An AdTech industry veteran, Geoffroy Martin is CEO of Ogury, a global leader in personified advertising.
There is never a dull moment in the advertising world. This year has seen several twists and turns that no one could have predicted at its beginning. While many of the developments have hardly seemed surprising—the continued expansion of AI capabilities or the growth of retail media’s importance to advertisers—some events have shaken up the industry, such as Google’s decision to give consumers the choice over third-party cookies instead of entirely shuttering them.
This year only highlighted how tough predicting the future of advertising can be. But its fast-moving nature and cutting-edge outlook are two of the reasons that it is such a vibrant and energizing industry to work in. With that in mind, these are the key trends that I believe will shape the advertising world throughout 2025:
1. Marketers will go back to the future.
While Google’s decision not to deprecate third-party cookies may seem like an about-turn, I believe the direction of travel will remain the same. Empowering consumers to make their own choice over third-party identifiers will likely hasten cookies’ demise. The new privacy paradigm is here to stay, and marketers must adapt.
Many initially thought that the fading viability of identifiers would make campaigns less efficient, but the paradox is that the opposite is also true. I believe marketers in 2025 that are willing to shift from hyper-targeting toward a new model, based on the hybridization of old-school solutions with new technologies, will see even greater results while prioritizing privacy.
This means that advertising fundamentals will be at the forefront once more, with greater care taken during the media planning phase to find relevant target audiences and ensure they are being reached. At the same time, I believe new technologies will supercharge ad buying. AI-powered tools could make the set-up, launch and optimization of campaigns more streamlined, while more accurate attention measurement, including eye movement tracking, could further enhance the execution of campaigns. I expect this new age of advertising will be both more powerful and more respectful of privacy than its predecessor.
2. The battle between publishers and AI search will heat up.
One of the biggest developments for consumers in this sector in 2024 has been the launch of AI-enabled search solutions—most notably Google AI Overviews. These solutions are either separate from or sit inside the standard search function and create an answer from a range of sources.
If users continue to use these AI-powered solutions instead of regular search, this will likely cause major ramifications for publishers. The easily readable summations that AI creates mean users have fewer incentives to click through to publisher sites, depriving sites of traffic and, ultimately, ad income. This issue could be compounded even further with services such as Google AI Overviews and Perplexity AI now allowing ads within AI search. With many publishers already struggling financially, this could represent a serious threat to their survival.
An effective balance needs to be found if AI is not to drastically impact publishers. Agreements like Dotdash Meridith’s with OpenAI or campaigns such as Raptive’s Keep it Real could become more important in the next year as all parties look to find a system that works.
3. Video spend will accelerate further.
I believe the siphoning of linear TV budgets into CTV channels will continue to speed up in 2025. With the increasing success of the ad-supported tiers on services such as Amazon Prime and Disney+, more and more brands will start to see the world of digital video less as an emergent upstart and more as the primary location for video budgets. That being said, advertisers heavily investing in these new channels must keep in mind that they might ultimately become new walled gardens.
As more money pours into the generation of video creatives for these platforms, many advertisers will undoubtedly aim to extend the reach of their campaigns across the broader open web. In this ecosystem, publishers that develop video capabilities will likely also reap benefits. Case in point: programmatic video ad spending in the U.S. is expected to increase by 15% and reach more than $110 billion in 2025 (subscription required).
4. Advertisers will need to get serious about sustainability.
The Made-For-Advertising scandal that caused waves across the industry this year not only highlighted the wasted spending that plagues the industry but also the wasted emissions. Impressions delivered in these environments rarely make an impact on consumers and generate more carbon emissions than high-quality ad placements.
The imperative for advertising to decarbonize is clear, and I believe cutting down Made-For-Advertising websites is central to this effort. In 2025, we will likely continue to see scrutiny on targeting solutions that fail to deliver precise results—not just for their wasted spend, but also for their wasted emissions.
Whatever 2025 may hold, it is likely to be another year of innovation and growth for the advertising industry. The challenges at hand will by no means be easy to navigate, but through collaboration, tech advancement and ensuring privacy is kept front and center, I am confident the industry can clear these hurdles and ensure long-term success.
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