Ecommerce advertising and marketing trends to look for in 2025

Did you know that in 2025, global e-commerce retail sales are projected to reach $6.86 trillion?

As overwhelming as this statistic by eMarketer sounds, if you’re running an ecommerce brand in 2025, you already know that advertising has gotten a whole lot noisier. Everyone wants a share of the profit. As a result, marketing costs are climbing, customer journeys are getting more chaotic, and your competitors are getting savvier with creative, data, and automation.

Ecommerce advertising today is a lot more complicated than just picking a platform and hoping ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) sticks. Other than having a foolproof strategy playbook, what can make you stay ahead of your competitors is knowing what’s coming next.

We’ll walk through the biggest ecommerce advertising trends shaping 2025 — from AI-powered creatives to creator-led campaigns and how to apply them in ways that don’t feel overwhelming or gimmicky.

Ready? Let’s break it down.

What is ecommerce advertising?

Ecommerce advertising is the use of paid media to drive traffic, visibility, and sales for online stores. It includes running targeted campaigns on platforms like Google, Meta (Facebook & Instagram), TikTok, Amazon, and more. The sole objective is to reach potential customers where they discover, compare, and buy products.

The state of ecommerce advertising in 2025

Let’s zoom out for a second. Before you double down on what’s next, it helps to understand what’s changed and why old tactics might be hitting a wall.

Here’s what’s shaping the ecommerce advertising landscape this year:

1. Omnichannel is the new normal

Running ads on just one or two platforms isn’t enough anymore. Your customers are discovering products on TikTok, researching them on YouTube, comparing prices on Google, and finally buying through Instagram, Amazon, or your Shopify site.

If you’re not meeting them at each stage with relevant creative, you’re losing attention to brands that are.

What this means for you:

You don’t need to be everywhere, but you do need to be present where your audience is most active. That might mean:

• TikTok + Meta for top-of-funnel content
• Google Search + Shopping for conversion-ready shoppers
• YouTube for long-form education or product use cases

2. Ad costs are rising fast

CPMs (Cost Per Mille) are up across Meta, Google, TikTok, and Amazon. Competition has exploded, especially post-iOS14, where targeting precision dropped, and brands had to cast wider nets.

The brands that are getting ahead aren’t the ones spending more right now; they’re the ones testing faster, adapting quicker, and finding pockets of underpriced attention.

3. Attribution is messier than ever

The classic “Facebook ROAS” dashboard doesn’t tell the full story anymore. Customers see your TikTok ad, Google your brand, read a few reviews, get retargeted, and then finally purchase a week later via email.

If you’re only measuring last-click, you’re probably undervaluing the content and ads that actually did the heavy lifting.

How top brands are solving this:

• Using blended metrics like MER (marketing efficiency ratio)
• Collecting post-purchase survey data: “What made you buy today?”
• Looking at channel-assisted revenue, not just platform-native dashboards

4. Creative fatigue is real

Static images and generic hooks don’t stop the scroll anymore. People want motion, story, and relevance. And they want it to feel native like content, not an ad screaming for attention.

That’s why video, creator-led UGC, and emotional storytelling are leading the way. Not just because they’re flashy, but because they actually convert.

Future trends in ecommerce advertising for 2025 and beyond

Ecommerce advertising in 2025 is no longer about choosing the right platform and running a few A/B tests. The brands pulling ahead are those that understand where the landscape is going and proactively build systems around what’s next, not just what’s working now.

Here are the key trends shaping the future of ecommerce ads and how to prepare your brand to leverage them before your competitors do.

1. AI-generated creatives will become the new baseline

AI tools like Canva AI, Runway, and Meta’s Advantage+ Creative are speeding up creative testing by generating variations from winning formats. With less reliance on manual production, brands can iterate faster and scale what works, especially in high-volume paid environments.

What you can do now:

• Build a creative engine where your copy, visuals, and angles are all tagged by performance
• Use that dataset to train AI tools to replicate your best formats
• Let your human team handle strategy and emotion while AI handles variation and speed

Forward-thinking ecommerce marketing consultants are already baking these systems into creative sprints.

2. Video-first ad formats will dominate the full funnel

Platforms like TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts have become top-of-funnel discovery engines, while shoppable video formats on Amazon Live and TikTok Shop are closing the gap to purchase. Video CPMs remain lower than static ads, making them high-leverage across the funnel.

What you can do now:

• Treat video creation as a core media function, not a bonus
• Invest in a UGC pipeline: creators, customers, influencers, in-house content
• Test 3–5 video styles per product and funnel stage:
  • Explainers
  • “Try-on” or usage walkthroughs
  • Voiceover-driven testimonial stories
  • Comparison/objection-handling formats
  • Shoppable unboxings

3. First-party and zero-party data will power targeting in a post-cookie world

As Chrome and iOS deprecate third-party cookies, platforms like Meta and Google are losing tracking depth. Smart brands are using quizzes, surveys, and first-party signals to create high-intent lookalikes, exclusions, and campaign logic built on data they actually own.

What you can do now:

• Build robust zero-party data collection into your UX:
  • Quizzes (“What’s your skin concern?”)
  • Post-purchase surveys
  • Browse intent signals (wishlist, save for later)
• Integrate this into your ecommerce ads:
  • Use high-intent email or CRM segments to seed lookalikes
  • Exclude churn-risk profiles
  • Feed quiz responses into campaign copy and creative

In a privacy-first world, the brands that know their customers best will win the cheapest.

4. Paid and organic integration will no longer be optional

Interest-based discovery models on TikTok and Instagram blur the line between ads and organic content. Platforms are favoring ad accounts that mirror native content patterns, and creators are merging paid and organic into a single high-performing UGC ecosystem.

What you can do now:

• Align your organic strategy with your paid angles
  • Repost high-performing organic videos as ads
  • Use TikTok trends and sounds in Spark Ads
  • Leverage creator content across channels (email, PDPs or Product Detail Pages, ads)
• Build a paid + organic creative calendar with weekly shared insights
  • What hooks worked?
  • What products gained traction?
  • What messaging earned saves or shares?

This is how smart ecommerce brands create ad flows that feel like content and content that converts like ads.

5. Personalized, creator-led advertising will replace generic ad formats

Creator-led UGC is outperforming brand-led visuals across DTC categories. Platforms are building tools around micro-influencer commerce, and customers increasingly trust peer recommendations over polished brand claims.

What you can do now:

• Shift budget toward creator networks, not just creative agencies
• Test ads featuring micro-influencers with different tones (funny, expert, raw)
• Repurpose customer testimonials as voiceover scripts or TikTok-style talking heads
• Use Fairing or KnoCommerce surveys to attribute purchase influence: “What made you buy today?”. If it’s “a TikTok,” you know where to double down

This is where a seasoned ecommerce marketing agency makes a huge difference. They help you manage creator operations, attribution tracking, and UGC content calendars at scale.

6. Sustainability messaging will drive performance across ad platforms

Today’s customers aren’t just buying products, they’re buying into values. Sustainability, ethical sourcing, and conscious consumption are becoming high-converting narratives, especially with Gen Z and Millennial shoppers. And platforms are adapting. Meta now lets brands highlight sustainability certifications in Shopping ads, while Google is experimenting with eco-friendly filters on product listings.

What you can do now:

• Incorporate ethical claims, eco-friendly packaging, or sustainability badges into ad copy and creative
• Test messaging angles like “Made with recycled materials” or “Plastic-free alternative” in top-of-funnel content
• Build retargeting flows around values-based stories, like founder videos or behind-the-scenes supply chain content

You don’t have to greenwash. Just be transparent and let your paid media reflect what your brand already stands for.

7. Voice commerce and search intent will reshape high-intent advertising

As voice search adoption grows across mobile and smart devices, ecommerce brands will need to rethink their paid search and shopping strategies. Voice queries are more conversational and long-tail (e.g, “What’s a good running shoe under $100 for flat feet?”), which changes how intent gets captured. Most importantly, how ads should match it.

What you can do now:

• Optimize Google Search campaigns for natural-language, question-based keywords
• Layer in PMax (Performance Max) campaigns with assets that speak to specific voice-style queries
• Build ad copy that mirrors how someone might ask for help, not just keywords (“Looking for a...” instead of “Best…”)

Voice intent is subtle, but the brands adapting to this shift now will gain more efficient traffic as others scramble to catch up.

8. Marketplace media will expand beyond Amazon

Retail media isn’t just Amazon’s game anymore. Walmart Connect, Target Roundel, and Instacart Ads are investing heavily in their own ad tech. For DTC brands expanding into omnichannel retail or wholesale, these platforms offer powerful performance channels with high-intent shoppers and granular SKU-level targeting.

What you can do now:

• If you’re already on Amazon, test Sponsored Display or Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform) for broader reach
• For multichannel sellers, explore Instacart or Walmart Connect to reach bottom-funnel buyers
• Build marketplace-specific creative: simple, scroll-stopping visuals with clear CTAs like “Add to Cart” or “Available at Target”

Even if marketplaces aren’t your main channel today, having a paid strategy for them gives you optionality and often lower CACs than Meta or Google.

Final thoughts

Every ecommerce brand has access to the same trends. AI tools, creator networks, first-party data — they’re all on the table. But what separates brands that grow fast from those that stall is how these trends get translated into day-to-day decisions.

That’s the hard part.

In-house teams are loaded with multiple marketing tasks. Freelancers can nail parts of the puzzle but miss the bigger picture. But agencies (we are talking about the good ones) bring pattern recognition from working across dozens of ecommerce brands. They know what works, what doesn’t, and where to push for growth without wasting the budget.

If you want to play it smart in 2025, skip the guesswork. Partnering with an ecommerce advertising agency is the fastest way to turn trends into results.