2025 Marketing Trends for a Competitive Edge

Building More Intelligent, User-centered Websites with AI

Al Auad, Senior Director of Development Operations

In web development, AI tools are all the buzz. We’re seeing real, practical use cases emerge that make both back-end builds and front-end experiences smarter and more efficient.

AW is testing and integrating AI tools in ways that go far beyond fixing code. For example, we’ve been building AI-powered automations that can identify the type of content a user is interacting with. Then, we use that information to dynamically personalize what they receive next, like a recommended resource or a follow-up email.

It’s not just about saving time — it’s about building smarter, more responsive digital experiences that work harder for your users and your brand.

Agentic AI: The Next Frontier in Marketing Efficiency

Eva LaMere, President

I’ve been reading a lot about Agentic AI, the evolution of generative AI, whereby multiple AI agents work together to complete complex tasks, with minimal oversight or intervention from humans.

Pretty soon, with Agentic AI, we will be able to complete a 30-second TV spot in a fraction of the time usually required, using, for example, up to five agents collectively working from the creative brief. One agent writes the script, another the mood board, another acts as DP, and so on. Collectively, they pull it all together to present to the team. That’s one example on the creative front, but imagine how that would work with media planning, publishing, or content development that’s SEO-ready, etc.

AI agents collaborating to accomplish a task “on their own” is game-changing. Similar to the overall premise of AI, this will lead to a place where time savings are reinvested in more strategic tasks, allowing creatives and media planners to spend more time thinking and less time at their keyboards.

Admittedly, this is not months away, more likely a year or more — and like generative AI, there are still hurdles to overcome, but now is the time to be open-minded, open-armed, and willing to experiment.

AI Collaboration Tools Are Reshaping Client Strategy

Jennifer Forgét, SVP Client Engagement

We’re seeing a major shift in how strategy and creative come together, thanks to tools like Canva. What was once a design-only platform now includes brand governance features and AI-driven content suggestions, making it easier than ever to stay on-brand and move quickly. These platforms are enhancing the way we collaborate with clients, speeding up creative turnaround, enabling real-time testing, and making strategy more agile and responsive. At AW, we’re using these tools to help clients seize opportunities faster and bring campaigns to market more efficiently than ever before.

Balancing AI Automation and Human Oversight in Paid Social

Kristen Fallon, Paid Social Media Manager

AI-powered campaign tools have brought both efficiencies and disruptions to the paid social space in 2025. Platforms now use AI to automatically select audiences, placements, bidding strategies, and even optimize creative, all behind the scenes — often with little to no visibility into how those decisions are made.

While AW leverages some AI tools, we push back where it counts. Our teams ensure that everything is set up with strategic intent, not just algorithm automation. That means real humans are making final informed decisions about targeting and creative direction. We’re not just relying on platform defaults.

But as platforms like Meta continue to nudge marketers harder and harder toward complete automation, it’s becoming more difficult to retain control. That’s why our role is becoming more important than ever. We’re working to protect performance and brand integrity, ensuring our client campaigns are aligned with real goals, not just what the algorithm thinks should happen.

Adapting Content for AI Overviews in Google Search with Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

GianCarlo Salerno, SEO Strategist

With the ever-changing nature of Google Search, and especially since AI-powered overviews continue to evolve, we’ve recognized the importance of integrating GEO and AEO into on-page SEO strategies. Now, it’s more critical than ever as doing so allows the opportunity to optimize for a variety of different search platforms and features.

AEO enables ranking in places like Google’s featured snippets and other direct answer formats in traditional search engines. In contrast, GEO optimizes content for AI-powered search experiences in generative AI models like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews.

While quality content remains crucial, structuring it clearly and concisely — as is done in FAQ sections and help centers — will become increasingly important. Clients who optimize their content for quick, accurate answers will achieve better visibility as users and AI seek immediate, straightforward, concise information.

Optimizing for Google’s Conversational AI Overviews

Marianne O’Connor, Director of Organic Marketing

When I think about the trend that has had the biggest impact on my team’s work this year, it has to be the fact that the search landscape is becoming more conversational and context-aware. It’s no longer just about ranking #1 — it’s about being the source Google references in its AI-generated answers. Featured snippets, schema markup, and robust FAQ content have never been more important.

With Google’s AI Overviews now widely adopted, numerous “measurement tools” are cropping up left and right. But we found ourselves dissatisfied, so we’ve decided to build our own tool: It not only measures how often a brand is appearing in generative AI outputs, but it also reports the prompts that trigger the brand mention, the sources AI is pulling from and even delivers a sentiment analysis. All of this allows us to uncover actionable insights, empowering us to optimize our clients’ websites for the next phase of search. Stay tuned — we’ll be rolling it out later this summer!

Staying in Control as Search Platforms Push Automation

Will Claxton, Paid Search Strategist

Search platforms — especially Google — continue to push advertisers toward greater automation, often through Smart asset generation. The issue? These features aren’t always aligned with performance. Sometimes, it feels like their priority is spending the client’s budget, and not necessarily in an efficient way.

Despite proactively turning off automatic settings, we’ve seen Google quietly reintroduce some of them without approval. That’s a concern — and one we’re watching closely. As AI becomes more deeply embedded in Google and Bing’s ad products, advertisers need to stay vigilant. At AW, we actively monitor these changes and adjust strategies to ensure campaigns remain efficient, effective, and fully aligned with client goals.

Paid Search Is Evolving, So Don’t Put All Your PPC in One Basket

Hartej Saini, Senior Paid Search Strategist

AI-powered automation continues to transform paid search, enabling more precise targeting, better audience segmentation, and stronger campaign performance. At AW, we use these tools across ad platforms to help clients connect with users who are most likely to take meaningful action. This enables us to better align our clients’ ads with the right search users and drive engagement for the best possible outcomes.

One of the biggest shifts we’re seeing is a growing interest in diversifying beyond Google. While it still maintains a significant market share of search volume in 2025, recent changes to Google Ads, ongoing monopoly scrutiny, and the rise of AI-powered alternatives have opened the door to other platforms like Microsoft Ads, AOL, and Brave.

As we head into the second half of 2025, expect to see more advertisers exploring these alternatives to build more resilient, multiplatform strategies. At AW, we’re already guiding clients through this shift, making tailored recommendations on a client-by-client basis to ensure their paid search mix maximizes reach, performance, and return.

Savvy Brands Are Investing in Paid User Generated Content (UGC) Creators

Hailey Lipiec, Organic Content and Social Media Strategist

Paid user generated content (UGC) creators have been around for the past few years. However, brands are increasingly tapping into this trend as demand for authentic, relatable content continues to rise, and the price of influencers remains high.

Like influencers, UGC creators provide content for brands to use. But unlike influencers, this UGC content is used primarily on the brand’s owned channels, not the UGC creators’ accounts. This empowers brands with a larger volume of content (typically valuable video content!) at a much lower price, as these creators don’t come with the same price tag as influencers.

UGC creators give brands the best of both worlds: the genuine, real-world feel of influencer content without the associated costs. At AW, we help clients of all kinds — from financial institutions and colleges to healthcare practices and nonprofits — identify the right creators, develop content briefs, and scale their content libraries with UGC that feels real, performs well, and builds trust.

Employee Generated Content (EGC) Is Building Authentic Brand Connections

Kim Plummer, Content Director

Employee generated content (EGC) has been steadily growing over the past few years. But as AI-generated content continues to flood our feeds and inboxes, there’s a growing segment of consumers looking for real human content, making EGC a smart, timely strategy for content development. One that’s opportunistic in the moment and smart for the long haul, as it’s proven to build authenticity, trust, and connection.

At AW, we’re seeing this trend intersect with the rise of thought leadership, making EGC an ideal way to spotlight your subject matter experts (SMEs). In fact, this blog you’re reading right now is a perfect example of that approach in action! For our clients, EGC might be a doctor writing a blog post about golf injury prevention or a banker filming a casual iPhone video about tips for budgeting in your 20s. We’ve coached university students and alumni through social media Q&As and helped physical therapists script how-to videos for stretching. In each case, we guide clients and their teams through the process — offering content outlines, filming tips, and easy-to-follow best practices — then our in-house teams polish it all to make their people shine.

Not only does EGC offer great content at an affordable price, but it also highlights your people in a way that makes them feel seen and valued, while building trust and connection with your audiences. It’s a win-win-win!

AI-generated Profiles and Reviews Make ORM a Must-have

Jessie Cohen, Senior Account Executive

As I look ahead for my clients, the rise of AI-generated profiles interacting with client platforms — such as posting fake reviews — raises significant concerns and challenges. Online reputation management (ORM) is becoming increasingly critical, and brands would be wise to ensure they have a strategy in place. An active ORM strategy helps protect your brand’s credibility, ensures you’re putting your best face forward online, and gives you a plan of action when negative or false feedback appears — real or not.

Measuring Marketing Impact with Media Mix Modeling Tools

Nick Gaffney, Senior Director of Digital Strategy

Media mix modeling tools have been around for years, but in 2025, they’re gaining serious momentum — especially among non-ecommerce brands looking to tie marketing efforts directly to business outcomes. More and more of our clients are discovering that traditional metrics fall short when it comes to answering the most important question: “What’s actually driving revenue?”

That’s where media mix modeling comes in. It provides a deeper, more holistic view of how different channels contribute to your bottom line, both offline and online, as well as paid and organic. And at AW, we’re not just using these tools — we’re building one. We’ve been developing a proprietary media mix modeling solution explicitly designed to help our clients understand, optimize, and invest smarter across channels.

More clarity. Smarter planning. Better results. That’s what our media mix modeling tool is built to deliver — and it’s coming soon with a rollout planned for Q4 2025.

Future-proofing Media Strategies for a Changing Landscape

Pam Wicks, Director of Integrated Media Services

AI has been part of programmatic advertising for years, just under a different name. What we used to call machine learning is now widely recognized as AI with platforms leveraging it to optimize everything from targeting to bidding in real time (and so are we!). While the industry once hesitated to adopt the term, today, everyone’s talking about AI —and every ad tech platform is leaning into it. We’re using AI tools more intentionally to inform our media planning, campaign optimizations, and measurement strategies.

But as important as AI is, we’re just as focused on something even more foundational: first-party data. For years, we’ve heard that cookies are going away — and while that hasn’t fully happened yet, we’re preparing as if it could happen tomorrow to minimize the impact on client campaigns. One of the newer and more effective tactics we’ve adopted is first-party shopper targeting. For example, if someone searches for knee braces on a retail site, that search behavior becomes actionable data. After they leave the site, we can serve them a highly relevant ad, like one for an orthopedic knee specialist.

By combining AI innovation with strong first-party strategies, we’re helping clients stay ahead of platform shifts, reduce their reliance on outdated targeting methods, and deliver more personalized, privacy-compliant advertising that performs effectively.