In a recent in-house Adthena presentation, Navah Hopkins, a leading expert from our partner Optmyzr, shared her take on the biggest trends shaping PPC advertising. Optmyzr is an award-winning PPC management platform, designed to help marketers automate, optimize, and scale their paid media campaigns with AI-powered insights.

Navah highlighted key strategies to tackle challenges like adapting to new technologies, navigating stricter privacy regulations, and exploring opportunities on emerging ad platforms.

Here’s how her insights can shape your PPC strategy as we move into 2025.

Key challenges facing PPC marketers

Navah pointed out that PPC professionals encounter very different obstacles depending on whether they work in agencies or in-house. 

Challenges for agencies:

  • Tension with ad platforms: From glitches to outages and limited transparency, agencies are struggling to fully trust platforms like Google and Meta. Tools that offer reliable third-party insights are more valuable than ever.
  • Balancing costs and value: The way agencies charge clients, whether by spend, seats, or flat fees can create challenges when choosing the right tools. Flexible solutions that don’t penalize growth are key.
  • Adopting AI effectively: While some agencies may turn to AI to bypass tools, Navah stressed that the real value comes from tools that combine automation with strategy.

Challenges for in-house teams:

  • The fight for budget: In-house marketers often compete with organic, traditional media, or other departments for limited resources. Tools that deliver results across multiple teams are easier to justify.
  • The relentless pace of change: Keeping up with platform updates while working within a slower corporate structure is tough. In-house teams need tools that help them stay ahead without overwhelming them.
  • Privacy as a priority: With new privacy rules taking hold globally, compliance has become a critical factor in tool selection, especially for enterprise companies.

How marketers can address these challenges in 2025

Navah shared strategies that both agencies and in-house teams can adopt to overcome these obstacles and create a competitive advantage. 

1. Focus on trust and transparency

Marketers increasingly need tools and processes that deliver reliable insights and foster trust. Whether it’s avoiding wasted ad spend, understanding competitor behavior, or navigating platform changes, having a clear picture of what’s happening in the market is critical.

For agencies, this trust also extends to their clients. Offering clear, data-backed recommendations and demonstrating proactive monitoring can be the difference between retaining and losing a client.

2. Diversify ad platforms

While Google remains dominant, 2025 is the year to explore other platforms. Microsoft Ads, Amazon Ads, and even Meta’s Advantage+ have expanded their capabilities, offering opportunities to reach untapped audiences.

To succeed, ensure your campaigns are optimized for these platforms’ unique features and audiences. For example, Amazon Ads caters to product-first strategies, while Microsoft’s marketplace innovations, like impression-based remarketing, can support a more targeted approach.

3. Prioritize privacy-first strategies

Privacy regulations are reshaping how marketers operate, from stricter consent requirements to changes in data collection. Marketers need to ensure their campaigns are compliant, particularly when dealing with enterprise clients or global markets.

Make sure you have processes in place to manage consent, integrate offline conversions, and stay ahead of upcoming changes, like Google’s push for consent mode.

4. Lean into tools that complement automation

While AI can handle many tasks, its true power comes when paired with human strategy. Tools that highlight actionable insights, such as how to optimize a campaign, allocate budget, or identify competitive opportunities enable marketers to make better decisions, faster.

As Navah pointed out, it’s not just about having access to AI but knowing how to use it strategically.

Staying competitive in an uncertain future

Navah introduced the concept of “PPC insurance,” which describes how tools like Adthena act as a safety net for marketers by reducing wasted spend and offering a clear, independent and unbiased view of the search landscape that goes beyond what platforms like Google or Meta reveal.

Here’s how Adthena supports both agencies and in-house teams:

  • Proactive insights: By crawling the search results page, Adthena provides a unique competitive advantage.
  • Transparency in a black-box world: Adthena gives marketers a third-party perspective to regain control and make better decisions.
  • Trust-building insights: Agencies using Adthena can demonstrate measurable value to their clients, strengthening those relationships.
Iprospect leveraged Adthena's AI-driven insights to optimize their campaigns, achieving a remarkable 324% increase in conversions.

By leveraging these capabilities, marketers can navigate the complexities of the PPC landscape with greater confidence and effectiveness.

What’s next for PPC marketers?

Navah highlighted a few major shifts on the horizon:

Loss of search term data: The potential loss of search term data due to regulatory pressures could significantly impact campaign insights. To mitigate this, tools like Adthena’s Search Term Opportunities can fill the gap by identifying valuable search terms that you’re not currently bidding on but your competitors are.

Widen your Google Ads search coverage by identifying new PPC search terms, spotting underperforming keywords, and monitor competitor activity with Adthena’s AI-powered Search Term Opportunities report.

Adthena’s search term opportunity tool, identifies missed keywords your competitors are using to capture market share.

Diversification beyond search platforms: Expanding campaigns to platforms like Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft will be crucial to staying resilient against industry changes.

Embracing privacy-first marketing: Marketers who prioritize compliance will be better positioned to work with enterprise clients and navigate global regulations.

Key takeaways

So, what have we learned from Navah? The PPC landscape is changing fast, and success in 2025 will depend on how well marketers adapt to these shifts. By focusing on proactive strategies and the right tools, agencies and in-house teams can stay ahead of the competition.

Here’s how you can take control of your PPC strategy:

  • Build trust with tools that provide clear, actionable insights and foster transparency.
  • Diversify your advertising strategy beyond Google to platforms like Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon.
  • Prioritize privacy-first strategies to stay compliant and competitive.
  • Use AI strategically by combining automation with human expertise for better results.
  • Stay agile and prepared for changes, such as shifts in search term data and platform updates.

Adthena can help navigate these changes. By providing the competitive intelligence and insights you need, Adthena acts as your PPC safety net that helps reduce wasted spend, unlock new opportunities, and deliver real results.

Book a personalized demo and start transforming your PPC strategy for 2025.