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.
📢 Stay tuned for more updates! Bookmark this page to track the biggest digital marketing news throughout 2025. 🚀