The State of Performance Marketing in 2025
I believe 2025 will be the beginning of a turning point in marketing in general, but more specifically performance marketing. We are already seeing some of these changes to the status quo being telegraphed in the last couple of years.
Going Where Your Customers Are
As has always been the case, you go where your customers go. For a long time, this has meant Google. While this is still likely to be the case for many businesses, the landscape is undeniably changing. Further reinforced by the search engine trouble Google saw in 2024 and the anti-trust Monopoly investigation Google has been under the microscope for.
Specifically with younger generations (Gen Z and younger millennials), Google may no longer be the best place to reach people. A greater importance must be put on social media platforms, as this is where younger people are best reached. You might be thinking, social media has been incredibly popular for over a decade - this is true. However, what has not been true until the last year or two are younger people using platforms like TikTok and YouTube as search engines, as a replacement for Google. More and more purchases can and will be made without ever leaving the TikTok platform. So, if you're not there, you're going to miss out.
Where Should I Advertise to Reach My Customers?
Always test platforms for yourself and never blindly trust anything you read about marketing, as it's almost always based on anecdotal experience. That being said, here are my experiences after years of testing across multiple platforms.
Great for reaching the older generations (Gen X / Baby Boomers)
Relatively easy to take off-platform
Mostly used by Millennials and Gen Z
Short-form video content is king at the moment, though this could change
Challenging to take consumers off-platform, especially Reels
TikTok
Mostly used by Gen Z and Gen Alpha
Very challenging to take off-platform
Almost exclusively short-form video content
All generations visit, normally looking for answers to questions or opinions and honest reviews
Probably the easiest to take off-platform
Content must be very human
Older Gen Z and Millennials mostly use this platform
Content must fit the Pinterest "vibe"
Middle of the road in terms of off-platform difficulty
Advertising on Social Media Platforms
What I'm trying to highlight with the information above is that content must be tailored not only to your audience, but also to the platform the audience is on. An ad that would work perfectly on Instagram Reels or TikTok may not work as well on Reddit, as people tend to be in different frames of mind depending on the platform they are on. The other factor worth considering is the difficulty of taking a consumer off-platform. For example, platforms like TikTok are notoriously challenging to do this, so it is often a good option to tailor your ads to this factor too. Using TikTok ads for awareness and brand-building may be a much better use of the platform, as you don't need to take consumers off-platform for that.
