Marketing Letter - 🔮 What's Next For AI in 2025?

Happy new year, nerds.

Welcome back to the newsletter with the inside scoop on Google’s 2025 plans:

(h/t Gemma Brunson)

Here’s what’s good this week:

→ Will Ads Kill Reddit?💀
→ To Blog or Not To Blog? 🤔
→ What’s In Store For AI in 2025?🔮
→ more, obviously 💬

But first…

​This Week's Video 🗣️🎙️​

In this week's video, I discuss the potential of done-for-you AI avatars as a revenue-generating opportunity in 2025. This concept excites me as a game-changer for content creation, particularly in the B2B SaaS space. I share insights on how AI avatars can boost engagement, streamline production, and drive growth. Join me as I explore this innovative strategy and its potential to transform social media marketing. Tune in!

​YouTube​​

What’s Going Down @ Google 📊

→ People are noticing a significant discrepancy between Google’s official policies and actual results re: Performance Max placement exclusions. The TLDR? Google states that API-based placement exclusions don’t work for PMax Multiple, but many advertisers are reporting API-based exclusion success. So, as usual, Google needs to figure itself out. What else is new?

→ This article unpacks some common analytics assumptions unpacks the conventional around wisdom around the limits of tracking, user counts, engagement / bounce rates, and more.

→ After all the commotion of 2024, would you have guessed that Google would still be ending 2024 with ~90% of the search engine market share? SEO is still king.

→ Another victim of Google’s helpful content update bites the dust. Pour one out.

→ In order to meet “a seismic shift in consumer search behavior,” Google Ads is positioning itself for a massive AI-driven transformation in 2025, “even more significant than the mobile revolution.” Google’s three-pronged approach deals with:

“- Evolution of search behavior beyond keywords toward multimodal experiences
- AI-powered creative tools for marketers
- Enhanced measurement capabilities across all channels”

Stay tuned.

→ Maybe you’ve already noticed, but new “What People Are Saying” carousels have been appearing in Search. They’ve never really stuck before, not much reason to think this rendition will.

→ John Mueller says websites in 2025 don’t need a blog. So, you know what that means… *starts blog for niche site*

AI Insight 🤖

→ Speaking of social media, more generative AI elements continue to be integrated into TikTok, like an “AI Group Shot” feature and an “AI Self” feature. One upcoming AI tool will allow users to easily convert their images into trending memes, while another that provides AI-based suggestions for video captions.

→ Here’s a piece looking at how online retailers used AI for ecommerce in 2024, looking at everything from PayPal simplifying the checkout process, to gift recommendations on Etsy, to Ulta’s try-on tools.

→ Predictions don’t mean much, but here’s what one analyst who spent 2024 covering AI sees coming in 2025. Her expectations include: OpenAI ending its exclusivity agreement with Microsoft and offering its models through other cloud providers, the final “GPT” model release from OpenAI, and agents “becoming a reality.”

→ If you’ve been wondering what kind of impact generative AI is having on the stock photo industry— Shutterstock and Getty Images are on the verge of merging, and many have gone out of business.

Social Media Round-up 📲

→ Q5 is over. You know what that means. You’re already late in getting ready for Valentine’s Day marketing. Fortunately, TikTok’s tips for Valentine’s Day campaigns are genuinely helpful and super basic. TLDR; Tap into Trending Hashtags, Leverage Creators, and Think TikTok-First when it comes to making your brand shine, enticing last-minute gift shoppers, and driving conversions.

→ If you still haven’t got on board, here’s an in-depth TikTok advertising guide for brands. If you’re worried about investing in TikTok because of the looming ban, here’s a look at everything Trump is doing, and some thoughts on what he might do, to block the ban.

→ As for creators that are already deeply invested in TikTok? Their take on the ban seems to be that they’ll believe it when they see it. Fair enough.

→ Looks like Google Ads is in the testing phase for a new YouTube ad format that will put video view counts front and center and cut “traditional elements such as a headline, description, or call-to-action (CTA).”

→ Will Stock Market Success Mean the End of Reddit? Probably not, Reddit has already started placing ads among users’ comments, and they are pissed off about it.

→ Speaking of AI, here’s a look at Meta’s plan to fill its apps with AI bot profiles and here’s a look at the backlash against Meta’ various attempts to do this so far.

→ If you’ve ever wondered what exactly causes people to buy products they see on social media, this data is segmented by age group and comes up with some interesting results. TLDR; urgency works for old people, novelty/uniqueness work for younger audiences.

→ X seems to be adding a video tab.

Jacky Chou​
Founder of Indexsy
hello@indexsy.com
Let's Connect on Twitter👇

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