Each new year brings fresh developments in the digital world and 2025 will be no exception.
In this article, Bluesoup's digital team explores nine of the most important digital marketing and PPC trends likely to shape your campaigns this year. Unsurprisingly, AI tools continue to dominate, but what else should be on your radar?
From search behaviour shifts to smarter ad platforms and better ad formats, here’s what to look out for and how to stay ahead of the curve.
1. Consent Mode v2 and first-party data
With growing restrictions around third-party cookies, first party data has become essential to campaign accuracy and performance.
Enter Google’s Consent Mode v2, which became mandatory in March 2024. This update helps businesses comply with data privacy regulations while still gathering actionable insights for campaign performance via Google Analytics and other tracking tools.
Failing to adopt Consent Mode means diminished visibility, skewed data, and reduced effectiveness across Google Ads, paid search, and broader PPC advertising. Getting this right early in 2025 is key.
2. AI assistants in ad platforms
AI-powered assistants are now appearing across major PPC platforms, from Google Ads to Microsoft and Meta. These built-in tools help you:
Interpret search terms reports
Suggest smart bidding strategies
Surface performance shifts and recommendations
Generate headlines, ad copy, and even creative assets
With enhanced machine learning capabilities, AI will help marketers save time, make quicker decisions, and execute dynamic ad creation with ease especially helpful for brands managing large-scale PPC campaigns.
3. Ads within AI-generated search results
AI-generated search results are becoming more prominent in Google Search and beyond, especially in AI Overviews. Expect more experimentation with:
Native-style visual search ads
Interactive and shoppable ads within summaries
Branded content fed into voice search experiences
These changes will challenge traditional PPC strategy, especially where search patterns evolve beyond classic keyword queries. Expect to test innovative ad formats and refine your audience targeting tactics accordingly.
4. Video content will lead performance gains
The rise of video content in search, social, and PPC advertising isn’t slowing down.
Google now surfaces video advertising in its SERPs more often, especially via platforms like YouTube Shorts. TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube are also pushing short-form, mobile-first ad formats.
Brands that incorporate high-quality video into their marketing strategies will increase dwell time, enhance user engagement, and improve results across the funnel from awareness to acquisition.
5. Human expertise will hold higher value
As AI and automation dominate, human-led content will stand out even more.
Google’s ranking systems are prioritising human expertise, particularly where queries demand real insight. This aligns with broader shifts in user intent where consumers want real answers, not just generic summaries.
If you’re investing in content or PPC ad creation, make sure expert tone, real stories, and brand identity shine through. Your content will perform better in both search engines and digital ads.
6. Declining CTRs from AI Overviews
With more SERPs now featuring AI-generated snippets, many brands are seeing lower click-through rates from organic traffic.
This calls for a renewed focus on paid search, particularly through formats like:
Performance Max campaigns
High-quality compelling ad copy
Targeted ad groups with strong commercial intent
Don’t just rely on organic visibility ensure your paid advertising is doing the heavy lifting when organic space is limited.
7. UX and campaign integration
When fewer users click through, user behaviour post-click matters more than ever.
Focus on:
Google will reward seamless search behaviour and accurate conversion tracking with higher scores, stronger visibility, and improved ad spend efficiency.
8. Brand awareness as a conversion driver
With organic competition rising and more search themes owned by AI, top-of-funnel activity becomes vital.
Build stronger brand awareness with:
Consistent messaging across shopping ads, search, and social
Attention-grabbing visual search creative
Broad but relevant audience targeting through digital marketing and display
Think beyond immediate ROI compound growth marketing is about shaping future demand as much as capturing current intent.
9. Crawl prioritisation and indexing
Google has finite resources for crawling and indexing the web. If your site is large or updated frequently, make sure the most important pages are prioritised.
Optimise your search engines visibility by:
Streamlining Google Merchant Center and Google Shopping feeds
Removing orphan pages and duplicate content
Strengthening your internal linking and site hierarchy
Sending updated content signals via structured data
Aligning SEO priorities with your PPC landscape ensures that both paid and organic work in tandem for maximum visibility.
2025 will see a convergence of AI automation, smarter ad targeting, and deeper platform integration. Success won’t come from chasing every new tactic it will come from clarity, adaptability, and understanding how tools, data, and storytelling work together.
Talk to the Bluesoup team to find out how we can help you stay on top of current trends and drive growth and success for your business in 2025.
