Digital Ad Trends: What We Predict
Predictions are tricky and not always correct.
Remember in 2020 when people predicted things such as Oprah Winfrey being our next president with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as her V.P. — only for them to come out saying that their campaign was to make a movement to make the nation healthier, starting with you“?
(This was a thing that actually happened. What a crazy time 2020 was, right? I kept imagining President Winfrey during her inaugural speech yelling out “You get free healthcare, and you get free healthcare! Everyone gets free healthcare!”)
Okay, let’s get back on track here.
Here’s what our team at 9 Clouds predicts to be trends and things to learn about for the rest of 2025 and into 2026.
Artificial Intelligence (or, ‘AI’ for the Hip Youngsters) Continues to Be Prominent
Wow! What a big surprise right?
Yeah, not really.
Let’s face it — AI is currently the present and the future for useful technology. Chat AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Google Bard, Claude and Bing Chat have taken the world by storm. Heck, even digital marketing platforms are hopping on the AI train.
We’ve noticed these digital platforms are starting to push more AI features to help out with advertising. Let’s take a look at examples from two platforms.
Meta AI Tools
With Zuckerberg’s obsession with augmented reality, Metaverse, it would make sense that he would include some new, flashy AI for ad users. As of now, Meta has rolled out three main A.I. features for marketers to use.
These features include background generation, image expansion and text variations. These features are built to save time and resources for advertising and could unlock a new era of creativity in the future. Meta plans to work with advertisers to see what other AI features could be incorporated into their ads manager.
From what we’ve been hearing, going into 2026 ads on Meta will be able to be fully automated, with budgeting, targeting, creative, and buttons will all be decided with AI. We aren’t sure how well these AI-made ads will perform, but Meta is hoping it’ll give small businesses with no marketing teams a better chance at running ads.
Google Ad AI Tools
One of the main things Google Ads is pushing is automatically created assets. It is a campaign-level setting that is supposed to help you show more relevant ads. It does this by creating tailored headlines and descriptions based on your ad’s context.
The next feature they are pushing is a conversational experience in Google Ads. This is where Google does all of the work and builds your Search campaign for you. All you need to do is include your website URL, and Google AI takes over.
In the last couple of years, Google has pushed its Performance Max campaigns. Performance Max launched as the first-ever AI-powered campaign in 2021, putting ads across all Google Ads inventory (search, display, video, etc.). In 2022 and 2023, Google got rid of certain campaign types and moved them over to PMax, and has tried to get advertisers to upgrade display-only campaigns to PMax.
The list goes on and on with features being pushed out on any digital platform you can think of.
What we’re trying to get across here is that AI is here and it’s not going anywhere in the near future. Our company is embracing the use of AI, and so are digital ad platforms. If these tools have a chance of saving time or improving results, why not try?
Newer Platforms Will Continue to Grow (and Get More Advertisers to Spend on Them)
We know that younger generations are gravitating towards newer social media platforms — namely TikTok and Snapchat — and these are proving to be great assets for digital marketing.
One of the main differences these social media platforms have is that their main focus is on short video content. (Spoiler alert: this is another trend we will talk about shortly)
What’s more, in 2022, research suggested that nearly 40% of Gen Z prefers searching on TikTok and Instagram rather than Google Search and Maps (which is part of the reason Google is changing up how its search engine results page works and looks).
Research in 2023 showed that if brands want to reach the younger Gen Z crowd on social media, they need to be on TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram.
With more than $4.4 trillion in spending power and $1 billion in consumer spending, these new social media platforms can make great allies for your business’ digital marketing strategy.
We think these platforms will continue to evolve their platforms to give better opportunities for advertisers, and advertisers will continue to increase their ad spending on these platforms to reach younger consumers.
(Short) Video Marketing Continues to Reign
I hate to break this to you, but our attention spans are now worse than a goldfish — less than nine seconds. (That’s at least what a study said way back in 2015.)
Let’s be real, though. Your attention span actually doesn’t have the capacity to only retain eight seconds. We just choose to focus that long.
One thing that we know is that it’s getting harder and harder to gain a viewer’s attention. That’s where short videos come into play.
People want their entertainment served to them fast and still be entertaining. Short videos do that perfectly. It gives viewers a shot of serotonin that will keep their brains happy for a short time.
Don’t believe me? A recent study showed that 30% of Americans watch short-form videos to improve their mood. YouTube and TikTok are big forces behind this video content, with Instagram also falling into this bucket.
The good news is that today’s social media usage means advertisers have more room to reach, connect and market to people online. Advertisers can do this by producing more short form video — including educational content that provides value — as part of their marketing strategy.
Build Your Digital Ads with 9 Clouds
If the coming trends in digital marketing seem overwhelming or you aren’t sure where to start with these, let us take the burden off of your shoulders!
For more than a decade, we’ve helped people use digital tools to accomplish their goals. Plus we’ve got a great set of creative minds who take the time to really get what makes your business and market tick.
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Tyrel Finck
As a digital strategist — and our resident weightlifting expert — Tyrel understands performance. He helps clients achieve their online marketing goals with digital ads, email, website content, and more. Learn more about Tyrel.
