Navigate the evolving digital advertising landscape with AI insights and market intelligence
Explore comprehensive analysis of performance metrics, emerging AI applications, and strategic forecasts across retail media, paid search, and paid social. Access the full report to uncover spending patterns, pricing dynamics, market developments, and what’s shaping the digital advertising ecosystem in Q3.
Here are some of the key digital marketing trends from Q2 2025’s advertising data.
Retail Media’s Growth Story Has Entered a New Phase. Retail media spend rose 21% year over year with clicks climbing 19% and CPCs up just 2%. Offsite DSP and full-funnel strategies are commanding larger shares as marketers build connected customer journeys across awareness, consideration, and conversion.
Prime Big Deal Days Proved Efficiency and Scale Can Coexist. Amazon’s October event delivered click-through rates surging 74% while cost-per-click fell to $1.80 (lowest in 3 years). Strategic preparation and real-time flexibility enable outsized results during peak demand periods without sacrificing efficiency.
Paid Search Remains Steady Despite Rising Competition. Paid search spend climbed 9% year over year with CPCs rising 9%. Rather than pulling back, marketers are doubling down on high-intent segments. Performance Max adoption settled at just above 60% of search accounts, signaling confidence in the format as reliable infrastructure.
Paid Social Finally Stabilized. Paid social spend increased 11% year over year with clicks and impressions rising 18% while CPMs declined 5%. Platforms are delivering consistent performance again. TikTok adoption reached 46% of advertisers with 13% of spend, moving into mainstream practice.
In this report:
Discover comprehensive quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year digital advertising performance insights from Q3 2025, featuring:
- Performance Metrics and Growth Analysis. Detailed analysis of retail media’s 21% growth, paid search’s steady climb amid rising competition, and social platform resilience with cost breakdowns and efficiency insights across all channels.
- Prime Big Deal Days Deep Dive. Strategic examination of October’s efficiency breakthroughs, shopper behavior patterns, and tactical lessons directly applicable to Cyber 5 planning and extended holiday execution.
- AI Integration and Workflow Maturity. Analysis of how AI has transitioned from experimental tool to integrated infrastructure, including strategy and planning shifts, performance insights acceleration, and what successful AI integration actually looks like.
- Market News and Platform Updates. Comprehensive roundup covering global ad spend forecasts, streaming platform growth, retail media network expansion, search platform AI enhancements, and social creator commerce integration.
- Commerce Media Evolution Deep Dive. Strategic analysis of how retail media, paid search, and social advertising now function as an integrated ecosystem, including platform-specific optimization tactics and full-funnel strategy frameworks.
- Forward-Looking Insights for Q4 and 2026. Q4 preparation strategies informed by Prime Big Deal Days learnings, 2026 budget planning frameworks based on economic headwinds, and how to position your team for AI-driven shopping acceleration.