Adtech Trends 2025: Predictions, Challenges and Survival Tips

“Epom, why didn’t you release the “ad tech trends 2025” in December, like all normal people did?” That’s a valid question. But answer this: “Did you really care about ad tech, business, and anything work-related, or did you close all your tasks and get ready for the holidays?”

The weekends are over, the hangover is strong, and the mood is just right to lock in and get ready for what 2025 has to offer. Fear not; we know that your head is probably still dizzy, so we’ll be as brief and straightforward as possible.

CTV, AI, monopolization, and more – here are the advertising trends for 2025.

AI Is Not Stopping

It’s scary how, at this same time, in 2023, all of us were astonished by and afraid of AI, while in 2025, not using neural networks for work tasks is considered to be old-fashioned and ineffective.

The machines have truly rocked the world of ad tech in 2024, and it’s not stopping there. Ad businesses have played with the tech long enough to understand that artificial intelligence brings real money.

We predict that in 2025:

• Deep learning AI will become the new norm in the realm of programmatic targeting. Why analyze massive amounts of data when AI can do this better and cheaper?

• Generative AI will strengthen its presence in the world of text and design. Come on, every author of “ad tech trends 2025” articles has probably used ChatGPT for research, and in 2025, there will be no shame in doing so.
• Media buying and planning will become more automated. 19% of ad businesses already use AI to optimize these activities, and more will follow soon.
• The role of AI in preventing ad fraud will rise. Let’s face it: machines detect bots and learn behavioral patterns faster than humans.
• AI will become more independent and Terminator-level scary, but nobody will really care. This already happens, actually.

The Battle for a Clear Supply Chain

Transparency and efficiency – two things advertisers were lacking so hard in 2024, and the quintessence of the problem is the chaos on the supply side.

You see, in some ways, real-time bidding and programmatic have become too advanced. The web of intermediaries and convoluted supply chains inflate the costs and ruin transparency.

Fancy wordings aside, 95% of impressions are unmatchable between the demand-side platforms and supply-side platforms. 5% of ad spending is truly clear, and 62% of brands name “lack of transparency” as the most major concern.

Our predictions:

Even more advertisers will lean into supply path optimization. Cutting out unnecessary middlemen and providing more direct paths to premium inventory in the new meta in the ad game.

Some ad exchanges and SSPs will consolidate to stay competitive.

Smaller, non-transparent intermediaries will most probably phase out from the market.

Premium publishers and walled gardens might become even more powerful as advertisers prioritize direct relationships.

Despite all that, it’s highly unlikely that the supply chain problems are gonna be fixed completely in 2025.

CTV’s Going Good

We predicted the rise of CTV once in our 2020 article. Then, we did it again in our 2023 ad tech report. Now, the dominance of CTV is painfully obvious, and we should predict its success once again.

What else is there to say about CTV that hasn’t been said already? High ad viewability, high engagement levels, reduced CPIs, and effective cross-device targeting – you know the strong sides of this channel. Instead, let’s talk about its changes and challenges in 2025:

• CTV needs more clear and unified standards of measurement. The fragmentation of streaming platforms, the sudden spike in viewership, and the lack of measurement tools make ad businesses scratch their heads and wonder if the numbers and analytics are true.
• The line between CTV and linear TV needs to evaporate. It is already blurry in the eyes of the consumers, and advertisers have taken that for a fact. In short, TV ads should become more about reaching the right audience, whether linear or CTV.
• Everything we’ve told you about AI is relevant for CTV as well. In 2025, the need for dynamic ad placements and precise targeting is massive, and AI should fill in the gap.
• Static ad placements will slowly fade into the abyss. And that’s completely okay for a channel relying on video.

Privacy Crisis Continues

Guys, that’s a hard pill to swallow, but our data is not “private” anymore, and most likely, it will never be. In 2025:

• There’s no anonymized data, when an AI can cross-reference thousands of data points (unrelated to the human eye) and come up with an accurate single-user profile.
• There’s no encryption when so many data storages you’ve given access to have been compromised over the years.
• No amount of privacy policies will protect you from Chinese spyware or noble US corporations that use your phone’s mic for relevant advertising.

That’s why, this year, the main question should shift from “How to protect my data?” to “Who will benefit from it?.” The things that truly matter now are transparency in how data sharing works, functional consent mechanisms, and the development of new privacy metrics accounting for new threats and vulnerabilities.

Will it actually happen? Nobody knows, and we won’t make assumptions either. In 2024, we were sure that Google would eliminate third-party cookies, and look how that has turned out.

As an ad business, don’t try to be your end user; instead, show them the risks and be clear about how you operate their personal information. That will give you many more rep points than false promises of “effective data protection.”

Surely, the effectiveness of this approach depends on how wise we become as consumers.

Monopolization or Consolidation?

One more hard truth: walled gardens have won, and there is no stopping them.

Don’t worry, though; it’s not as bad as it sounds. The open web is still going strong and even evolving into a premium open web. Also, major corporations are losing lawsuit after lawsuit, as well as user trust.

That’s not our main point, however. What we do mean to say is that consolidation is the new ad tech trend for 2025. And here are two conclusions to make of it:

1. The competition is fierce both in the realm of walled gardens and open web. In order to stay ahead, sharing and uniting into a powerful competitive ecosystem is a great idea. Combine your efforts with partners of the same scale and grow together faster.
2. Always keep track of what the industry giants are doing. Their intentions are often unclear, mysterious, or even insane, but you should grasp every hint and optimize your strategy accordingly.

What Does the Future Bring?

Ad tech is as crazy as usual, and it seems like 2025 isn’t going to be stale as well. To get ready for the challenges and surprises of the upcoming year, let’s sum up what we know and what we can conclude by now:

• From content creation to media buying and targeting, AI will become even more present in programmatic;
• The advertisers who will optimize their supply paths and reduce unnecessary ad spending will come on top;
• While still going as well as ever, CTV has its share of problems. Mainly, those touch upon complexities in performance measurement and the relationship between linear and CTV;
• The concept of “Internet privacy” will either change, exposing the faults in how user data is treated, or the parade of crap will continue while outdated methods and marketing prevail;
• The ad tech becomes consolidated. Either pick the group to stick to or pay attention to the giant’s footsteps to not get squashed.

We surely hope that our wave of skepticism will break into the cliffs of rational and transparent ad tech, but so far, let’s just be cautious.

By the way, we’re already implementing precautions for most of the threats above in our product. Stay prepared for the challenges of 2025 with Epom white-label DSP!