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Internet advertising trends: how to promote effectively in 2025?

The search for new advertising solutions for the Russian market continues. Some formats and inventory have already shown their effectiveness, like eRetail media, something is just starting to gain momentum, like integration into streaming, and influence marketing is not losing ground. Serious investments in scaling are made not only by Yandex, but also by banking ecosystems. Major transactions that happened this year can also support the development of sites and tools: Avito became the owner of AdRiver digital advertising management services and the Soloway platform, in the summer Wildberries integrated with the advertising operator Russ Outdoor, MTS AdTech and Avito announced a technological partnership. Advertisers, in turn, preferring personalization and high efficiency, are ready for flexible solutions and the inclusion of new tools in their media packages.

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Where budgets flow

According to Group4Media, the advertising market is growing in all directions, but most of all in digital – by 49%: digital channels by 31%, and e-com – by 80%. But in the coming 2025, the growth rate will decrease. This is due to the general slowdown in the economy. At the same time, analysts note an increase in purchasing power in the regions. We agree that it is possible and necessary to develop regional marketing: the emphasis on the peculiarities of the region in the USP is always positively perceived by the consumer. Products with a national flavor or regional identity are becoming a global trend, which is gaining popularity in Russia as a way of self-expression and strengthening cultural ties. But we note that the growth of the well-being of the regions with a general decrease in economic turnover in the country is an unstable phenomenon associated with the work of the military-industrial complex, therefore, it is rather a situational choice, and not a trend.

eRetail Media – growth leader

At the beginning of the year, Amazon and Walmart reported that in the next five years, advertising on their sites will become the main source of income. By the end of the year, the dynamics have already changed – this will happen faster: the growth in advertising sales is already ahead of the growth in online sales. In the Russian Federation, the strengthening of the segment can be assessed as even faster and stronger one. The reason is obvious – the sharp loss of inventory created a vacuum that was filled with explosive force by those who had it: the site itself, consumer data and resources for scaling. Each retailer today offers its own set of tools from dozens of options. In addition, thanks to user behavior analytics, brands can accurately target those people who are already interested in buying a certain type of product. Since the ad appears at the point of purchase decision, the likelihood that the user will jump to the action (for example, add an item to the cart) increases significantly. Advertising fits seamlessly into the shopping process without irritating users, as they see relevant offers. Hence the high conversions, and the effective decisions are naturally bought. Moreover, in eRetail media, e-com itself can work with the entire funnel, and due to click-out and other media formats, any brand can work with the audience.

The trend will continue in 2025. The sites will offer more and more new solutions. And thanks to the availability of user data, the Retail Media category will be strengthened by “mono-marketplaces” offering one type of product. For example, selling air tickets. They are also strengthening online advertising in offline formats: for example, sellers of household appliances place ads on screens in retail chains, and car sharing business will offer creatives not only on cars, but also in its application.

AI for accurate hits

Artificial intelligence (AI) will continue to influence approaches to creating, managing and optimizing advertising campaigns: analytics of user behavior data and algorithms for effective targeting without AI are almost unthinkable. Just like optimizing budget allocation between different advertising channels and formats, AI can predict the most effective strategies. Everything is already built into the sites themselves. For advertisers and agencies themselves, the penetration of AI should free up the resources of specialists to work on strategic tasks – the generation of new advertising formats, openness to new formats that have appeared, such as dynamic creativity, voice advertising, interactive banners, etc.

If we talk about the sites where generative AI models are located, then it seems that they will not avoid ambitions to monetize user attention. First, an audience is formed, it learns to use free and then paid content. OpenAI already sells access to the best model for $200. By the time the channel with earnings through individual users ceases to bring the necessary income, the next stage will be the sale of user data – advertising. The fastest growing model in the Russian Federation from Yandex will be the first on this path.

Trends in mobile: Telegram or OEM for you?

Telegram remains a complex advertising tool due to limited advertising formats. But it is still called promising by all market players. It’s all about the audience – it’s there. True, not all forms of interaction with it are super-effective. The Mini Apps format, which appeared in 2022, has not yet gained significant dynamics for the market, although in some cases it may show quite acceptable results for the advertiser. The messenger already has everything: from donation reactions to crypto games. But how to search for hundreds of existing mini-applications is not clear. There are also attempts to create directories. But, probably, if we draw an analogy between the development of Telegram and WeChat, there will be several more waves of development and growth of this format. Now we are waiting for the appearance of our own store inside Telegram announced by Pavel Durov. This will significantly change the way Mini Apps are distributed and used, providing new opportunities for developers and users.

The advertiser is more willing to include OEM ads in the media suite now. This is a mobile advertising format based on recommendations from smartphone and tablet manufacturers. Placements are built into the manufacturer’s ecosystem itself, so they integrate seamlessly into the user’s experience and attract his attention without unnecessary imposition. The advantages of the formats are the ability to fine-tune targeting based on various parameters: the brand selects an audience based on the device model, the geographic location of the user, and socio-demographic characteristics. This accuracy is interesting and useful especially for Russian advertisers, where the share of the Android operating system remains dominant. In 2025, brands will allocate more than 500 billion rubles for mobile promotion, here the growth dynamics does not decrease: for example, according to the results of the first nine months of 2024, Xiaomi remains the most popular brand. According to MTS, it accounts for 24% of all devices sold.

Where we will watch ads

According to the ABA, Rutube showed significant growth, and in general the audience of Russian video services increased by 30 million. Viewers are switching to domestic platforms, and bloggers are engaged in diversification – everyone is present at different available sites, often with duplicate content, and users choose formats that are convenient for them personally. Although active attempts by players to drag authors exclusively to their site are not left – so VK Video is constantly growing the average income of bloggers in the monetization program. It was launched in the fall, and their income has already grown 2.5 times. This means that the “emptiness” did not happen, the authors are actively creating content, influencers will remain a platform for advertising integrations. Just to make choice, it will be necessary to connect not only analytics according to the degree of coincidence of the brand and person TA, but also the brand TA with the preferred platform. Microinfluencers are also trending due to their unconventional approach and high audience loyalty.

With the growing popularity of the Connected TV (CTV) and Over-the-top (OTT) platforms, marketers are facing new opportunities for programmatic advertising. These platforms attract a highly engaged audience that actively consumes content, providing ideal conditions for accurate targeting and increased effectiveness of advertising campaigns. The main advertising format on these platforms is video (in-stream, out-stream, pre-roll, mid-roll), but banners and interactive formats are also available that allow viewers to participate in the viewing process, rather than just watch.

Continuing the theme of video content and its position in the advertising market: integration into streaming services is expected to be a real breakthrough in 2025. They experienced a period of intense growth, receiving income from subscriptions. But audience growth rates can be volatile because users want to cut costs. Hence the desire to diversify sources of income. Therefore, the sites begin to develop advertising formats. An example is the dynamic branding of KinoPoisk pages with payment according to a fixed CPM. Streaming platforms allow brands to control where and in what context ads are shown. You can even use hashed audience data from your own CRM or integrate with third-party hosting services like Adriver, Weborama and Mediascope.

Trending tips for brands

  • Follow the main trendsetter of the digital market – Yandex: what new interesting formats does it offer? In new products, the price of the lead will most often be lower than usual. Now the “Unified Performance Campaign” is showing itself well.
  • Invest in optimizing your own sites and adapting to voice search. AI and voice are what will make advertising and information integrations as native as possible, and therefore effective.
  • Include both large and mono sites in eRetail Media.
  • Regional microinfluencers – a combination of the effectiveness of author advertising with a trend towards regionality.
  • Domestic streaming services are promising advertising platforms.

By Evgenia Grunis, CEO of Adventum Agency

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