In 2024, the tech giants made it clear: AI is no longer a future concept but a driving force of the present. AI is reshaping how we manage paid search campaigns. The tools and strategies we’ve relied on are evolving faster than ever, forcing PPC advertisers to navigate a landscape of rapid change.
As we look ahead to 2025, the future looks promising. Let’s dive into the key trends and challenges awaiting on platforms like Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, and more, as well as explore major predictions for paid media.
The landscape is shifting, and you need to be ready for what’s coming next.
Top 3 Google Ads Trends That Played Out In 2024
Over the past few years, Google Ads specialists and agencies have struggled with communication and inconsistent support from ad reps. The rollout of features often felt rushed, and many PPC experts were left wondering whether Google truly valued their input. However, there has been noticeable improvement in recent times.
Even with the rise of machine learning and automation in Google Ads, the core principles of paid media remain unchanged. Here are three top trends that played out in 2024.
1. The Growing Influence of Generative AI
The rise of generative AI tools like Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT has significantly impacted how we manage ad accounts. While these tools are still evolving, they have made a difference in simplifying campaign creation and management. For entry-level advertisers, platforms like Google’s campaign creation wizard have leveled the playing field. More experienced professionals are using these tools for increased efficiency.
2. More Diverse Digital Marketing Strategies
Gone are the days of focusing exclusively on one advertising platform. In 2024, it became clear that a diversified approach is essential for brand success. As each platform evolves its algorithm-driven campaigns, the need for high-quality data and platform-specific strategies has grown.
Relying solely on one channel is risky, and as a result, agencies and advertisers have started prioritising channel diversity. This approach reduces volatility and ensures more consistent results across various platforms.
3. The Importance of Optimising Beyond the Ad Account
A decade ago, making tweaks inside your ad account could dramatically boost performance. Today, however, much of the impact on an ad account comes from external factors. A well-optimised website, solid branding, in-depth customer research, and competitive analysis are just as important, if not more so, than the campaign itself.
PPC specialists increasingly recognise that a landing page overhaul can often yield better results than any changes made within the Google Ads interface.
Google Ads Plans Major AI Push In 2025
Google Ads is gearing up for a “seismic shift” in consumer search behaviour and the VP of global search ads reveals that AI will drive a transformation of advertising in 2025 even more significant than the mobile revolution.
According to Brendon Kraham, VP of Global Search Ads and Commerce, the upcoming changes represent a fundamental reimagining of how advertisers must approach digital marketing.
Outlining the plan for 2025, he told Media Daily News, “At Google Ads, we have a durable mission to help marketers connect with consumers. We incorporate AI to help in that effort — grounded in meeting their customer objectives — and apply it to creative, media, and measurement solutions.”
“Looking ahead to 2025, you'll see us continue to build user-friendly products across Performance Max, Demand Gen, and Search — powered by Google AI. all this to help advertisers spark new creative possibilities and achieve better results, all while prioritising user privacy,” he added.
Adapting to AI-powered tools and new advertising models will be crucial to stay competitive. Here’s what’s coming and why it matters for your brand.
Why Should Advertisers Care?
As Google moves forward with these advancements, the implications for marketers are profound. The shift toward AI-driven search and advertising means that the traditional ways of targeting and creating ads will no longer be enough. Instead, marketers will need to adapt quickly to the new tools and capabilities that Google is rolling out.
In 2025, advertisers will need to quickly incorporate AI into their campaigns. The key will be continuous testing and experimentation to understand how AI can best serve your business and audience. Those who fail to adapt is they could be left behind by competitors who are quick to master these and capture more market share.
This transformation is not just about adopting new technologies—it’s about rethinking the entire approach to digital marketing. As AI becomes more integrated into Google Ads, businesses will need to shift from a reliance on manual optimisation and keyword targeting to an AI-powered, data-driven approach.
The changes to Google Ads are part of a larger strategic vision by CEO Sundar Pichai to scale Gemini, Google’s AI platform, and solidify the company’s position as a leader in the digital advertising space. With increasing competition from rivals like Meta, Amazon, and emerging players, as well as rising regulatory scrutiny over privacy and data usage, Google’s AI push aims to maintain its dominance by providing more powerful tools for advertisers while safeguarding user privacy.
What’s Next: Enhancements to Core Advertising Products
In 2025, advertisers can expect significant upgrades to Google’s core advertising products, all of which will be powered by the latest AI advancements:
- Performance Max: Google's Performance Max campaigns, which use machine learning to automate ad placements across Google’s entire inventory, will see further refinements in AI capabilities. Expect smarter targeting, optimised bidding, and more granular reporting.
- Demand Gen: The Demand Gen campaign, which is designed to drive upper-funnel engagement, will be enhanced with AI to better match ads with users’ evolving needs and interests. This will allow advertisers to reach potential customers at earlier stages of the buying journey with more relevant, personalised content.
- Search Capabilities: As AI continues to refine Google’s search algorithm, expect search ads to become even more contextually aware, with advanced natural language processing and intent recognition that takes multimodal inputs into account.
These improvements will make it easier for advertisers to create highly targeted campaigns, understand their performance in real-time, and generate stronger results across all platforms.
Predictions for 2025: The Future Of Paid Media
As we look toward 2025, several key trends are expected to reshape how brands advertise, optimise campaigns, and measure success. From increased adoption of Demand Generation (Demand Gen) to a surge in AI-powered creative tools, the next few years will demand that advertisers adapt quickly to stay competitive.
In 2025, it will be crucial for marketers to advocate for necessary resources like offline conversion data or product feeds for e-commerce. Let’s dive into the key predictions for paid media in 2025 and explore what they mean for brands and marketers alike.
1. Demand Gen Adoption Will Increase, Especially for Social-First Advertisers
What’s Happening:
Demand Generation is expected to gain significant traction in 2025. For social-first advertisers, Google Ads Demand Gen will soon absorb Video Action Campaigns and solidify its place in 2025 as the upper-funnel counterpart to Performance Max. A big driver of this growth will be Meta-first advertisers who use it for early-stage awareness campaigns and nurture potential customers before they enter the competitive, lower-funnel phases of their buying journey.
Why It Matters:
By using Google Ads Demand Gen, brands can tap into platform-specific algorithms that target high-intent audiences in a way that feels organic and engaging, rather than intrusive or overly sales-driven.
Impact on Advertisers:
- Social-First Strategy: Social-first advertisers, particularly those who have leaned heavily on Meta and Instagram, will find Demand Gen campaigns a natural extension of their efforts. These campaigns are designed to work with platform algorithms to target high-intent audiences who may not be actively searching for your product but are in a discovery phase.
- Optimising for Awareness: Brands will need to rethink their strategies to focus more on brand-building and awareness using what works on social channels: scroll-stopping creative content paired with high-converting landing pages.
2. More Development of Performance Max Campaigns
What’s Happening:
Performance Max campaigns, which allow advertisers to target users across Google’s entire inventory—Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, and more—are expected to evolve further in 2025. With machine learning driving performance optimisation across multiple channels, Google is increasingly enhancing these campaigns by improving targeting options, campaign insights, and creative optimisation.
Why It Matters:
Performance Max campaigns have gained traction over the past few years for their ability to drive cross-channel advertising with minimal manual input. By allowing Google’s AI to automatically place and optimise ads, marketers have been able to focus on strategy while AI handles the nitty-gritty of targeting, bidding, and optimisation.
Impact on Advertisers:
- Increased Automation: As Performance Max campaigns develop, brands can expect more advanced features that will allow for deeper insights, easier campaign management, and better ROI from a single, unified campaign.
- Greater Flexibility: The growth of these campaigns will provide greater flexibility for businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), who may not have the resources to manage multiple, siloed campaigns across Google’s suite of platforms.
- Focus on Integration: Advertisers will also focus on integrating other Google tools and platforms (such as Google Analytics and Google Merchant Center) with Performance Max to make the most of cross-platform data and optimise campaigns for the best results.
3. Brands Will Test More Channels Beyond Google Ads and Meta to Diversify Marketing Mix
What’s Happening:
In the coming years, brands will diversify their paid media strategies beyond the duopoly of Google and Meta (Facebook and Instagram). This shift will be driven by a desire to reach untapped audiences and reduce the risks of relying solely on these two platforms, especially given the increasing competition and rising ad costs.
Why It Matters:
While Google Ads and Meta platforms have long been the backbone of digital advertising, there are now more viable options for advertisers looking to broaden their reach. Platforms like TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and emerging video apps are gaining ground in the advertising world, allowing brands to experiment with fresh approaches.
Impact on Advertisers:
- Experimentation with Emerging Platforms: As TikTok continues to rise in popularity, TikTok Shop will become an essential channel for e-commerce brands looking to engage with Gen Z and millennial shoppers. Additionally, Pinterest and LinkedIn will continue to offer opportunities for niche targeting and B2B marketers.
- Building a Diversified Marketing Mix: With new platforms offering advanced targeting and creative options, brands will begin testing a wider array of digital channels, which will help reduce reliance on a single platform and spread advertising spend across a more diverse portfolio.
4. TikTok Shop Will Be Huge for E-Commerce and Continue Rapid Growth
What’s Happening:
TikTok has quickly transformed from a social media platform into a major player in the e-commerce space. TikTok Shop, the platform’s integrated shopping experience, is expected to explode in 2025 as more brands see the value in directly reaching their audience via the app. TikTok’s ability to create viral trends and inspire impulse purchases makes it an ideal platform for e-commerce businesses to drive sales and brand awareness.
Why It Matters:
TikTok’s algorithm prioritises engaging, creative content, making it a goldmine for brands looking to connect with younger consumers. TikTok Shop will streamline the purchasing process, allowing users to buy products directly from the platform, shortening the consumer journey and improving conversion rates.
Impact on Advertisers:
- Direct-to-Consumer Sales: E-commerce brands will increasingly turn to TikTok Shop as a direct sales channel, enabling them to capitalise on the platform’s massive user base and viral content.
- Short-Form Video Content: With a greater focus on video content, brands will need to ramp up their short-form video production, making ads that feel native to the platform and resonate with TikTok’s highly engaged community.
5. Brands Will Seek Alternatives to GA4 for Source of Truth: TripleWhale, Northbeam, and SegmentStream
What’s Happening:
As Google Analytics 4 (GA4) becomes the standard for tracking and measuring digital campaigns, many brands are seeking alternatives that provide more flexible, user-friendly, and actionable insights. Solutions like TripleWhale, Northbeam, and SegmentStream are gaining traction as they offer more advanced attribution models and integrations with multiple platforms.
Why It Matters:
GA4 has received mixed reviews due to its complexity, steep learning curve, and limited out-of-the-box capabilities for tracking and attribution. As a result, marketers are looking to third-party solutions that can help consolidate data, streamline reporting, and improve decision-making.
Impact on Advertisers:
- Customisable Analytics: These alternative platforms provide marketers with more tailored analytics and better attribution capabilities, allowing brands to optimise campaigns across multiple channels with more accurate data.
- Faster Insights: These tools enable faster, more reliable insights that will be crucial in the fast-paced digital advertising environment. Brands will increasingly look to third-party platforms to be their “source of truth” when it comes to campaign performance.
6. AI-Powered Creatives Will Be the Norm: Tools Like Creatify and AdCreative.ai Will Become Essential
What’s Happening:
As AI continues to play a central role in digital advertising, AI-powered creative tools will become an indispensable part of marketers’ arsenals. Tools like Creatify and AdCreative.ai are making it easier to generate high-performing ad creatives with minimal effort, allowing advertisers to scale campaigns faster and with more precision.
Why It Matters:
AI-powered creative tools are designed to help marketers generate personalised ads at scale. These tools use machine learning to test various creative elements and automatically optimise them for the best possible performance. Advertisers will spend less time creating ad copy and images and more time refining their strategy.
Impact on Advertisers:
- Increased Efficiency: AI-powered tools will allow advertisers to generate hundreds of ad variations, testing different combinations of text, visuals, and calls to action with minimal effort.
- Personalisation at Scale: The ability to create personalised, dynamic ads at scale will help marketers deliver more relevant, engaging content to users, increasing conversion rates and maximising ROI.
The Road Ahead: Opportunities and Challenges in 2025
The key to success in 2025 and beyond will be adaptability—those who quickly master these new AI-powered capabilities will be best positioned to thrive, while those who resist change may find themselves struggling to catch up.
The paid media landscape is set to become more dynamic, diversified, and AI-driven than ever before. Advertisers will need to embrace emerging trends like Demand Gen, AI-powered creative tools, and cross-platform experimentation to stay ahead of the competition. At the same time, the rise of TikTok Shop, the shift away from Google Analytics 4, and the continued evolution of Performance Max campaigns will force brands to rethink how they approach digital advertising, measurement, and attribution.
For those willing to embrace change and continuously push the limits, 2025 holds great promise. It’s an exciting time to be in digital marketing—the only constant is change, and those who adapt will reap the rewards.
Good luck in the new year, and here’s to greater success and innovation!
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At 360 OM, we specialise in helping businesses take their marketing efforts to the next level. Our team stays on top of industry trends, uses data-informed decisions to maximise your ROI, and provides full transparency through comprehensive reports.
