In 2024, the most widely used video types in marketing worldwide were explainer videos, with 73 percent of marketers saying they used them. Social media videos came second, with 69 percent of global marketers using them, while 60 percent cited testimonial videos.

This statistic shows the results of a survey question on how often marketers in the Netherlands used e-learning videos from 2017 to 2020. As of 2020, approximately 41 percent of the respondents indicated they had not used e-learning videos. This is a decrease compared to the previous year which was impacted by the coronavirus pandemic context.

Like in other countries, influencers play an increasing part in marketing in the Netherlands. As of September 2019, Iranian-Dutch fashion blogger Negin Mirsalehi was the most-followed Netherlands-based influencer on Instagram with over 5.5 million followers.

In 2023, digital video advertising spending in France increased 11 percent year-on-year. In 2020, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the expenditure decreased 12 percent on the values reported in 2019.

In 2021, digital video advertising was expected to attract 80.1 billion U.S. dollars in spending worldwide and the source projected that the expenditure would increase to 120 billion by 2024. In the U.S., the spending is forecast to increase from 11.24 to 12.66 billion in the same period.

In the last quarter of 2020, food and drink brands and companies that activated YouTube campaigns with sponsored content generated approximately 120.57 million views through campaigns achieving at least 10,000 views. Sponsored video views peaked in the third quarter of 2020 with nearly 178 million views.

In 2019 the global YouTube influencer marketing size reached 5.5 billion U.S. dollars. Given that the spending on sponsored content on YouTube in the first three months of 2020 amounted to roughly 1.4 billion dollars, and based on the growth from the previous year, the spending was estimated to further increase to 6.6 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2020.

During a 2024 survey among marketers worldwide, around 86 percent reported using Facebook for marketing purposes. Instagram and LinkedIn followed, respectively mentioned by 79 and 65 percent of the respondents. The global social media marketing segment According to the same study, 59 percent of responding marketers intended to increase their organic use of YouTube for marketing purposes throughout that year. LinkedIn and Instagram followed with similar shares, rounding up the top three social media platforms attracting a planned growth in organic use among global marketers in 2024. Their main driver is increasing brand exposure and traffic, which led the ranking of benefits of social media marketing worldwide. Social media for B2B marketing Social media platform adoption rates among business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) marketers vary according to each subsegment's focus. While B2C professionals prioritize Facebook and Instagram – both run by Meta, Inc. – due to their popularity among online audiences, B2B marketers concentrate their endeavors on Microsoft-owned LinkedIn due to its goal to connect people and companies in a corporate context.

In 2023, digital video advertising revenue in the United States increased by roughly 11 percent, from 47 to 52 billion U.S. dollars. After a very strong post-COVID-19 year of 2021, the growth has been slowing down.It remains higher than the digital advertising industry average of seven percent.

In 2021, broadcaster online video advertising was expected to attract 9.93 billion U.S. dollars in spending worldwide, out of 80 billion invested in total online video advertising globally in the same year.

According to a survey conducted among marketers in the United States between March and April 2021, 98 percent of respondents said their company or main client used digital video channels as part of their advertising strategy in 2020, while 79 percent said they used traditional TV. When it came to digital video channels, 85 percent of respondents said they made use of digital desktop video, while 78 percent said they used mobile video. Among traditional TV channels, 62 percent of respondents said they used data-driven linear TV, while 61 percent used broadcast/cable TV.

During a 2020 survey carried out among director level and above sales, operations, and IT professionals at publishers and media companies from the United States, Europe, and APAC, 53 percent of respondents stated they were planning to implement or expand their mobile video header bidding integrations; for desktop video, 46 percent of respondents were planning to do so.

The global influencer marketing market size has more than tripled since 2020. In 2025, the market was estimated to reach a record of approximately 33 billion U.S. dollars. What is influencer marketing? Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing that involves product placements and endorsements from online creators. In today’s competitive marketing landscape, brands are collaborating with influencers more firmly than ever, as partnerships with well-known creators can open the door to large potential audiences. In 2024, influencer marketing spending in the United States was forecast to reach an all-time high of 7.1 billion U.S. dollars. Seeing that internet stars can boost brand visibility, drive engagement, and impact purchasing decisions for millions of users, it comes as no surprise that spending on influencer cooperation is expected to pick up even more speed in the future. Top influencer marketing platforms Marketers can choose from an ever-expanding list of social media platforms to bridge the gap between brands and consumers. According to a recent survey, Instagram remains the most popular platform for influencer marketing in the United States, and in 2025, the global Instagram influencer market size was estimated to surpass 22 billion dollars for the first time. Apart from the photo-sharing app, video-based platforms such as TikTok have become popular among brands and marketers. In the first half of 2024, the most successful brands earned over half a billion U.S. dollars in earned media value (EMV) with their TikTok influencer marketing campaigns.

In recent years, video has become one of the most popular online formats, spanning from educational content to product reviews. During the third quarter of 2024, music videos recorded the highest category reach, with almost half of internet users worldwide reporting to watch music videos online each week. Social video engagement In recent years, YouTube and TikTok have become two of the most important social media platforms for global users, as video content commands high levels of engagement. In 2024, users worldwide spent approximately 28.4 hours using the YouTube mobile app per month. Additionally, the leading hashtags used by content creators on TikTok have amassed billions of views: as of January 2024, the TikTok hashtag “fyp” or “for you page” had reached 55 and 35 billion post views, respectively. Watching content: what device do users prefer? In 2023, televisions were the most used devices for global viewers to watch video-on-demand (VOD), with 55 percent of respondents reporting using these devices. In comparison, 13 percent of respondents reported using smartphones. Age group and generation are factors impacting viewership habits and device preferences, as younger users appear to prefer using their smartphones to consume content. According to a March 2024 survey, U.S. users aged 18-34 years were more likely to watch video content on smartphones than any other devices. By comparison, connected TVs were particularly popular for the online video audience aged 35 and older.

In the first half of 2021, the global viewability rate of in-app video ads stood at 78 percent, meaning 78 percent of video ads displayed in apps were in view in the measured period. Between the second half of 2020 and the first half of 2021, the share decreased by nearly 15 percentage points.

In the third quarter of 2020, it was found that 77 percent of U.S. internet users aged 15 to 25 years accessed YouTube. YouTube in the United States With over 126 million unique monthly viewers, YouTube is by far the most popular online video property in the United States. The platform’s mobile presence is also significant, as YouTube consistently ranks as the most popular mobile app in the United States based on audience reach. The most popular YouTube partner channels consistently attract dozens of millions of viewers and the top YouTube partner channel in the United States as of March 2019 was music label Universal Music Group (UMG), with over 50 million unique viewers. Music on YouTube Music is one of the most popular types of content on YouTube and as of 2019, half of the U.S. population used YouTube to listen to music on a weekly basis. Music videos frequently go viral and attract a large amount of attention upon release: it is not uncommon for popular releases to rack up 100 million video views within a week. Korean pop phenomenon BTS currently holds the record for the fastest viral video to reach 100 million YouTube streams. Their August 2020 release “Dynamite” only needed one day to accomplish the feat.

This chart depicts the rising influencers on YouTube in the beauty industry in Italy as of June 2020, ranked by average video views. According to data, the channels of MissPenny09 and Sonia Flower82 reached both six thousand views for every published video, on average.

As of June 2022, more than 500 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute. This equates to approximately 30,000 hours of newly uploaded content per hour. The amount of content on YouTube has increased dramatically as consumer’s appetites for online video has grown. In fact, the number of video content hours uploaded every 60 seconds grew by around 40 percent between 2014 and 2020.

YouTube global users

Online video is one of the most popular digital activities worldwide, with 27 percent of internet users worldwide watching more than 17 hours of online videos on a weekly basis in 2023. It was estimated that in 2023 YouTube would reach approximately 900 million users worldwide. In 2022, the video platform was one of the leading media and entertainment brands worldwide, with a value of more than 86 billion U.S. dollars.

YouTube video content consumption

The most viewed YouTube channels of all time have racked up billions of viewers, millions of subscribers and cover a wide variety of topics ranging from music to cosmetics. The YouTube channel owner with the most video views is Indian music label T-Series, which counted 217.25 billion lifetime views. Other popular YouTubers are gaming personalities such as PewDiePie, DanTDM and Markiplier.

During a 2020 survey, it was found that Instagram Stories was the most important format of influencer marketing according to U.S. marketers, preferred by 90 percent of respondents. Instagram photos and short-form Instagram videos followed closely with 83 percent and 81 percent, respectively.

During a 2024 survey among marketers worldwide, approximately 83 percent selected increased exposure as a benefit of social media marketing. Increased traffic followed, mentioned by 73 percent of the respondents, while 65 percent cited generated leads. The multibillion-dollar social media ad industry Between 2019 – the last year before the pandemic – and 2024, global social media advertising spending skyrocketed by 140 percent, surpassing an estimated 230 billion U.S. dollars in the latter year. That figure was forecast to increase by nearly 50 percent by the end of the decade, exceeding 345 billion dollars in 2029. As of 2024, the social media networks with the most monthly active users were Facebook, with over three billion, and YouTube, with more than 2.5 billion. Pros and cons of GenAI for social media marketing According to another 2024 survey, generative artificial intelligence's (GenAI) leading benefits for social media marketing according to professionals worldwide included increased efficiency and easier idea generation. The third place was a tie between increased content production and enhanced creativity. All those advantages were cited by between 33 and 38 percent of the interviewees. As for GenAI's top challenges for global social media marketing, maintaining authenticity and the value of human creativity ranked first, mentioned by 43 and 40 percent of the respondents, respectively. Another 35 percent deemed ensuring the content resonates as an obstacle.

During an early 2020 survey carried out among marketing leaders from 29 countries, 83 percent of respondents reported using social media as a digital channel for their marketing strategy. To compare, 67 percent of professionals said they used search marketing and 66 percent of videos or OTT.