2025: doing more with less
2025 was the year European marketers had to grow smarter, not bigger. Budgets softened, channels multiplied and AI stopped being a side project, becoming part of everyday marketing operations.
From B2C ecommerce to B2B SaaS and industrial brands, the winners were those that balanced brand and performance while learning to orchestrate humans, data and machines more intelligently.
Global surveys show that over half of marketers went into 2025 expecting to reduce ad spend, with European teams among the most cautious due to sluggish local economies and geopolitical tensions.
Simultaneously, boards raised expectations for revenue impact, customer lifetime value and marketing efficiency.
For B2C brands, prioritising audiences and campaigns, doubling down on high-intent search, retail media and performance-driven social instead of blanket reach became essential. For B2B providers, tighter budgets meant shifting away from raw lead volume toward opportunity quality, deal velocity and account-level engagement as core success metrics.
Across sectors, one pattern was consistent: marketers could no longer afford disconnected, channel-first activity. Every euro had to work harder across the full funnel, from awareness and consideration to conversion, retention and advocacy.
“While 2025 marked a tough year for global marketing budgets, we have more means at our disposal to adapt to shifting landscapes than ever before. Here at Peak Ace, we’re quick on our feet and always ready to adapt to challenges.”
Dominique Harris – VP Strategy & Innovation at Peak Ace
Channels: hybrid by default
The “digital vs. traditional” debate effectively ended in 2025. Instead, smart marketers built hybrid media mixes that combine digital precision with the reach and trust of established channels.
Digital still captured most incremental spend. This is especially true for social, online video and search. But far fewer marketers planned dramatic (>50%) budget increases in these channels, reflecting a more mature, ROI-driven mindset.
Connected TV (CTV/OTT) was one of the few channels where intent to increase spend actually rose, with 56% of marketers planning to invest more, turning streaming into a serious brand and performance lever.
Retail media networks (RMNs) moved from buzzword to infrastructure, with about two-thirds of marketers expecting RMNs to grow in importance across awareness, consideration and conversion.
For B2C ecommerce and retail, this meant fully integrated journeys: shoppable media, marketplace ads, CTV storytelling and onsite personalisation closing the loop. For B2B software, finance or industrial firms it often meant a different kind of “retail media”: vertical marketplaces, partner ecosystems and sector platforms that behave like RMNs for professional buyers.
Simultaneously, 2025 reminded marketers not to write off traditional media. In sectors such as healthcare, pharma, travel, automotive and manufacturing, formats such as TV, radio, print and OOH remained vital for explaining complex offerings and building credibility.
AI in 2025: from experimentation to embedded practice
2025 is the year when AI truly embedded itself in digital marketing.
In global surveys, AI for personalisation and optimisation ranked as the most closely watched trend, particularly among larger advertisers who see it as central to efficiency and growth.
Studies highlight a shift toward “Generative Engine Optimisation”: rich content ecosystems that answering a plethora of customer questions, designed to surface in AI-powered search and assistants.
B2C brands used AI to generate and test creative at scale, optimise bids and power personalised recommendations across ecommerce and apps. B2B organisations applied AI to account scoring, intent modelling, pipeline forecasting, conversational assistants and content acceleration for complex buying journeys. The leaders treated AI as a force multiplier for strategy and creativity, not a replacement.
“AI went from buzzword to backbone in 2025. We used it to test hundreds of creative variations, while B2B teams accelerated content for complex RFPs without losing strategic edge.”
Lutz Brüggemann – Head of Creative & CRO at Peak Ace
Measurement and CX: the hard part
Measurement was one of 2025’s biggest pain points.
Only about a third of marketers said they could measure digital and traditional media holistically, with that share actually falling from 2024. Data silos, walled gardens and changing cookie rules made cross-channel ROI harder to calculate.
At the same time, customer experience (CX) emerged as a key differentiator, especially in European B2B. Benchmark studies show CX leaders enjoying higher retention, greater wallet share and stronger pricing power. The same dynamic plays out in B2C, where seamless cross-channel journeys and service quality drive loyalty as much as price or product.
The biggest barrier marketers cited was not data volume but alignment: agreeing what success looks like, which KPIs matter at each stage of the funnel and how to reconcile brand-building goals with shortterm revenue targets.
Digital Marketing in 2026: Six Priorities to Act on
Looking ahead, the forces that shaped 2025 will intensify.
- Protect and modernise your brand
Brand and performance will increasingly be treated as interdependent, not competing. Expect more ringfenced brand budgets and brand platforms explicitly designed to feed performance channels like search, social, marketplaces and sales collateral
- Design for AI mediated discovery
AI-powered search and assistants will shape how both consumers and professional buyers discover solutions. Winning brands will build structured, authoritative content ecosystems around specific problems and industries, making it easier for humans and machines to understand and recommend them - Prepare for Advertising on LLMS
With OpenAI testing ads in ChatGPT and Google planning ads in Gemini for 2026, Europe is likely next. The best‑prepared brands will design concise, conversational creatives, build measurement links between LLM exposure and downstream behaviour, and put strong governance around data, disclosure and bias to stay compliant and trusted in an EU context - Make 1st-party data and privacy by design the default
With third-party identifiers under pressure and European regulators tightening rules on AI and data use, first-party data strategies will move from optional to essential. That means better consented data capture, identity resolution, partner safe collaboration environments and transparent value exchanges - Use “retail media thinking” across verticals
Retail media will keep expanding beyond classic ecommerce into marketplaces, industry platforms and partner ecosystems in B2B. The opportunity lies in integrating these environments into a richer media mix that also includes search, social, CTV and selected traditional channels - Elevate marketing as growth and CX orchestrator
CMO research shows a continued shift from “communications” to “growth and experience” leadership, with marketing accountable for revenue, CLV and CX outcomes. In practice, this means owning more of the commercial tech stack and leading alignment between marketing, sales, product and service teams around shared journeys and metrics
For agencies and partners working across B2B and B2C, the edge in 2026 will come from transferring lessons between worlds: applying consumer grade speed and experimentation to complex B2B environments, and bringing B2B style account thinking and life-cycle depth into consumer growth and retention.
