As marketers, we love to explore emerging strategies and trends to stay ahead of the curve.
However, what’s relevant and effective is always changing, despite countless case studies and think-pieces predicting the next big trend.
Content marketing, in particular, is highly susceptible to speculation and testing because it is fluid and heavily influenced by consumers’ behaviors and interests at any given moment.
This makes it interesting, innovative and challenging.
So, what are the predictions for content marketing in 2025? Let’s dive in.
1. Spark inspiration with ‘visionary’ content
Robert Rose recently covered an emerging trend – visionary content.
Inspired by Matthew McConaughey’s TED Talk, where the actor shares his sources of motivation and inspiration, Rose relates these themes to the content.
Specifically, that content should not only appeal to the needs of one’s target audience but inspire, by giving them:
- Something to look up to.
- Something to look forward to.
- A (common) hero to chase.
Whereas much recent content has focused on addressing consumers’ challenges and pain points, visionary content is more aspirational, future-thinking, and goal-oriented.
It provides users with a vision of the future, an appetite for new ideas, and a call to look beyond their current condition.
In Rose’s words, visionary content “lights the spark of inspiration.” For example, this could be:
- A sustainability brand sharing its vision of a zero-waste future.
- A financial service company talking about the benefits of decentralized finance and what that might mean for society.
Visionary content allows brands to shape industry conversions rather than react to them.
It helps nurture a loyal and engaged audience that looks to the brand for innovation, inspiration, and guidance.
For brands looking to capitalize on visionary content, this means creating content that’s future-thinking, often conceptual and gives users a vision of what’s possible.
2. Leverage short-form video for maximum reach
Short-form video formats like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are nothing new, but their prevalence and importance are expected to ramp up in 2025.
This is due in no small part to the “fast-paced nature of online consumption,” as highlighted by Forbes.
Today’s users consume content at a rapid pace, looking for digestible information that’s easy to watch and even easier to share.
Delivering value in bite-sized videos has allowed brands to reach more eyes in less time and increase the virality of their content.
An economical way to create more short-form videos at scale is to repurpose long-form videos into soundbites.
This often involves creating videos for YouTube (where there is evergreen, organic value) and then circulating shorter clips via Shorts, Reels, TikTok, etc.
Industry disruptor Gary Vee is a prime example of this, as he routinely publishes long YouTube videos, cuts clips of these videos, and reposts them on social media.
If you manage multi-channel campaigns for clients, you can leverage a similar approach without creating unique, short-form videos.
From scriptwriters to video editing software, AI tools will make it easier for brands to generate short video content at scale.
Dig deeper: The future of SEO content is video – here’s why
3. Optimize content for large language models (LLMs)
Until recently, SEO largely focused on optimizing for search engines like Google.
However, with the emergence of large language models (LLMs), there’s more “digital real estate” to optimize and maximize organic traffic.
This shift has given rise to LLM SEO, which focuses on enhancing content visibility and ranking within AI-driven search engines.
The results of LLM SEO mechanics can be seen when you conduct a Google Search and Google Gemini (Google’s AI model) surfaces summarized results.
These results are pulled from websites that may be purposely (or inadvertently) utilizing LLM SEO.
What does that mean for you?
In addition to traditional SEO efforts, it may be beneficial to deploy LLM-specific strategies.
While this area of marketing is still in its infancy, some strategies that have emerged include:
- Implementing structured data markup in website content to help search engines and LLMs better “read” and interpret the information.
- Incorporating contextual “cues”, via keywords (focus on semantic relevance and authoritativeness), in your content for LLMs to better understand what your content is about and how it relates to a user’s search.
- Consistently citing relevant and reputable sources via links, with up-to-date information from legitimate publications. This can increase the “trust” factor in SEO, making it more likely that LLMs will assess your content as reputable.
Stay attuned to developments in LLM SEO to maximize your content’s ranking and traffic potential.
Dig deeper: Decoding LLMs: How to be visible in generative AI search results
4. Build high-performance content teams
The true power of content performance lies in the team.
Without passionate and experienced people driving the strategy, even the best tactics can fall flat.
People bring everything together – from conceptualization to execution to measurement and improvement.
Marketers rated having “high-performing team members” as the second leading factor in their content marketing success (second only to “understanding [one’s] audience”), per CMI’s recent report.
The same study reported that 86% of marketers have a dedicated content marketing team or staff person.
Building the right content team is a top priority for marketers and brands heading into 2025.
Over-reliance on automation, tools, or contracted writers can lead to a fragmented strategy.
It’s essential to have someone steering the content’s focus, goals, and priorities.
What should you be looking for when it comes to building a team?
For one, diversity of experience.
Look for team members who bring diverse skills, from SEO to copywriting to social media marketing, and can apply this experience to develop a robust content marketing plan.
Additionally, seek out team members who are collaborative and encouraging.
You will want a content team that feels empowered to share new ideas, support each other, and stay attuned to emerging trends in your space.
5. Apply psychological concepts to content
Personality psychology has many applications in content creation and marketing.
By understanding key psychological principles, you can tailor messaging to better meet the needs of specific consumer profiles.
The study of personality types can help predict user motives, understand behavior, and craft more effective messaging.
This leads to content that resonates more deeply with target audiences, boosting engagement and driving conversions.
In 2025, I expect psychology to play a bigger role in marketing, from analyzing Google search behavior to crafting compelling stories and influencing user actions.
Explore psychological insights to better understand how users navigate the web and make purchasing decisions – and how to apply this knowledge to content marketing.
Dig deeper: Content creation: A psychological approach
6. Differentiate your brand by balancing AI and human content
AI-generated content has been a hot and controversial topic in recent years.
You’ll find countless technologies that leverage AI-driven algorithms and concepts, expanding across sectors like SaaS, data analytics, and SEO.
Meanwhile, content purists remain resistant to AI-generated videos, art, blog posts, and more.
And then there’s everyone else in between.
Amid these polarized views, a growing trend is resistance to AI-generated content.
Some consumers are put off – or even jaded – by AI content that lacks originality, personality, and authenticity.
Conduct a casual search for conversations around AI, and you’ll find many articles and posts demonstrating the same.
One report found that half of consumers see the use of AI as a “turnoff.”
AI-assisted content creation isn’t going away. It has its place.
However, rejecting it could become a competitive differentiator for brands.
Some may take an ethical stance against AI – promising never to use AI-generated content – which could resonate with audiences who prefer human-created work.
For example, Dove has stated that they will never use AI to represent human bodies in their ads.
Each brand must decide if this stance aligns with their goals and values, as neither choice is inherently better.
However, given the ongoing debate, more brands are likely to take a stand on AI content soon.
While these trends are not set in stone, there are clear signs they will be relevant in 2025. Only time will tell how they will unfold.
Stay curious, keep testing, and listen to real-world conversations – often, the best insights come from the people we aim to serve.
Google Display & Video 360 API gets major update
Google announced the public beta of Display & Video 360 API v4 last week, alongside significant updates to v3.
Key changes in v4.
Additional features in v3 and v4.
Why we care. The beta release of Display & Video 360 API v4 and new v3 features gives advertisers enhanced capabilities for programmatic advertising management.
Between the lines. The mandatory optimization objective requirement suggests Google is pushing for more structured and purposeful campaign setups.
What to watch. Google warns that v4 may undergo breaking changes during the beta period, with updates documented in release notes.
Bottom line. Advertisers need to update their client libraries to access new features and should consider following Google’s migration guide when moving to v4.
How to prevent PPC from cannibalizing your SEO efforts
If you manage both SEO and PPC, striking the right balance is key to maximizing efficiency and ROI.
When paid search campaigns compete with high-performing organic listings, brands end up spending more while gaining little additional traffic.
Keyword cannibalization dilutes search performance, inflates costs, and reduces overall marketing effectiveness.
This guide will help you recognize the warning signs of PPC cannibalization, test its impact, and implement strategies to ensure both channels work together for optimal results.
Signs your PPC campaigns are cannibalizing your SEO rankings
Declining organic click-through rates
If your organic rankings remain stable but CTRs are dropping, your paid ads might be stealing traffic from your organic listings.
This is usually the result of branded or high-ranking keywords being simultaneously targeted in PPC campaigns.
It’s also important to note that additional SERP features, ad placements, and AI-driven search results have contributed to a general decline in organic CTRs across the board.
Increased PPC clicks with no overall traffic growth
If PPC campaigns drive more paid traffic, but total website visits remain unchanged, your ads may be diverting clicks that would have otherwise come from organic search.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4)’s Traffic Acquisition Report makes identifying this issue easier. You can compare period-over-period traffic changes by channel side by side.
Organic conversions declining while paid conversions increase
If paid search conversions are rising but overall conversions remain flat or decline, PPC may be cannibalizing organic conversions rather than expanding your reach.
This is especially common with Performance Max (PMax) campaigns, which often prioritize branded terms for their higher ROI. More on that later.
Dig deeper: How to maximize PPC and SEO data with co-optimization audits
Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.
See terms.
3 steps to prevent PPC from cannibalizing your SEO
1. Audit PPC and SEO keyword overlap
Not all overlapping PPC and SEO keywords cause cannibalization.
However, to safeguard your top-ranking keywords, exclude them from your PPC campaigns.
To speed up your analysis, filter organic search terms where your website ranks position 4 or below – since most clicks go to pages ranking in positions 1-3.
Additionally, sort search terms by click volume to identify phrases most susceptible to cannibalization.
Then, cross-reference your organic search terms with your Google Ads Search Terms report to pinpoint where you’re paying for traffic you’d otherwise get for free.
2. Use negative keywords to exclude strong SEO performers
If certain terms already perform well organically, you can use negative keywords to prevent them from triggering paid ads.
By applying exact-match negative keywords, you avoid cannibalization while still targeting related peripheral phrases in your ads.
Dig deeper: How to use negative keywords in PPC to maximize targeting and optimize ad spend
3. Refine brand bidding strategies and implement brand exclusion lists
Bidding on branded terms is often unnecessary since users searching for a brand already intend to visit its website.
Paying for traffic that would otherwise be free is rarely a good investment.
However, PPC brand bidding becomes essential when competitors target your brand.
In such cases, recapturing your brand space is a necessary expense – but fortunately, it’s much cheaper than bidding on a competitor’s brand.
The importance of brand exclusion lists
Brand exclusion lists help prevent wasteful spending on branded queries where organic listings already dominate.
This ensures PPC budgets are focused on non-branded, high-intent searches rather than duplicating organic traffic.
This is especially critical for PMax campaigns, which aim to drive positive ROI, often through low-cost branded visibility with high conversion potential.
One example of branded cannibalization my team identified involved a branded PMax campaign that inadvertently paid for an estimated $500,000 in organic revenue.
Since PMax campaigns receive premium visibility – even in areas where results may not be highly relevant – this campaign bid on nearly every branded term, running unchecked.
A major issue arose when a shopping carousel for the company’s two most-searched branded phrases appeared above all other SERP features.
This pushed the usual search ad lower on the page and forced the organic homepage listing completely out of view without scrolling.
As a result, impressions dropped by 12%, and organic clicks fell by 33%.
If you haven’t yet taken steps to prevent your campaigns from bidding on your brand, make sure to check Google’s guide to brand exclusions.
Benchmark your SEO performance on branded terms before launching PMax campaigns to make identifying cannibalization easier.
Dig deeper: Google brings negative keyword exclusions to Performance Max
Special considerations for Performance Max campaigns and targeting options
PMax campaigns use AI-driven automation to serve ads across Google’s entire inventory, including Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and Maps.
Unlike traditional PPC campaigns, PMax lacks detailed keyword-level control, making it difficult to prevent overlap with organic rankings.
How PMax can cannibalize SEO traffic
Dig deeper: Performance Max vs. Search campaigns: New data reveals substantial search term overlap
Mitigating SEO cannibalization in Performance Max
Tests to confirm PPC is cannibalizing SEO
Aligning PPC and SEO requires careful keyword management and strategic bidding
Reduce ad spend where possible and avoid paying for traffic that would otherwise be free.
For Performance Max campaigns, mitigating SEO cannibalization through negative keywords and refined targeting ensures a balanced approach.
A well-coordinated PPC-SEO strategy improves efficiency and maximizes the value of digital marketing investments.
From search to AI agents: The future of digital experiences
We rely on search engines to find information every day, but what if there was a better way?
Instead of manually gathering details from multiple sources, AI agents can do the heavy lifting for you.
They don’t just retrieve information. They analyze, organize, and personalize it in real time.
This article explores:
From information retrieval to intelligent problem-solving
AI agents represent a fundamental shift in how we interact with AI.
As brands, we are moving beyond passive information retrieval – a slow process of manually collecting data from various websites – to active problem-solving, where multimodal data seamlessly adapts to a preferred interface in real time.
Imagine a world where multiple independent AI agents collaborate to complete complex workflows.
Industry experts anticipate significant transformation due to AI agents. Here’s what they have to say:
Today, brands have a significant opportunity to leverage AI agents as intelligent virtual teammates, enabling businesses to deliver hyper-personalized experiences.
As AI agents and technology evolve, we are moving away from the time-consuming effort of manually gathering information.
In the future, AI agents will interact with one another, collect relevant data, organize it to match user preferences, and deliver it seamlessly – creating a faster and more efficient experience.
Dig deeper: Mastering AI and marketing: A beginner’s guide
To understand how AI agents deliver these intelligent, real-time experiences, we need to break down their core components.
Let’s explore the anatomy of AI agents and how each layer contributes to their functionality.
Anatomy of AI agents
AI agents are designed to enhance the capabilities of LLMs by incorporating additional functionalities.
Agents have four layers:
An AI agent typically consists of the following components:
Planning, actions, critique, and persona identification occur in the management layer.
Frameworks for building AI agents
There are many frameworks available for building AI agents and multi-agent systems, each catering to a different need:
Each platform offers unique advantages based on the task’s use case, scalability, and complexity.
Multi-agent AI systems and their importance
A multi-agent system consists of multiple AI agents working seamlessly, each performing a distinct function to collaboratively solve problems.
These systems are particularly useful for handling complex scenarios where a single AI agent might struggle.
Below is a simple example of a multi-agent system:
This structured approach to distributing responsibilities among agents ensures more accurate and intelligent responses while reducing errors.
Before exploring how AI agents deliver real-time personalization, let’s look at why traditional methods are no longer enough.
Dig deeper: AI optimization: How to optimize your content for AI search and agents
Why AI-powered personalization is essential
As data availability declines and user expectations rise, businesses can no longer rely on traditional methods to understand customer intent.
The shift away from third-party cookies, the rise of zero-click content, and the demand for real-time, tailored experiences have made AI-driven personalization a necessity.
AI enables businesses to analyze behavior, predict intent, and deliver dynamic, personalized experiences at scale – from search and social to email and on-site interactions.
Unlike static personalization, AI adapts in real time, ensuring relevance across every customer touchpoint.
With traditional strategies losing effectiveness, AI agents offer a smarter, more scalable way to engage and convert audiences.
Dig deeper: How to boost your marketing revenue with personalization, connectivity and data
Delivering personalized experiences with search and chat agents
Modern websites are no longer one-size-fits-all. They provide immersive experiences tailored to each visitor’s intent.
AI agents enable this through two key approaches:
Search agents
Traditional site searches relied on keywords and filters, which have limitations with multimodal searches (like voice or visual) and long-tail queries.
They also require more user clicks, increasing the likelihood of search abandonment.
AI-powered search agents overcome these challenges by delivering a more intuitive and efficient on-site search experience.
Chat agents
Early AI chatbots responded using pre-programmed scripts or existing website content.
Today, advanced chat agents offer personalized experiences using audience data. They can:
AI agents also offer industry-specific personalization. Brands can implement:
Personalize or perish
Many businesses still view personalization as optional.
In reality, without personalized experiences, traffic and conversions will decline, leading to higher marketing costs and lower ROI as more spending is needed to attract, engage, and convert visitors.
To improve efficiency, AI-powered personalization offers a scalable, intelligent, and adaptive solution.
Dig deeper: Hyper-personalization in PPC: Using data to deliver tailored ad experiences
How to Leverage Snowflake and OneTrust for Consent Management at Scale by Snowflake
Join experts from OneTrust and Snowflake for an exclusive look into how modern organizations are integrating privacy and consent management into their data ecosystem. In this session, Snowflake and OneTrust will share real-world use cases and insights into how organizations are activating consent for marketing purposes, all while streamlining compliance at scale.
Tune in on March 4 to learn about:
This session is perfect for marketers, data governance professionals, and anyone looking to improve their data privacy practices with real-world examples. Here is the link to learn more and register >>
The Details
Webinar:
How Privacy-First Marketers Leverage OneTrust and Snowflake for Consent Management at Scale
Date: March 4, 2025
Time: 10 am PT / 1 pm ET
Link to register: Here!
Why traditional keyword research is failing and how to fix it with search intent
After 25 years of working in SEO, I’ve seen firsthand how traditional keyword research methods fail to keep up with Google’s advancements.
In my SMX Next presentation, I challenged SEOs to go beyond outdated keyword methodologies and embrace an intent-driven approach.
Here are six key insights from that session.
1. Traditional keyword research is failing us
Traditional keyword research is no longer enough.
We’ve relied on tools that provide data on competition, search volume, and relevance, but they don’t uncover the hidden context behind searches.
For years, SEOs have prioritized high-volume, low-competition keywords, assuming this would drive results.
While this may have worked for the simpler, lexical-based Google algorithm of the early 2000s, this approach falls short because it ignores search intent.
For example, a keyword like “solar panels” may have high search volume.
But without context, it’s impossible to determine whether users are looking for products, financing options, or general information.
Without understanding intent, marketers risk attracting traffic that never converts.
Today, success depends on moving beyond search volume and focusing on search intent.
Dig deeper: How to optimize for search intent: 19 practical tips
2. Google is an AI search engine
Google isn’t one monolithic AI algorithm – it’s a collection of AI systems working together to:
Here’s what’s changed:
For SEOs, this means that content must align with search intent – not just keywords.
Well-structured, high-value content that directly addresses users’ questions will outperform pages optimized solely for keyword density.
Dig deeper: Content mapping: Who, what, where, when, why and how
3. The best way to uncover intent? Read the SERPs
The number one way to understand search intent is to study the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Rather than guessing what a keyword means, analyzing what Google is already ranking provides a clear picture of the dominant intent behind a query.
For example, I once worked with an ecommerce company selling biscotti cookies.
Initially, they targeted high-volume keywords like “chocolate biscotti,” expecting strong results.
However, a quick SERP analysis revealed that most top-ranking results were recipes, not product listings.
This indicated that searchers weren’t looking to buy biscotti – they wanted to bake it.
Instead of chasing high-volume terms with mismatched intent, the company shifted its focus to lower-volume keywords with strong purchase intent, ultimately improving conversions.
Blindly following keyword tools without SERP analysis can lead to content that attracts traffic but fails to convert.
Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.
See terms.
4. Prioritize search intent over keywords
The real question isn’t just what keywords people are searching for – it’s why they’re searching.
As Google increasingly prioritizes intent over keywords, SEO strategies must evolve accordingly. A three-step process can help align keyword research with search intent:
Identify target intents
Before diving into keyword research, define 5-6 core search intents that align with business goals. Examples include:
Filter keywords by intent
Rather than focusing solely on search volume and competition, filter keywords based on clear purchase or action intent.
This approach refines traditional keyword research to focus on what actually drives conversions.
Choose content formats that match intent
Content should match the searcher’s intent, which often requires moving beyond standard blog posts. Some high-performing content formats include:
By aligning keywords with intent and content formats, SEOs can dramatically improve engagement and conversion rates.
Dig deeper: Rethinking your keyword strategy: Why optimizing for search intent matters
5. Invest in content formats that convert better
Middle-of-the-funnel content – like comparison pages, niche buying guides, and Q&A pages – tends to rank better and convert more effectively than generic blog content.
With AI-driven search results delivering direct answers, traditional educational blog posts are losing traction.
To stay competitive, marketers must create high-value content that serves the searcher’s next step.
Some of the best-performing content types include:
Shifting to intent-driven content formats can significantly boost both rankings and conversions.
Dig deeper: Writing people-first content: A process and template
6. Use AI wisely, but prioritize customer insights
AI tools are valuable for analyzing SERPs and understanding search intent, but they are not a substitute for real customer insights.
The best way to understand what searchers want is to talk to actual customers. Conversations, chat logs, and feedback from sales teams offer deeper intent insights than AI alone.
For those who don’t have direct access to customers, speaking with sales representatives can be just as effective.
Sales teams repeatedly hear the same customer questions, making them an excellent source of content ideas and keyword strategy insights.
Dig deeper: How to optimize your 2025 content strategy for AI-powered SERPs and LLMs
[Watch] Next-generation SEO keyword research: Shift from traffic to search intent
Want to take your SEO strategy to the next level? Watch my full SMX Next 2024 session here.
Content marketing in 2025: 6 strategies you can’t ignore
As marketers, we love to explore emerging strategies and trends to stay ahead of the curve.
However, what’s relevant and effective is always changing, despite countless case studies and think-pieces predicting the next big trend.
Content marketing, in particular, is highly susceptible to speculation and testing because it is fluid and heavily influenced by consumers’ behaviors and interests at any given moment.
This makes it interesting, innovative and challenging.
So, what are the predictions for content marketing in 2025? Let’s dive in.
1. Spark inspiration with ‘visionary’ content
Robert Rose recently covered an emerging trend – visionary content.
Inspired by Matthew McConaughey’s TED Talk, where the actor shares his sources of motivation and inspiration, Rose relates these themes to the content.
Specifically, that content should not only appeal to the needs of one’s target audience but inspire, by giving them:
Whereas much recent content has focused on addressing consumers’ challenges and pain points, visionary content is more aspirational, future-thinking, and goal-oriented.
It provides users with a vision of the future, an appetite for new ideas, and a call to look beyond their current condition.
In Rose’s words, visionary content “lights the spark of inspiration.” For example, this could be:
Visionary content allows brands to shape industry conversions rather than react to them.
It helps nurture a loyal and engaged audience that looks to the brand for innovation, inspiration, and guidance.
For brands looking to capitalize on visionary content, this means creating content that’s future-thinking, often conceptual and gives users a vision of what’s possible.
2. Leverage short-form video for maximum reach
Short-form video formats like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are nothing new, but their prevalence and importance are expected to ramp up in 2025.
This is due in no small part to the “fast-paced nature of online consumption,” as highlighted by Forbes.
Today’s users consume content at a rapid pace, looking for digestible information that’s easy to watch and even easier to share.
Delivering value in bite-sized videos has allowed brands to reach more eyes in less time and increase the virality of their content.
An economical way to create more short-form videos at scale is to repurpose long-form videos into soundbites.
This often involves creating videos for YouTube (where there is evergreen, organic value) and then circulating shorter clips via Shorts, Reels, TikTok, etc.
Industry disruptor Gary Vee is a prime example of this, as he routinely publishes long YouTube videos, cuts clips of these videos, and reposts them on social media.
If you manage multi-channel campaigns for clients, you can leverage a similar approach without creating unique, short-form videos.
From scriptwriters to video editing software, AI tools will make it easier for brands to generate short video content at scale.
Dig deeper: The future of SEO content is video – here’s why
3. Optimize content for large language models (LLMs)
Until recently, SEO largely focused on optimizing for search engines like Google.
However, with the emergence of large language models (LLMs), there’s more “digital real estate” to optimize and maximize organic traffic.
This shift has given rise to LLM SEO, which focuses on enhancing content visibility and ranking within AI-driven search engines.
The results of LLM SEO mechanics can be seen when you conduct a Google Search and Google Gemini (Google’s AI model) surfaces summarized results.
These results are pulled from websites that may be purposely (or inadvertently) utilizing LLM SEO.
What does that mean for you?
In addition to traditional SEO efforts, it may be beneficial to deploy LLM-specific strategies.
While this area of marketing is still in its infancy, some strategies that have emerged include:
Stay attuned to developments in LLM SEO to maximize your content’s ranking and traffic potential.
Dig deeper: Decoding LLMs: How to be visible in generative AI search results
Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.
See terms.
4. Build high-performance content teams
The true power of content performance lies in the team.
Without passionate and experienced people driving the strategy, even the best tactics can fall flat.
People bring everything together – from conceptualization to execution to measurement and improvement.
Marketers rated having “high-performing team members” as the second leading factor in their content marketing success (second only to “understanding [one’s] audience”), per CMI’s recent report.
The same study reported that 86% of marketers have a dedicated content marketing team or staff person.
Building the right content team is a top priority for marketers and brands heading into 2025.
Over-reliance on automation, tools, or contracted writers can lead to a fragmented strategy.
It’s essential to have someone steering the content’s focus, goals, and priorities.
What should you be looking for when it comes to building a team?
For one, diversity of experience.
Look for team members who bring diverse skills, from SEO to copywriting to social media marketing, and can apply this experience to develop a robust content marketing plan.
Additionally, seek out team members who are collaborative and encouraging.
You will want a content team that feels empowered to share new ideas, support each other, and stay attuned to emerging trends in your space.
5. Apply psychological concepts to content
Personality psychology has many applications in content creation and marketing.
By understanding key psychological principles, you can tailor messaging to better meet the needs of specific consumer profiles.
The study of personality types can help predict user motives, understand behavior, and craft more effective messaging.
This leads to content that resonates more deeply with target audiences, boosting engagement and driving conversions.
In 2025, I expect psychology to play a bigger role in marketing, from analyzing Google search behavior to crafting compelling stories and influencing user actions.
Explore psychological insights to better understand how users navigate the web and make purchasing decisions – and how to apply this knowledge to content marketing.
Dig deeper: Content creation: A psychological approach
6. Differentiate your brand by balancing AI and human content
AI-generated content has been a hot and controversial topic in recent years.
You’ll find countless technologies that leverage AI-driven algorithms and concepts, expanding across sectors like SaaS, data analytics, and SEO.
Meanwhile, content purists remain resistant to AI-generated videos, art, blog posts, and more.
And then there’s everyone else in between.
Amid these polarized views, a growing trend is resistance to AI-generated content.
Some consumers are put off – or even jaded – by AI content that lacks originality, personality, and authenticity.
Conduct a casual search for conversations around AI, and you’ll find many articles and posts demonstrating the same.
One report found that half of consumers see the use of AI as a “turnoff.”
AI-assisted content creation isn’t going away. It has its place.
However, rejecting it could become a competitive differentiator for brands.
Some may take an ethical stance against AI – promising never to use AI-generated content – which could resonate with audiences who prefer human-created work.
For example, Dove has stated that they will never use AI to represent human bodies in their ads.
Each brand must decide if this stance aligns with their goals and values, as neither choice is inherently better.
However, given the ongoing debate, more brands are likely to take a stand on AI content soon.
While these trends are not set in stone, there are clear signs they will be relevant in 2025. Only time will tell how they will unfold.
Stay curious, keep testing, and listen to real-world conversations – often, the best insights come from the people we aim to serve.
Google confirms most review count bugs fixed but some still to go
Google had this really visible bug over the past week, where the number of reviews shown on a Google Business Profile, was showing fewer reviews than it should have. In short, Google was not adding up the reviews accurately but no reviews were actually removed from the business listing.
That being said, Google posted an update that it has resolved the bulk of the issues but there still may be some that are not fully restored yet. The remaining reviews count should be fixed within the coming days, Google said.
What Google said. Victoria Kroll from Google posted an updated statement last night in the forums saying:
What to do next. If you notice your review count is not back to normal but Tuesday of next week, then it may be time to reach out to support. You can reach out to support over here, either in the forums or by the contact us options in the footer of that page.
More details. On Friday, I reported on the issue on the Search Engine Roundtable, not knowing if it was a bug or a feature. I noticed dozens and dozens of complaint threads popping up in the Google Business Profiles forums from concerned small businesses and local SEOs. Google began rolling out a fix for this issue this past Tuesday.
Many businesses were concerned that their hard earned reviews were gone forever. But it was just a review count issue and the reviews were still showing on their profiles.
Why we care. Reviews are an important part of your businesses online reputation and can lead to you getting a visit or phone call, or not. So having positive reviews is important.
Losing those reviews caused a lot of concern and stress for small businesses and the local SEOs who service them.
Google has fixed most of them and will continue to work to restore the rest by the weekend.
Google adds member pricing beta type to Merchant listing pricing structured data
Google has updated its Merchant listing structured data guidelines to add a new beta for member pricing priceType, aka validForMemberTier property. Google also clarified the active prices, sale prices, strikethrough prices with more examples and instructions.
What Google said. Google added examples and instructions for using the
priceTypeproperty and new betavalidForMemberTierproperty to encode active prices, sale prices, strikethrough prices, and member prices in JSON-LD to the Merchant listing structured data guidelines, the search company announced.They did this to “make it easier for merchants to specify complex pricing through structured data and bring parity with price features in Merchant Center,” Google said.
Member pricing. The member price is the price at which the product is offered to a member of a particular loyalty program.
These prices are encoded using price specifications under the
Offerobject (with the exception of the active price, which can also be encoded at the offer level). The respective price specifications are identified by the price specification propertiespriceTypeandvalidForMemberTier, which must not be used together:priceTypenor avalidForMemberTierproperty.priceTypeproperty toStrikethroughPrice(for a transition period,ListPriceis also allowed) and cannot have avalidForMemberTierproperty.validForMemberTierproperty and cannot have apriceTypeproperty.Active price. The active price is the price at which the product is currently offered.
Strikethrough price. The strikethrough price is the the price during a sale, the higher regular price at which the product is normally offered. It may be displayed as a struck-through price to draw attention to a lowered active price.
Why we care. If you offer member loyalty pricing, then this beta is something you may want to give a try. If you want to better understand the various pricing types offered in this structured data, you should review the Merchant listing structured data guidelines again.
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Google tackles key Performance Max concerns in FAQ
Google released comprehensive answers to the most frequent questions about Performance Max, based on feedback from webinars, advertiser roundtables, and account team interactions.
The big picture. Performance Max has become a central piece of Google’s advertising ecosystem, but marketers have expressed concerns about its “black box” nature and effectiveness across different business goals.
Why we care. As advertisers grapple with Google’s AI-powered Performance Max campaigns, the company addresses crucial questions about transparency, lead quality, and campaign optimization. With some of their latest updates released this year, Google has made new updates to this guide that they started creating last year.
Key concerns addressed:
Between the lines. The FAQ release suggests Google is actively working to address advertiser skepticism while maintaining the AI-driven approach that powers Performance Max.
What’s next. Google indicates this is an evolving document, with plans to add more FAQs based on continued advertiser feedback and platform updates.
Bottom line. While Performance Max remains a powerful tool for cross-channel advertising, Google acknowledges the need for greater clarity and control to help advertisers maximize their results.
Go deeper. Advertisers can check back regularly for updated responses as Google continues to expand its FAQ documentation.