In 2025, Demand Gen Report sought the input from our readers on what was really going on in the industry. We published four surveys that examined the impacts artificial intelligence (AI) was having on the industry, how to drive business through growth, and attending conferences.
The 2025 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey: Scaling Personalization, Optimizing Operations & Tying Strategy to Revenue in 2025
As the landscape of B2B marketing continues to transform in the latter part of the year, companies are taking a fresh look at their strategies, budgets, and top priorities to keep pace with changing customer expectations, new technology, and the growing need for results they can measure.
The 2025 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey dove deep into this fast-paced environment, showcasing how marketing leaders are bolstering their confidence, refining their strategies, and zeroing in on business growth by making more intelligent investments and enhancing personalized customer engagement.
The findings highlight key trends shaping the future of demand generation, including:
- 35% said their budgets increased slightly;
- 28% said they are projecting a total revenue growth increase of 11% – 20%
- 57% chose case studies as their top content format; and
- 29% have a fully integrated approach to brand and demand marketing.
The data not only reflects how marketing teams are allocating resources but how they are redefining success— linking marketing activities more directly to tangible business outcomes.
The report distills the most important insights from the survey, providing a snapshot of where marketing is headed in 2025 and the priorities that will define high-performing organizations in the coming year.
2025 Account-based Marketing Benchmark Survey
Account-based marketing (ABM) has moved far beyond its early roots as a niche tactic and now sits at the heart of modern B2B strategy. More organizations are recognizing that ABM offers a blueprint for efficient growth— one that replaces broad outreach with precisely targeted account engagement, higher relevance, and deeper sales alignment.
The rise of AI sparked new possibilities for ABM teams— elevating targeting, personalizing content at scale, and unlocking advanced insights about both known and unknown accounts. Yet, the gap between AI’s potential and its realized impact persists. Many teams are discovering that while AI tools offer genuine advantages, integrating these technologies and building the right expertise remain strategic challenges.
The 2025 ABM Benchmark Survey provided a clear, data-driven view into how leading organizations are evolving their approach:
- Strategy & Adoption: Discover why 71% of practitioners now utilize an ABM strategy and 40% are integrating it directly with demand generation to create a more efficient revenue engine.
- AI’s Real Impact: Understand the gap between AI’s potential and current reality, where 45% see its promise for personalization but nearly 70% find its current effectiveness limited.
- Top Challenges Uncovered: Learn how your peers are tackling the biggest hurdles in ABM, including proving ROI (47%), aligning sales and marketing (43%), and scaling programs (40%).
- Winning Channels & Content: See which channels deliver results, with email (92%) and in-person events (72%) leading the charge, and which content formats—like case studies and e-books—are most effective.
Pulse Check Survey: How Are B2B Marketing Teams Using AI?
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a fixture within many B2B marketing organizations, with generative AI (GenAI) gaining a significant amount of mind and wallet share, especially among marketers.
Demand Gen Report wanted to understand if and how our community was using AI to support marketing operations. More than 100 respondents shared insights into how they believe AI will shape the future of their organizations — and the broader B2B landscape.
AI, especially GenAI platforms, are powerful platforms to support the pre-content creation stage. Several respondents noted in the comments section that they use AI for ideation, brainstorming and as a “starting point” for content concepting. This feedback aligns with the 53% of respondents who use AI to support market research.
However, what’s surprising about these results is that significantly fewer marketers are using AI to support some of the key tactical channels that ensure the content is successful. For instance, only 21% of respondents use AI for social media management. And while less than a third of respondents (32%) indicate that they use AI to support personalization, this is a clear area of opportunity, especially as B2B organization use intent data to enrich and better tailor their content and advertising campaigns.
Inside The Pulse: New DGR Survey Reveals Current State of Industry Events
Demand Gen Report’s “Event Pulse Check” survey found nearly 75% of respondents said their company’s budget to attend in-person events increased or stayed the same over the last year. In that cohort, 40% answered that their budget increased slightly or significantly.
This went in hand with attendance plans, as 43% were scheduled to attend more in-person events in 2025 and 36% the same amount.
What’s Attracting Attendees To Events? Event quality is on the rise. When asked about current events on the market, 31% of respondents noted the offerings at the conferences they are attending— such as agenda and speakers; venue; food and beverage offerings; entertainment; sponsor mix and networking opportunities— are better (24% slightly and 7% significantly) while 41% said the quality is the same as in the past.
Content is key, as the two top answers to the Event Pulse Survey were the quality of speakers—both the people who are on stage and the brands they represent— at 29% and the number of relevant sessions at 19%.
