45 Visual Content Marketing Statistics You Should Know in 2018

At the end of every year, we like to read through some of the major reports on inbound marketing, content marketing, social media, and online behavior.

It\’s amazing how fast things can change in just one or two years, and 2018 has a breadth of surprising statistics to reflect on.

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

To help you keep pace with these trends, let\’s take a look at some visual content marketing statistics that demonstrate the impact visual content has on reach, engagement, and sales. You can jump to the following categories to see statistics related to that category:

45 Visual Content Marketing Statistics You Should Know in 2018

General Visual Content Statistics

1. 32% of marketers say visual images are the most important form of content for their business, with blogging in second (27%). Source)

2. 80% of marketers use visual assets in their social media marketing. Video (63%), alone, has also surpassed blogging (60%) in usage as a social media marketing asset. Source)

3. When people hear information, they\’re likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later. Source)

4. 11% more B2C marketers than B2B marketers say visual content is the most important type of content today. Source)

5. 51% of B2B marketers prioritize creating visual assets as part of their content marketing strategy. Source)

Video Marketing Statistics

6. Mobile video usage has increased by nearly 10 million daily viewing minutes in the last two years. Source)

7. Cisco projects that global internet traffic from videos will make up 82% of all consumer internet traffic by 2021. Source)

8. 70% of YouTube viewers watch videos for \”help with a problem\” they\’re having in their hobby, studies, or job. Source)

9. 43% of B2C marketers say pre-produced video is the most successful type of content for marketing purposes. Source)

10. Globally, YouTube is consumers\’ leading source of video content, at 83% (Facebook is second, at 67%). Source)

11. Video streaming has increased significantly in the last several years. The live-streaming platform, Twitch, saw an increase of more than 13 million average daily streaming hours between 2012 and 2017. Source)

12. 62% of B2B marketers have rated video as an effective content marketing tactic. Source)

13. Using the word “video” in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19% and clickthrough rates by 65%. Source)

14. In a 2018 HubSpot survey, 54% of consumers wanted to see more video content from a brand or business they support. Source)

Source: HubSpot Research

Emerging Visual Marketing Trends

15. As of 2018, 35% of marketers use live video. Source)

16. Live videos on Facebook have an engagement rate of 4.3% compared to 2.2% for non-live videos. Source)

17. 90% of all video plays on Twitter take place on mobile devices. Source)

18. Videos 20 minutes in length or longer account for 55% of total video consumption time on smartphones. Source)

19. Magnifyre found that 29% more people viewed a 360-degree video than the same video in traditional format. Source)

20. 85% of adults consume content on multiple devices at the same time. Source)

21. According to the Lowes home improvement store, how-to videos that were shown in virtual reality (VR) had a 36% higher recall by viewers compared to people who only viewed the YouTube video. Source)

22. According to a 2018 survey, 82% of respondents expect people to focus on developing augmented reality (AR) experiences for smartphones. Source)

23. Gaming, education, and healthcare are the top three industries expected to invest the most in VR technology for business growth. Source)

Infographic Stats

24. Eye-tracking studies show internet readers pay close attention to information-carrying images. In fact, when the images are relevant, readers spend more time looking at the images than they do reading text on the page. Source)

25. Infographics can increase web traffic by up to 12%. Source)

26. Infographics have had the biggest increase in usage among B2B marketers in the last four years — now at 65%. Source)

27. People following directions with text and illustrations do 323% better than people following directions without illustrations. Source)

Source:NeoMam

Social Media Stats

28. Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images. Source)

29. In an analysis of over 1 million articles, BuzzSumo found that articles with an image once every 75-100 words received double the social media shares as articles with fewer images. Source)

30. Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without images. Source)

31. The equivalent of 110 years of live video is watched on Periscope every day. (Source)

32. There are more than 500 million Instagram users active every day. Source)

33. 67% of marketers consider Facebook their most important social media platform. Source)

34. 85% of videos on Facebook are watched without sound. Source)

36. Snapchat users watch 10 billion videos per day. Source)

37. Snapchat users share 9,000 photos per second.

38. 52% of marketers report seeing their organic reach on Facebook decline in the last year. Source)

39. 92% of the videos on Facebook are published as Facebook native videos. Source)

40. Snapchat has 187 million daily active Snapchat users as of 2018. Source)

41. 8% more B2C marketers than B2B marketers are interested in learning more about Pinterest as a visual content platform. Source)

42. Shopify users referred by Pinterest spend an average of $80 compared to the Facebook referral average of $40. Source)

43. Over 80% of pins are re-pins compared to 1.4% of tweets retweeted. Source)

44. YouTube reaches more 18+-year-olds during prime-time viewing hours than any cable TV network. Source)

45. Half of YouTube subscribers between the ages of 18 and 34 would drop whatever they were doing to watch a new video from their favorite channel. Source)