Top Digital Marketing Trends in 2025

THE TRENDS TO WATCH

Starting off strong, we asked our experts to highlight the most influential trend expected to dominate their respective fields in 2025. Here’s what they said:

CONSIDERED CONTENT CREATION

Our experts can’t stress the importance of quality (not quantity) enough this year. As more and more users experience ‘content burnout’, brands should avoid bombarding audiences with content and look to take a more needs-based approach. 

While the increasing capabilities of AI have made it easier than ever to produce content quickly, in spite of this, the focus should remain on adding value, using key channels, and targeting metrics that matter.

In 2025, high-value, evergreen content will be your friend — especially blogs, posts, and resources that add long-term value to users. The ‘work smarter not harder’ approach will be critical for social media content in particular, especially with other platforms like Bluesky starting to take space from competitors like X (formerly Twitter) and driving change in consumer interactions. 

THE CHANGING FACE OF SEARCH ENGINES

Search behaviours are changing and no-longer monopolised by traditional search engines, prompting SEOs to take a much broader approach to organic search across a variety of different platforms.  

Similarly, in 2025, marketers are likely to see Google’s AI Overviews and other generative AI tools continue to develop. As Google rolls out Gemini 2.0 into search and more updates are announced, SEOs will have to remain agile to maintain rankings and search visibility.

ETHICAL CONSUMERISM

Whether you’re a copywriter or you specialise in Google Ads, ethical consumerism is on the rise — and building trust with your audience remains pivotal to online success (and survival).

In light of current global affairs, users are more consciously choosing products, brands, and services that align with ethical standards like sustainability, cruelty-free methods, and transparent supply chains. 

These increasingly-important user preferences have a huge impact on marketing — from campaign messaging to brand perception and even the ethical use of data. So, in 2025, the most successful businesses will be considering authenticity, transparency, and ethical branding at every stage.

WHAT’S MAKING WAVES?

Next up, we take a look at some disruptive newcomers to the list of marketing trends — approaches that are really making waves at the moment.

OMNICHANNEL CAMPAIGNS

Multichannel and omnichannel campaigns are designed to provide consistent messaging across advertising channels, social media, streaming services, web and in-app environments. The tried and tested doctrine ‘consistency is key’ is rearing its head again with this one as marketers can now put it into practice by creating cohesive user touchpoints at various points in the funnel.

MMM (MARKETING MIX MODEL)

2025 is not the year of guess work. Instead of trying to estimate where best to spend marketing budgets, businesses are increasingly leaning on MMM (Marketing Mix Modeling) to gain accurate insight into what works and what doesn’t. As AI is evolving, it’s easier than ever to collect and analyse historical data in order to predict which channels deliver the best ROI.

THE ‘ANTI-CHURN’ APPROACH

As a reactionary approach to the large volumes of mass-produced, AI generated content being churned out by new tools, brands are increasingly embracing an ‘anti-churn approach’ to content production. Put simply, new generative AI tools have allowed for the production of a higher volume of low-quality content than ever before — but this is not best practice.

 As we know from their Search Quality Rater Guidelines, Google is likely to favour unique and valuable content over generic, rehashed information — so taking more time to ‘churn’ out less content with a greater focus on user/consumer value is the way forward. 

CTV ADS

In the paid media sphere, ads are constantly diversifying. However, CTV (Connected TV) ads are really making a splash on the audience’s screens. As consumer habits shift from linear TV to streaming, CTV advertising has become essential for reaching on-demand audiences.

Unlike traditional TV ads, CTV ads are highly targeted, data-driven, and interactive, allowing larger brands to reach specific demographics based on viewing habits, interests, and online behaviour. With platforms like YouTube, Netflix, and Disney+ expanding their ad-supported models, marketers have more opportunities to engage viewers in a non-disruptive, personalised way while they watch their favorite content. 

VIDEO ADVERTISING

Video advertising is set to dominate PPC trends in 2025 too as users increasingly prefer visual, interactive experiences, with platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram leading the charge here. Similarly, shoppable video ads have the potential to revolutionise the user journey by allowing viewers to click and purchase directly from ads like never before. As a result, conversions may be faster and more seamless, making video ads a core tool for brands looking to capture attention and drive sales in the age of video.

BRACE FOR IMPACT

Next up, we asked our experts what challenges marketers should be prepared to tackle in 2025. You’ll be unsurprised to hear that there was a common thread running through all of their answers: Google and its new best friend, AI.

‘OPTIMISING FOR AI’

What’s certain is that Google’s AI Overviews will continue to roll out in 2025, developing AI search even further. What’s not so certain is how marketers should respond and what impact future AI Overview changes will have. Such uncertainty has already led to misconceptions such as ‘optimising for AI’ — an approach at odds with Google’s preference for user-first content — or focusing too narrowly on AI and neglecting other SEO best practices. 

Keeping an open mind and staying in the loop with accurate, up-to-date, and reliable information about the changes to search isn’t always easy but will be key in 2025.

ZERO-CLICK SEARCHES

As Google’s AI Overviews helpfully give users more and more information, the term “zero-click searches” has been used a lot more recently. Since featured snippets and AI Overviews provide users with information relating to their query, there are some question marks around declines in visibility and traffic from zero-click features. 

As a result, the challenge facing marketers is how to appear as sources in AI features. The solution? Focusing on building strong brands with authoritative, accurate content. 

Measuring Results

When it comes to paid advertising, Google’s recent activity has raised some questions. Will Google give up Chrome? Will that impact things like Google Ads? Similarly, with Google’s decision to keep cookies but allow consumers to opt-in or out, PPC may need to adapt to keep up. 

Throw into the mix the evolving data privacy regulations and it becomes increasingly tricky to accurately measure results and stay on top of changes. While nothing is for certain, keeping a cool head and only relying on information from accurate sources is key.

You can’t spell ‘gains’ without ai

It wouldn’t be a marketing trends prediction piece if we didn’t mention AI at length in some capacity, so here we are. The unignorable outlier in every marketing strategy, AI is evolving in all fields — from content to SEO — and we asked our experts how marketers should adapt to it 2025. Here’s what they said.

Use Tools Wisely for content

For the lack of a do-it-all AI platform, AI tools will continue to develop niches to serve specific areas within the content creation process — from data crunching and media distribution to research and reporting — with LLMs being further developed. So, in order to adapt to the developments in AI, content marketers must do two things:

1. Use tools
2. Use tools wisely 

Don’t get left behind by digging your heels in and denying that any value can be added by AI to your content creation process. But, equally, don’t neglect best practices, human skill, and fundamentals like accuracy and quality along the way. AI is at its most helpful when the marketers who apply it are informed and entirely in control of the output. 

Testing SEO Tools

Our SEO team predicts that we’ll see more use cases for AI in 2025, with an ever-expanding range of tools on the market. As marketers, now, our job is to test them to find where they add the most value. Going beyond traditional use cases such as content and keyword research, new AI tools are likely to set new standards for application. So, the challenge for SEOs in 2025 will be pinning down how these new use cases can safely and successfully be incorporated into scaling SEO efforts.

LEANING INTO AI FOR PAID ADVERTISING

What can we expect from AI and paid disciplines in 2025? AI-driven advertising leading to more personalised campaigns and better targeting, greater analysis of historical data, and a shedload more machine learning. 

For PPC and paid social specialists, the time to invest in upskilling and testing AI applications is now. Hyper-personalisation is a trend expected to dominate this year, but one that can only be executed successfully by utilising AI tools to analyse the vast data sets (like customer purchasing behaviour and browsing history).

Success but not as you know it…

Lastly, let’s talk about success. While we’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, the significant changes to digital will have equally significant implications for defining success. With that in mind, we asked our experts which metrics and KPIs they predict will define what good looks like in the year ahead. 

‘Quality Time Metrics’

In line with brands thinking about how to bring more impact to their marketing activities, conversion rates will continue to be seen as the best end-metric. However, it’s equally as important to get a feel for the number of meaningful interactions with audiences in an era when attention spans are shortening by the second. As such, looking at pages per session, time on page, and return users will be important to assess the true value that certain marketing activities bring to a brand.

Share of voice

As we established earlier, Google isn’t enjoying so much of a solo-status in search anymore. Between traditional search engines, social media search features, AI-powered search, video and voice search, and e-commerce search, users are presented with an impressive variety of options to get the information they seek in a format that works best for them. So, in line with this broadening search landscape, the metrics we use to measure performance in search need to broaden too. 

Things like engagement and visibility will need to be monitored across all platforms to build a greater picture of a brand’s share of voice. Juggling these metrics alongside traditional KPIs and ROI will by no means be easy, but will be essential if brands are to build an accurate picture of their appearance, perception, and performance in search in 2025. 

Upskill with our experts

From the rise of video advertising to growing demand for ethical marketing, 2025 is shaping up to be a defining year for digital marketing. The trends we’ve explored here aren’t just passing fads — they’re actively shaping the way brands connect, engage, and succeed online today.

If you take away one thing, remember: marketing success in 2025 won’t be about doing more — it will be about doing it smarter by leaning in to the technologies and tools available.

Whether that means refining your SEO for AI-driven search, embracing shoppable video ads, or focusing on building trust through authentic, high-value content, staying ahead means adapting now.

Want to know more? 

Our Marketing Leadership Series is your chance to hear from industry leaders as they break down the digital marketing trends defining 2025 with actionable insights for you to take away. Sign up and we’ll see you there!