Ad Tech Predictions for 2025

2025 is here - So let’s make sure that we’re ready for it. Predicting the future in an industry as rapidly evolving as ad-tech is pretty bold, but we’ve never been one to back down from a challenge here at Datafy. (Plus, we have in-house ad tech experts that give out great advice.) Here’s what we think the industry can expect in the coming year now that we’ve turned the page on 2024. 

Media consumption has peaked

The amount of time people spend with media has peaked - with media consumption plateauing for the first time in 2024. Consumer downtime has become saturated - meaning we’re all spending the same (or less) time reading online content, scrolling our feeds, or watching TV as we did last year. Seeing as we’re not spending more time on any one type of content, it’s more important than ever that brands be across all of them. Reaching your core audiences across various media types  (mobile, desktop, social, CTV, traditional tactics, etc.) will be an essential part of digital strategy moving forward. 

Attention metrics are going to get more… attention

Just serving a bunch of ads and then using traditional metrics (like impressions and clicks) to measure campaign effectiveness is a thing of the past. Today’s diminished attention spans will force us to get more creative to improve viewability and engagement - and to start thinking innovatively about measuring conversions. We want to start seeing stop-the-scroll opportunities like interactive videos, high-impact mobile, and creative that connects with your audience emotionally. And when it comes to reporting? It’s time to start prioritizing different quality metrics like advertisement interactions, viewability and ad positions, and, ya know, whether people are actually visiting your destination after viewing your ads to prove that you really caught a user’s attention with those impressions. 

Holistic measurement is going to matter more 

Companies using dependable data methodologies to paint a more holistic picture of their marketing effectiveness will come out on top in the next five years. Doing so will require looking at more data perspectives and using them to tell stakeholders a trustworthy and verifiable story. This might look like integrating campaign and destination-specific spending data to evaluate the value of a visitor or showing market-based incrementality to evaluate incremental return on marketing influence. 

User privacy evolves towards ‘user choice’ 

As Apple and Google have both shown us with their recent shifts in privacy and data protection, privacy here in the U.S. is evolving towards “user choice,” with a heavy emphasis on a user experience with more ‘opt-in’ and ‘opt-out’ opportunities. Audiences will continue to value the personalization and convenience that come with these companies leveraging their data - but pay attention to the fact that this enables the country’s two biggest data collectors to play by their own rules as they leverage their vast collection of first-party data, and in doing so, are using perceptions of privacy to strengthen their competitive positioning and box out their competition. 

Let’s not forget AI 

We’d be remiss not to mention the elephant in the room: AI. In 2025, AI will make shifts in ad tech around how we plan and execute campaigns and target audiences, with programmatic auction decision-making, contextual placement and more. And while the guardrails around AI and development have a way to go, there will be a way to strategically leverage AI this year to assist with targeting decisions, campaign messaging and optimization, dynamic contextual delivery, and even analysis and reporting assistance. 

Interested in hearing more about what we can expect for the future of ad-tech this year? We go more in-depth on the topic with Authority Magazine here. Check it out!