If you thought 2024 was a wild ride for digital advertising, then buckle up because there will be no letup in 2025. The year is set to be dominated by the power struggle between the walled gardens of big tech on one side and regulators and publishers on the other.
The dominance of Google, Apple, Amazon, TikTok and Meta has been strengthening for years, and 2024 was no different. With these major players controlling much of the digital ad market, publishers find themselves being pushed ever more toward the sidelines while advertisers are forced to adapt to the rules set by the industry giants.
But we shouldn’t just accept this as the new status quo. Google is currently fighting a string of legal battles in Europe around monopolistic practices, while in the U.S., anti-trust lawsuits related to search and online advertising have also kept the company’s lawyers busy.
While there are few clear answers, the potential breakup of Google’s browser and advertising business would likely be even more disruptive to the industry than the long-running third-party cookie deprecation saga has been over the past few years.
Publishers Must Navigate Around Big Tech’s Power Struggles
It’s certainly a tough time to be a publisher. The struggle to maintain audience attention and attract new interest while growing ad revenues in an increasingly competitive marketplace has never been greater. On top of this, Google’s recent announcement that it is testing the removal of news publisher content from search results in Europe, driven by data regulation, poses a significant threat to publishers already struggling to attract web traffic.
While publishers will be watching with interest as big tech’s legal battles continue, they must focus on their own game. The key to success for publishers in 2025 will be refining their processes around first-party data, and learning how to reduce reliance on big tech both in terms of audience development and advertising revenues. The collection, packaging and selling of valuable audience insights will help them unlock additional advertising revenue through direct collaborations, streamlining supply paths and strengthening relationships with partner brands.
Despite Google’s decision to spare third-party cookies from the chopping block, publishers that continue to rely on these trackers—and mobile IDs for that matter—are simply kicking the can down the road and will ultimately find themselves in deep trouble. Cookies may not have been killed off, but they are increasingly ineffective, with some forecasts suggesting that we are fast heading toward an 87% cookieless web, at least in the U.S.
So in 2025, building a better understanding of their audience must be high on the agenda for publishers. Creating audience segments that match up to advertisers’ needs, curating supply so buyers can access the right inventory and effectively monetizing first-party data—without giving it away for free to vendors—will be vital for driving revenues.
Advertisers Face Choppy Waters, But Can Lean Into AI
Dealing with the growing number of walled gardens that have their own set of rules and measurement methodologies is just one of the challenges that advertisers face at the moment. With other channels such as retail media networks (RMNs), digital-out-of-home (DOOH) and connected TV (CTV) all coming to the fore in recent years, advertisers are under increasing pressure to connect with their target audiences through multiple touchpoints in a coherent and structured way while working with limited budgets.
Signal loss across the open web environment will mean advertisers will increasingly be looking for direct deals with publishers that have packaged, curated audiences that match their customer profiles, and they will be monitoring campaign results more carefully than ever before.
While AI has been a hot-button issue in advertising for several years now, 2025 feels like the moment it will truly come to the fore. We can all already see the impact of AI on advertisers through the creation of customized creative at scale with generative AI tools, with dynamic messaging enabling personalized and efficient advertising. This reduces reliance on large creative agencies, making high-quality campaigns more accessible to brands with smaller budgets.
Additionally, AI can now go beyond streamlining creativity; AI tools have the power to deliver unique, data-driven insights and predict performance using data that was previously out of reach. By leveraging machine learning to find the best media placements and increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of spend, advertisers can maintain a competitive edge.
Focus on Your Own Game in 2025
The whole industry will be keeping one eye on the legal judgments that will be handed down in 2025, but publishers must not let themselves be distracted from their audience-building and monetization efforts. Advertisers that can most effectively use AI and work directly with publishers to enable them to reach the ideal audience cost-effectively stand the best chance of having a successful 2025, no matter the fallout from the big tech battles.
But a word of warning: While experimentation with AI will be vital to stand out in the crowd and reach the right audiences, advertisers must beware of AI fatigue. Many consumers can accurately identify AI-generated assets, so to cut through, advertisers need to maintain a human touch.
