• by Patrick McKenna , January 29, 2025

2025 might be a particularly dynamic year in growth marketing. Between Google’s potential divestment of Chrome, a looming Supreme Court decision that could ban or save TikTok in the U.S., and fast-changing user behavior for how to find information, 2025 is almost certain to bring headlines that change marketing strategies at scale.

AI’s impact on marketing. Stating the obvious: AI will be a major force in 2025, reshaping marketing, productivity, and agency operations. As platforms integrate AI into bidding, targeting, and performance, it will shift how brands and agencies work. The biggest change is in consumer behavior -- people are turning to AI for answers instead of Google. As this shift accelerates, the marketing ecosystem will see significant fallout.

SEO and user behavior. We're living in a world where “Google” as a verb for looking up something online may become outdated in the next 12 months, which would have transformative ripple effects on the way marketers approach user experience, brand communication, and direct response.

As those scales of people choosing ChatGPT over Google tip further, there will be fewer people searching how we’ve traditionally known, at least for the past 15-20 years, which will drive up the cost for the advertisers that are still on Google. A new funnel of activity will be created. Brands won’t be able to dominate a single channel. Now, they’re going to have to account for other purchase funnels (LLMs) and consider the way their brands are showing up there (which is at this point, widely unknown).

The social media landscape. If TikTok sticks around, it will remain a valuable yet undervalued channel for marketers who adapt quickly. Like early Meta and Google ads, aggressive brands can gain a competitive edge with cost-effective campaigns. If TikTok disappears, platforms like Meta, YouTube, and Reddit will compete for its users. Either way, short-form video will continue to be a major opportunity.

A focus on incrementality. Getting a good handle on incrementality (measuring the actual impact that a marketing activity has on KPIs) has been a big talking point for a couple of years now – and for good reason; that initiative is incredibly important. But for all the room that topic has taken up in conversation, most brands still aren’t approaching it with much clarity. Brands will mention it in their list of priorities and then under-invest in solving for it – and in my mind, there’s still room for technology providers to separate themselves from the pack as solutions.

The reality is that truly digging in won’t give brands a perfect picture, but there’s still tons of value in the exercise. Over the next year, we’ll have a much clearer picture of how brands and agencies are thinking about incrementality and using it as a compass in their marketing strategies.

Macroeconomic pressures. We’ll likely continue to face inflation and interest rate challenges under the new administration, impacting company growth beyond industry competition. Agencies will feel pressured to maximize effectiveness for clients. With brands focused on efficiency and ROAS, there will be opportunities to lower costs on broader acquisition channels like affiliate marketing. Relaxing ROAS targets to acquire new customers can be more efficient than other channels. By year-end, brands will shift toward high-traffic strategies over high-conversion, benefiting from a broader reach.

Some of this will almost certainly be wrong when we’re coming up with 2026 predictions. In general, the ability to stay nimble, find advantages from not following the herd, and make smart contingency plans will be critical for 2025.