Key Paid Media Platform Advancements to know in 2025
The digital advertising landscape is evolving fast, with 2025 already shaping up to be a game-changing year. Platforms across search, social, and beyond are rolling out tools to help brands work smarter, connect more deeply, and rack up serious results. Let’s break down key platform updates in Google, Meta, and Linkedin so your brand can stay ahead of the curve.
Google: AI innovation
Google is leading the charge in AI-powered advancements across search and shopping to give marketers greater control and allow them to optimize campaigns to best fit their business needs. A few key updates that marketers should be aware of include:
- Performance Max enhancements: Google is implementing fresh features to Performance Max campaigns, such as:
- Negative keyword exclusions are currently in beta testing, allowing marketers to exclude irrelevant search terms from campaigns
- Impression share reports are being rolled out, which will allow marketers to see how they are showing up for text and shopping ads on the search engine results page
- Google recently introduced asset group insights to provide conversion metrics for reach assets within Performance Max campaigns. The translation? More control for marketers and better visibility into how and where Performance Max campaigns are serving
- Demand Gen is taking over YouTube for action: YouTube video action campaigns are out, Demand Gen is in. By Q2 2025, advertisers will be unable to create new video action campaigns, and existing ones will automatically transition to Demand Gen campaigns. With this transition to a multi-format strategy, there will be a greater opportunity to reach broader audiences by expanding reach to Discover and Gmail in addition to YouTube
- Augmented reality (AR) for shopping: Say hello to virtual try-ons! Google’s AI will let users see apparel on different-sized models, giving shoppers a better idea of fit on different body types. If brands have a high-quality shopping feed and high-quality apparel image assets, marketers can automatically opt in to “apparel try-on.” This advancement will create a more user-friendly shopping experience for consumers and foster higher purchasing confidence
Meta: personalization meets immersion
Meta is focusing on personalization and immersive experiences in 2025 with new enhancements for marketers across Meta’s advertising platforms. A few notable new features include:
- Ads on Threads: Meta’s text-based app, Threads, is rolling out ads for early adopters in early 2025. After a decline of advertising dollars spent on X over the past few years due to increased polarization of the platform, this could be where brands find their groove again on a similar-format platform. The landscape of Threads is less politicized than X, so advertisers that want to seek out users on a platform with a more politically neutral user experience may find success reaching audiences on Threads in a more casual, brand-safe way
- Site links: Younger generations turn to social for discovery over Google with nearly one-in-four Gen Z members primarily using social media to search online, according to Forbes. To capitalize on shifting consumer behavior, Meta has added site links as an option to include in ads on Facebook, mirroring Google’s sitelink capabilities. Site links appear as horizontally scrollable display labels below the main ad creative. The addition of site links shortens users’ navigation paths and offers them a quick link button to see what they are most interested in, saving people time and driving better performance
- Enhanced Advantage+ catalog ads: Instagram is testing a new swipeable grid design layout on Reels, allowing advertisers to showcase multiple products at the same time. This feature offers users a more seamless shopping experience, simplifying the buying process and improving advertiser performance
LinkedIn: engaging B2B audiences like never before
LinkedIn is improving its platform with new ways for marketers to build high-performing B2B campaigns and measure campaign performance. Two key updates for 2025 include:
- Measurement insights: LinkedIn reporting is getting a facelift! LinkedIn’s new “Measurement Insights” tab is rolling out to all accounts. The reporting tab lets advertisers quickly identify top-performing campaigns, audiences, ads, and more. This enhanced reporting capability means that advertisers can now optimize their campaigns more efficiently, saving time and resources to maximize their return on investment
- Accelerate campaigns: Target smarter, not harder! Harness the power of AI with LinkedIn’s “Accelerate” campaigns that find the right combination of targeting, bidding, creative, and placement to improve cost per action. “Accelerate” maximizes campaign results with machine learning, saving campaign input time and improving campaign efficiency while reducing cost per action. While input time is improved with “Accelerate” campaigns, marketers also sacrifice some control with audience inputs
What do these advancements mean for marketers?
With the new year underway, it’s important to evaluate marketing strategies and platform optimizations to keep up to date with the ever-evolving digital landscape. These advancements emphasize innovation and interactiveness in ad personalization, ad experiences, and dynamic ad formats, leveraging the use of AI across all platforms. 2025 will present marketers with opportunities to experiment with cutting-edge features, actionable insights, and refined analytics. Even though the advancements vary from platform to platform, the strategy of the year seems clear: maximize performance metrics, reduce manual effort, and create a seamless user experience.