[Research Round-Up] NetLine's Latest Data On B2B Content Consumption

 (This month's Research Round-Up discusses the 2025 B2B content consumption report from NetLine Corporation. NetLine publishes this report annually, and it consistently provides a wealth of real-world insights about how business professionals actually consume marketing content.)

Source:  NetLine Corporation

Virtually all B2B companies now use content marketing in several forms, so understanding how business professionals consume content has become critical to marketing success. The 2025 State of B2B Content Consumption & Demand Report by NetLine Corporation provides valuable insights on this vital issue.

NetLine operates a content syndication platform, and this report is based on data from 7.9 million content registrations on the platform in 2024. The NetLine research is particularly valuable for two reasons.

First, it captures the real-world consumption behaviors of business professionals. The data used for the report was not derived from surveys or interviews, but from actual engagements with B2B content.

And second, the report is based on first-party data. The business professionals who use the NetLine platform voluntarily share information about themselves and the organizations they work for in exchange for access to the content resources available on the platform.

For these reasons, the report contains a wealth of detailed information about content consumption behaviors, and I encourage you to review the full 36-page report.

Content Consumption Continues Rising

As measured by registrations on the NetLine platform, overall B2B content consumption in 2024 increased 27% compared to 2023 levels. NetLine's data shows that total demand for B2B content has grown 84% since the 2019 edition of the research. 

Content consumption by C-level executives is also still on the rise, growing 27% year-over-year. In 2024, C-level executives accounted for 13% of the total demand on the NetLine platform.

Demand for content about artificial intelligence grew dramatically in 2024. The explosive growth began in 2023 when demand for AI-related content increased 6.6x compared to 2022. In 2024, demand for such content increased 2.9x compared to 2023.

Most Popular Content Formats

The ten most requested content formats in 2024 were:

• eBooks
• Guides
• Cheat Sheets
• White Papers
• Articles
• Research Reports
• Tips and Tricks Guides
• Book Summaries
• Webinars
• Newsletters

In 2024, content registrations for eBooks increased 71% year-over-year, and the report observes that eBooks represented more than half of all content formats requested on the NetLine platform.

The report also notes that eBooks are a very efficient content format. Every eBook asset uploaded to the NetLine platform in 2024 generated 983 registrations. In contrast, white papers generated only 60 registrations per asset.

The Consumption Gap Widens

One of the more useful insights provided by the report relates to the consumption gap, which NetLine defines as the time between the moment a content resource is requested and the moment it's opened for consumption. This data point is important because it provides a guide for timing follow-up contacts with potential buyers. After all, it makes little sense to contact a potential buyer about a content resource before he or she has reviewed the content.

In 2024, the average consumption gap was 39 hours, up from 31 hours in 2023. The consumption gap has varied over the years. Before 2024, the largest gap recorded by NetLine was 33.3 hours in 2021, and the smallest was 27.1 hours in 2018. The lesson here is that you should wait at least two days before you try to follow up with people who have requested your content via NetLine.

Content Consumption and Buyer Purchase Intent

For the past few years, NetLine's research has suggested that the content format a potential buyer chooses to consume is a good indicator of purchase timing. In the latest analysis, NetLine identified five content formats that are more likely to be associated with a buying decision within the next 12 months - playbooks, infographics, case studies, trend reports, and buyer's guides. 

One format that is notably absent from this list is eBooks. Despite being the most frequently requested type of content last year, eBooks were not strongly associated with shorter-term purchase intention. This shouldn't be surprising because most eBooks are designed to appeal primarily to potential buyers who are in the earlier stages of their buying journey.

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Again, the NetLine report contains several other valuable findings, and I recommend you take the time to review the full report.