numbers around engagement are particularly compelling: video content achieves approximately 1,200% higher engagement than text and image content combined. When 81% of B2B decision-makers choose video over written content when learning about complex product offerings, the medium preference is clear.

Internet video consumption continues its dominant trajectory, with video expected to account for over 82% of all internet traffic by 2026. The average person watches 17 hours of online video weekly—time that increasingly includes professional research and vendor evaluation.

AI video tools have transformed B2B content creation

The AI video tools market has matured dramatically, offering B2B marketers capabilities that would have seemed like science fiction just a few years ago. 63% of video marketers have now used AI tools to create or edit marketing videos, up from just 18% in 2023. This represents a fundamental shift in production workflows.

For B2B applications, the tool landscape divides into distinct use cases:

Avatar-based platforms for personalised outreach

Platforms like HeyGen (from £20/month) and Synthesia (from £15/month annual) enable personalised sales outreach and training content at scale. Synthesia reports customers achieving 90% faster production and 3x cost reductions for corporate video. HeyGen earned the top Fastest Growing Product designation on G2 in 2025, with over 500 stock avatars and support for 175+ languages.

Generative video for creative campaigns

OpenAI's Sora 2 (launched September 2025) and Runway ML offer creative capabilities for marketing campaigns. Sora 2, available through ChatGPT Plus (£16/month) and Pro (£160/month), generates 10-25 second clips with synchronised audio—a breakthrough for social content creation.

Content repurposing tools

Tools like Pictory (from £20/month) convert blogs, webinars, and long-form content into video at scale. Descript revolutionises editing with text-based video manipulation—creators edit video by editing the transcript, reducing editing time by 60-70%.

For personalised ABM outreach specifically, platforms like Vidyard and Sendspark enable video personalisation at scale. Superside reported 8x improvement in click-through rates and 4x improvement in reply rates when implementing personalised video ABM campaigns, with 50% of new opportunities attributed to video outreach.

B2B video types that drive measurable results

Different video formats serve distinct purposes across the B2B buyer journey. Understanding which formats work at each stage—and optimising accordingly—separates strategic video marketing from random acts of content creation.

Webinars remain the dominant B2B format

91% of B2B professionals rate webinars as their preferred content type. Analysis of over 19,500 webinars across 418 B2B brands reveals an average 33% attendance rate, with top performers achieving up to 90%. Most importantly, 20-40% of webinar attendees convert to qualified sales pipeline opportunities, and 68% of marketers can directly tie webinars to revenue.

The content repurposing opportunity is substantial—marketers created over 131,000 video clips from webinars in 2024, representing a 2,903% year-over-year increase. A single webinar can fuel your content marketing strategy for weeks.

Video testimonials deliver exceptional conversion impact

Customer testimonial videos can increase conversion rates by 80%, with 72% of customers reporting greater brand trust after watching positive testimonials. B2B buyers specifically prefer video case studies over written testimonials by a margin of 53% to 29%.

The optimal length for testimonials sits at 45-60 seconds, achieving a 74% average completion rate versus just 49% for videos exceeding two minutes. Keep them focused, authentic, and outcome-oriented.

Product demonstration videos

Product demos prove equally valuable during the consideration stage, with 87% of customers saying videos helped them decide on a solution. B2B buyers spend an average of 5.4 minutes watching product videos before contacting sales, whilst 74% of software buyers report that video actively influenced their final purchasing decision.

LinkedIn emerges as the critical B2B video platform

Platform selection significantly impacts B2B video performance. 62% of B2B marketers identify LinkedIn as their most effective video distribution platform. Whilst YouTube leads in overall usage (82% of businesses), LinkedIn's professional context makes it uniquely valuable for B2B targeting—80% of B2B leads come through LinkedIn, and 65% of B2B companies acquire customers via LinkedIn video marketing.

LinkedIn video engagement statistics reinforce its B2B dominance:

• Video posts generate 5x more engagement than text posts
• Live streams receive 7x more reactions and 24x more comments than regular videos
• Users are 20x more likely to share video content than other formats
• Video ads earn 30% more comments per impression than image ads

Yet only 49% of businesses currently run LinkedIn video ads—representing a significant competitive opportunity. The platform's technical best practices have evolved for 2026: vertical video formats (4:5 or 9:16 aspect ratio) for maximum mobile screen coverage, durations under 30 seconds for ads, and always including captions—the majority of viewers watch without sound.

The critical engagement window is the first two seconds, where most viewing decisions occur. Native video uploads outperform shared links by 38% more engagement because native videos autoplay in the feed. This is why we recommend video as a core component of any inbound marketing strategy.

YouTube dominates AI search citations with 414% growth

The emergence of AI answer engines fundamentally changes video's strategic importance. YouTube citations in Google AI Overviews increased by 414% in Q1 2025, with "How-To" video citations jumping 651%. YouTube now holds a 200x citation advantage over any other video platform in AI search results, making it the single most important domain for AI visibility.

Across AI platforms, YouTube dominates citation patterns:

The content types most frequently cited follow clear patterns: instructional and how-to content leads with a 651% citation increase, followed by visual demonstrations (+592%) and product reviews/comparisons (accounting for approximately 25% of all cited videos). Healthcare content shows particularly high citation rates, with 42% of healthcare-related AI Overviews featuring YouTube sources.

This represents a fundamental shift that Whitehat has been tracking closely through our Answer Engine Optimisation services. If your brand isn't creating video content optimised for AI discovery, you may be invisible to tomorrow's buyers.

Technical optimisation enables AI discoverability

For B2B marketers seeking AI search visibility, technical optimisation has become non-negotiable. Video transcripts are critical because AI systems cannot "watch" videos—they read transcripts, captions, and metadata. Sites with video transcripts see 40-60% increases in organic traffic within six months, yet 85% of video content online lacks proper transcription, creating significant opportunity.

VideoObject schema markup

This forms the foundation of video AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation). Essential elements include video name, description, thumbnail URL, content URL, upload date, and duration. Clip markup enables AI systems to cite specific timestamps, whilst SeekToAction schema allows AI agents to navigate directly to relevant video segments.

Answer-first content structure

Videos optimised for AI citation deliver the core answer within the first 10 seconds, use chapter timestamps titled as questions (e.g., "How does X work?"), and structure content around "what," "how," and "why" queries. Creating content clusters—with a pillar video providing comprehensive topic coverage supported by specific FAQ-focused answer clips—builds topical authority that AI systems recognise.

Google's official guidance from May 2025 explicitly states that "multimodal input"—including images, audio, and video—now influences AI search visibility. The search giant notes that clicks from AI Overviews are higher quality with better on-site engagement, incentivising marketers to create unique, satisfying content that AI systems can trust and cite. Understanding this is central to our approach to SEO services.

HubSpot video ecosystem enables integrated measurement

For B2B marketers using HubSpot, video tools integrate directly into marketing and sales workflows—and this integration matters enormously for proving ROI. HubSpot Video, powered by Vidyard, offers free video hosting for up to 250 videos with no playback ads, the ability to add HubSpot CTAs and forms directly into videos, and workflow triggers based on video engagement. This functionality is available across Marketing Hub, Service Hub, and CMS Hub at Professional or Enterprise tiers.

The enhanced Vidyard-HubSpot integration pushes video view data directly to CRM contact records, logging views on the contact's Activity Timeline and enabling marketing automation based on viewing behaviour. Advanced features include:

• Lead scoring based on engagement depth
• In-video CTAs prompting next actions
• Detailed analytics revealing who watched, engagement duration, and drop-off points

The newest capability, Video Agent for HubSpot, uses AI to automatically generate personalised video messages within any workflow. Marketers can map HubSpot CRM fields—name, company, title—to video variables, triggering personalised responses to form fills, meeting bookings, lifecycle stage changes, and demo requests. AI avatars create personalised videos without recording, reducing manual video creation time whilst maintaining personal connection.

Getting this integration right from the start is why proper HubSpot onboarding matters. Video attribution that connects engagement to pipeline and revenue requires correct configuration from day one.

UK market shows strong growth and distinctive patterns

The UK video marketing landscape demonstrates robust growth. According to IAB UK's 2024 Digital Adspend report, digital video advertising spend reached £8.3 billion in 2024—a 20% year-over-year increase. Video now accounts for 64% of all online display spend (up from 51% five years ago) and 23% of total UK digital ad spend.

UK businesses mirror global adoption patterns, with 91% using video marketing. Platform preferences align with global trends—YouTube leads with 82% usage, followed by LinkedIn at 70%. However, the UK shows distinctive characteristics:

• Connected TV advertising is growing at 22% (faster than overall video)
• The UK has more YouTube views per capita than any other country, making it the world's most "YouTube-obsessed" market
• LinkedIn membership stands at 31 million members, representing significant professional reach

For B2B specifically, 71% of UK B2B marketers use video content on LinkedIn, and 78% report actively using video as part of their social strategy. IAB UK forecasts that by 2027, investment in video display will account for 27% of the total digital ad market.

The regulatory environment requires attention—GDPR impacts personalisation strategies, and restrictions on less healthy food advertising from October 2025 affect certain sectors. Understanding these nuances is part of what makes working with a UK-based agency valuable for PPC management and paid video campaigns.

Strategic imperatives for B2B video success in 2026

The research reveals five strategic imperatives for B2B marketers navigating the 2026 video landscape:

Frequently asked questions

Ready to build a video strategy that drives measurable results?

Whitehat helps B2B companies integrate video into their HubSpot ecosystem for full attribution and AI visibility. Let's discuss your video marketing strategy.

References & Sources

1. Wyzowl (2026). Video Marketing Statistics 2026. https://wyzowl.com/video-marketing-statistics/
2. NP Digital (2025). YouTube Citations in AI Overviews Surge by 414%. https://neilpatel.com/marketing-stats/youtube-citations-ai-overviews/
3. BrightEdge (2025). YouTube's Growing Impact on Google AI Overviews. https://www.brightedge.com/blog/youtubes-growing-impact-google-ai-overviews-what-marketers-need-know
4. IAB UK (2025). Digital Adspend 2024. https://www.iabuk.com/adspend
5. Search Engine Land (2025). YouTube dominates AI search with 200x citation advantage. https://searchengineland.com/youtube-ai-search-citations-data-462830
6. HubSpot (2025). State of Marketing Report. https://www.hubspot.com/state-of-marketing