Want to upgrade your paid media strategy for the rest of 2024 and beyond? Whether you want to take advantage of AI, discover new platforms, or prepare to advertise in a world without third-party cookies, this guide is here to help.
Just as our Search Engine Rewind did for organic search, this paid media playbook combines expert insights from the paid media team at NP Digital and other paid marketers in the field.
You’ll learn which new paid media platforms you should be taking advantage of, how the paid social landscape is shifting, and the best practices you should focus on.
So, if you’re ready to discover the biggest paid media trends of 2024, read on.
Key Takeaways
- New privacy laws will require marketers to think carefully about how they collect and manage data.
- While many marketers aren’t overly concerned about the depreciation of third-party cookies, it’s recommended to explore cookieless solutions like Enhanced Conversions.
- Several emerging platforms are on the rise, including gaming networks, digital out-of-home (DOOH) ads, connected TV (CTV) ads, and Brave Ads.
- Paid social is as popular as ever thanks to the evolution of social media platforms as search engines and e-commerce hubs.
- Want to mix up your paid ads strategy in 2024? Try user-generated content (UGC) or conversational advertising.
- Short-form videos on TikTok or YouTube Shorts grab attention fast—just make sure your first five seconds are strong to hook viewers.
- Premium placements like TikTok Pulse and YouTube Select allow advertisers to position their brands alongside trending, top-performing content for added credibility.
- AI tools like Performance Max or Jasper can optimize bidding, generate creative, and streamline campaigns, helping marketers save time and improve ROI.
Table of Contents
- Key Takeaways
- Methodology
- Privacy Concerns and Expanded Privacy Regulations
- Deprecation of Third-Party Cookies
- New Frontiers For Paid Media
- Social Media Landscape Shifts
- Developing Practices for Paid Media
- Premium Inventory Opportunities
- Gen Z And Social Responsibility
- AI’s Impact on Advertising
- Conclusion
Methodology
The insights in this guide come from two super knowledgeable resources.
The first is the team at NP Digital, which includes industry experts with decades of experience in paid search, social, and programmatic advertising.
The second is a group of 309 paid marketers who work at companies with over 250 employees. We surveyed marketers from across the U.S. to understand how they see the paid search landscape changing.
We asked this group about a range of paid search topics, such as emerging platforms, new targeting strategies, and the impact of artificial intelligence.
Privacy Concerns and Expanded Privacy Regulations
New privacy laws are changing how platforms and advertisers collect and use consumer data. A slew of U.S. states have recently enacted data privacy laws, including California (which amended and expanded the California Consumer Privacy Act to the California Privacy Rights Act), Colorado, Florida, Montana, Oregon, and Texas.
Google has reacted by adjusting its data collection practices. It has enabled Restricted Data Processing (RDP), which means the search platform shows only non-personalized ads to users in these states.
In Europe, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which became applicable halfway through 2023, means major platforms like Google and Meta need explicit consent to collect and use personal data from consumers in the European Economic Area (EEA). That’s unlike most state-based privacy laws in the U.S., which let users opt out of personalized ads, but still displays them by default.
Data protection laws are also being introduced across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. In most cases, businesses will need to introduce a cookie banner that lets users choose their preferences. You can also implement Google’s consent mode v2, which enables you to collect conversion data through a tag-based system and comply with regulations.
While platforms like Google generally help companies comply with privacy laws, you may find it easier to use a compliance management platform (CMP) that streamlines your paid media compliance efforts.
There are plenty of platforms to choose from, including MetricStream, PerformLine, and Filestage.
Deprecation of Third-Party Cookies
One privacy-related issue marketers don’t have to worry about just yet is the deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome. Google has reversed its decision to remove cookies from its browser in response to concerns from the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority, along with demand from advertisers. Instead, it will continue to work on its Privacy Sandbox.
Even so, the majority (57.9 percent) of our survey respondents felt that the deprecation of cookies wouldn’t impact their paid marketing plans much.
That might be because they’ve already switched to less cookie-focused tracking methods like Google Ads’ enhanced conversion tracking. This method works in addition to your existing conversion tags, sending hashed first-party data from your website to Google in a privacy-focused manner.
Another strategy is to use advertising platforms that use cookieless tracking, like Simpli.fi, Dstillery, and El Toro.
New Frontiers For Paid Media
The most popular paid marketing channels can be expensive. Four in 10 of our respondents said their pay-per-click (PPC) costs had increased over the past year, yet almost half (49.6 percent) of that group planned to double down on spending.
Cost per click (CPC) may become even more expensive due to the upcoming U.S. presidential election. The majority (70 percent) of marketers in our survey think the presidential election will impact paid advertising. This may stem from the fact that the results of presidential elections tend to have ripple effects in the business world as companies react to the potential economic policies of the incoming administration.
Those who say they are seeing higher PPC costs are more likely to seek out new forms of paid marketing—and there are plenty of up-and-coming paid media platforms and channels to choose from.
We’ve highlighted five of these new frontiers below.
Gaming
Gaming is a $350 billion industry with a highly engaged audience, so it’s no surprise that gaming ads are becoming more popular.
Our survey found that 57.3% percent of marketers were advertising there, with Twitch, Discord, and in-game ads as the most popular channels.
If you want to get started on Twitch, there are eight formats to choose from:
- Headliner
- Homepage Carousel
- Medium Rectangle
- Stream Display Ads
- Streamable Ads
- Super Leaderboard Ads
- Twitch Premium Video Ads
- First Impression Takeover
Of these formats, brands will be most interested in:
- Headliner ads, which appear behind the paid-for carousel ads used by streamers
- Stream display ads, which appear during live streams
- Super leaderboard ads, which appear at the top of the page
- Twitch premium video ads, short pre-roll, and mid-roll unskippable video ads
Note that you have the option to run self-service ads on Twitch through Amazon’s DSP, similar to the self-serve platforms of Meta and Google.
If you’d rather target gamers mid-game, a solution like Activision Blizzard’s Rewarded Video may do the trick.
These user-initiated in-game ads (like the Ben & Jerry’s ad above) let you connect with highly engaged gamers at key moments in combination with desirable player rewards they can use to advance through their game of choice. Brands can also use interactive end cards to increase audience engagement and drive higher click-through rates.
In-App Ads
In-app advertising is a win-win for brands and developers. It gives developers a source of additional revenue while letting brands reach targeted and engaged audiences.
Spending on this form of paid media is forecast to reach $352.7 billion in 2024 and $534.1 billion by 2029.
In-app advertising comes in various forms, including:
- Interstitial ads
- Video ads
- Banner ads
- Native ads
Here’s an example of an interstitial ad from Google’s AdMob network:
Advertisers can choose from a range of pricing models, too:
- Cost per mille (CPM): Pay for every thousand views.
- Cost per click (CPC): Only pay when your ad is clicked.
- Cost per view (CPV): Only pay when users watch your video ad.
- Cost per install (CPI): An app-specific pricing model through which you only pay when users install your app.
- Cost per action (CPA): Only pay when users complete a predefined action.
In-app ads are an ideal and effective way for brands to target smartphone users. Research shows 42.6 percent of consumers have bought something after clicking on an in-app ad, and 56.5 percent of consumers have downloaded an app after an in-app ad recommended it.
The other great thing about in-app ads is that you aren’t just limited to using a single advertising platform. There are several to choose from, including Google’s AdMob, AppLovin, Publift, PropellerAds, and RevX.
Digital Out-Of-Home (DOOH)
Digital out-of-home media (DOOH) is one of the fastest-growing paid media sectors. Used by over 43 percent of respondents, it was the second most popular trending paid media option in our survey.
DOOH is a form of dynamic and data-driven outdoor advertising. Brands can tailor ads based on things like the time of day, the location of the signage, and even the weather. DOOH includes digital billboards and outdoor signage—as large as the billboards in Times Square or as small as the sign at your local bus stop.
DOOH offers several benefits over both online ads and traditional outdoor media:
- There are no online ad blockers, meaning consumers will always be exposed to your ad.
- You can engage consumers close to the point of sales with geofenced advertising.
- Signage is dynamic, allowing brands to only pay for their ads to be shown at specific times of the day.
DOOH advertising isn’t perfect. It’s much harder to measure than online advertising since there’s no way of knowing for sure how many people walked past your ad or saw it. Inventory is also spread between multiple platforms, which can make campaigns hard to manage.
Connected TV (CTV) and Over-the-Top (OTT) Advertising
Want to reach consumers while they are watching TV? Connected TV ads and over-the-top advertising are two emerging channels to try.
Some use these two terms interchangeably, but they are slightly different.
Connected TV (CTV) advertising delivers targeted ads through internet-connected smart TVs. Over-the-top (OTT) advertising delivers ads through video streaming services like Hulu and Paramount+.
Regardless of which paid media format you use, both types of advertising have advantages over traditional TV ads.
Unlike traditional TV ads, which have to appeal to a broad audience, CTV ads can be hyperpersonalized and targeted. Brands can target audiences based on their viewing interests, for example, as well as their location and the time of day.
These ads are also much more measurable than traditional TV ads. Brands can track viewing, engagement, and conversion metrics like return on ad spend (ROAS), cost per completed view (CPCV), and gross rating points (GRPs) to optimize campaigns in real time.
CTV also has integrated ad buying options at your fingertips through Microsoft Advertising. Advertisers can manage CTV campaigns alongside search and display ads, simplifying ad management and removing the need for separate DSPs. Other benefits include:
- Easy setup
- No onboarding fees
- Budget flexibility
- Impression-based remarketing
- Cohesive messaging across CTV and other formats
- Leverages Microsoft’s vast first-party data to enhance personalization and performance.
CTV ads and over-the-top advertising were used by 40.8 percent and 43.3 percent of respondents in our survey, respectively.
But these ads are only going to become more popular. Connected TV ad spending is expected to reach $21.45 billion by the end of the year and grow by 13.9 percent year on year. OTT, on the other hand, projects to reach $11.14 billion and account for 3.7% of all digital ad spend.
Brave Ads
One emerging ad format used by only 29.1 percent of respondents in our survey (although 17.27 percent said they soon would) was Brave Ads.
If you don’t know much about Brave, it’s a free, open-source, Chromium-based browser that puts a premium on speed and privacy. It boasts over 78 million monthly active users and is popular with those who like Chrome but want a more private browsing experience. The browser has built-in ad blockers, its own crypto wallet, and even a search engine.
Brave Ads are ideal for reaching a unique audience of tech-savvy, privacy-first individuals who are harder to reach on other platforms. There are several ad formats you can choose from that cover both the platform’s browser and search engine:
Search ads:
A privacy-preserving text-based ad that appears at the top of the Brave search results page.
Tab takeover ads:
High-quality full-page images that feature in Brave’s new tab rotation.
Newsfeed ads:
Display ads that show in the private and customizable news feed that appears every time someone opens a new tab
Notifications ads:
Text-based ads with a call-to-action that appear during user browsing sessions.
One of the biggest benefits of Brave Ads is the ability to reach a unique target audience. Brave’s userbase spreads across over 200 countries. These users tend to be younger and privacy-conscious individuals—the kind of people who would have ad blockers on another browser like Chrome or Safari. Because these users have more trust in the Brave platform, ads on the platform don’t have the same perception of “spammy” or “intrusive” conventional paid ads might.
Perplexity Ads
Another emerging platform for advertisers is the AI generative search engine Perplexity, which boasts around 100 million search queries per week. In November, the platform announced that it would start launching ads in the form of sponsored follow-up questions. Note that these follow-ups would be generated by Perplexity, not your brand.
Some of the initial brands taking part include Indeed, Whole Foods Market, Universal McCann, PMG, and others. But what does an ad on a generative search engine look like?
Here’s an example: First, here’s a typical Perplexity question and response:
Now, here’s an example of a sponsored followup question.
Perplexity has the potential to open up a new potential audience for advertisers, even though the concept is in its relative infancy. The platform has shared that:
- 80% of its users have undergraduate degrees.
- 30% have what they call a “senior leadership position.”
- 65% are considered to work in “high-income white-collar professions.” Examples include law, medicine, and software engineering.
If you’re targeting that high-earning, well-educated audience, or want the lower competition of an emerging platform, Perplexity could be a good way to get started on the ground floor.
Social Media Landscape Shifts
Over 5 billion people around the world use social media, and 259 million new users have come online in the past year.
Source: Datareportal
These networks are becoming much more than a way to connect with friends. Modern social platforms are news outlets, search engines, and storefronts.
The popularity of social media advertising isn’t in doubt—it was the most popular paid media campaign style among our respondents. But how marketers think about the network is changing.
Below, we look at four of the biggest paid social trends this year so far.
Expansion of Social Commerce
Social commerce is the fusion of social media and e-commerce. It’s a powerful combination that enables users to make purchases directly from their favorite social platform. U.S. social commerce was valued at $89.11 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 29.2 percent.
Facebook is the most popular social commerce platform overall, although platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok are leading the charge in social commerce, especially among Gen Z, who favor seamless in-app shopping experiences.
The great thing about social commerce from an advertiser’s point of view is they no longer have to convince users to leave the platform to make a purchase. Shoppable ads on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook mean users can click a link in the post’s description, see the price, and make a purchase.
So, how can you get started?
Having your product feed in order is essential. These are the cornerstones of shoppable ads on most social media platforms, such as Facebook and TikTok.
These feeds let you take advantage of each platform’s unique shopping ad formats. On Facebook, that includes carousel collections, photo ads, and video ads.
Ad-Free Experiences
Social media platforms have always relied on ads to generate revenue. But that may not be the case for much longer since several social media platforms are trialing ad-free subscription models.
This includes X, with a Premium+ tier that costs $16 per month, Meta (which announced it will offer ad-free subscriptions to European users for €9.99—just under $11 in U.S. currency), and TikTok, which is piloting an ad-free subscription priced at $4.99.
Here’s what the subscription options for TikTok look like:
While it remains to be seen just how many users will pay a subscription to use social media, advertisers should consider how to navigate ad-free social media networks in the future.
One obvious option is to invest more in influencer marketing. Paid users will still follow their favorite influencers, making this an easy way for brands to reach these consumers. Investing in nano- and micro-influencers, specifically, could help brands maintain reach in ad-free environments while keeping campaigns cost-effective.
The other solution is to grow organic followings using a paid ad strategy while you can. An ad-free social media experience doesn’t mean people won’t follow their favorite brands. So, community building may be the order of the day before consumers choose to forgo ads for good.
Social Media Is Becoming Its Own Search Platform
Social media platforms have become search engines for millions across the globe. Research by Adobe finds that two in five Americans use TikTok as a search engine, and 10 percent of Gen Z users are more likely to turn to TikTok than Google.
Platforms like YouTube and Instagram are also popular among people of all ages looking for information fast.
Speed is one reason consumers turn to social media instead of search engines. But so are trust and convenience. When people are on social media a lot more than Google, it’s much easier to turn to trusted sources like your favorite influencer or the app’s discovery section for advice.
Some social platforms are embracing this phenomenon, and advertisers would do well to follow. TikTok, for example, is launching Search Ads Toggle in Beta—a feature that allows brands to advertise in search results.
TikTok automatically creates ads using the advertiser’s existing content and serves them alongside organic results, as you can see above.
Nano- and Micro-Influencers Take Center Stage
Move aside, celebrities and social media mega influencers. The time of the micro- and nano-influencers has arrived.
Micro-influencers (people with 10,000 to 50,000 followers) and nano-influencers (people with 1,000 to 10,000 followers) may not have the follower counts of people like Jake Paul. But they have a lot of other characteristics that appeal to brand advertisers.
This includes:
- Highly engaged audiences
- Authenticity and relatability
- Cost-effectiveness
While macro-influencers were the most popular with marketers in our survey, that’s primarily because they fit their business audience. Of the marketers who preferred nano-influencers, one-third said it was because they are more cost-effective.
Even the biggest brands work with micro-influencers.
Take Melizza Black, for example, a fangirl fashionista who partners with the likes of Disney, Pixar, and Universal Studios to promote new films, product ranges, and clothing merchandise.
In fact, survey respondents with budgets topping $200,000 were more likely to work with micro-influencers because of better campaign performance.
Linkedin Influencers For B2B Campaigns
Targeted B2B audiences with paid media campaigns has always had its unique challenges due to the longer buying cycles and more discerning preferences compared to B2B. Bringing Linkedin influencers into your paid campaigns can be a difference-maker in terms of providing that credibility and reach you need.
LinkedIn influencers bring a unique advantage to paid media campaigns due to their highly professional and engaged audiences. Since they are often focused on professional growth and industry-specific insights, they make a perfect fit for B2B campaigns.
Collaborating with Linkedin influencers allows brands to target a niche audience with tailored messaging, increasing conversion rates and ROI.
With that in mind, how do you fully harness the power of this growing option for paid media? Start by identifying individuals whose audience aligns with your target demographics.
For example, NP Digital co-founder Neil Patel is a successful Linkedin influencer, buiilding an audience of over 680k followers on the platform.
This would make him an ideal fit for any paid campaign related to digital marketing services or tools due to his established success in the space.
Use tools like LinkedIn’s Creator Mode analytics or platforms like BuzzSumo to evaluate influencer performance metrics such as engagement rates and follower authenticity.
Once you start your Linkedin partnership, prioritize authenticity in your paid campaigns. LinkedIn audiences are particularly sensitive to overtly promotional content, so it’s essential to frame your message as an industry-relevant insight or case study. Personal anecdotes or professional experiences tied to your product can boost credibility and audience trust as well.
Developing Practices for Paid Media
The strategies advertisers use to craft the best paid ads are constantly changing. Whether it’s the format, platform, or bidding strategy, it’s important to stay ahead of the curve and use the latest techniques to create ads that resonate with audiences and drive return on investment (ROI).
Short-Form Video
Want to seize a user’s attention? Short-form videos are the way to go.
A short-form video is between three and 90 seconds long. Most commonly found on TikTok, this video format has quickly spread to YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.
Short-form videos are popular for both organic and paid marketing efforts thanks to high engagement rates, lower costs, and simple messaging.
You can create short-form video ads on any of these platforms, but TikTok and YouTube Shorts are the most popular and effective. YouTube Shorts boasts more than 2.3 billion monthly users, and 70 billion daily views, for example, while TikTok has over 1 billion global monthly active users.
Google’s making several new initiatives for YouTube Shorts advertising to take advantage of this newfound popularity, including:
- The introduction of the YouTube Select Shorts lineup, where advertisers can place ads next to curated popular Shorts content.
- Tailoring its ABCD framework for short-form content, which emphasizes strategies like capturing attention quickly and integrating branding early. Additionally,
Three things are critical to succeed with short-form video ads. The first is to make the first five seconds of your video as captivating as possible. The better your hook, the fewer users will click skip.
Second, ensure you have a single, clear message. Don’t try to highlight multiple unique selling propositions (USPs) or target different audiences in a 30-second short. Short, sweet, and to the point is the order of the day.
Lastly, Google reports that creator-led ads on YouTube Shorts can achieve up to 20% higher conversions than traditional branded ads. You can apply this lesson to any short-video platform, and work with relevant influencers on the platform to increase your reach and credibility.
Immersive and Interactive Experiences (AR and VR)
You probably can’t remember the last ad you saw. But it’s more likely you can remember the last time you experienced augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR).
That’s why AR and VR ad experiences are becoming increasingly popular with major brands. The AR market alone is expected to hit $5.2 billion by the end of the year.
While traditional ads are passive affairs that struggle to capture our attention, augmented and virtual reality ads create an interactive and memorable experience.
Take Coca-Cola Zero Sugar’s #TakeATasteNow out-of-home augmented reality campaign that launched at the end of 2023. Rolled out across 13 U.K. locations, the AR ad experience enabled customers to interact with digital billboards in real time by scanning a QR code to redeem a Coca-Cola in a nearby store.
AR and VR ads don’t have to be high-budget guerilla advertising campaigns, however. IKEA has seen success with IKEA Place, an app that launched in 2017 and lets customers use AR to place IKEA products around their homes.
User-Generated Content (UGC)
User-generated content (UGC) is a popular organic social media strategy, but you can also use it in paid campaigns.
In fact, it can go a long way toward improving your ad conversion rates, given that visitors who interact with UGC convert 102.4 percent higher than average.
UGC also improves the authenticity of your ads. It’s hard to make a paid ad truly authentic, but reviews and recommendations from real customers help humanize your campaigns.
Integrating UGC into your paid ads campaign can be as simple as dropping a testimonial into your next creative, as Peet’s Coffee does here:
Or you can use video reviews as your ad’s main creative, as the beauty brand Prose does below:
(Source)
Conversational Advertising
Conversational advertising uses personalized and automated conversations to encourage users to take action.
Rather than a static image or scripted video, conversational ads use a chat interface to mimic a real-life conversation. Users can select predefined messages that can change the nature of the conversation and lead to different outcomes.
Facebook and LinkedIn are the two social platforms that work best for this paid media strategy. LinkedIn Message Ads lets you send sponsored direct messages to a specific set of users on the platform, for example. Facebook Messenger Ads are conversational ads that appear in the Messenger app.
Here’s an example from LinkedIn:
But social media isn’t the only place you’ll find these ads. You can also re-create a chatbot interface using banner ads. Here’s an example from Emirates Vacations:
Contextual Targeting
Contextual advertising is a type of targeted digital advertising where ads change depending on the content of the webpage.
Contextual targeting can either be keyword-based or semantic:
- Keywords: Platforms use on-page keywords to serve targeted ads.
- Semantic: Platforms use AI to understand the meaning of the page rather than just identifying keywords.
Contextual targeting is an excellent way to serve relevant ads to an engaged audience without relying on third-party cookies. If someone is reading a page about tourist destinations in Bali, you can be pretty sure they’ll be interested in a hotel or flight to the region.
Contextual targeting can also be quite cost-effective, especially compared with behavioral marketing campaigns that require massive amounts of user data. This makes it easier to implement, too.
There are plenty of platforms you can use to get started with contextual ads, including Google AdSense, DV360, the Yahoo! Bing Network, and Media.net.
Premium Inventory Opportunities
Want to give your ads the best chance of success in 2024 and beyond? Consider leveraging the premium inventory opportunities available on several social media platforms.
Premium ad inventories are the most expensive and exclusive ad spaces on these platforms. They typically appear under or alongside the most on-trend and relevant content.
TikTok Pulse suite, for example, places your ads immediately after the best in-feed content. There are several options, including:
- Max Pulse: Ads placed next to the top 4 percent of content on the platform, according to the Pulse Score.
- Category Lineups: Ads inside TikTok’s Pulse Lineups, a collection of top-performing content across a dozen categories.
- Seasonal Lineups: The seasonal equivalent of category lineups, where ads are placed alongside top-performing content from holiday events like Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July.
- Pulse Premiere: Ads placed after top-performing content in the lifestyle & education, sports, and entertainment categories.
YouTube Select is a similar program that shows ads alongside the top 5 percent of the platform’s most viewed content.
Premium inventory opportunities are a fantastic way to associate your business with the biggest brands and content creators. This network effect can be a great way to increase brand awareness. Thirty-four percent of survey respondents said they are already using opportunities like this, with another 20 percent planning to start using them in the next year.
Gen Z And Social Responsibility
Want to attract younger consumers with paid media? Then you better be a socially responsible corporation.
Gen Z has strong values and expects brands to share them. McKinsey research finds that almost three-quarters (73 percent) of Gen Z try to purchase from ethical companies. Nine in 10 believe companies have a responsibility to address social and environmental issues.
As “digital natives”—the first generation to grow up surrounded by technology—your best bet for reaching Gen Z is through digital channels. But not just any ad will do. Sprout Social found that 73 percent of Gen Z consumers think brands should raise awareness and take a stand on sensitive issues.
That’s the exact strategy Levi’s took with its “Buy Better, Wear Longer” campaign.
By taking a stand against fast fashion and partnering with well-known social activists, including Xiye Bastida, Emma Chamberlain, and Marcus Rashford, the brand raised awareness of our shared environmental responsibility while promoting the quality of its products and attracting a new, younger generation of customers.
AI’s Impact on Advertising
It wouldn’t be a 2024 trends article if we didn’t end with a section about AI, would it? The truth is there’s a lot to cover. AI has become so pervasive that it’s impacting almost every part of the paid media world—and the majority of our survey respondents are already using it in their campaigns.
Ad creation is one common use case. Google’s Dynamic Search Ads feature uses AI algorithms and content on your existing website to automatically create relevant ads and show them to customers searching for the exact product or service you offer.
Meta also has a Dynamic Ads offering, which can automatically promote all your products across Facebook and Instagram.
Then there are generative AI tools like ChatGPT or Jasper, which you can use to create ad copy in seconds.
Soon enough, though, you won’t even need to leave your native ad platform of choice for generative AI support. Many of the major players, like Google, Meta, and TikTok are all building native creative solutions that can auto-generate copy and creative.
Google, in particular, is taking this capability to the next level, using AI to assist advertisers with video and voice-over capabilities, enhancing the efficiency and quality of ad creation. The platform includes features such as AI-powered video editing and text-to-speech functionality for YouTube ads.
Imagine being able to input a script, choose a variety of voices, and create natural-sounding audio overlays, This allows for flexible and quick adjustments to match your brand voice, making video content production more efficient and accessible than ever.
AI can run your campaign for you, too. Over one-third of our respondents used AI-powered paid bidding strategies, for example, which was the top use case in our survey. In addition, when it comes to taking advantage of Google’s capabilities to generate creative using AI, our survey respondents were very intrigued.
Speaking of Google’s AI improvements, Performance Max (PMax) campaigns are a great example of this technology. Performance Max campaigns deliver broad, conversion-focused coverage with the use of AI. The results are impressive, with Google claiming marketers are seeing 27 percent more conversions.
Not that Google is resting on its laurels. The search giant is making a series of improvements to PMax by:
- Optimizing broad matches by 10% for advertisers using smart bidding
- Adding the ability to see ad performance by creative and placement details
- Implementing YouTube exclusions
- Introducing a profit optimization goal in Smart Bidding, which optimizes for profit using data from cart-level conversions and your Merchant Center account
If you already have paid media campaigns set up, there are several third-party platforms that let you leverage AI to improve campaign performance. These include Trapica and Adsmurai.
What do all the AI leaps mean for paid media marketers? Well, the role is evolving. The advent of AI simplifying tasks like content generation, bidding, and more means that there is less time spent on tedium and more time on higher-level tasks, with supervision for that AI output. Paid media professionals are becoming more a hybrid campaign/creative/strategy manager role.
Conclusion
Paid media is one of the most dynamic and fast-paced marketing environments. Things can change significantly from month to month, and there are always new trends and platforms you can use to drive more revenue and generate higher returns on your investment.
New trends may not last, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be experimenting. You never know: Contextual advertising, short-form video, or in-app ads may be your new highest-converting channel.
So assess your marketing budgets and consider which of the new channels or best practices highlighted align with your brand. Identify your target markets and then create a content calendar for your paid campaigns to prioritize your efforts and get your ducks in a row.
Then it’s all about executing. And remember, the faster you execute, the better positioned you’ll be to take advantage of new paid marketing trends in 2025 and beyond.
If you want even more insights on these upcoming trends, check out our full report on the NP Digital website.
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