Digital Marketing News 2025
Stay updated with all major digital marketing trends and updates throughout 2025. This page archives the most significant news in SEO, social media, PPC, AI, and more.
📰 January 2025
💰 Airbnb Invests Up to $250M in Marketing for New Business Ventures
Airbnb plans to invest between $200 million and $250 million in marketing to promote new travel experiences like tours and tastings. The company aims to generate $1 billion in revenue from these ventures, diversifying beyond home-sharing.
🛍️ TikTok Shop Launches in Latin America
TikTok introduces its in-app shopping feature in Mexico, marking its first expansion into Latin America. Sellers get a 90-day commission-free period, driving early adoption and boosting platform e-commerce.
🎬 Instagram Unveils ‘Edits’ Video Editing App
Instagram is developing “Edits”, an AI-powered video editing app with advanced creative tools. The app will test features like background edits before rolling them into the main Instagram platform.
📺 YouTube Launches Cost-Per-Hour Masthead Pricing
YouTube introduces hourly pricing for Masthead ads, giving brands full control over timing and visibility. This approach is perfect for major launches or events, ensuring prime ad placement during key hours.
📰 February 2025
📈 LinkedIn Introduces Conversions API for Enhanced B2B Marketing
LinkedIn has launched its Conversions API, allowing B2B marketers to track campaign performance and measure ROI with greater accuracy. This tool connects first-party data to LinkedIn’s platform, enabling better audience targeting and lead qualification.
🔒 Meta Enhances Ad Blocklist Controls
Meta expands third-party ad blocklist support, helping brands avoid showing ads next to unsuitable content. Advertisers now have more control over ad placements to protect their brand reputation.
⭐ TikTok Introduces ‘Most-Loved’ Product Tag
TikTok launches a “Most Loved” badge to highlight top-rated products based on user reviews and returns. The feature helps users make better shopping decisions while boosting sales for trusted products.
🤖 Meta AI Scans DMs in Chats
Meta introduces AI assistance in Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, but it comes with a privacy catch. Chats using “@MetaAI” may be stored and processed, raising concerns over data security and transparency.
📊 Google Updates Ads Auction Process
Google has updated its ad auction documentation, clarifying that separate auctions determine ad placements at different positions on a page, such as top results vs. sidebar. This change helps advertisers optimize bidding strategies and improve ad placements.
📢 OpenAI Launches GPT-4.5, Its Most Advanced AI Model
OpenAI has introduced GPT-4.5, codenamed Orion, boasting enhanced computing power and data processing capabilities. This advancement is set to revolutionize AI-driven automation, content generation, and customer interactions, offering businesses improved personalization and efficiency.
📰 March 2025
🌐 Google Reveals It Now Processes 5 Trillion Searches Annually
This is the first official update since 2016, when Google last reported 2 trillion yearly searches — a massive leap in user activity.
📱 TikTok Plans Expansion into Local U.S. Services
TikTok is expanding its U.S. offerings by connecting local businesses with users and creators. This move aims to boost commerce and local advertising, enhancing TikTok’s role in community engagement and business growth.
🇪🇺 EU Digital Services Act Impacts Online Advertising
The EU’s Digital Services Act introduces transparency requirements and bans profiling-based advertising using sensitive data or targeting children. These regulations significantly affect online advertising and ad tech companies operating within the EU.
📈 Google Ads Raises Negative Keyword Limit for Performance Max Campaigns
Google Ads increases the negative keyword limit for Performance Max (PMax) campaigns from 100 to 10,000. This expansion aims to provide advertisers with greater control over their campaigns.
🔍 Google Rolls Out March 2025 Core Update
Google’s first core update of the year is live, focusing on surfacing more relevant, high-quality content. The rollout will take about two weeks, with improvements to highlight creator content throughout 2025.
Check live status updates here: Google Search Status Dashboard
🚫 Google May Deindex Low-Quality, Underused Pages
Martin Splitt confirms that pages can be removed from the index even after ranking if the content or user experience is lacking.
🤖 Google Replacing Assistant with Gemini
Google is phasing out Google Assistant and rolling out Gemini, its next-gen AI assistant, offering more advanced features and deeper integration.
📰 April 2025
🔍 Google Confirms You Can’t ‘Add’ EEAT to Your Pages
Google clarifies that EEAT isn’t something you can just insert on a page—it’s earned over time through high-quality content, authority, and trust signals.
🎮 Google Partners with Roblox for Video Ads
Google now offers rewarded video ads on Roblox, giving brands access to 85 million daily users—a major move to engage Gen Z audiences.
📢 Google Ads Policy Update: More Ads, New Rules
Google updates its Unfair Advantage Policy, now allowing businesses to display multiple ads in different placements—reshaping ad visibility strategies.
🤖 Microsoft Launches Copilot Search in Bing
The new AI-powered feature delivers fast, conversational answers with source links — now live after months of testing.
📦 Google Launches Automatic Marketing Content Extraction
Google will now auto-pull promo and product info from merchant content to boost visibility across Search and other platforms.
🗺️ Google Maps Blocked 240M Fake Reviews & 12M Fake Listings in 2024
Google cracked down on spam by removing millions of fake reviews, edits, and business profiles to protect Maps users and local SEO integrity.
🖥️ Google Discover Is Coming to Desktop Search
Google confirms that its AI-powered content feed will soon appear on desktop, bringing personalized Discover cards beyond mobile.
⚠️ Google Quality Raters Now Flag AI-Generated Content
New guidelines direct raters to mark AI-generated pages as lowest quality if content lacks originality or user value.
🔗 Google Adds Links in AI Overviews to Its Own Search Results
After testing, Google now includes internal links in AI Overviews to help users dive deeper into related topics directly from search.
📈 Google Performance Max Adds Customer Goals & Image Controls
New updates bring retention targeting, cost-per-acquisition insights, and AI-powered image enhancements for better ad performance.
🌍 Google to Redirect Country TLDs to Google.com
Google will phase out country-specific domains like google.fr or google.ca, unifying global Search under google.com for a consistent user experience.
🍏 Apple Rebrands Search Ads to Apple Ads
Apple broadens its digital ad focus, signaling expansion beyond App Store search into a wider advertising ecosystem.
🚫 TikTok Ads Introduces New Exclusion Lists
Advertisers can now block specific videos or profiles from appearing alongside their ads, giving more control over brand safety.
⚖️ Google Faces $6.6 Billion Lawsuit Over Search Ad Monopoly
A UK lawsuit alleges Google inflated ad prices by abusing its dominance and restricting competition in the search advertising space.
🚨 Google Removed 5.5 Billion Ads, Suspended 39M Advertisers in 2024
The Ads Safety Report reveals AI-driven enforcement led to record policy actions, boosting ad quality and platform trust.
🎬 Video Previews Now Available for Google Business Profile Verification
Businesses using video verification can now preview their video before submitting, making the process more user-friendly and accurate.
📍 Google Ads Will Now Appear in Both Top & Bottom Positions
A policy update allows the same advertiser’s ads to show at the top and bottom of search results, aiming for broader visibility without violating double-serving rules.
🌐 ChatGPT Search Hits 41M Monthly Users in the EU
OpenAI’s search tool sees rapid growth but still trails far behind Google in user volume and market dominance.
🧵 Meta Rolls Out Ads Globally on Threads Feed
Brands can now target Threads’ 300 million monthly users with Meta’s advanced advertising and audience tools.
🎥 YouTube Tests AI Overviews in Search Results
A new AI-powered carousel highlights the most relevant video clips for select search queries, aiming to enhance discovery.
🛍️ Meta Adds Dynamic Overlays to Advantage+ Catalog Ads
New sticker-style labels can now highlight prices, discounts, and free shipping in catalog ads to boost engagement.
🛒 Google Ads Brings Checkout on Merchant to Demand Gen Campaigns
Now available on YouTube, this feature streamlines the purchase process and aims to boost conversions.
📊 GA4 Adds Snapshot Templates & Improves Ad Attribution
Google Analytics 4 introduces quick-report templates and enhanced aggregate identifiers for better Google Ads tracking.
🛍️ OpenAI Adds Shopping Features to ChatGPT Search
Users can now browse products in categories like fashion and electronics—powered by structured data, not ads.
🔍 Google Disables Hack to View Discover Performance by Device
A hack allowing users to view Google Discover performance by desktop and mobile has been disabled. The data is no longer segmented by device.
🛍️ OpenAI Adds Shopping Features to ChatGPT Search
Users can now browse products in categories like fashion and electronics—powered by structured data, not ads.
🔍 Google Disables Hack to View Discover Performance by Device
A hack allowing users to view Google Discover performance by desktop and mobile has been disabled. The data is no longer segmented by device.
🧠 Google Merchant Center Adds AI-Powered Product Filtering
The new AI tools help advertisers quickly identify and resolve feed issues that could hurt campaign performance.
💡 Google Tests ‘Sponsored’ Labels for Commercial Query Links
In this experiment, results linking to commercial searches may show a “Sponsored” tag—even without paid clicks.
📰 May 2025
🤖 Google Tests Ads in AI Chatbot Conversations
Google is experimenting with placing ads inside third-party AI chat tools, expanding advertising beyond traditional search.
🔍 Google Expands Ad Transparency with Payer Info
Users can now see who’s funding ads via My Ad Center and Ads Transparency Center, based on advertiser payment profiles.
🍎 Apple Intelligence to Integrate Google Gemini AI
By late 2025, Apple will integrate Google’s Gemini and other AI services into Apple Intelligence for enhanced functionality.
📊 New Channel-Level Reporting for Google Performance Max
Performance Max now offers search term reports and detailed asset metrics, improving transparency and campaign insights.
🎯 Google Expands Search Themes Limit in Performance Max
Advertisers can now use up to 50 Search Themes in PMax campaigns, allowing better targeting while retaining automation benefits.
📱 Google Adds First-Party Data & iOS Conversion Tools
New tools improve iOS tracking and strengthen first-party data use, helping advertisers adapt to privacy changes and complex user paths.
🚀 Google Ads Launches AI Max for Search Campaigns (Beta)
AI Max helps advertisers quickly expand queries and auto-generate ads and assets with a single click, streamlining campaign creation.
🍏 Apple May Add AI Search Engines to Safari As Google Use Drops
Apple is reportedly revamping Safari to support AI-powered search like ChatGPT, potentially reducing reliance on Google’s $20B search deal.
🧪 Google Tests AI Mode Button On Search Bar
Google is experimenting with an “AI Mode” button in the search bar, replacing the “I’m Feeling Lucky” option to encourage more users to try AI-powered search.
🍽️ Google Business Profiles Launches ‘What’s Happening’
A new feature lets restaurants and bars highlight events, specials, and deals prominently to boost real-time engagement.
🖼️ Google Ads PMax Image Optimization Rolling Out
Google’s AI now auto-enhances images in Performance Max campaigns, including pulling visuals directly from landing pages.
📱💻 Google Ads Adds Device Targeting to PMax Campaigns
Advertisers can now control where PMax ads appear across phones, tablets, TVs, and computers.
📺🛍️ YouTube Launches Shopping Ads for TV Viewers
Interactive TV ads allow users to browse and shop directly from YouTube on the big screen.
💰 Google Rolls Out ‘Ads Funded By’ Labels
Google now displays payer names in search results via My Ad Center, enhancing ad transparency.
💵 Ads Arrive in Google AI Overviews
Google begins placing ads within AI-generated Overviews in desktop search results, signaling a new era in search monetization.
🎯 Google Lowers Customer Match List Minimum to 100 Users
Small advertisers can now use powerful audience targeting in Search campaigns with just 100 users in Customer Match.
🎮 Discord Launches Reward-Based Video Ads
Discord enters advertising with opt-in video ads targeting engaged communities—pausing playback if users switch tabs.
📊 Google Search Console to Track AI Mode, But Not Separately
AI Mode data will appear in Search Console, but performance won’t be broken out from other surfaces.
📈 Performance Max Gets Channel-Level Reporting
Google begins rolling out PMax channel performance reporting, giving advertisers clearer insights across networks for better campaign optimization.
🔍 Google Lens Comes to YouTube Shorts
YouTube Shorts now supports Google Lens image search, allowing users to circle parts of videos to instantly explore visual results — ad-free during beta.
📰 June 2025
👩💼 Navah Hopkins Joins Microsoft as Ads Liaison
Microsoft Advertising hires Navah Hopkins, marking a strategic move to strengthen its B2B/B2C ad communication. She departs Optmyzr after 4+ years as brand evangelist.
🎥 Google Expands Video Ads to Search, Shopping & Images
Google brings video ads to Search, Shopping, and Image tabs across the U.S. and Canada. The move boosts early product discovery via richer, visual ad formats.
📺 LinkedIn Launches First-View Video Ads & Adobe Integration
LinkedIn debuts premium video formats, including First Impression and CTV ads, plus Adobe Express integration. Aimed at helping B2B marketers make a bigger splash.
⚠️ Google Ads May Pause Accounts for Manager Violations
Google can now pause individual ad accounts linked to Managers violating third-party policy. Advertisers must carefully vet who handles their campaigns to avoid penalties.
📺 YouTube Tests 30-Second Non-Skippable Ads in Standard Campaigns
YouTube opens 30-second non-skippable ads to standard auctions, expanding access beyond premium Reservation buys.
🤖 Google Removes Robots.txt Guidance for Auto-Translated Pages
Google dropped specific guidance on blocking auto-translated pages via robots.txt, aligning docs with current spam policies.
📊 Microsoft Ads Launches Reporting Overhaul & PMax Updates
Microsoft’s updates improve cross-platform tools, introduce smarter reporting, and enhance Performance Max and Shopify integration.
📉 Google Drops Support for Multiple Rich Result Types
Google is simplifying search results by dropping support for Book Actions, Course Info, Estimated Salary, and more structured data types.
🔊 Google Tests Audio Overviews in Search Results
A new Labs feature offers AI-generated spoken summaries and links in Search results for hands-free browsing.
🔍 ChatGPT Search Adds Image-Based Queries and Smarter Responses
OpenAI upgraded ChatGPT Search to support image prompts, improve coherence in long chats, and better handle complex queries.
📈 Google AI Mode Traffic Now in Search Console
AI Mode clicks, impressions, and positions now appear in Search Console reports, with updated guidance on how the data is tracked.
📣 WhatsApp Adds Discovery Tools, Ads, and Subscriptions
WhatsApp’s Updates tab now supports promoted channels, paid subscriptions, and Status ads, helping brands grow reach among 1.5B daily users.
🎥 TikTok Launches AI Video Tools for Branded Content
New Symphony tools let advertisers instantly generate branded videos and AI avatars using product images or text prompts.
💬 Reddit Debuts Social Listening and Conversation Ads
Reddit’s new alpha tools include Reddit Insights for social listening and Conversation Summary Add-ons for built-in social proof under ads.
🎨 Meta Unveils AI Tools for Automated Video and Branding
Meta’s Advantage+ updates include AI-generated video from static images, auto-applied brand assets, and video highlights extraction.
🎙️ Google Launches “Search Live” in AI Mode Labs
Google is rolling out Search Live—a conversational, voice-based version of Search—within the Google App for U.S. users enrolled in the AI Mode experiment. It enables back-and-forth voice interaction while exploring real-time web results.
🎬 Veo 3 AI Video Tool Coming to YouTube Shorts
Google will integrate its Veo 3 text-to-video model into YouTube Shorts this summer. Brands and creators can generate short-form videos directly from text prompts—streamlining ad and content production.
🛍️ Google Expands Commerce Media Suite
Google is enhancing its Commerce Media suite across Search, YouTube, and Display, offering retailers and brands more AI-powered tools to optimize campaigns, track outcomes, and collaborate more effectively.
🚫 Display Network No Longer Auto-Enabled in Search Campaigns
Google Ads will no longer auto-opt Search campaigns into the Display Network, giving advertisers better control and preventing spend on irrelevant traffic.
📊 New Google Ads Metric: “Conv. Value (Incl. Predicted)”
A new, unannounced Google Ads metric — “Conv. value (incl. predicted)” — now appears in accounts. It combines actual and forecasted conversion value for a more predictive view of campaign performance.
🛒 1st Order Promotions Launch for Shopping Ads
Google Ads introduces 1st Order Promotions (aka New Customer Promotions) for Shopping ads, allowing merchants to automatically offer exclusive discounts to first-time customers.
📈 Google Merchant Center Revives Product Status History Report
The “product status changes” report is returning to Google Merchant Center, giving advertisers historical visibility into changes in product eligibility and feed issues.
🖼️ Bing Tests New 2-Row Image Carousel
Microsoft is experimenting with a revamped image carousel in Bing Search. The test includes two rows of images, expandable related search tags, and a bolder, square arrow interface for navigation.
📢 Stay tuned for more updates! Bookmark this page to track the biggest digital marketing news throughout 2025. 🚀