Click, Scroll, Repeat: The Future of Digital Ads in 2025 and Beyond

Digital marketing will undergo a revolutionary shift in 2025 with eMarketer anticipating slower total ad spending growth, growth in retail media picking up pace, and the force of disruption from AI-platforms redefining the manner in which brands interact with customers.

 

Key Highlights:

 

Slower Expansion, Keener Competition: Growth in digital ad spending is slowing, with year-over-year gains falling into the low teens by 2028—down from the double-digit leaps of the past decade. Marketers now have a "zero-sum game" in which a victory for one platform is a defeat for another, and competition is keen.

 

Increasing AI Search Ads for Augmented Search Ad Spend: Although AI-driven search ads represent only a tiny percentage at present, their spend will rise from 0.7% to 13.6% of total search ad spend in the last year of the decade. Measurement and monetization models remain in development, however.

 

Retail Media's Sudden Boom: Retail media is the fastest-growing digital ad medium, expected to reach as much as $61 billion in spending this year. Its linear, sustainable growth surpasses search and social, fueled by addressable targeting and smooth integration into e-commerce.

 

E-Commerce & AI Discovery: E-commerce is robust, but AI will revolutionize product discovery, with personalized shopping powered by agents becoming the norm.

 

Prospects:

 

As digital marketing evolves, brands will need to react to decelerating growth, embrace AI and retail media, and focus on wiser, more relevant consumer connections. The winners will be those that disrupt with data, act with velocity, and are embracing ongoing disruption.

 

Source: DigiDay