Digital advertising is at a crossroads – the old rules are crashing, and new forces are in play. AI and deep learning have stepped off the drawing board and into reality, transforming how we connect with consumers, measure results, and build lasting impact. With stricter regulations and ever-changing consumer demands, one big question remains: are you ready to ditch outdated strategies?
Adlook has uncovered the trends that will define digital advertising in 2025. This Trendbook delivers daring insights, practical tools, and bold strategies to help you navigate the coming changes – ensuring your campaigns not only break through the clutter but lead the way.
What does the future hold for your digital campaigns? Will your strategies cut through the noise and truly captivate an increasingly discerning audience? Here’s our curated selection of game-changing trends poised to redefine programmatic open web and digital marketing in 2025.
Trend 1: Advertisers cry out for simplicity in a fragmented digital ecosystem
As budgets get squeezed and the digital landscape splinters into more platforms, channels, and formats, cross-channel complexity is killing performance. Shockingly, nearly 80% of marketers say spreadsheets are still critical for their work. Now more than ever, advertisers demand unified planning, precise measurement, and seamless activation across the Open Web and beyond.
Trend 2: Gen AI gets real. Are you on board?
Generative AI has moved past the hype cycle and is now transforming how campaigns are built, targeted, and optimized. With AI-assisted tools projected to reach 729 million users by 2030, creative and operational efficiency are entering a new era. From automating ad variants to dynamic audience segmentation, the Open Web becomes a fertile playground for AI-driven experimentation that fuels performance and innovation.
Trend 3: ID-less targeting takes center stage
Third-party cookies are outdated and unreliable, with cookie labels hitting only 18% accuracy (Adlook’s latest research). Brands are abandoning this legacy for AI-powered, contextual strategies that deliver true privacy and performance. In this new era, targeting isn’t about tracking identities - it’s about smart, context-driven engagement that cuts through the noise.
Trend 4: New metrics on the rise. It’s time to measure the real impact
In today’s digital battleground, attention is king. Traditional benchmarks like CTR and viewability are being outclassed by attention metrics, with high-attention ads driving a 130% lift in conversions and reducing cost per action by 51%. High-attention ads aren’t just seen – they drive real, measurable results.
Trend 5: Video is king. Is your strategy up to speed?
Digital ad spending is set to hit $700 billion in 2025, with online video ads being marketers’ top choice. Yet, its true power is held back by fragmented placements and inefficient buying practices. The challenge is clear - simplify and streamline video buying on the Open Web and beyond to unleash its full potential.
Trend 6: Growing importance of brand safety
In an era of rampant misinformation and fraud, protecting your brand is non-negotiable. Only 13% of marketers express high satisfaction with their current Open Web Brand Safety solutions - it's time to rethink your strategy and safeguard your reputation against rising threats.
Trend 7: The rise of Commerce media to bridge the Retail gap
Retail Media ad spend is projected to more than double between 2023 and 2027, yet its power is confined to walled gardens. Commerce media is emerging to bridge that gap, using intent-based targeting on the Open Web to reach high-intent shoppers and drive awareness and consideration beyond closed platforms.
This is your roadmap to staying ahead in a competitive digital world. Let’s dive into the trends shaping the future and discover how your brand can not only adapt - but truly thrive.
Digital advertising has entered an “era of abundance” and has never offered more choice - or more complexity? Brands now have more ways than ever to reach consumers, but this abundance has a downside: 44% of marketers cite media and audience fragmentation as a top concern for 2025, up 9 percentage points from last year. As advertisers scramble to manage social platforms, retail media networks, CTV providers, and the Open Web, the lack of unified systems is killing efficiency. With data, media, and measurement trapped in siloes, the promise of seamless personalization and ROI-driven optimization slips further away. Shockingly, only 2% of marketers are satisfied with their current tech stacks, with fragmented systems leading to duplicated efforts, inconsistent metrics, and a chaotic planning process - just translating a single campaign brief across ten publishers can eat up hours, if not days.
Walled gardens, while powerful, don’t make life easier
Their lack of transparency and interoperability means marketers are left stitching together audiences, performance metrics, and attribution models across incompatible ecosystems. The result? Channel inefficiencies, overcomplicated workflows, and a serious drag on performance.
Lack of unified metrics hinders optimization
Current tools make cross-media measurement difficult, leading to double counting and unclear ROI. Attention metrics and unified planning models can close this gap.
Technology isn’t the problem - collaboration is
The tech to unify planning and targeting exists, but operational alignment across advertisers, agencies, platforms, and publishers remains elusive. Silos in data and workflow continue to hinder performance.
As a result, advertisers are now prioritizing simplicity, accessibility, and unified planning. They’re calling for a digital ecosystem where audience targeting, campaign execution, and measurement aren’t just possible across channels - they’re seamless. The Open Web is uniquely positioned to answer this call, offering flexible access to scalable inventory, cross-channel solutions, and transparent metrics that can help break down data siloes and restore clarity to the digital marketing journey.
At Adlook, we have built a solution that brings together unified targeting, creative strategies, brand safety, and attention optimization into one seamless workflow across all screens and formats. Our AI-driven engine optimizes media buying and audience segmentation to harness incremental value across the Open Web – giving you the clarity and efficiency needed to turn fragmentation into your competitive edge.
Generative AI is no longer just the buzzword on every marketer’s lips - it's now delivering real, measurable results. Brands are harnessing its power to transform targeting, creativity, ad fraud detection and optimization. AI is reshaping digital advertising by automating campaign setup, generating tailored creative at scale, and optimizing media buying in real time. This means that the era of trial-and-error is giving way to data-driven precision that drives better outcomes and maximizes ROI.
By integrating AI into every facet of the digital marketing workflow, brands can reduce manual labor and unlock insights hidden within mountains of data. As AI takes on more of the heavy lifting, marketers are empowered to focus on strategy and innovation, ensuring their campaigns are both dynamic and adaptive.
Transition from static, rule-based bidding to AI-driven media buying that adjusts in real time based on campaign performance. Move beyond traditional machine learning with Deep Learning, which is 50% more efficient in optimizing ad performance.
Let AI analyze and re-segment your audience continuously, so you can dynamically adjust targeting strategies as campaign data flows in. This ensures that you’re always reaching the right consumers at the right time.
At Adlook, our AI-driven engine is designed to fuel your media buying, streamline creative strategies, and enhance campaign outcomes across the entire Open Web. With integrated tools for DCO, brand safety, and attention optimization, we help you move beyond the hype - delivering practical, measurable impact that drives your business forward. Moreover, our cutting-edge GPT technology - ContentGPT - precisely pinpoints which Open Web articles are read by your desired audiences - all from a simple audience prompt.
See it in action: French’s Case Study - Reaching High-Value Audiences with AI
French’s, a global condiment brand, partnered with Adlook to amplify its presence on the open web while targeting a niche audience of restaurant entrepreneurs in Mexico.
AI-driven audience identification
Adlook’s Deep Search and cookieless targeting tools identified and engaged high-value restaurant entrepreneurs by analyzing search intent and contextual signals.
Premium ad placements
The campaign utilized premium placements on Mexico’s top websites, ensuring visibility among influential decision-makers.
Fraud prevention and optimization
By leveraging deep learning models, fraudulent traffic was minimized, ensuring that every impression counted and maximized ROI.
Creative execution and engagement
Custom interactive banners, powered by generative AI, fostered meaningful engagement, driving brand awareness and interest among the target audience.
By 2025, the successful application of generative AI and deep learning won’t just be a competitive advantage - it will be the standard. The time to act is now.
“Adlook’s ability to deftly navigate the Open Web proved invaluable for our campaign and enabled us to reach users in their preferred environment, improving the impact of our campaign."
Marco Saucedo, French’s, Brand Manager
Today, amid mounting regulatory scrutiny and consumer pushback, the digital ecosystem is in the midst of a profound transformation. The question becomes urgent: How will advertisers adapt in a world where data drips instead of flows? This trend reflects the growing demand for marketing strategies that respect user data while maintaining effectiveness. ID-less approaches, like contextual and content-based targeting, are reshaping how brands engage with audiences in a privacy-first era.
There is no time to wait for the complete phase-out of third-party cookies. Brands must proactively adopt and refine alternative solutions, embracing advanced technologies that facilitate effective audience reach. By implementing these strategies now, brands can develop robust and impactful advertising campaigns that connect meaningfully with their audiences while maintaining the highest standards of privacy and trust.
Read the full article: From Signal Loss to Signal Gain: Can Contextual Advertising Save the Day?
The evolution of digital advertising is driving a critical shift toward attention and engagement metrics. Marketers now understand that it’s not enough for ads to be seen - they must capture and sustain user attention to drive meaningful outcomes. Recent studies reinforce that high-attention ads deliver real impact, with metrics showing a 130% lift in conversions and a 51% reduction in cost per action. As programmatic buying becomes more sophisticated, attention-first strategies are emerging as the key to unlocking superior brand engagement and performance.
Partner with attention-focused vendors: Collaborate with providers specializing in attention solutions, such as Adlook, to access tools like active measurement and performance analysis that can unlock better outcomes.
See it in action: Semilac Germany Case Study - Strengthened brand presence in the beauty market
Semilac, a leading beauty brand, partnered with Adlook to amplify its presence on the open web while engaging a dynamic audience of beauty enthusiasts globally.
Our main focus on attention optimization delivered impressive results: an 85.8% viewability rate (115% realization), an attention metric of 27.7 AU for Display (58% above benchmark), and a reach 48% above expectations.
By leveraging AI-driven insights and unified cross-channel strategies, Semilac transformed its brand messaging into a compelling, measurable advertising experience. The future of beauty advertising is here. See the full Case Study here.
Digital ad spending is projected to hit $700 billion in 2025, with video emerging as the top choice for building brand awareness and influencing purchase decisions. Yet, the video ecosystem remains a minefield of countless platforms, placements, and metrics, making effective video buying a real challenge. Advertisers face a key problem: how to cut through the noise and complexity to drive measurable results in an environment where linear TV, social, and digital video all come with unique pros and cons.
Completion is the key - and the issue!
Studies indicate that videos watched until the end drive a 15-20% lift in ad recall, brand favorability, and purchase intent. For low-involvement categories - such as CPG brands - high completion rates are critical. Yet, only 17% of ads on Meta and 59% on YouTube reach the 95th percentile for completion, compared to the more favorable performance on the Open Web.
At Adlook, we simplify the complex video landscape by combining unified targeting, premium inventory, and AI-driven optimization - ensuring your video campaigns are as effective as they are engaging.
See it in action: PayPo Case Study - AI-powered Multi-screen video
PayPo, a leading Buy Now, Pay Later provider, partnered with Adlook to boost awareness and drive engagement by leveraging AI-built contextual audiences on premium video inventory.
By harnessing the power of contextual data and AI, Adlook delivered a high-performing, engaging video campaign that significantly boosted PayPo’s market presence and user awareness.
Have you ever considered the real cost of your ads appearing alongside risky or inappropriate content? In the vast, fast-moving digital landscape, safeguarding your brand's reputation has become more critical - and more complex - than ever. As programmatic advertising evolves, so do the threats of ad fraud, brand misalignment, and damaging associations with harmful content. In 2025, brand safety won’t just be a priority - it will be a cornerstone of successful advertising strategies.
Don’t dismiss news environments: Don’t shy away from news contexts. Despite potential risks, advertising within diverse news subcategories can enhance consumer trust - 84% of news readers view such ads as trustworthy - while delivering better recall. Read the full article:Not using news context for brand safety reasons could be a huge mistake - and this is why.
See it in action: Christofle Case Study - Engaging Luxury Wedding Guests
Christofle, a heritage French luxury brand, faced a dual challenge: targeting affluent wedding guests with precision and safeguarding its image in a cookieless digital landscape. Through a partnership with Adlook, the campaign successfully tackled these hurdles.
Strategic targeting
Using a combination of contextual targeting and display ads targets via search-based signals, Christofle targeted high-spending wedding guests during peak gift-buying seasons. By focusing on luxury-related keywords, the campaign connected with the ideal audience while avoiding risky placements.
Interactive and multifaceted engagement
Video and display ads tailored for mobile and desktop ensured maximum reach. Interactive banners designed by Adlook Creative Lab deepened audience engagement, combining high-end visuals with functional interactivity.
Brand awareness evaluation
A Brand Lift Study quantified the campaign's success, revealing a +45% improvement in brand perception and intent among its target demographic.
Results
By leveraging advanced AI tools, Christofle achieved 86% video viewability and an 84% success rate in aligning ads with high-quality content. These outcomes reflect precision targeting, minimized ad waste, and reinforced its image as a luxury leader. The brand successfully navigated the challenges of the digital advertising landscape, delivering measurable impact and elevating its presence in the luxury market.
“From the onset, the vision was clear – to reach the modern wedding guest, without losing the essence of our brand. The results were staggering and surpassed our expectations, making it evident that the fusion of our timeless brand with contemporary digital strategies is a match made in heaven.”
Pierre Leurquin, Transformation & Innovation Director, Christofle
Global retail media ad spending is forecast to reach $169.5bn in 2025, growing at 10.6% YoY. While retail media excels at closing deals and converting within walled gardens using first-party transactional data, it struggles to drive broader awareness and reach shoppers across the web. This gap has paved the way for commerce media on the Open Web, which leverages insight-based targeting and a 360-degree view of shoppers to capture in-market users during their discovery phase.
Capitalize on the discovery Stage
Recognize that consumers are most receptive when actively exploring options. Focus on capturing their interest at this stage with creative, contextually relevant placements that build brand awareness and drive incremental reach.
At Adlook, our unique approach to Commerce Media on the Open Web delivers scale outside walled gardens, real-time targeting, and easy activation - ensuring you connect with in-market users precisely when they’re in discovery mode. We combine unified targeting, premium inventory, and advanced AI to bridge the gap between walled gardens and the broader web, empowering your brand to reach new audiences and drive measurable results.
As digital advertising evolves, the intersection of innovation, ethics, and sustainability will define the strategies of tomorrow. Brands that embrace cutting-edge technologies like AI and deep learning, prioritize attention-focused metrics, and align campaigns with sustainability goals will be well-positioned to thrive in 2025 and beyond. Adlook is your partner in navigating this transformation, offering tools that safeguard your brand, enhance campaign efficiency, and minimize environmental impact.
Try Adlook today and lead the way in building a smarter, safer, and more sustainable digital future of your brand.
Google’s latest Privacy Sandbox update keeps third-party cookies in place, resetting progress and raising doubts about the industry’s reliance on a single platform for privacy reform.
Brand safety is non-negotiable – 60% of marketers now prioritize it in programmatic advertising.
Due to the complex and dynamic nature of the digital advertising ecosystem brand safety in News remains a major challenge for marketers. However, avoiding News could mean missing premium inventory and highly engaged audiences.
