52 Visual Content Marketing Statistics You Should Know in 2024

If 2023 was the year marketers flirted with visuals, 2024 is the year everyone moved in together, adopted a dog, and started filming it for TikTok.
Visual content marketing is no longer a “nice-to-have.” It’s the backbone of how brands earn attention, trust, and conversions across social media, websites, and email.

To help you build a smarter, data-driven visual content strategy, we’ve pulled together 52 visual content marketing statistics for 2024 from major industry reports, including
HubSpot’s State of Marketing, Venngage, Content Marketing Institute, Movavi, and more. These numbers will show you what’s working now, what’s fading, and where to invest your
time, budget, and creativity next.

1. Adoption & Strategy: Visuals Are the New Default

First, let’s look at how widely marketers are using visual contentand how central it is to their plans in 2024.

1. 1. More than 60% of marketers have revamped their visual content strategy in the past year, with many doubling down on video and social-first visuals.
2. 2. Around 21.9% of marketers say over 75% of their content is visual, while another 34.3% report that visuals make up 20–50% of their content strategy.
3. 3. A majority of marketers gave visual content creation a difficulty score of about 7 out of 10 when it comes to producing visuals consistently.
4. 4. Roughly 56.2% of marketers say visual content is “very important” to their marketing strategy, and nearly a quarter say their strategy would fall apart without it.
5. 5. By the end of 2024, about 40% of marketers expect 20–50% of businesses to rely heavily on visual content, and over 30% think more than half of businesses will.
6. 6. Visual content is no longer a brand “extra”more than half of marketers publish visuals at least two to five times per week across platforms.
7. 7. About 42% of marketers publish 5–10 visual pieces a week, while nearly 9% are posting 10+ visuals weeklytrue content machines.
8. 8. Most visual content is now planned as part of a full-funnel strategyblog posts, landing pages, social, and email all share assets instead of working in silos.
9. 9. In 2024, marketers are increasingly prioritizing mobile-first visual design, optimizing layouts, text size, and file weight for smaller screens.
10. 10. Visual content is used not just for awareness but also for product education, onboarding, and retention, especially via explainer videos and walkthrough GIFs.

2. Budget & Resources: Where the Money’s Going

The budget line for visual content is no longer tiny and embarrassed. It’s bold, underlined, and accompanied by a bunch of new tools.

11. 11. About 45.71% of marketers allocate 20–50% of their marketing budget to visual content creation.
12. 12. There’s a nearly 10% increase in marketers planning to dedicate 50% or more of their budget to visuals in 2024.
13. 13. Across B2B brands, 45% expect their overall content marketing budget to increase in 2024, while only 6% expect a decrease.
14. 14. A solid 56.2% of marketers spend the most visual content budget on tools and softwarefrom design platforms to video editing suites.
15. 15. Around 34.29% of marketers spend 10–15 hours per week creating content, and about 21% spend over 20 hours weekly.
16. 16. Over 50% of marketers rely on in-house designers for visuals, but slightly morearound 51%design content themselves using advanced tools.
17. 17. About 40% of marketers use online design tools and drag-and-drop platforms to create visuals without needing a full design team.
18. 18. The most desired areas for automation in visual content creation are auto-branding (about 30%), real-time collaboration, and design generation.
19. 19. Visual content creation is still a bottleneck: up to 50% of marketers struggle most with layout and design when turning data or copy into visuals.
20. 20. Agencies report that investing in visual content and creative capabilities is one of the top levers for improving client retention and campaign performance in 2024.

3. Engagement: Why Visuals Outperform Text

Here’s where visuals earn their keep. These statistics show just how much impact images, videos, and graphics have on audience behavior.

21. 21. Social posts with images can generate up to 650% higher engagement than text-only posts.
22. 22. Around 91% of consumers say they prefer visual content to plain text when learning about products or services.
23. 23. Users are about 30% more likely to complete a payment or transaction when visuals are used in the marketing and checkout experience.
24. 24. Visual content is estimated to be 43% more persuasive than text alone when used in presentations, sales collateral, and landing pages.
25. 25. Information paired with visuals (charts, photos, color design) can improve understanding and recall by up to 80%.
26. 26. Infographics are reported to be 30 times more likely to be read than a purely text-based article.
27. 27. Infographics can contribute to as much as a 12% increase in website traffic when used consistently as part of a content strategy.
28. 28. Charts and data visualizations are the most frequently used type of visual content for many marketers, ahead of stock photos and basic images.
29. 29. In B2B, about 72% of buyers say they prefer infographics at the start of their buying journey, making them a powerful top-of-funnel asset.
30. 30. Visual-led case studies and customer stories see significantly higher time on page than text-only case studies, especially when they include diagrams and annotated screenshots.

4. Formats: Video, Images, and Infographics in 2024

Visual content isn’t just “images.” The balance of formats is shifting, with short-form video and infographics leading the pack.

31. 31. Video is consistently ranked as the most popular and effective media format in content marketing.
32. 32. In recent marketing data, about 50% of marketers use video in their strategy, followed closely by images at roughly 47%.
33. 33. In 2024, short-form video is the single most popular content format, used by roughly 29% of marketers, ahead of images and blog posts.
34. 34. Images come in second at around 28–29% of marketers’ preferred formats, proving static visuals are far from dead.
35. 35. Interviews and talk-style video content account for just over 21% of formats used, showing a rise in authentic, conversational visuals.
36. 36. Blog posts still matter: about 19–20% of marketers list blog content as a top formatbut those blogs increasingly rely on embedded visuals, charts, and video.
37. 37. Around 26% of marketers already use infographics, with another 15% planning to adopt them for the first time in 2024.
38. 38. Original graphics (infographics and custom illustrations) are ranked by marketers as the top-performing visual type, beating out generic stock photos.
39. 39. Stock photos are polarizing: around 34% of marketers say they perform well, but about 39% say they perform poorly compared with other visuals.
40. 40. Live video and ephemeral formats (Stories, Reels, Shorts) are increasingly used to humanize brands, even when production quality is intentionally “lo-fi.”

5. Social Media & Distribution: Where Visuals Win

Visual content and social media are basically inseparable at this point. Here’s how marketers are using visuals across platforms.

41. 41. YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn are the top three platforms for creating visual content, with Facebook and TikTok close behind.
42. 42. LinkedIn is especially strong for B2B: about 84% of B2B marketers say it’s their most valuable platform for content and visual marketing.
43. 43. TikTok usage among marketers has roughly doubled in recent years, driven largely by short-form video trends.
44. 44. In tourism and destination marketing, 90% of surveyed organizations expect influencer marketing to remain big in 2024, with a shift toward micro-creators and subtle, visual-first content.
45. 45. Recommended posting frequencies for visual-heavy platforms often hover around 3–5 posts per week for Instagram and TikTok, and 1–2 posts per day for Facebook and LinkedIn.
46. 46. Roughly 78% of marketers publish visual content 2–5 times per week across channels, which appears to be a “sweet spot” for staying visible without overwhelming followers.
47. 47. Visual content is a major driver of social referrals: brands that invest in high-quality visuals see markedly higher click-through rates from social to site.
48. 48. User-generated visuals (UGC)photos, videos, and stories from real customersconsistently rank as more trustworthy than branded visuals in consumer surveys.
49. 49. For both B2B and B2C marketers, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram remain the most effective networks for visually-led campaigns.
50. 50. Visual storytelling (carousels, multi-frame posts, and short video series) leads to higher completion and save rates than single-image posts in many benchmark reports.

6. AI, SEO, and the Future of Visual Content

Finally, let’s talk about how AI, SEO, and new tools are reshaping visual content marketing in 2024 and beyond.

51. 51. Around 61–62% of marketers surveyed are already using AI to help produce content, including visuals, and usage is expected to grow through 2024.
52. 52. In some reports, 72% of B2B marketers use generative AI to automate or enhance visual content tasks, though about 61% of organizations still struggle to navigate these tools effectively.

Beyond those headline stats, the AI wave is even bigger: one survey found that 85% of marketers believe generative AI will have a massive impact on content creation, and 63% think most content in 2024 will be created at least partly with AI. Many plan to increase their AI investments to speed up design, video editing, and asset repurposing.

From an SEO perspective, the numbers are equally eye-opening: nearly 96.55% of pages get no organic traffic from Google, which is a not-so-subtle reminder that your visuals need to be paired with strong keyword research, internal linking, and technical SEO. Meanwhile, around 70% of people still prefer to get information from long-form blogs rather than traditional adsso visuals and written content are truly a power couple, not rivals.

How to Turn These Visual Content Stats into Action

Stats are great, but what do you actually do with them (besides drop them into a slide deck and feel very important in meetings)?

• Double down on short-form video. The data shows it’s the most-used and often highest-ROI format. Start with simple talking-head videos, screen recordings, or product demos.
• Invest in original graphics and infographics. They’re more shareable, more readable, and more persuasive than plain text or generic stock photos.
• Optimize for mobile as a default. Layout, text size, and file size should all be checked on a phone first, desktop second.
• Use AI to speed up, not to spam. Let AI help with ideation, resizing, templates, and rough drafts, while you handle brand voice, strategy, and quality control.
• Measure what matters. Track engagement, click-through rate, dwell time, and conversionsnot just likes or views. Let those numbers guide where you invest next.

The big takeaway? In 2024, visual content isn’t optional. It’s the language your audience expects. Use these statistics as a roadmap to build visuals that aren’t just prettybut strategic, searchable, and profitable.

Real-World Experiences with Visual Content in 2024

Numbers are powerful, but marketers really learn when they test, fail, adjust, and try again. Here are some practical, experience-based lessons that line up with the 52 visual content marketing statistics you just saw.

1. Short-Form Video Wins Even When It’s “Messy”

One of the biggest surprises for many brands in 2024 is that the best-performing videos are often not the most polished. Teams that used to obsess over lighting, gear, and camera angles are realizing that “good enough” production quality mixed with a strong hook outperforms cinematic but slow-to-produce content.

For example, a SaaS brand might spend weeks on a glossy product videoonly to see a 30-second screen-recorded TikTok explaining a single feature outperform it dramatically in saves, comments, and demo requests. The stats about short-form video dominance and engagement echo this: people want clarity, authenticity, and speed over perfection.

2. Infographics Turn “Meh” Topics into Click Magnets

Marketers who handle “boring” industriesthink compliance, B2B IT, or logisticsare discovering that infographics act like visual translators. Long PDFs that nobody reads become shareable carousel posts or one-page visuals that sales teams actually use.

Even a simple “before vs. after” visual or a one-page flowchart can turn complex processes into something a buyer can understand in under 30 seconds. This directly supports the stats around infographics being more likely to be read and preferred at the top of the funnel. When in doubt, sketch the idea on paper, then turn it into a clean infographic with an online tool.

3. AI Is a Great Intern, Not a Creative Director

With so many marketers using AI tools, a common pattern has emerged: teams that treat AI as a collaborator, not a replacement, get the best results. They use AI to:

• Generate rough layout ideas for carousels and infographics.
• Resize and reformat visuals for multiple platforms.
• Brainstorm variations of hooks, CTAs, or thumbnail text.

But they still keep humans in charge of brand voice, storytelling, and taste. This mirrors the stats about AI adoption and the struggles marketers reportthere’s power in the tools, but it requires strategy to unlock it without flooding your channels with generic content.

4. Consistency Beats Occasional Brilliance

Another lived reality in 2024: brands that publish “pretty good” visuals consistently are beating brands that wait until everything is perfect. The statistics about posting 2–5 times a week and the difficulty of producing visuals consistently highlight this tension.

Teams that succeed here usually:

• Build a simple design system (colors, fonts, a few templates).
• Standardize a handful of visual formats (e.g., quote cards, data cards, step-by-step carousels).
• Batch-create visuals weekly instead of scrambling daily.

The result? A recognizable, reliable brand presence that algorithms and humans both learn to expect.

5. Visual + Text = The Real Power Combo

Finally, experienced content marketers will tell you: the real magic happens when visuals and text work together. The data showing that long-form blogs are still preferred, and that visuals boost persuasion and recall, tells the same story.

A blog post with custom charts, annotated screenshots, and an embedded video dramatically outperforms a wall of text. A landing page with a clear hero image, simple icons, and one strong explainer video will often convert better than a clever copy-only page.

The lesson from 2024’s visual content landscape is simple: don’t choose between words and visuals. Use visuals to earn attention and explain, and use words to persuade, clarify, and deepen trust. When they work together, all the statistics you’ve read here start to show up in your own analytics dashboard.

Conclusion

Visual content marketing in 2024 is data-backed, AI-accelerated, and fiercely competitive. But it’s also full of opportunity. These 52 statistics reveal a clear pattern: brands that show up consistently with helpful, well-designed, and platform-native visuals are the ones winning clicks, leads, and loyalty.

Take these numbers as your cheat sheet. Use them to justify budget, prioritize formats, and design a visual content roadmap that actually matches how people consume information today. Then experiment relentlesslyyour next high-performing visual might be one idea, one chart, or one 30-second video away.