Change is the only constant, and the marketing trends of 2024 certainly prove this saying to be spot on as marketers adapted to AI tools and consumer preferences that have swayed a lot in the past few years.
But what exactly is happening?
Honestly, it’s chaos, especially since the arrival of AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, and Surfer SEO, among others. AI tools are now everywhere, but are they even helping? Everyone’s talking about “authenticity,” yet we’re drowning in content that feels anything but original.
2024 didn’t need more noise. It was all about smarter, simpler strategies that actually connected with people.
Let’s learn more about the top marketing trends in 2024, including leading branding trends in 2024, B2B marketing trends in 2024, and marketing analytics trends in 2024, among other things that will help you strategize for 2025.
SEO Trends 2024
Keeping up with 2024 SEO trends was a tough nut to crack. Google kept changing its policies every now and then, leaving marketers confused. What worked for SEO last year didn’t even make a dent in 2024. From shifting priorities in link building to AI reshaping search results, here’s what you need to know to stay ahead in 2025.
1. Are links not that important?
All those who know how to goof around to fine-tune the SEO may already know that links are important to rank in Google searches. But a bomb dropped when Googler Gary Illyes said that Google has made links less important over the years.
https://x.com/patrickstox/status/1781349615465304466?
But are they really less important? Truth be told. No. They are still very important when it comes to optimizing SEO. Focusing on building links still works wonders for your website. And that’s the reason why ‘link building’ popularity on Google Trends saw the maximum rise in 2024.
2. Ranking in AI overview (SGE)
AI overview has become an important aspect of SEO, with marketers trying their best to get a spot in the section that reached more than 1 billion users globally on a monthly basis. As of November 2024, AI Overviews appeared in 18.76% of search results, up from earlier rates of 12.47% in August and 7.47% in July.
The average length of AI-generated responses has increased significantly, with the latest average being 5,337 characters, up from a low of 2,633 characters in July. On its part, Google has made a lot of efforts to reduce its cost of generating AI overviews, yet, expanded the section to more than 100 countries.
3. AI for SEO optimization
AI tools have been creating content for search engines to manipulate rankings in their favor for quite some time now. However, what truly changed in the past few years was that 86.07% of marketers integrated AI into their SEO strategy, primarily for analyzing massive datasets, optimizing content for search intent, and automating tasks like keyword research and performance tracking.
According to a recent survey, 83% of respondents from companies with more than 200 employees reported improved SEO performance since incorporating AI in their day-to-day operations. The trend is clearly here to stay, with AI helping human writers and marketers to make their copies more SEO-friendly.
Content Marketing Trends 2024
Content marketing trends in 2024 were all about short-form videos, user-generated content, and AI tools and automation. Here’s how these three things shaped content marketing last year:
1. Short-form video won again
Videos continued dominance in 2024. The rising penetration of 5G internet and access to WiFi meant that viewers were hooked on YouTube ‘Shorts,’ TikTok videos, and Instagram Reels. Therefore, digital marketing was absolutely incomplete without a proper short-form video marketing strategy.
Nearly two-thirds of content marketers say that their brand campaigns are incomplete without short-form videos, according to the CMI Video & Visual Storytelling Survey. At the same time, another report pointed out that nearly nine out of 10 marketers see video content marketing as an important part of their overall marketing strategy.
2. User generated content (UGC) ruled again
After making its presence a few years ago, user-generated content (UGC) ruled in 2024 too. UGC once again proved that it’s important to build trust between brands and consumers. Case in point: A 2022 survey found that 84% of consumers were more likely to trust brands that featured UGC in their marketing.
To be sure, the appeal of UGC lies in its authenticity. Such content feels real, relatable, and human. Traditional advertising often struggles to capture all this at once. Brands doubling down on incorporating user-driven content into their strategies saw stronger connections with audiences in 2024.
3. AI tools & automation
Since 2022, we’ve used numerous AI tools like ChatGPT. But they’re not a replacement for creativity yet. They’re useful for organizing ideas and completing repetitive tasks. The heart of good, original content creation still comes from the human brain. On top of all, text generated by AI tools is easily identified as rehashed and is easy to identify.
That’s why AI worked best as a helper in 2024 and not the main act. The technology that helped marketers in 2024 is speeding up research, suggesting keywords, or even improving efficiency. But the storytelling and strategy? That’s all human so far.
AI also improved content marketing ROI by making it easier to analyze large data sets from various sources to generate actionable insights for content marketers. Long story short, it has made the lives of content marketers simpler and easier by a lot.
Social Media Marketing Trends
Social media changed in 2024 for good, with certain platforms gaining more traction than others. Marketers, too, were smart on their part by readjusting their spending budgets on different platforms. But, other more important social media trends in 2024 need the attention of marketers going forward in 2025.
1. Creative disruption trend
Social media teams are breaking away from strict brand consistency to explore more creative and engaging content. People go to social platforms to be entertained, but many brands initially struggled to meet those expectations. And it showed in their ROI. That’s changed, with organizations now stepping up their entertainment game.
Nearly half of those surveyed said over 60% of their social content is designed to entertain, educate, or inform without directly promoting their products or services. For about a quarter of brands—what we call the “Creative Risk-Takers”—a massive 81% to 100% of their content focuses on entertainment.
This shift aligns with TikTok’s 2024 trend prediction of “creative bravery,” where brands and creators aim to push boundaries, delivering bolder, more entertaining content that raises the bar for social media creativity.
2. External engagement patterns
More and more brands are showing up in the comments sections of social posts, using these interactions to connect with new audiences. But it’s not just random engagement. Smart brands are focusing their efforts on creators’ posts.
Simply because followers are deeply engaged with creators, they pay as much attention to the comments as they do to the posts themselves. Brands found this as an opportunity in 2024, as creator comment sections were perfect for creating a sense of community that connected with the Gen Z audience.
It’s working, too. In fact, 41% of organizations have started testing proactive engagements, and when creators reply to these comments, engagement rates are 1.6 times higher. It’s a simple yet effective way to reach audiences where they’re already paying attention.
3. Social listening improves ROI
Today, 62% of social marketers are using social listening tools, according to a survey by Hootsuite, and it’s no surprise why. Social listening helps brands make the most of social media conversations. Based on the insights gathered by social media listening tools, brands were able to respond to their audience’s needs in real time.
Paid Advertising Trends
Paid advertising, too, was impacted by AI and ML in 2024. But there were other interesting aspects that came to the spotlight last year.
Here are the top paid advertising trends from 2024:
1. Rising AI adoption in advertising
AI and ML have made an irreplaceable dent in the advertising world. Searches for “AI advertising” have jumped by 557% in just the past two years. According to Semrush, AI technology is now a top priority in marketing and sales departments, outpacing other areas of business.
At the same time, the Interactive Advertising Bureau predicts that 80% of digital media marketers will soon be using AI in some capacity. In marketing, AI is making a noticeable difference in how we analyze data and improve efficiency.
One study even found that marketers are wasting an average of 5 hours and 36 minutes every week trying and failing to improve their data processes. To make up for that lost time, advertisers are turning to AI tools to help optimize things like impressions, click-through rates, bids, and audience targeting, ultimately improving their campaigns.
2. Soundless advertisements
A video ad playing at full volume when we visit a webpage irritates everyone. Turns out, 66% of people find this really annoying. Outstream video ads offer a better alternative, starting with no sound and playing only when the user scrolls over them. They also pause when out of view. Outstream ads also have a higher click-through rate (CTR) and longer engagement than in-stream ads.
At the same time, captions are also gaining popularity. Around 85% of Facebook users watch videos on mute, and captions can increase viewing time by 12%. Searches for “video captions” have surged 215% over the past five years. Animated ads, like those used by Slack, are also growing in popularity for their ability to capture attention and explain concepts clearly without sound.
3. Video Ads getting shorter
Mobile video ad spending in the US is expected to hit $53.9 billion by 2025, with most of that going to short-form videos. Today’s consumers have little patience for long videos—over 25% of adults will skip after just 10 seconds, and more than half will bail after 20 seconds.
HubSpot recommends keeping Instagram videos under 30 seconds, Twitter under 45 seconds, and Facebook around a minute. As a result, many brands are focusing on ultra-short, highly engaging ads, especially to avoid the dreaded “skip” button on YouTube. A recent Wyzowl report shows nearly all video marketers will keep using video in 2024, with over 95% planning to maintain or increase their budgets. Video is set to dominate ad spending in the years ahead.
Marketing Analytics Trends
Marketing analytics trends in 2024 largely revolved around technologies such as AI and ML, which are playing a key role in understanding consumer behavior and preferences to generate actionable insights that improve ROI on ads and other marketing activities across the board.
1. AI/ML changed analytics for good
In 2024, AI and machine learning were marketers’ personal favorites as the technologies were automating routine tasks, predicting market trends, and delivering highly personalized customer experiences. By processing large volumes of data, AI/ML provided companies with actionable insights that helped fine-tune their strategies and improve efficiency.
One major shift was the growing use of AI-driven sentiment analysis, which allowed brands to tap into real-time feedback from social media, reviews, and customer surveys. Tools like Goodie helped businesses understand how the target audience felt about their brand, making better decisions and improving satisfaction rates by up to 50%.
2. Real-time analytics for instant decision-making
Marketers made the most of real-time analytics for instant decision-making in 2024 and said goodbye to the era of static, historical data analysis. By acting on live data streams, marketers adjusted campaigns, improved customer experiences, and responded instantly to market changes.
The strategy showed remarkable results. In fact, one research showed that 75% of businesses using AI-powered analytics saw direct revenue growth. On the other hand, 80% of companies achieved operational efficiency gains.
3. Prioritized Privacy
In 2024, major regulatory changes impacted data collection and analytics. The American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) introduced nationwide standards for data privacy, with penalties of up to 4% of global revenue for non-compliance. Meanwhile, the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) expanded on the CCPA to add new rules for cybersecurity audits and risk assessments.
New regulations are pushing businesses to focus more on secure, compliant data collection methods. As a result, in 2024, server-side tracking of marketing data became the preferred solution due to its improved security and better alignment with privacy regulations.
Conclusion
Here’s the thing: marketing in 2024 was doing what everyone else is not. It was about finding what works for your brand and running with it, even if it meant going against the brand guidelines to get the attention of potential buyers or reaching out to a new customer base.
Sometimes, whether that was about testing out AI-powered tools or rethinking how you use social media platforms. But the whole point was to stay flexible. Trends will come and go, but being willing to experiment? That’s what will keep you ahead of the competition.
