Top Advertising Trends & Strategies in 2025
Advertising isn’t easy in 2025.
AI is shaking things up. Attention spans are shrinking, trust is eroding, and people are more and more worried about data privacy.
It’s not all doom and gloom though. If you stay on top of emerging trends in advertising, you can get a headstart on competitors.
In this article, we’re going to dive into the top 10 advertising trends you can’t afford to ignore in 2025.
Key takeaways on advertising trends:
- People are using traditional social media less, and generative AI is eroding trust. To counter this, advertisers should focus on authenticity and human connection. User-generated content and micro-influencer campaigns help brands show a more human face.
- Short-form video continues to dominate. You can use short vertical videos for ads, product demos, and more.
- The shift towards B2C demand generation continues in 2025. Steps include knowing your audience, creating highly focused content, creating a funnel, continuous engagement, and using native advertising.
- With privacy laws restricting third-party cookies, advertisers need to focus on engaging people with high-quality content. First-party data collection and AI tools will help with targeting instead.
- Omnichannel marketing creates a consistent customer journey across platforms. Unify customer experience, centralize information, build trust with user-generated content, and adapt to change using automation tools.
- Advertisers will work harder than ever to overcome banner blindness, focusing on ad strategies aligned with audience values and interests. Video content, especially Click-to-Watch ads, helps overcome banner blindness by creating stronger emotional connections and engaging viewers actively.
- Experiential marketing, such as AR and VR will help brands to stand out from the crowd and offer something different.
- Voice search looks set to grow, especially with the increased use of AI engines for web search, impacting advertiser’s SEO strategies.
Top Advertising Trends in 2025
1. Social Media Trust Declines Due to AI
Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room – generative AI.
For the past few years people have less and less trust in what they see on social media platforms.
An Outbrain-Savanta research study showed that around 21% of people plan to use social media less with 75% mistrusting ads on social media networks compared to ads shown in editorial publications.
At the same time, searches for “AI advertising” have shot up.
There is evidence that mistrust of social networks is growing due to generative AI tools. In their Social Media Trends 2024 report, Hootsuite revealed that 62% of people mistrust content if they suspect it was created by an AI tool.
Older age groups are less likely to engage with AI tools and content. You need to know the demographics and preferences of your target audience, as it’s probably not worth marketing AI tools heavily to over 60s.
2. Authentic Advertising is Trending
The next logical question is – if trust in advertising is in decline, what can advertisers do about it?
In 2023, Merriam-Webster named “authentic” as the word of the year. In other words, people are crying out for genuine human connection more than ever.
The simple answer is to be more authentic.
But in practice, it’s more complex than that, especially in the world of advertising.
The key to authenticity is showing the human face of your brand. Brands that hide behind a corporate logo and don’t share human content are likely to fall behind.
Being authentically human will be the biggest advertising trend of 2025.
It pays for brands to experiment with different types of human-generated content.
- Posts and ads that drive social change – community projects, sustainability.
- Human stories – personal customer journeys, case studies.
- Realistic content – avoid highly polished videos in favor of raw, unfiltered content
- Audience empowerment – allow your customers to speak and contribute user-generated content (UGC)
All of these content types make for a more authentic advertising campaign, especially when displayed as native content or contextual ads.
This trend in advertising is seen clearly on the website of online-only furniture company Article. Article encourages users to add and share photos of how they use their furniture in real life. This brings their products to life in an authentic way.
Teaming up with micro-influencers (people with a following between 10k and 100k) is another powerful way for brands to add trusted voices to their marketing campaigns.
For instance, UK supermarket chain Iceland faced a problem. Their customer approval rating hit an all-time low of just 10%.
Up until then, they relied on big-name celebrities for their ads. They decided to try something different and moved to micro-influencers rather than celebs by partnering with food influencers. This increase in user-generated content was shared through native and contextual ads. The campaign paid off big time with their approval rating rocketing to 70% in just one year!
3. Short-Form Video Dominance
Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ll know that short-form video has exploded over the past few years, driven by platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, Outbrain’s Moments, and YouTube Shorts.
Short-form videos are really versatile. You can use them for anything – product demos, storytelling, testimonials, behind-the-scenes content, etc. They’re ideal for grabbing people’s attention.
39% of marketers say that 30 to 60 second videos are the best for engagement.
Moments by Outbrain has taken the popular advertising trend of vertical video concept and put it on trusted media sites. It’s great for catching attention outside of the usual social media channels.
Let’s stick with the skincare campaign example used in the last section. You could create a short video with an opening like, “Is your office AC wrecking your skin? Here’s how to fix it in 60 seconds.”
The aim is to show people how to quickly solve a problem or entertain them in some way. Your videos don’t have to be super-polished either. People prefer more authentic, “real” content these days. Just make sure you use decent lighting, clear audio, and a vertical format, and you’re good to go!
4. Demand Generation in B2C
B2C used to be all about getting your message out to a hungry market. Throwing ads at people isn’t enough anymore. Times have changed.
In 2025, you have to work harder to sell B2C products. You actually have to generate demand rather than simply feed it. In other words, you have to make people realize they need your offering.
Demand generation was traditionally a B2B domain, but B2C marketers are starting to adopt it – an advertising trend that will continue throughout 2025.
Let’s discuss some basic steps to generate demand in B2C marketing.
1. Know your target audience inside out:
Work out what keeps people up at night. What pain points can you solve for them? For example, a skincare company might realize that their target market is mostly office workers and offer advice on how to avoid dryness caused by air-conditioned offices.
2. Create highly-focused content:
Create blog posts, videos, and interactive events that resonate. Continuing the skincare example, you might write a blog post titled “5 Easy Ways to Combat Skin Dryness in Air-Conditioned Offices” or videos showing a healthy skincare routine for office workers.
3. Use a funnel approach:
Guide people through a marketing funnel in stages starting with awareness (top-of-funnel), then consideration (middle-of-funnel), and finally a decision (bottom-of-funnel). Provide different content for each stage. For the skincare campaign you could use this kind of content:
- Top-of-funnel: “Why Office Air Conditioning is Ruining Your Skin (And How to Fix It)” with a CTA (call to action) to subscribe to a newsletter.
- Middle-of-funnel: “The Ultimate Office Desk Skincare Kit: Essentials for Every Skin Type” with a CTA to download a discount code for first-time buyers.
- Bottom-of-funnel: Retargeted ads, sharing customer reviews, and user-generated content (UGC) leading to a landing page with a “Buy Now” button.
4. Continuous engagement:
Engagement is all about staying present without being annoying. This could be email reminders, personalized offers, and retargeted ads that feel human, not robotic or spam-like.
5. Use Outbrain to expand reach:
Outbrain’s native advertising is great for top and middle funnel content. You can use it to share content on trusted sites, alongside other relevant content. For instance, a skincare company could place subtle ads to blog content on a fashion website.
6. Conversion strategy:
Once someone’s visited your site or engaged with your content, you can serve them ads tailored to their interests. Like, “Hey, we saw you looking at this. Ready to buy?” It’s a gentle nudge to buy your product. You can use platforms like Google, Outbrain, and social media.
5. Coping with a Cookieless Future
Most experts agree data controls are getting more strict in digital advertising. Privacy laws are tightening around the world. It looks like third-party cookies are on the way out.
Microsoft and Mozilla have already set browser defaults to ban third-party cookies. Google u-turned on plans to abolish cookies in 2024, but haven’t ruled out doing so in the future.
What would a cookieless future mean for advertisers?
It means letting go of an over-reliance on third-party data. Instead, focus will return to the fundamentals of creating high-quality content and engaging people with creative ideas.
All’s not lost on the data front though. Brands can still collect first-hand data through their website, app, and other touchpoints.
This is where AI tools are handy. Although you may have less data to work with when third-party cookies are gone, AI is very good at spotting patterns in the data that you do have. It helps you find data insights you wouldn’t be able to spot on your own.
Armed with first-party data and AI tools, you can still target your content and ads as effectively as before, you’ll just be applying a different approach.
6. Aim for Omnichannel
Speaking of different approaches, omnichannel marketing has been around for a while, but many companies still haven’t adopted it.
If you’re one of those and stuck in multichannel mode – you’re missing out.
Omnichannel is all about consistency.
People expect a seamless experience. Whether they’re visiting your website, checking an app, or walking into a store, the journey should feel unified. Anything less and they start to lose trust.
Here’s how to create a winning omnichannel experience.
- Unify customer experience: Make sure your branding, messaging, and UX are consistent everywhere, such as social media, ads, email, and offline.
- Centralize information: If your campaigns are all over the place, customers are going to feel like they’re dealing with different brands instead of one cohesive experience.
- Build trust with UGC: People trust other people more than brands, so if you can get customers to post about your product and share it across channels, it builds credibility.
- Adapt to change: Use the latest automation tools and tech to help tweak and format content for different channels while keeping the core message intact. For example, there are tools that analyze data and adjust instantly, so if a user abandons their cart on the app, they’ll get an email with a personalized offer or see a retargeting ad the next day.
7. Overcoming Banner Blindness
Have you noticed how much harder it is to grab people’s attention with traditional display ads? Banner blindness is real and it’s killing engagement.
Fortunately, there are strategies you can use to overcome banner blindness. The main one is creating ads that align with the values and interests of your target audience. If people feel like the ad is speaking to them and what they stand for, they’re more likely to pay attention.
Most people spend around 7 hours each week streaming video. Why? Because videos create strong emotional connections. Therefore, if you want to tap into this engagement potential, then video and ad carousels telling value-driven stories are a safe bet.
Click-to-Watch video ads are super effective. The idea is simple: instead of forcing the video to autoplay, you let the viewer opt in to watch. When they make that choice, they’re more engaged from the start.
8. Experiential Marketing
Experiential and immersive marketing events will grow in popularity in 2025 as people look to experience things outside of their normal day-to-day lives.
One way to create an immersive experience is through augmented reality (AR) or VR. For example, Warner Bros used an immersive AI-driven “selfie generator” to publicize the Barbie movie in 2023. People visited a special website where they could turn a selfie into a Barbie doll cover. It made children and grown ups feel more a part of the “Barbie world”.
Another company, Benefit Cosmetics created a campaign to promote their Magnet Mascara range. Users signed into their platform, dropped their location, and then hunted for tokens in their physical space using their phones, similar to Pokémon Go, but for beauty products! The tokens were exchangeable for discounts, free mascaras, or a virtual beauty consultation.
9. The Rise of Micro-Influencer Marketing
64% of influencer marketers worked with micro-influencers in 2023.
Micro-influencers are people with 10,000 to 100,000 followers with a tight-knit and responsive community. They’re more relatable and feel more “real”, which makes them perfect for promoting relevant brands.
Influencer marketing in general is one of the highest ROI channels these days, and that’s likely to stay true in 2025. Look for micro-influencers on big social platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest.
Nano-influencers with between 1,000 and 10,000 followers can also offer good ROI, especially for niche products or services.
10. Voice Search
Nearly half of Americans and over one-third of individuals in the U.K. and Germany used voice search technology to start their buyer journeys in 2022.
This makes a difference to SEO. Voice search is more conversational, with people asking full questions, such as “Where’s the best coffee shop in Fishtown, Philadelphia?” instead of typing “best coffee shop near me.” or “How do I remove tomato ketchup stains?” instead of just “ketchup stain removal”.
There isn’t too much data available on voice search, so you have to “reverse engineer” it. One hack is to use paid search campaigns to create a broad match modifier to track long-tail queries that might come from voice search, then base your SEO strategy on that.
Start New Ad Trends & Strategies NOW!
Sometimes the rate of tech change feels overwhelming, especially online marketing. Maybe you’ve felt the constant fear of being left behind?
But don’t worry – it’s never too late to start.
Once you start moving with the times and implementing new strategies and tools, the more likely it is you’ll succeed.
Here are three advertising trends takeaways to get you started:
- Use AI personalization: Use AI tools to make your ad campaigns hit home with the right audience. AI can look through your audience’s data and pinpoint specific interests and needs. It’s a trend in advertising that you cannot miss on!
- Adopt an omnichannel approach: Ensure consistency across all platforms – your website, social media, physical stores, and ad channels. This builds trust and engagement.
- Focus on video content: Use short-form video to catch attention. Value-aligned click-to-watch video ads that tell your brand’s story work well. Aim to build a connection, not just sell stuff.
