We wanted to dig in and give you some insights into digital marketing trends that businesses should consider in 2025, focusing on strategies such as social media video, SEO (and how AI now impacts it and zero-click searches), and OTT (over-the-top) advertising. We will also talk about how to use AI tools for content creation and ads, and omnichannel marketing and how reaching consumers across multiple platforms has been shown to increase the effectiveness of your marketing.

In order to know where you’re going in 2025, it’s important to know where we came from in 2024. If you’re looking to grow your digital presence, understanding what’s being used in the space, and why, is where we recommend you start your process.

Key Takeaways From This Article:

  • Why you should be spending money on Social video
  • Why SEO should be included in your marketing mix and tips on what a business can do to improve ranking in the age of AI
  • Tips for using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in your digital ad creation and content
  • Why you should consider OTT as one of your video options
  • What is Omnichannel Marketing and how does it increase ROI?

A look back at 2024:

  • The chart below showcases what advertising mediums LOCAL advertisers spent their marketing budget. You’ll notice that 7 of thee top 20 are digital.

  • This chart below showcases what Advertising Agencies said were effective for their clients in 2024. Here, you’ll notice that the top 3 are main focuses of this blog.

Why you should be spending money on Social:

Facebook and Instagram are household names at this point. What’s not household information, is why you should be including these, and other social platforms within your marketing mix.

Taking a look at the generational usage of top social platforms will give you insights as to which platforms are being utilized.

Based on the above chart, it’s easy to see Facebook and Instagram dominate in usage. Now, keep in mind that this doesn’t equate to time on the platform, but overall engagement on the platform. Having exposure on both Facebook and Instagram will be good for your business! If you have the ability to include some of the other platforms, you can take advantage of video in your creative.

A few quick facts about short form video:

  • Short form video will be the most popular type of posts and ads as evidenced by the popularity of TikTok, YouTube Shorts, & Facebook/Instagram Reels.
  • In fact, more than 25% of adults say they’ll close out a video after only 10 seconds.
  • More than half say they’ll close it after 20 seconds.

*Sources: https://www.accelerateddigitalmedia.com/insights/5-trends-that-will-reshape-social-media-advertising-in-2025; https://explodingtopics.com/blog/advertising-trends

If you’re wondering what types of videos and ads that perform well on social media are, here is a quick list:

  • Video shorts: Short videos with interesting visuals and clear messaging tend to get the most views and interactions.
  • Carousel ads: Showcase multiple videos within a single post, allowing users to swipe through and explore more options.
  • Interactive content: Polls, questions, quizzes, and contests encourage audience participation and engagement.
  • Behind-the-scenes content: Give viewers a glimpse into your company culture or process, creating a sense of authenticity.
  • User-generated content: Repost content created by your followers, especially testimonials and reviews, to build community and trust.
  • Informative content: Share valuable tips, insights, how-to info or educational content related to your niche.
  • Storytelling posts: Share real stories that connect with your audience on a personal level – especially from employees.

Now, if you’re not the most creative person when it comes to design an video, like me, there are a lot of tools out there that can support you, including AI.

Even if you don’t have a video department to create ad for your clients, you can use AI tools to create video ads and video content for social or other digital products and even use them on client websites. Many of these tools allow you to enter your own text or generate text based on a business website’s content and then add relevant images.

One example of a tool you can use, is Synthesia. It even has avatars that will appear to read the ad copy.

Now that you know why you should use Social Media as part of your marketing mix, how much should you spend on it?

In a survey of 2024 social media spending as a percentage of marketing budgets:

  • B2B Product 7.9%
  • B2B Services 10.6%
  • B2C Services 12.0%
  • B2C Product 18.6%

Why SEO should be included in your marketing mix and tips on what you can do yourself:

In a world where everyone wants their information when they want it, it’s important to be found first (or as close as possible) when someone is looking for your product or services.

Check out what happened in 2024 when people in the US searched Google:

Now, what does this mean? It means that most people aren’t clicking on any results when they search. Typically, it’s because the information they are searching for is found on that initial search engine results page.

That being said, there is a LOT that a professional SEO team can do to support your efforts. But, there are also a lot of things that you can do on your own to help as well. Here are a few tips of the latter:

Optimize Google Business Profile

  • Ensure your client’s Google Business Profile is fully claimed and verified.
  • Complete every section
  • Actively encourage and respond to customer reviews, which appear prominently in zero-click search results.
  • Use Google Posts to share news, promotions, or events

Focus on Local SEO

  • Use local geo-specific keywords like “best pizza in [city]” in website content, meta descriptions, and Google Business Profile.
  • Collaborate with local blogs, newspapers, and directories to gain relevant backlinks.
  • Include terms like “near me” in your content where relevant, to optimize for near me searches.

Monitor Local Search Metrics

  • Use tools like Google Analytics, Google Business Profile Insights to see traffic and engagement.
  • Focus on impressions and visibility even when clicks are low.

Leverage Social Media

  • Maintain active social profiles, as they may show up in search results.
  • Share regular updates, promotions, and customer testimonials to maintain engagement.

Enhance Mobile Experience

  • Ensure website is mobile-friendly since most zero-click searches are conducted on mobile.
  • Test loading speed and navigation.

Create FAQ, Blog & Optimized Content

  • Address common customer questions directly on your website.
  • These could be selected as featured snippets or directly answered on SERPs or AI platforms.

Tips for using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in your digital ad creation:

Looking at creative, this is usually a big hang-up for a lot of business owners because that’s not their forte. However, it doesn’t have to be overwhelming any longer, due to a lot of tools that exist out there.

Before looking into tools, a few things to keep in mind about what resonates in ads will be helpful.

  • Humor, is the highest ad receptivity driver for Gen X and Boomers, Millennials are equally receptive to humor and good music, and for Gen Z, music stands out.
  • Inclusivity, businesses that take the lead in representing all groups in an authentic way.
  • Businesses that uphold ethical values and social responsibility.

Now that you have a few ideas as to what resonates in ad creative, let’s look at a few tools you can use to support you.

  • Copywriting Assistance: AI tools like ChatGPT or Jasper AI can generate persuasive headlines, ad copy, and CTAs tailored to target audiences.
  • Visual Asset Creation: AI platforms can design display ads using tools like Canva’s AI-powered features or DeepArt.
  • Video and Animation: AI tools like Runway or Lumen5 can assist in creating video animations for ads.
  • Image Recognition and Generation: Tools like DALL·E or Adobe Sensei can create unique ad visuals or tailor images to fit a brand’s style.
  • Tools like Resemble AI can generate voiceovers for audio and video ads.

Why you should consider OTT as one of your video options;

  • In 2025, 55% of advertisers are planning to increase their investment in TV streaming.
  • LOCAL advertisers who bought OTT ads in 2024, spent on average $44,600, second highest spend of any type of advertising, traditional or digital.
  • Only 7.4% of consumer media time goes to social media. Meanwhile, 17.9% of their time is spent with OTT. Share this trend with your clients as they plan their budgets.
  • A notable shift from subscription-based (SVOD) to ad-supported (AVOD). 69% of OTT users favor streaming free, ad-supported content over paid, ad-free subscriptions.
  • Free ad-supported channels outperformed traditional linear TV channels by 35% to 40% in capturing viewer attention.
  • 56% of consumers say CTV ads provide them with useful information. Only 17% of consumers say that they can’t/won’t tolerate any ads while watching TV shows and movies.
  • 43% of households are now ONLY accessible through streaming TV (watching no cable or linear TV).

(Sources: https://www.kantar.com/campaigns/marketing-trends; https://borrellassociates.com/chart-of-week; https://www.emarketer.com/content/4-ctv-ad-spend-trends-track-2025; https://xenoss.io/blog/connected-tv-trends; https://finance.yahoo.com/news/7-10-ctv-users-prefer-130000210.html; https://www.nexttv.com/news/fast-channels-generate-capturing-viewers-attention)

If you’re still not convinced that OTT is a place where you should place a portion of your marketing budget, look at all of these industries investing in CTV/OTT:

What is Omnichannel Marketing?

In digital marketing, there are always a lot of buzz words that get thrown around. A lot of them can be simplified and put into words you can understand. One of those terms is Omnichannel Marketing.

Omnichannel: An advertising strategy that utilizes three or more digital channels (mobile, display, native, video, audio, DOOH, OTT) into a cohesive messaging campaign that optimizes a consumer’s media experience.

As we know there are so many ways our customers can access information these days. The importance of being able to reach your target audience across multiple channels is so important because people use different digital media throughout the day.

When looking at investing into multiple channels at once, is it worth it? According to studies, the answer is yes!

Marketing is one of the most important part of your business because it’s what helps you grow your business. As a business owner, it’s important to understand what’s working, what’s trending, and what to invest so you can have the best chance of success.