Small-business owners discover business products and services in many of the same places they consume personal media, making their path to purchase more fragmented than traditional B2B marketing models suggest.

Rather than relying on trade publications and business-focused media, small-business owners move fluidly between social media, connected TV (CTV), digital publishers, podcasts, and search throughout the day, according to a new EMARKETER and Intuit survey of 614 US small-business owners.

That shift reflects a broader transformation in B2B buying behavior, said our analyst Kelsey Voss.

“The marketing funnel has fundamentally changed,” Voss said. “B2B buyers are not just going to Google, clicking through to a website, reading branded content, and talking to sales. They’re going to social, Reddit, ChatGPT, and traditional search throughout the purchasing process. The journey is a lot less linear than it used to be.”

No single channel dominates habits

Small-business owners spread their media consumption across multiple channels rather than concentrating their attention in one place.

About one-third spend one to two hours a day on social media (33.9%), CTV (30.3%), and online news sites and digital publishers (30.1%), according to the survey. Podcasts are also a regular part of the mix, with 39.1% listening at least once a day.

That fragmentation extends within social media itself. Respondents most frequently use YouTube (89.6%), Facebook (85.2%), and Instagram (80.6%).For marketers, that creates opportunities to build awareness and reinforce messaging across multiple touchpoints rather than relying on a single channel.

Social and CTV bring consumers closer to purchase

Although social media occupies a significant share of small-business owners’ time, it is not necessarily their most influential media channel.

Most respondents (76.2%) said non-social channels such as CTV, podcasts, and digital publishers are at least as important as social media in their daily media consumption.

That finding warns marketers against over-indexing on social alone.

“Podcasts are popular in B2B and are particularly effective because they create an ongoing familiarity with hosts they trust, and with experts who can really go in depth on a product or service,” said Voss.

Nearly two-thirds (62.7%) of respondents watch CTV at least once a day, while 72.6% said it is their preferred way to watch television.

CTV appears to influence downstream purchase behavior, and that influence is amplified by second-screen habits.

• Among respondents who researched a business product, service, or tool after seeing a CTV ad, 57.3% later made a purchase.
• Nearly half (49.7%) of respondents said they use a smartphone or tablet while streaming, and only 32.2% said they are fully focused on the TV screen.

The lines between business and personal media blur

Small-business owners are consuming business and personal content in many of the same places, challenging long-held assumptions about where B2B audiences spend their time.

They visit online news sites and digital publishers multiple times a day more often (36.6%) than industry-specific trade publications (29.2%), as work-related research increasingly blends into their everyday media habits. YouTube (35.7%) and Facebook (34.9%) are the platforms they most commonly use for both business and leisure.That shift is already influencing where B2B marketers are investing. B2B ad spending will increase 12.9% in social media and 15.5% in video in 2026, outpacing search, EMARKETER forecasts.

The investment reflects changing research habits and growing trust in peer recommendations and creator content, said Voss.

“The awareness and consideration stages are still there, but it’s more self-directed,” she said. “By the time they get to a salesperson, a lot of times they’ve made up their mind.”

Small-business owners now require more than traditional B2B messaging, and marketers need campaigns that fit naturally into the places where this audience is already spending its time.

“B2B marketing has gotten more creative, bolder, and more interesting,” Voss said. “It used to be more about the classic thought leader. Now B2B is moving beyond that model and toward trusted partners who are more social-native and creator-driven.”

This was originally featured in the EMARKETER Daily newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.