Advertising Trends to Watch in 2025

Google Stays Ahead, Ad Dollars Head to Sports, AI Tools Proliferate, and Retail Media Faces Growing Pains

It will be another year of strong digital ad spending growth, but advertisers, large platforms, and smaller publishers alike will confront challenges arising from generative AI (genAI) and pending antitrust cases. Retail media’s growth will hit speed bumps as advertisers demand more interoperability, while streaming platforms will seek to sustain growth by adding live sports. And everywhere, AI will permeate more aspects of media buying.

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Table of Contents

  1. Strong growth in digital ad spending will continue in 2025
  2. Google will win in the genAI-powered search era—even if antitrust enforcement disrupts its primary advantage
  3. Content production will be down, funneling more ad dollars into sports
  1. AI-powered media buying will take an even bigger share of media sales
  2. As retail media continues to evolve, advertiser-retailer relationships will begin to show signs of strain
  3. Sources
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authors

Ross Benes, Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf, Max Willens, and Yoram Wurmser

Contributors

Rahul Chadha
Director, Report Editing
Naomi Rebuelta
Copy Editor
Tracy Tang
Senior Researcher
Matt Torpey
Senior Chart Editor
Emman Velasco
Chart Editor