29 Incredible Stats that Prove the Power of Visual Marketing

Updated October 17, 2022.

If anything, the adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words” downplays the comparative value of visuals and text. And while we can intuit how powerful images are, we don’t have to leave that understanding to our imaginations – there’s plenty of data that makes the point very clear. Although text still has an important place in marketing, research proves that visuals are far more powerful drivers of engagement and conversions. Here are 29 stats that prove it:

Our brains were built for visual information:

1. 90% of the information processed by the brain is visual.

2. It takes only 13 milliseconds for the human brain to process an image.

3. The human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text.

4. People remember 65% of what they see, compared to ten percent what they hear.

5. In responses to a recent survey, 95% of B2B buyers said they wanted video content.

6. Publishers that feature visual content grow traffic 12 times faster than those who don’t.

We don’t have much patience for text:

7. Most people only read 28% of the words on a web page.

8. 82% of people prefer watching a video to reading social media posts.

9. 45% of website visitors will leave after only 15 seconds of reading.

We aren’t great listeners, either:

10. When people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later.

We love to consume and share pictures, infographics, and videos:

11. There are 1.9 billion daily users on Instagram.

12. Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without them.

13. On Facebook, the interaction rate for video is 73% higher compared to other types of posts, such as links or text.

14. 100 million hours of video are watched every day on Facebook – 85% of them with the sound off.

15. The average viewer spends 100 minutes watching digital videos per day.

16. Posts that include images produce 650% higher engagement than text-only posts.

17. People share and like infographics three times more than any other type of content.

18. Using the word “video” in an email subject line boosts open rates by 7-13% and including videos in the content increases clickthrough rates by 65%.

19. World internet traffic from videos will comprise 82% of all traffic in 2022.

20. Posts with videos attract three times more engagement than text-only posts.

21. More than three out of five internet searches result in video content being placed before the user.

22. 1200% more shares are generated by social videos than by images and text combined.

23. Having a video thumbnail appear in search results can double search traffic.

Video drives our purchasing decisions:

24. 95% of B2B buyers say videos are a key influencer during their purchase process.

25. 72% of consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it.

26. Nearly 65% of consumers watch a branded video before making a purchase.

27. 53% of B2C marketers say pre-produced video is the most successful type of content for marketing purposes.

28. People are 84 percent more likely to buy a product after viewing a product video.

29. Replacing an image with a video on a landing page can increase conversions by 86 percent.