You can say much about 2024, but you can’t call it boring.
From AI Overviews rolling out (now with ads!) to a feed-choking election to cookies (somehow) sticking around in Chrome to the rise of LLM search, PPC advertisers have had to deal with turbulence in the past year.
What can B2B advertisers expect in 2025?
I’ll share my predictions for key platforms like Google, LinkedIn, and Reddit, as well as trends in measurement and martech.
While these are just my best guesses, many are based on trends we already see in our client accounts.
2025 Google predictions
Google will lose some of the search market
We’re already seeing searches soar on LLMs like ChatGPT and Perplexity.
Even if Gemini improves its UX and results, it won’t keep Google from losing volume and changing user behavior.
Google won’t have to divest itself of Chrome (yet)
This is kind of a layup. No matter what the DOJ pushes for in its antitrust victory from November, it will not happen in 2025.
Even if the judge agrees that Google needs to sell Chrome, appeals and plenty of red tape will likely keep this from becoming a reality within the next 12 months.
Google will launch at least one promising beta for B2B ads
It has been a long dry run for B2B marketers looking for fun betas and features from Google.
Today, all updates seem to point to one thing: feeding the algorithm.
B2B marketers have had fewer opportunities to experiment in search since I entered the field over a decade ago.
That said, I foresee Google throwing us a bit of a bone this year – maybe to counteract the negative momentum it’s carrying into 2025.
They could shock us by reinstituting some match-type controls, but I doubt it.
They’ll likely give us some tools that make responsive search ads (RSAs) easier to work with and more transparent about which combinations actually work for advertisers.
Advertisers will more broadly adopt enhanced conversions.
This is cheating a bit since it’s a prediction for Google advertisers and not Google itself, but I think enhanced conversion usage will be much broader in 12 months than it is today.
In B2B advertising, the key will be finding the right balance between:
Setting AI guardrails through segmentation.
Ensuring segments are large enough to maintain data density, as the system struggles when data is limited.
Enhanced conversions are a good tool for helping advertisers port more data into the back end.
This will be essential for training Google to find the right users and keep budget focused on impact.
2025 LinkedIn predictions
Ad types will keep diversifying
Videos, thought leader ads (TLAs), conversation ads, and new ways to promote individual POVs.
We’re seeing promising results from testing all of those in 2024, and I expect LinkedIn to provide more variety in 2025.
The UX and advertising algorithms will improve
LinkedIn’s UX and bidding and targeting algorithms have both lagged, even as clients shift more budget toward the platform.
Those areas will receive more attention in 2025, and the algorithm may even improve at detecting and suppressing AI-generated content, including tedious automated comments.
You may also see LinkedIn make it easier for advertisers to collect lead information on the platform.