2025 Guide to Digital Advertising Platforms

In 2025, businesses have a wider range of digital advertising platforms to choose from than ever before. From established giants to newer contenders, each platform offers unique features and targeting capabilities that cater to specific marketing goals and audiences. To help you navigate this expansive landscape, here’s a breakdown of where you can advertise in 2025 and how to determine which platforms are best suited for your business.

Meta Ads (Facebook & Instagram)

Meta’s advertising ecosystem remains one of the most robust and widely used in 2025. With over 3 billion active users across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, Meta continues to provide businesses with unparalleled reach and targeting capabilities.

Whether you’re looking to drive conversions, increase brand awareness, or generate leads, Meta offers a variety of ad formats, including carousel ads, video ads, and story ads. For businesses of all sizes, Meta’s precision targeting—based on interests, behaviours, and demographics—ensures that your message reaches the right audience. With the continuous evolution of Meta’s tools and algorithms, businesses must stay up to date on audience targeting changes to make the most of its advertising potential.

Best For: Meta ads are best for businesses that are interested in building awareness and engagement. Advertising is most effective for those that have a well-defined, and fairly broad audience, and compelling creative assets. Meta’s has strengths over other platforms in targeting interests and similar audiences to those who have already engaged with your business (retargeting).

Consider Carefully: We do not generally recommend Meta for B2B advertising or very niche businesses without a defined audience. Although industry-based targeting has improved on Meta for some well-defined industries.

Google Ads

Google Ads remains an advertising powerhouse in 2025, but its strategies are shifting. Traditional search ads are losing their prominence in favour of more automated, visually engaging formats such as Performance Max (PMax) and Demand Gen Ads, which focus on automation and machine learning to optimize ad placements across multiple channels.

In addition to search ads, Google’s Display Network and YouTube provide businesses with the opportunity to advertise on millions of websites and video content. YouTube, in particular, has become a key platform for video-based brand awareness and engagement. With Google’s increasing reliance on automation, businesses will need to adapt their strategies to take full advantage of these innovative tools.

Best For: Google Ads is essential for capturing high-intent demand at the bottom of the marketing funnel. For this reason, we recommend almost all businesses include Google Ads as part of their marketing strategy. Leverage Google Ads at every stage of a buyer journey, with YouTube and DemandGen to build awareness, PerformanceMax to increase brand engagement and Google Search ads to drive leads.

Consider Carefully: For some verticals, the cost for clicks in Google Search has become prohibitively expensive for smaller businesses to scale Google Ads effectively. Before we get started, our specialists will evaluate your campaign goals and can advise you of an advertising mix that effectively leverages your ad spend.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn remains the top platform for B2B advertising, especially when it comes to lead generation. In 2025, LinkedIn continues to be an invaluable tool for reaching professionals and decision-makers across various industries. However, LinkedIn ads are typically more expensive than ads on consumer-driven platforms like Facebook or Instagram, so it’s important to have a clear value proposition when advertising here.

LinkedIn’s robust targeting options, including job title, company size, and industry, make it an ideal platform for businesses looking to connect with a highly engaged professional audience. While it’s a great option for direct lead generation, LinkedIn may not be as effective for brand awareness on a larger scale.

Best For: B2B awareness-focused advertising where you have a very specific target audience defined. Given the costs on LinkedIn, we generally only recommend this platform when the business generates high-value sales/conversions.

Consider Carefully: If you have a limited advertising budget and/or a poorly defined target customer, we recommend starting on other platforms like Google Ads or Meta. Once you have refined your audience targeting, we can leverage that data to better utilize smaller budgets on LinkedIn.

YouTube

As the world’s second-largest search engine, YouTube remains a dominant force in video advertising. With over 2 billion logged-in monthly users, YouTube is an essential platform for businesses that have compelling video content. In 2025, YouTube’s TrueView ads, bumper ads, and in-stream video ads continue to provide businesses with a variety of ways to engage users and boost brand awareness.

Whether your goal is to drive traffic, generate leads, or simply build recognition, YouTube’s video-first approach makes it ideal for campaigns that rely on visual storytelling. The platform’s extensive targeting options also ensure that your ads reach the right audience based on interests, search behaviour, and viewing habits.

Best For: YouTube is a great channel for generating awareness and engagement, with sophisticated targeting capabilities. We recommend YouTube for both B2B and B2C clients who have strong video assets and a well-defined audience.

Consider Carefully: YouTube is primarily an awareness channel. If you have limited resources and/or will have difficulty generating video assets, your efforts are often better utilized on other lower-funnel advertising channels like Google Search and Meta.

TikTok

TikTok has quickly become a must-have platform for businesses targeting younger demographics, particularly Gen Z and Millennials. As of 2025, TikTok’s algorithm and user engagement continue to offer businesses an opportunity to create viral content that resonates with a highly active, trend-driven audience.

The platform thrives on short-form video content that feels organic and authentic. For businesses that have the resources to produce creative, entertaining content, TikTok can be a highly effective tool for brand awareness and engagement. However, TikTok requires constant testing and iteration, as trends can change rapidly, and what works one month might not the next. Testing ads on TikTok and learning how to speak to the platform’s unique user base is key to success.

Best For: B2C businesses targeting a younger demographic with broad awareness campaigns. TikTok is relatively low cost compared to other platforms, but we do not consider it a performance-generating channel. Right now, we see TikTok as an optional part of a full-funnel advertising program.

Consider Carefully: We have not found TikTok to be an effective lead-generating channel, but it can generate broad awareness at a low cost. We would not recommend TikTok for B2B businesses. Video assets need to be created with TikTok in mind and can be time consuming and challenging to produce.

X Ads

Formerly known as Twitter, X remains a distinct platform for digital advertising in 2025. Despite controversies under new management, it continues to offer value for businesses engaging with real-time conversations and trending topics through promoted tweets, accounts, and trends.

In 2025, X has shifted its focus to integrating conversational AI tools and improving ad placements within communities and interest-driven topics. Enhanced targeting features now let advertisers reach users based on specific interests, hashtags, and behaviours.

Businesses should approach X with care, as its audience is highly vocal and responsive. Crafting authentic, engaging content is essential to fostering positive interactions and maximizing ROI. For industries tied to breaking news, sports, or entertainment, X Ads remain an effective way to connect with users during live conversations.

Best For: Businesses with a well-defined community or interest-focused offering that can be found on X. X can be used for both awareness and lead generation but is generally more effective as an awareness channel.

Consider Carefully: X is currently a very dynamic platform and will require an extra degree of monitoring and responsiveness on the part of the advertiser. If you have strict brand restrictions or internal social governance policies, X may not be a good fit for your organization.

Marketing On Threads

Threads, Meta’s text-based social platform, has rapidly become a key Twitter/X competitor, boasting 275 million monthly active users as of November 2024. Its integration with Instagram provides a familiar space for creators and businesses to share updates and engage with followers, marketed as a “friendly” and “kind” environment. This appeal has drawn users and brands, particularly those seeking alternatives to Twitter amidst its challenges.

Recently, Threads has shifted its focus toward follower engagement and analytics. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri announced changes prioritizing posts from followed accounts over recommended content, addressing growth concerns. Meta is also testing post-level analytics, giving users tools to better measure reach and impact, highlighting its dedication to audience-building.

In 2025, Threads will introduce advertising, starting with select advertisers in January. While its initial revenue impact may be limited, the platform’s growing user base, emphasis on positive interactions, and enhanced data tools make it an appealing option for marketers looking to diversify their social media strategies.

Pinterest

While Pinterest may not be the go-to platform for every business, it remains highly effective for industries related to lifestyle, fashion, home décor, beauty, and food. Pinterest’s visual nature allows businesses in these sectors to inspire and engage users in the discovery phase of their purchasing journey.

Ads on Pinterest typically feature high-quality imagery, which appeals to users who are actively searching for inspiration or looking to make purchase decisions. If your business falls into one of these categories, Pinterest in 2025 can help you drive traffic, sales, and brand visibility. However, for businesses outside of these industries, Pinterest may not deliver the same results as other platforms.

Best For: Businesses in travel, weddings, home services, and retail sectors that have high-quality visual assets. Pinterest can be an effective awareness channel for well-defined audiences in the planning stage of a buying journey.

Consider Carefully: The minimum ad spend on Pinterest is higher than other platforms, and the ad management is not as user friendly. We recommend Pinterest as an add-on to other marketing channels.

Reddit

Reddit’s highly engaged community of niche subreddits makes it an ideal platform for businesses with highly specific target audiences. While Reddit isn’t as mainstream as Facebook or Google, it offers advertisers a unique opportunity to connect with users who are passionate about particular topics or interests. However, Reddit’s audience tends to be skeptical of traditional advertising, so businesses must engage in a more organic, conversational approach.

For 2025, Reddit’s advertising tools have improved, allowing for precise targeting of subreddits and interests. If you’re looking to reach a specific audience or engage in direct conversations, Reddit could be a valuable addition to your advertising mix.

Best For: Similar to X, Reddit is a good channel to test of you have a very specific community or interest that you would like to target.

Consider Carefully: Reddit is not considered a lead-generating channel, but rather an awareness channel. Generally, we would include it in addition to other advertising.

Programmatic Ads

Programmatic advertising, which involves automated, real-time bidding for ad inventory, continues to grow in popularity in 2025. This form of advertising allows businesses to target specific audience segments across websites, apps, and other digital spaces using real-time data. Programmatic advertising is particularly effective for reaching niche audiences or targeting specific user behaviours and contexts.

Additionally, programmatic ads can be highly effective for industries with restricted categories, such as pharmaceuticals or alcohol, where other platforms may have more stringent ad policies. As programmatic tools become more sophisticated, businesses are able to streamline their ad buys and reach highly specific audiences with precision.

Best For: Business in restricted categories on Meta or Google Ads, or those with very specific targeting in mind that is not available on other platforms (i.e. income, placements etc.).

Consider Carefully: We find programmatic ads platforms are less user friendly and have less sophisticated reporting and insights. We prefer to use Google Ads or Meta but use programmatic when those platforms are restricted, or the costs are too high.

Bing/Microsoft Ads

While Google dominates the search engine market, Microsoft’s Bing remains a strong alternative for businesses looking to diversify their search advertising strategy. Bing Ads can be especially effective for businesses that have maxed out their Google Ads budget or are seeking to reach a different demographic.

Bing’s user base is often older and more affluent, which makes it an appealing option for businesses looking to target these specific segments. For national or international campaigns, Bing provides a cost-effective alternative to Google Ads. However, businesses targeting specific local areas, such as Ontario, may find that Bing doesn’t perform as well as Google in terms of local reach.

Best For: Businesses looking to expand beyond Google Ads, with broad geographic targeting. Bing Ads may have an advantage over Google Ads in targeting corporate or enterprise businesses, as Bing/Edge are often default browsers on corporate computer systems.

Consider Carefully: Local and regional-focused businesses, we only use Bing when we have maximized our reach on Google Ads. There is a small pool of Bing users in Canada, so often the returns are not large enough to justify the management of an additional ad platform.

Getting started with digital advertising doesn’t require a massive budget but does demand strategic planning and the right tools. The first step is identifying your goals—are you aiming for brand awareness, lead generation, or direct sales? Knowing your objective shapes everything from ad format to platform selection.

Next, choose the platforms best suited to your audience. Social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn cater to different demographics, while Google Ads is ideal for search-driven campaigns.

Prepare engaging ad creatives that align with your brand message, including eye-catching visuals, compelling copy, and clear calls to action. Tools like Canva or Adobe Express can help create professional-quality designs on a budget.

Finally, set up tracking mechanisms, such as Google Analytics or platform-specific pixels, to measure performance and optimize campaigns effectively. With a clear strategy and the right tools in place, you’ll be ready to launch your first digital ads.

To succeed in digital advertising, focus on understanding your audience. Detailed buyer personas can help you tailor messaging, visuals, and targeting to resonate with your ideal customer.

Invest in A/B testing to refine your ads over time. Test different headlines, images, and CTAs to determine what drives the best results. Continuously analyzing performance metrics, such as click-through rates (CTR) and cost per acquisition (CPA), will help optimize your campaigns for efficiency.

Leverage retargeting to re-engage users who have interacted with your brand but haven’t converted. Retargeted ads are highly effective at boosting conversions, as they keep your brand top of mind for potential customers.

Lastly, don’t underestimate the importance of mobile optimization. Make sure your ads load quickly and look great on smaller screens, as a significant portion of digital ad traffic comes from mobile users.

Digital advertising offers endless opportunities to connect with your audience and grow your business. We can help distill the complexity. Our specialists will guide you in choosing the right platforms, campaign structure, and audience targeting, so you can achieve measurable results. With the right approach, digital ads can become a powerful tool for driving growth and building brand loyalty.