Navigating Gated vs. Ungated Content in B2B Demand Generation

Overview: The Content Access Debate

The question of whether to gate or un-gate content continues to be a defining decision in B2B

marketing. While lead capture remains important, modern audiences and search algorithms reward accessibility & trust-building, and value content delivery above form-fills. This is why it shouldn’t be a binary decision.  

Your content gating strategy must align with your marketing objectives, the value delivered, and the buyer’s journey stage. The question isn’t “Do we gate?” but rather… “What do we gate, when, and why?”

Industry Insights

Based on findings from several digital marketing studies, the general consensus among industry leaders is as follows:

• TOFU CONTENT should be ungated, especially when the objective is brand awareness, discovery, or education. Videos, one-sheeters, infographics, and light white papers/guides fall here. These pieces typically offer broad information and are less research-intensive.
• Gated content performs best for MOFU & BOFU materials—when the user expects tangible, unique value. Examples include demos, trials, calculators, in-depth papers and guides, analyst reports, and some (detailed, proprietary) case studies.
• WEBINARS typically occupy a middle ground. If the insights are not proprietary, registration should be very minimal (e.g., name and email only).

KEY TAKEAWAY: Utilize gating as a strategic marketing lever, not a blanket rule based on internal sales needs.

Why This Matters for B2B Marketers

Balancing gated and ungated assets is critical for optimizing brand awareness, market positioning and reach as well as targeted conversions (form fills) and qualified leads. Over-gating can suppress awareness and SEO visibility, while under-gating can diminish lead generation potential. 

Guiding Principles for B2B Content Gating:

• Informative content is freely discoverable to maximize visibility & build awareness.
• Marketing metrics align with the buyer’s intent, measuring:
  • Impressions and clicks for ToFu
  • Engagement metrics, such as desirable interactions for MoFu
  • Conversions, leads, and lead quality for BoFu
• Gating decisions are aligned with funnel stage, content value, and buyer readiness; not just internal capture goals.
• If content doesn’t compel a prospect to provide even minimal personal information (e.g., they wouldn’t themselves submit their email), then it likely belongs ungated. Salesforce suggests using this handy test: “Would I provide MY email for this content?”

Strategic Recommendations

1. Adopt a Value-First Gating Framework
   • Gate only when content offers proprietary insight, actionable tools/templates, or data-backed research that isn’t easily found elsewhere.
   • If the asset is broadly educational, lightweight or meant to spark discovery: keep it ungated.
   • Ask yourself the following questions: “Does this content solve a real problem?” & “Can someone find the same info in a quick search?” If the answer is yes to the first question, and no to the second then gating may be justified.
2. Simplify Access for Webinars & Mid-Intent Assets
   • For webinars or assets where registration is needed, require only the minimum fields (name + email) unless the content truly warrants deeper qualification or grants access to exclusive data or speakers.
   • Post-webinar recordings often can (and should) be ungated to extend long-tail value and reach.
3. Align Gating Decisions to Funnel Stage
   • ToFu (Awareness & Reach): Ungated. Broad educational blogs, infographics, videos, one-pagers.
   • MoFu (Engagement & Nurture): Lightly gated for lead qualification. Guides, templates, case studies. Assets where the user is exploring solutions.
   • BoFu (Decision & Conversion): Fully gated. ROI calculators, detailed analyst reports, demo access, high-intent driven assets or proprietary insights.
4. Leverage Progressive Profiling
   • After capturing basic details, utilize CRM/marketing automation to gradually collect additional data (job role, company size, interests) rather than burdening registrants on the initial form.
   • This approach generally improves form completion rates and the overall user experience
5. Refine Your Marketing Success Metrics – by Funnel Stage
   • ToFu (Ungated): Measure impressions, clicks, time-on-page, social shares, etc.
   • MoFu/BoFu (Gated): Measure conversions, MQLs, conversion rate of form fill to qualified lead, lead quality, downstream engagement, and eventually pipeline contribution.
   • Use analytics to determine whether gated content is performing as intended (i.e., justified lead capture) vs simply reducing reach.
     

Summary of Gate/No-Gate Content Guidelines

Additional References on Content Gating

• HubSpot. “Gated Content: What Marketers Need to Know [+ Examples]”. HubSpot Blog
• Salesforce. “What Is Gated Content? Here’s Everything You Need to Know.” Salesforce
• B2B Marketing World. “Gated Content vs Non-Gated Content”
• Brafton (2024). “Gated Content White Paper”