How To Prepare Your 2025 Marketing Budget

In 2024, we saw rapid change in the world of marketing, thanks in no small part to the proliferation of large language model artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT and Claude. Those changes, combined with consumers spending more of their time on digital platforms like streaming video, are leading more companies to explore opportunities in digital marketing.

To stay ahead of the competition, companies need to invest their marketing dollars wisely and efficiently. As we rush toward 2025, your marketing shouldn’t just be about spending more — it should be about spending smarter!

Businesses need to remain agile in the coming year, as streaming platforms continue their rise, and AI tools — including ones that have been around for a while like search engine results — will become a driving force.

Let’s take a look at the key strategies you’ll need to consider when building your 2025 marketing budget, how to balance your efforts, and how to position yourself to maximize ROI in the year ahead.

REVIEW LAST YEAR’S PERFORMANCE

Yes, a lot changed in 2024, but to make good decisions about the future you need to look at the past. Evaluating and understanding what worked and what didn’t work in the previous year can help you build a clearer picture of what you want your marketing to look like moving forward.

Analyze the key metrics that you set for your business in 2024. Whether your marketing efforts involved traditional radio ads, OTT/CTV, or organic social media, think critically about how your tactics and strategies performed in terms of ROI and the impact each had on your brand visibility.

However, don’t just look at the numbers, consider the larger lessons you can learn from your data. Did your campaigns underperform on some channels but not others? Did some campaigns outperform your expectations? What can you learn from both situations? Has anything changed with the profitability of your core offerings? The answers to these questions (and more!) can help you make informed decisions about next year’s budget.

After evaluating your past performance, you’ll be better prepared to realign your marketing budget for 2025. Approaching your new budget with data-driven results helps you prioritize your spending in the areas where you’re most likely to have an impact and move the needle.

DIVERSIFY YOUR SPEND

Gone are the days when the whole family gathered in the living room for must-see TV. Today’s consumers are viewing content from multiple digital channels, and each channel provides a different experience and comes with different expectations.

Thankfully, digital marketing allows you to target consumers on different platforms with messages tailored to their interests. Diversifying your budget across different channels will help ensure you capture your audience’s attention at every stage of the customer journey, while targeting only consumers likely to need your products or services.

Digital marketing is an umbrella term that covers multiple marketing tactics and platforms — including display ads, OTT/CTV or streaming video, SEM, SEO, social media and content marketing.

As a bonus, taking a balanced, multi-channel approach lets you remain flexible with your advertising so you can adapt your strategy if you need to swap priorities during the year.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A DEDICATED DIGITAL STRATEGY

This may go without saying, but having a dedicated digital marketing strategy is critical.

When you’re a business owner, you’re juggling a lot of responsibilities. That includes different costs and expenses for simply operating your business. It’s easy to overlook having a digital marketing strategy as part of that process.

But, for most businesses, the only way you’re going to grow is if you’re marketing yourself. Without a plan to market yourself — especially in digital, where most consumers are spending their time — you’re missing out on new clients and customers. Plain and simple.

WHY OTT/CTV SHOULD BE A PRIORITY IN 2025

As we mentioned earlier, more and more Americans are cutting the cord and switching to streaming services to consume content. By 2025, video is expected to make up 82% of all internet traffic — that includes things like social media, streaming video, and beyond. Since OTT/CTV is simple to incorporate, it represents a significant growth opportunity for businesses looking to evolve their digital marketing strategies.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the audience for linear TV is pretty broad. The person you deliver your message to during the morning news might be the same person who sees it when Jeopardy airs, and they’re not interested in your message in any fashion! You’re simply throwing a dart at a time slot and hoping your target audience is there.

On the other hand, OTT/CTV offers the ability to target specific demographics based on things like location, interests, and audience behaviors. That improved targeting means that your business can more efficiently spend its ad dollars on the people who are most likely to convert.

In addition, OTT/CTV is able to provide data and insights into the types of audiences who are interacting with your ads. Whether it’s audience reach, conversions, or minutes viewed, the detailed insights you receive can help you adjust your video strategy on the fly to maximize your ROI!

CONSIDER THE IMPACT OF AI SEARCH

There’s no denying that AI has been the talk of the town in 2024, but the reality is that AI has been around and used for much longer. Platforms like Google and Facebook have used AI to develop their algorithms, chatbots use them on websites, your cellphone uses it when it autocorrects your grammar, and Siri uses it to give you directions to that mom-and-pop Italian restaurant you’re going to on date night.

Regardless, the rapid advancement of AI tools is changing how search engines are gathering and display information. In the past, your business may have been able to be listed on a few online directories such as Google Business and Yelp and been just fine. But, now, AI is crawling hundreds of online directories to return data like phone numbers, hours, and addresses about your business. You may not have heard of many of these directories, but the apps that use them surely have — and consumers finding you there may get wrong information!

Heading into 2025, your local listings must be up to date across the internet. Incorrect or outdated listings can penalize your rating on search engines, leading to lowered visibility, consumer frustration, and missed opportunities.

We all know that building a marketing budget and strategy is no simple task. The reality is that no matter how well you plan you’re likely going to have to adapt in an unforeseen way! The data-driven strategies that digital marketing offer allows you the flexibility to adjust campaigns in response to performance and market shifts, ensuring you stay relevant to your customers’ demands.

If you need a hand refining your marketing budget for 2025, we’re here to help! Our team of digital experts can help you find the most effective digital solutions tailored specifically to your business’s unique needs. Contact us today to find out how we can help you build an efficient, data-driven plan for the coming year!

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