The news: Video budgets are shrinking for brands as content demand grows and the landscape for top B2B video performance shifts.

• Half (51%) of marketing, sales, product, operations, and executive leadership workers say their video budgets are flat or down, per Wistia’s 2026 State of Video report.
• Respondents say the top two barriers to making more videos are company size and resources (66%) and costs (44%).
• 57% of teams spend more time creating content than marketing it, highlighting a imbalance as demand increases.

Wistia’s survey was global, though more than three-quarters of respondents were US-based.

Zooming in: Video remains central to B2B strategy but is becoming harder to execute en masse. Shrinking or stagnant budgets mean teams are being forced to do more with less.

Further challenges lie in the imbalance between creating the content and promoting it, presenting a growing efficiency problem. If teams are spending more time on production than placements, ROI could suffer, especially without distribution support or alignment between marketing and social teams.

The bigger picture: Meanwhile, LinkedIn is emerging as a dominant B2B video platform. Over three-quarters (81%) of respondents call LinkedIn their top channel for sharing videos, and 62% say it’s their top location for paid video ads. This could be supported by the platform’s introduction of vertical videos in early 2025.

• LinkedIn’s popularity marks a shift toward professional network ecosystems for B2B video and may offer clearer ties to business outcomes, making it an attractive destination for both organic and paid video distribution.
• However, keeping other platforms in the mix can help avoid long-term risks around pricing power and visibility.

Recommendations for marketers: B2B video strategies are entering an era of constraint. Success will hinge less on output volume and more on smarter allocation, such as focusing on high-performing formats, tighter platform strategies, and better promotion discipline.

Deploy AI to assist with asset production—potentially on the editing side for teams that are wary of its application or potential customer backlash—to streamline content creation and decrease go-live time.