In case you’re something like me, you in all probability want you had extra time and sources to get via your work, ponder game-changing concepts, brush up on digital advertising business traits, and provides your audiences unforgettable model experiences.
I get it. That’s why I put collectively this overview of prime advertising traits for 2025. I’ll share a few of my favourite highlights from HubSpot’s latest survey of greater than 1,700 B2B and B2C entrepreneurs, exploring the important thing traits, instruments, and challenges that right now’s advertising professionals are centered on probably the most.
Plus, preserve studying to listen to from leaders at OpenAI, Asana, Adobe, Bitly, and extra.
High Digital Advertising and marketing Developments in 2025
1. AI helps entrepreneurs sustain with rising content material wants.
In 2024, AI utilization amongst entrepreneurs rose at a staggering charge. And whereas there are numerous AI instruments obtainable to assist with all kinds of selling wants, right now’s entrepreneurs reported they’ve been significantly centered on utilizing AI instruments to create content material to maintain up with their rising content material wants.
Curiously, completely different entrepreneurs use AI to create content material in several methods. Whereas some report utilizing AI to develop complete drafts from scratch, one of the frequent AI use circumstances was to repurpose content material from one format to a different.
For instance, I’ve discovered that entrepreneurs could use AI instruments to show a weblog put up right into a video script, or a video clip right into a social media put up. AI has enabled many advertising groups to extend their content material output with out having to rent extra individuals.
Diving a bit deeper, listed here are the highest AI use circumstances recognized by our survey respondents:
Content material creation (utilizing generative AI to jot down copy, create photos, get concepts, and many others.) (43%)
Analysis (utilizing generative AI for market analysis, to search out datasets, summarize articles, and many others.) (34%)
Brainstorming (utilizing generative AI to brainstorm content material concepts) (27%)
Studying the way to do issues (utilizing generative AI to be taught an Excel operate, debug SQL code, and many others.) (40%)
Information evaluation/reporting (utilizing generative AI to investigate or manipulate advertising information) (35%)
Take notes or summarize conferences (27%)
In relation to the varieties of content material that entrepreneurs have been utilizing generative AI to provide, I’ve discovered that social media posts, emails, weblog posts, subject concepts, photos, and product descriptions are the most typical.
As well as, many entrepreneurs use instruments like HubSpot’s Content material Advertising and marketing Software program to show present weblog posts into social posts, publication content material, audio recordsdata, and different content material varieties in only a few minutes.
Interested by utilizing AI for content material creation? HubSpot’s Free AI Content material Creator is a superb place to begin.
It’s additionally essential to make clear that whereas a lot of our respondents had been centered on utilizing AI to generate content material, AI is poised to develop past content material era into a spread of associated domains.
As OpenAI’s Head of Strategic Advertising and marketing Dane Vahey notes, “Entrepreneurs have been scratching the floor of AI, however thus far, it’s been largely for content material era. In 2025, we count on to see entrepreneurs make the leap to utilizing AI for inventive ideation, data-driven decision-making, workflow automation, and strategic brainstorming.”
2. Many entrepreneurs wrestle to combine AI into their workflows.
Regardless of the rising reputation of AI content material era instruments, our survey discovered that many entrepreneurs are nonetheless struggling to be taught to make use of these instruments successfully and combine them into their workflows.
As Briana Rogers, VP of Advertising and marketing at Miro, shared, “Entrepreneurs should learn to combine AI into their work.”
She continued, “The area is transferring so rapidly and we have to experiment with all the pieces… from the extra well-established use circumstances — like leveraging machine studying to enhance advert shopping for, or creating predictive buyer worth fashions — to newer areas, like figuring out patterns in consumer analysis and information, aiding in inventive growth, and constructing full buyer campaigns which might be powered by AI.”
Our survey discovered that whereas entrepreneurs are more and more investing in AI, many stay lower than assured about their capacity to make use of these instruments.
Particularly, simply 47% strongly or considerably agreed that they’d a transparent understanding of the way to use AI of their advertising technique, and 48% strongly or considerably agreed that they’d a transparent understanding of the way to measure the affect of AI of their advertising technique.
Furthermore, even amongst entrepreneurs who perceive the fundamentals of AI implementation, integrating these instruments ethically also can pose a significant problem.
As Dr. Rebecca Hinds, Head of Asana’s Work Innovation Lab, warns, “Gen Z is sounding the alarm: They’re extra involved than every other demographic about whether or not their organizations can belief generative AI distributors to uphold accountable AI practices.”
She goes on, “Distributors should lead with transparency, clear AI rules, and a dedication to moral innovation to achieve the help of Gen Z in 2025” — and doing so will be fairly troublesome for a lot of entrepreneurs.
3. AI is making a significant affect — however it shouldn’t change people.
Whereas many content material entrepreneurs (myself included) have voiced considerations in regards to the potential for AI instruments to switch human content material creators, our latest information means that that is unlikely to occur.
Previous HubSpot survey information reveals that the overwhelming majority of entrepreneurs nonetheless edit content material that’s been generated by AI, suggesting that AI instruments are performing extra like assistants than like fully-fledged, human content material builders.
Plus, neither clients nor search engines like google and yahoo are more likely to reward an extreme reliance on AI-generated content material.
For instance, a latest put up from HubSpot Senior Advertising and marketing Supervisor Curtis del Principe highlighted the punishment handed down to at least one company after they farmed 1000’s of posts with AI in what’s been known as an “web optimization Heist.”
Different analysis has highlighted the danger of plagiarism when utilizing AI-generated content material, and Google’s Gemini (previously Bard) truly means that you can double-check its output by offering hyperlinks to sources that verify the knowledge it offers.
In different phrases, AI is certainly making a significant affect on the world of content material era — however I don’t suppose it’s more likely to totally change human entrepreneurs.
4. Social media is the very best ROI advertising channel.
In 2025, the highest positions entrepreneurs report their organizations are hiring for are content-related, with a selected emphasis on social content material.
Notably, this pattern spans throughout organizational hierarchies, with an elevated deal with social media for everybody from the person contributors answerable for creating posts to managers and administrators answerable for content material technique.
After we requested entrepreneurs to pick out the highest three advertising roles that they anticipated to be the highest precedence to recruit in 2025, they listed the next positions:
Content material Creator (15%)
Social Media Coordinator (13%)
Social Media Strategist (13%)
Artistic Assistant (13%)
Artistic Director (12%)
Clearly, social media stays a significant precedence for right now’s entrepreneurs. However what’s driving this ongoing deal with social?
Our 2024 Shopper Developments Survey discovered that social media is definitely the popular product discovery channel for Gen Z and Millennials, with Gen X and Boomers additionally rapidly warming as much as it. The truth is, 64% of Gen Z, 59% of Millennials, and 47% of Gen X respondents reported having found a product on social media up to now three months.
This survey additionally discovered that 17% of social media customers reported having purchased a product in-app up to now three months, one in 4 purchased one thing primarily based on an influencer’s advice, and 19% despatched a DM (Direct Message) for customer support.
On platforms comparable to Instagram, TikTok, and Fb, entrepreneurs can arrange digital shops for customers to buy with out ever leaving the app. From model discovery to influencer suggestions to in-app purchases and customer support by way of DMs, social media can grow to be a one-stop store for all the buyer journey.
As such, it’s no shock that entrepreneurs are rapidly embracing social promoting. Our most up-to-date social promoting survey discovered that 87% of entrepreneurs say this strategy is efficient, and 59% report driving extra social gross sales than in previous years.
5. Fb nonetheless proves to be a robust platform for entrepreneurs.
So, social media is clearly the place to be. However what platforms are literally delivering probably the most worth for entrepreneurs?
Regardless of what you might have heard about Fb being “lifeless,” it’s nonetheless the preferred platform for entrepreneurs, with 58% of survey respondents reporting that they leverage the platform as a part of their advertising technique.
Entrepreneurs additionally report that Fb has had the very best ROI of any social media platform over the previous 12 months, with 40% of respondents indicating that the platform is among the many prime three drivers of ROI.
In consequence, I wasn’t shocked to see that greater than two out of three entrepreneurs plan to keep up the identical stage of funding or improve their funding into their Fb advertising efforts in 2025.
6. The Threads vs X showdown continues.
Whereas Fb stays a pacesetter within the realm of social media advertising, the showdown between its Threads platform and X (previously Twitter) stays ongoing.
Our newest survey information reveals that 68% of entrepreneurs plan to proceed or broaden their funding into X in 2025, whereas 59% plan to proceed or broaden their funding into Threads. As well as, 8% of entrepreneurs plan to attempt Threads for the primary time in 2025, and simply 18% of entrepreneurs listing X as among the many top-three ROI-driving social media platforms.
To be taught extra about X versus Threads — and how one can leverage these competing platforms in your personal advertising technique — check out a few of these deep dives:
7. Visible storytelling is on the rise.
Whereas an efficient content material technique will usually leverage a spread of platforms, our most up-to-date survey information means that visible codecs comparable to short-form video, photos, and live-streaming video are significantly fashionable.
These types of visible storytelling had been among the many mostly used content material codecs in 2024, and in 2025, entrepreneurs plan to extend their funding into all three at greater charges than all different codecs.
This doesn’t shock me. In any case, in 2024, all three of those visually-focused codecs had been reported as among the many highest ROI codecs, and social media platforms that concentrate on visible content material (comparable to YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok) are additionally seeing elevated funding in 2025 at charges greater than different channels.
Certainly, our weblog workforce has been predicting a short-form video renaissance for the reason that rise of TikTok through the pandemic, and right now, there’s hardly any contest.
Brief-form video is now the primary content material advertising format, with most entrepreneurs saying it presents them greater ROI than every other format.
Particularly, when requested in regards to the codecs they use most, entrepreneurs listed the next (I bolded the visible codecs as an example simply how prevalent they’ve grow to be):
Brief-form video (29%)
Photos (29%)
Interviews (22%)
Weblog posts (19%)
Reside streaming video (19%)
Equally, when requested which codecs ship the very best ROI, they highlighted:
Brief-form video (21%)
Photos (19%)
Reside streaming video (16%)
Interviews (15%)
Weblog posts (15%)
Importantly, this isn’t only a matter of the place final 12 months’s advertising {dollars} had been spent — it’s additionally a pattern that’s mirrored in entrepreneurs’ plans for the longer term. When requested the place they plan to extend funding in 2025, respondents talked about:
Brief-form video (17%)
Photos (15%)
UGC (14%)
Reside streaming (14%)
Podcasts or different audio content material (13%)
And equally, on the social media entrance, respondents reported that the next social codecs can be seeing elevated funding in 2025:
Youtube (30%)
Instagram (29%)
TikTok (28%)
LinkedIn (26%)
Fb (26%)
Priya Gill, VP & International Head of Advertising and marketing for SurveyMonkey, has discovered substantial success with visible advertising.
She explains, “Brief-form video, photos, and user-generated content material are impactful as a result of they align with how right now’s audiences devour and have interaction with content material — rapidly, visually, and authentically. These codecs seize consideration in seconds and permit companies to inform compelling tales that resonate.”
This even applies to us at HubSpot, too — our personal weblog workforce is testing out short-form movies to advertise content material. That’s as a result of entrepreneurs are seeing that video-centric social media platforms are the best, they usually supply the most effective ROI.
8. Area of interest influencers are rising as a key channel.
Whereas influencer advertising has been an essential advertising channel for a while, our newest survey highlights the rising function of area of interest influencers specifically.
In 2024, entrepreneurs reported leveraging and benefiting from small-scale influencers — that’s, influencers with fewer than 100,000 followers — greater than larger-scale influencers.
Our respondents famous that regardless of their comparatively small variety of followers, these area of interest influencers provided entry to audiences with sturdy model loyalty and belief, making them particularly useful.
Parimal Deshpande, Senior Director of Product Advertising and marketing for Adobe Categorical, agrees that partnering with a content material creator who resonates together with your audience will be extremely useful, arguing, “The important thing to profitable advertising lies in constructing authenticity and belief.”
He continues, “Character-led content material, delivered via creators and channels that resonate with audiences, is integral to reaching that.”
As such, it is smart that almost one in 4 respondents listed influencer advertising as a prime pattern for 2024, with 68% reporting that they’d partnered with a distinct segment influencer within the final 12 months.
In distinction, just one in 4 survey respondents reported working with an influencer who had between 100,000 and a million followers, and simply 7% labored with influencers with audiences of over a million.
To be taught extra about how real-world entrepreneurs are working with influencers, we requested Bitly CMO Tara Robertson to shed some gentle on her group’s latest expertise with influencer advertising.
She shared, “Within the second half of 2024, we launched an influencer pilot program on Instagram to raised perceive how established personalities and communities may additional drive content material, dialog, and consciousness past Bitly’s personal channel.”
And what occurred?
Robertson studies, “The outcomes had been sturdy. In comparison with our common Instagram efficiency, we noticed 5X greater the impressions and video views, 6X greater engagement, and 82% progress in followers. In consequence, partnering with influencers is changing into a bigger a part of our general advertising technique as a option to broaden our attain, join extra successfully with our goal audiences, and present measurable outcomes whereas nonetheless sustaining belief and authenticity.”
Diving deeper, after we requested respondents about the advantages of working with these smaller-scale influencers and creators, the primary cause they cited was that these area of interest influencers had been extra trusted by their followers or subscribers.
Past this, respondents additionally famous that smaller influencers give them entry to extra area of interest, tighter-knit communities, in addition to usually being loads cheaper than influencers with bigger audiences.
In different phrases, follower depend isn’t all the pieces. Our latest Social Media Developments Report discovered that the majority entrepreneurs say “high quality of content material” is an important issue when figuring out which influencers to companion with, quite than simply what number of followers or subscribers an influencer has.
Certainly, as Aaron Cort, Head of Advertising and marketing, Progress and GTM for Craft Ventures factors out, “Folks have such a excessive bar for what they act on lately, for each enterprise and customers.”
On this atmosphere, “Influencers assist bridge that hole behind a devoted effort towards establishing constructive model affinity and phrase of mouth first.”
9. Information privateness adjustments stay a problem.
From iOS adjustments to GDPR and Google’s plans to section out third-party cookies, I’ve seen firsthand that elevated information privateness rules have posed a considerable hurdle for advertising business progress over the previous few years.
As a marketer myself, I do know these adjustments will be irritating — however with 84% of respondents in our latest client traits survey reporting that they imagine information privateness is a human proper, public opinion is certainly shifting towards having extra safeguards round private information.
As such, it’s comprehensible that almost 9 out of ten entrepreneurs (88%) reported that information privateness adjustments comparable to GDPR, iOS, and Google phasing out third-party cookies impacted their general advertising technique over the previous 12 months.
The excellent news is, there are many instruments and techniques that right now’s organizations are pursuing to steadiness efficient advertising with adequately defending individuals’s information.
To be taught extra about these alternate options, I’d advocate trying out this weblog put up, which explores a number of options in depth.
10. Personalization is important.
Based on our newest survey outcomes, 86% of entrepreneurs report that their clients get a considerably or very personalised expertise with their model. Much more spectacular, a whopping 94% report that providing a customized buyer expertise impacts their firm’s gross sales.
In different phrases, the information reveals that providing a extremely personalised expertise is extra important than ever.
On the similar time, research present that the majority entrepreneurs lack essential details about their viewers, with solely 65% saying they’ve high-quality information on their goal demographic.
Certainly, after we requested entrepreneurs what they knew about their audience, lower than half reported understanding the place they devour content material, their fundamental demographic data, or their pursuits and hobbies, not to mention the sorts of merchandise they’re keen on or insights about their procuring habits.
To handle these challenges, I’ve discovered HubSpot’s Advertising and marketing Analytics device will be extremely useful. This device offers useful insights into buyer habits, preferences, and engagement patterns, serving to entrepreneurs create extra personalised and efficient campaigns.
Study extra about personalization with HubSpot CRM.
11. Entrepreneurs nonetheless wrestle with disconnected information and silos.
To personalize your advertising efforts successfully, you want a single supply of fact. Sadly, our information means that this stays a problem, with many entrepreneurs reporting that they wrestle with disconnected information sources, firm silos, and an absence of a centralized and accessible supply of details about their clients.
The truth is, simply one out of 5 entrepreneurs reported that their advertising information is totally built-in with the instruments they use, and 30% shared that the interactions between the varied instruments they used of their advertising function was both barely or very disjointed.
Equally, 28% of respondents felt that it was considerably or very troublesome to get the information they wanted from different groups at their firm, whereas 34% felt that it was considerably or very troublesome to share their very own information with different groups throughout their firm. These points create a “disaster of disconnection” that may stop advertising groups from getting a holistic view of their information, in addition to lowering the standard of that information.
Anna James, Work Innovation Analytics Lead at Asana’s Work Innovation Lab, speaks eloquently to the dangers of this disaster, sharing: “Entrepreneurs are going through extraordinarily excessive ranges of digital burnout on account of utilizing fragmented instruments and techniques.”
As such, she argues that “in 2025, success gained’t come from including extra expertise — it should come from refining and streamlining expertise, enabling entrepreneurs to deal with creativity and extra high-value affect.”
And James will not be alone on this perspective. In the present day’s entrepreneurs acknowledge the ability of getting a single supply of fact to deal with these challenges of disconnected information and siloed groups: We discovered that 82% of respondents imagine that having a single supply of fact for his or her advertising information is barely, considerably, or very helpful to their group.
A single supply of fact immediately addresses the highest challenges that emerge when groups are misaligned: An absence of efficient communication, gross sales and advertising groups utilizing completely different instruments, and problem sharing information between groups. That’s doubtless why 69% of entrepreneurs report that their CRM is considerably or essential for the success of their general advertising technique.
One among my favourite methods to achieve entry to a single supply of fact is to implement a CRM like HubSpot. HubSpot’s CRM integrates information with instruments, reducing throughout silos and boosting alignment throughout groups.
12. Being data-driven is now not a nice-to-have.
Whereas the significance of information is way from new, this 12 months’s survey responses spotlight simply how essential it has grow to be to make sure your advertising group is actually data-driven.
Leveraging information successfully helps entrepreneurs perceive how their numerous methods are performing, in flip serving to them reveal the ROI of their efforts and informing their decision-making on future technique.
On the similar time, we discovered that utilizing information to know and goal clients has grow to be much less salient within the minds of right now’s entrepreneurs, at the least partially as a result of the information panorama has grow to be more and more difficult on account of rising privateness and safety necessities.
As well as, after we requested respondents to establish the best challenges they encountered with respect to understanding and gathering information from their audience, 21% pointed to customers being much less trusting with their private information, 19% pointed to poor information high quality, and 18% famous elevated information privateness rules that scale back entry to non-public information.
Nonetheless, our analysis demonstrates that regardless of these challenges, being data-driven is now not a nice-to-have. In right now’s panorama, aligning a model’s advertising initiatives with its clients’ values is determined by sustaining entry to correct, up-to-date information about these clients.
That’s doubtless why when requested in regards to the largest adjustments within the advertising business over the past 12 months, 29% emphasised the significance of utilizing information to tell their advertising technique and 26% famous the significance of utilizing information to reveal the ROI and enterprise worth of their advertising efforts.
Certainly, the largest benefits of creating a data-driven advertising technique that our respondents pointed to had been to know which advertising methods had been only (listed by 31% of respondents), to extend the ROI of their advertising efforts (30%), and to achieve their audience extra successfully (27%).
As Priya Gill of SurveyMonkey explains, “We’ve discovered success utilizing information (surveys and polls) to know what our audiences care most about, maintaining content material quick and snappy, showcasing authenticity, and testing and iterating on our concepts.”
Leveraging information successfully will be fairly difficult — however to achieve right now’s enterprise atmosphere, entrepreneurs cannot afford to not be data-driven.
What’s Subsequent in Advertising and marketing Business Developments
In relation to the traits defining the present advertising business, the listing above is simply the tip of the iceberg. As I put this listing collectively, I used to be struck over and over by simply how complicated and difficult the trendy advertising panorama has grow to be.
That’s why visibility into right now’s prime advertising traits is so essential. Whereas this text consists of a lot of my prime traits, for an in depth listing of the highest ways, alternatives, challenges, channels, and content material entrepreneurs will leverage in 2025, I’d undoubtedly advocate trying out our 2025 State of Advertising and marketing Report.
In any case, on the subject of advertising, I’ve discovered that staying up-to-date is important. So don’t be afraid to dive into the information!
