Meta introduces generative AI video advertising tools

New generative AI video creation tools for advertisers on Facebook and Instagram, Meta announced today.

The tools are rolling out in Advantage+ creative and will be more widely available to advertisers early next year.

Meta rolled out generative AI tools to resize images, change backgrounds and repurpose existing images to create multiple versions of ads in May. Since then, brands have been able to use these capabilities when building out their campaigns on Meta Ads Manager. 

AI-powered analytics and optimization are also available to brands in Advantage+ campaigns.

Video Expansion. The tool allows advertisers to create more immersive video ads for Instagram and Facebook users. It generates unseen pixels in each frame to expand the dimensions of the video, making it a more native experience on the platforms.

The new Video Expansion feature was developed in response to the popularity of a similar feature for images.

Image Animation. This lets advertisers add movement to a fixed image on Instagram Reels. Now, advertisers don’t need an original video asset to upload — they can include videos in their campaigns automatically using genAI.

Brand voice and tone. Meta is testing capabilities to improve brand voice and tone in genAI-powered creative, based on feedback from advertisers and agencies. The company also has a tool with voice prompt capabilities for advertisers building out text creative. Advertisers can also upload a brand logo to guide genAI-created visual assets.

Closer creator partnerships. Meta also unveiled a tool to create more integrated creator campaigns. It lets Advertisers incorporate creator content into collections ads on Reels and elsewhere.

• The advertiser’s and creator’s handles will appear together, a capability managed through Advantage+ Catalog.

Meta also created a new Partnership Ads Hub where advertisers can manage creator campaigns. It lets them set up partnership ads and other content on one page.

Why we care. Meta and some of their advertisers say fixed images work well down-funnel and are simpler to scale with existing genAI tools. Video is better for telling brand stories at the top of the funnel.

The new genAI video tools let advertisers get involved in video where it matters most, with minimal additional resources. These capabilities, especially Video Expansion, ensure brand videos look native, professional and enticing on Meta platforms.

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How to use Microsoft Clarity for deeper website analytics

Microsoft Clarity is one of the best analytics tools you might not know about.

This powerful, free tool enriches your existing analytics and customer profiling, offering deeper insights into user behavior.

This article covers what Microsoft Clarity is and how to set up custom events to maximize its value for your website.

TL;DR

• Clarity is a free, no-frills heatmapping and user session recording tool. It adds color to your existing analytics setup and is an essential tool for digital marketers
• Seamless integration with Google Analytics 4 allows you to paint a deeper picture of your audiences and how they interact with your site.
• Clarity has good prebuilt filters, allowing you to segment out users and answer important analytics questions.
• Advanced segment building with Google Tag Manager event integration lets you track anything you want on your website.

What is Microsoft Clarity?

Microsoft Clarity is an analytics tool that provides heatmapping and session recordings. 

Heatmaps provide a visual map of how users interact with your webpages, where they click most and how far they scroll down your page.

Session recordings are recordings of individual users’ device screens using your website. Clarity allows you to review different user sessions and see how people use your website. 

Many tools, like Hotjar and Mouseflow, offer heatmapping and session recording software, often as part of more comprehensive UX solutions. 

However, Microsoft Clarity stands out by focusing solely on heatmaps and session recordings, and it’s completely free. 

This streamlined approach makes Clarity easy to use and highly appealing for those looking to get started quickly.

Leveling up your analytics

Analytics tools like Google Analytics 4 (GA4) provide a wealth of user data, but they do not tell the full story of how users interact with and use your website. 

GA4 is useful for tracking how users reach your website, what devices they use and how they engage with it. 

We can see metrics like button clicks, average time on site and top-visited pages. But there are nuances and bits of information missing in between.

Clarity can enrich this data. It’s like moving from black and white to a color picture.

Where previously you could understand which pages get the most views and which events triggered, now you can actually see:

• How users move through the pages.
• Where their mouse gets stuck.
• When they pause to take a minute to consider.
• And so much more. 

Clarity is not just an analytics or UX tool; it should be considered a part of the digital marketer’s basic toolkit.

For instance, when running a PPC campaign, its success is only as strong as its weakest link.

You could create a highly targeted Meta campaign with great creative assets, but it will still fall short if the landing page lacks the right flow or clear calls to action.

Microsoft Clarity provides the insights needed to ensure consistency across the entire campaign, from targeting to conversion.

GA4 integration

Clarity has four key sections: 

• Dashboard.
• Recordings.
• Heatmaps.
• Google Analytics. 

All these sections are straightforward to explore and use. Here, I’d like to focus on specific ways to use Clarity to get the most out of it.

A key part of Clarity to utilize is the Google Analytics reports.

There is an integration between Clarity and Google Analytics which needs to be set up first. This is found in Settings and under { } Setup in the sidebar.

This becomes extremely useful as it allows you to delve deeper into pre-existing GA4 segments. Once you select a particular segment in the GA report, you can review these user sessions.

In the GA report screenshot below, I’ve focused on a key referral source: chatgpt.com, which has recently been driving significant traffic to my site.

With Microsoft Clarity, I can now review session recordings from these users to assess whether they are high-quality prospects.

The same can be done for devices, pages and countries based on Google Analytics segments.

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Powerful segmentation

While browsing Clarity’s reports and heatmaps can be interesting, it’s only useful when you start with the right questions.

This is where segmentation comes in. This is one of Clarity’s strengths, thanks to its powerful built-in filters.

For example, I noticed that weekend traffic to my site is high, but conversions are low. 

To understand why, I can use Clarity’s filters to isolate weekend traffic, creating a segment that allows me to analyze this specific audience in more detail.

I can make the following filter selections under User info: Last 14 days > Day of the week > ‘Saturday, Sunday’

Along the top bar, we see that I have built a segment of users (I can also save this as a segment for future use).

All my reports in the dashboard, user sessions and heatmaps are now filtered to this segment of users.

I can now investigate what is happening on weekends through heatmaps and session recordings. 

Clients often ask me, “What do users typically do before converting? Is there a trend we can improve on?” 

While Google Analytics provides previous page paths, it can be difficult to interpret since visitors often navigate the site in a non-linear way. 

With Microsoft Clarity, however, you can create a segment for all converters and leads, allowing you to watch their user sessions up to the point of conversion.

I spend considerable time analyzing these sessions to identify common patterns among purchasers and leads.

To do this, we can build a segment where users have reached a custom URL. This could be a thank you page on a form fill or a checkout thank you page.

Below, I have set one up using Clarity’s built-in filters, where the page URL contains “thank-you.”

The same approach can be applied to ecommerce sites with an “add to cart” feature.

You can easily review customers who added a product to their cart but didn’t complete the purchase by filtering for users who visited one page but didn’t reach the next.

See the example below:

Building custom events with GTM

Prebuilt filters are great, but they are limited. There are many instances where you will want to track specific items and actions on your site that are not available out of the box. 

Google Tag Manager (GTM) allows you to tag and track a wide variety of events. We can then send these events into Clarity as “smart events” and use them to build custom segments. 

This feature allows you to create any event in GTM, send it to Clarity, segment session recordings and gain deeper insights. 

Here’s a step-by-step guide to setting this up. (In this example, we’ll track affiliate link clicks, but the process can be applied to any type of tracking.)

Step 1: First, define the question to plan the events you need to track. 

In this case, I want to gain a deeper understanding of users clicking on affiliate links and how they interact with website articles before clicking out.

To do this, I need to create an event every time a user clicks on a link to the affiliate target.

Step 2: Connect Clarity and GTM by navigating to Settings > { } Setup.

Step 3: Create the GTM tag within your GTM account. Navigate to Tags > New.

Click to add a new tag type. In the sidebar, you’ll find premade tags for Microsoft Clarity.

I added the “luratic” tag, but any of the Clarity tags should work OK.

Step 4: Configure the tag by adding the Clarity project ID, which can be found under Settings > Overview.

See the orange box in the screenshot below. This tells GTM to push the event into your Clarity account (when triggered).

Add the project ID to the GTM tag configuration, as shown in the first red box.

Under Advanced Options, tick Add Custom Events, then add the event name (see the orange box above).

This event will be created by GTM and sent to Clarity. Choose a descriptive name for it.

Step 5: Add the trigger, which is the action on the website that will initiate this tag to fire. 

Click on the Trigger Configuration box to select a trigger option.

In my case, I selected a trigger for “Click – Just Links.” This fires when someone clicks a specific link.

Next, define the conditions. You could enter any text in the URL of a third-party website you’re sending traffic to.

In this example, I want the trigger to activate only when the URL contains the text “bym-windsor.”

Now, whenever someone clicks a link with “bym-windsor” in the URL, this tag will fire and generate the event.

Note that there are many different options for triggers that are worth exploring. Triggers can include elements clicked on the page or pages on a website loading or many other options.

Step 6: Save the tag and publish the GTM container by clicking the Publish button on the top right.

Step 7: You now want to find your new events inside Clarity. 

I recommend manually triggering this event by clicking on it on your website and waiting 24 hours to give enough time for this data to be pushed through. 

Open Clarity and navigate to Settings > Smart Events. Here, you should see your new event from GTM come through as an API event automatically. 

You now have a new smart event, which you can use to build a segment.

Step 7: Create the segment. In Clarity, open your filters and navigate to User actions > Smart events. 

Select the event you have generated in GTM. 

Step 8: The goal is to deepen your understanding of this particular group of users. 

Over time, you can refine this segment further, drilling down into more specific categories. 

Perhaps you want to determine whether they originated from a Meta campaign, whether they are nighttime visitors and whether they use mobile or desktop devices.

Transform your website analytics with Microsoft Clarity

It’s not often you come across a gem like Microsoft Clarity. It will help you paint a colorful picture and better understand your users.

The key to Clarity is in your approach. Start with the right questions, build custom events, use segments and gain deeper insights.

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Google Product Studio launches AI-generated video creation tool

Google is rolling out in Product Studio within Google Merchant Center, the ability to use its video generation tool. This is powered by Google’s generative AI tools, to help merchants quickly and efficiently create videos for their product campaigns.

U.S. first. This is the first rolling out for U.S.-based merchants. Google wrote, “Video generation in Product Studio is currently only available for merchants in the US. We hope to expand to more countries soon.”

What Google said. Google wrote:

Starting today, Product Studio now offers AI-powered video creation tools to help you effortlessly produce high-quality product videos. With this new feature, you can transform existing product images into dynamic videos in just a few clicks, saving valuable time and resources.

How it works. Google lets merchants choose the product that they want to feature and select a video theme. From there, Google will customize the video to match your brand, enhance your images, and highlight product attributes, Google explained.

Then you can also add audio and customize the headline to promote a sales event, share your brand values, or call out what makes your product unique.

In addition, these videos can be downloaded to use across Google Ads campaigns, Google Merchant Center, your website, or other marketing channels you wish to use them on.

More details. Google posted more details in its help documentation. Google wrote, “Get started generating videos in Merchant Center or the Google & YouTube app in Shopify today. Learn more About generating videos in Product Studio.”

Why we care. If you didn’t have anyone to help you create videos for your campaigns and products, you may want to consider checking out Google’s AI tools for this, specifically within Product Studio.

Even if you do have a video company helping you with this, it may make sense to see how these compare to what Google can generate using AI.

It can save you time and money but the output of the video has to meet your desired and professional requirements.

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Key PPC ad strategies for home services

Home services are constantly searched for online, making them both in high demand and high supply, driving CPC to higher numbers than ever before.

While PPC ads remain a powerful lead generation tool for home services, the landscape has become more expensive and complex.

Whether you work for an agency specializing in home services or handle marketing in-house, finding cost-effective strategies is crucial. 

This article explores the most effective PPC ad strategies tailored for home services, ensuring you can maximize any budget and succeed in this competitive niche.

From campaign setup to targeting and optimization, you’ll find strategies to suit both short and long sales cycles, helping you generate quality leads and boost conversions.

Campaign strategy

The campaign strategy will depend on the length of the sales cycle. 

For home services, there are:

• Short sales cycles with immediate services needed, such as plumbing repairs.
• Long sales cycles, such as remodeling services. 

For short sales cycles

Most home services with short sales cycles will use search campaigns only, with rare exceptions.

In the case of repairs, there is usually an immediate need, so the sales cycle may be one day or less.

For example, someone may search “plumber near me” or “emergency AC repair service.”

The person is trying to quickly find a company for their immediate need, so a search campaign is the best option.

Search campaigns will account for most, if not all, of the budget for home services because people search online for the specific service they need at the time they need it, whether on Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo or other search engines.

For long sales cycles

Some home services, such as remodeling or pool builders, have a longer sales cycle than one day.

This allows you to test multiple campaign types at the same time to target different stages of the funnel, including:

• Search.
• Display. 
• Remarketing.
• Video ads. 
• Demand Gen.
• And possibly Performance Max. 

Ongoing services like pest control, carpet cleaning or maid services may have either short or long sales cycles, as customers aren’t always in immediate need.

People often search for long-term providers without urgency. These services can benefit from both Search and other types of campaigns for targeting.

Display campaigns with longer sales cycles can target in-market, affinity, demographic, custom audiences and remarketing audiences. 

For example, the display campaign could target:

• In-market (Pools and Spas or Affinity > Home Décor Enthusiasts or Demographics > Homeowner).
• Or a custom audience targeting users that recently visited a remodeling services website or recently searched for remodeling services. 

Another option for display campaigns would be targeting ads on websites based on their content, such as topics, keywords and handpicked placements on relevant websites to home services. 

Video campaigns have very similar targeting options to display campaigns. 

You would test the same options but for views or conversions as the campaign goal rather than clicks or conversions chosen as the goal of display campaigns. 

Google Ads also has a basic video maker built into the platform, or you can hire video creators for a range of budgets. 

Getting started with video ads is much easier than it used to be. 

Dig deeper: How to overcome the top 3 objections to YouTube video ads

Performance Max and Demand Gen campaigns cast a very wide net and use more automation signals, but don’t give nearly as much data and don’t have as much control. 

If you have a large budget, it can be useful to experiment with one or two campaigns targeting all stages of the sales funnel or running them alongside other campaigns. 

This approach is best for long sales cycles with high-cost services, like remodeling or custom home building, but not recommended for short sales cycles.

Bid strategy

For smaller budgets or new ad accounts with no conversion history, it may be best to test manual CPC bidding until the account builds up some conversion history. 

This way you can turn your bids up and down slowly to monitor the effects on leads. Automated bidding works well when it has more conversion data. 

For short sales cycles

The bidding will be for Max Conversions, possibly with a target CPA also in place. 

The campaign goals will be the ones you set for phone calls and form fills – such as booked appointments. 

This ensures the bidding strategy focuses on maximizing calls or online appointments, rather than just visits to the contact page or getting directions.

There are a lot of options for leads for home services, but PPC allows for another layer of quality control. 

To remove bad leads, set a minimum call length inside Google Ads before they are counted as a conversion. 

This will help the automation not count hangups or people calling for employment, for example. More information can be found here on Google’s official support page. 

PPC call tracking software, such as Call Tracking Metrics or CallRail, has a similar feature, allowing minimum call lengths to be counted as conversions. 

Connect your CRM to Google Analytics for second-level quality control for your leads for home services. 

Then, set up another goal for calls that turn into booked appointments and import this goal into Google Ads, Microsoft Ads or even Facebook Ads as an offline conversion.

For example, suppose a call turns into an appointment. In that case, you can mark the call inside a home services CRM such as Workiz, ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro and then export that back to Google Analytics or even back to Call Tracking Metrics. 

Most systems can mark a lead as a sale/appointment with a value attached to it. 

You want to make sure that sale/appointment makes its way all the way back to Google Analytics, Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Facebook Ads and other ad platforms to see which leads are turning into appointments. 

This example from Call Tracking Metrics shows how you can mark a phone call as converted and even add a Converted/Sales amount. 

For smaller companies, this can be done manually to review phone call quality or listen to call recordings if you don’t have the budget for the large CRMs.

Monitoring lead quality is critical for automated bidding, especially for home services. 

Otherwise, PPC ad campaigns may continue to optimize for three-second phone calls as more and more come in from the ads. 

For long sales cycles

The same approach would be taken, but you can also have campaigns with automated bidding with the goal of micro-conversions. 

At the top of the funnel, people may not be ready to request a quote or book an appointment for a bathroom remodel, custom home builder or outdoor kitchen builder. 

You should still track both conversions, but having more than one option can help bring in more leads.

This is where micro-conversions can help. You can track smaller steps people take, such as:  

• Signing up for a newsletter.
• Watching a key video.
• Viewing a key page like Pricing.
• Requesting more information but not an appointment.
• Viewing design options or photo gallery.
• Or using a design simulator/layout preview tool on your website.

To keep CPCs and lead costs low, any sales cycle can use portfolio bidding, which lets you set both a target CPA and max CPC. 

This is helpful for highly competitive keywords that can cost $100-$200 or more per click. 

However, don’t set the tCPA and max CPC too low, as it may limit your volume or result in no impressions due to unrealistic targets.

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Keywords strategy

For short sales cycles

You can bid on symptom searches or direct searches that are very specific. Options to bid on symptom keywords would include things like: 

• “Kitchen sink leaking water”
• “AC blowing hot air” 
• “Roof is leaking water in attic”

Direct, very specific searches would include things like: 

• “Plumbing company near me” 
• “AC repair company” 
• “Painter near me”
• “Roofing company in Houston”

Direct searches usually have the highest CPC because everyone is bidding on them, and they are the most obvious. 

Symptom searches may not have as high of a conversion rate. Also, the call/lead quality may be a mix of good and bad, but CPCs are usually much lower, resulting in a lower CPA or cost per lead. 

Grouping different keywords by theme into relevant ad groups will also help reduce CPCs and increase conversion rates, lowering your cost per lead since the ads can be customized to the keyword. 

This is much more effective than having one large ad group with many keywords showing the same generic ad that goes to the same generic services page. 

Sometimes, a separate branded keywords campaign may be worth testing, depending on your specific service, if competitors are bidding on your brand name and if you advertise offline or on social media channels. 

You may also consider bidding on competitors’ names as keywords, as phrase or broad match. This is very experimental and is typically done in a separate campaign. 

Often, home services companies receive leads from people who accidentally called them and have no interest in changing companies. 

You’ll want to monitor this separate competitor campaign closely. It may work, or you may block all competitor names as negative keywords account-wide. 

I suggest multiple keyword strategies simultaneously if you have a higher budget to test. 

This can be done by using:

• Broad match keywords for your direct terms, such as “painter services near me.” 
• Or the symptom search keyword itself as broad match – which would match to related searches. 

When used properly, broad match keywords can find many search terms with much lower CPCs. 

You do have to watch them closely and frequently add negative keywords, but this tactic can help offset the high CPCs of phrase and exact match for direct terms like “plumbing company near me.” 

Many ad agencies will prepare negative keyword lists in advance to avoid wasting clicks on search terms they already know are not relevant. Testing multiple match types at the same time is also acceptable. 

Add a keyword column to your Search Terms report to see which keyword and match type triggered each search term. This helps identify new keyword opportunities and block unwanted ones.

You will also have to monitor your CRM closely (or tell your client to do so) to make sure you are getting high-quality leads that are turning into more jobs for you. 

Otherwise, being creative with keywords and match types may result in a lot of leads that aren’t turning into jobs. 

For long sales cycles

A combination of campaign types is available for longer sales cycles, but search will still play a major role. 

Search campaigns can target:

• Direct keyword searches such as “bathroom remodeling services in Houston” or “contractor for kitchen remodel” at the bottom of the funnel.
• Top-of-the-funnel keywords like “bathroom remodeling ideas” or “average savings of energy efficient windows,” if your budget allows for it. 

You can also add a separate branded keywords campaign. For larger budgets, longer sales cycles and companies that advise online and offline, a separate branded campaign is very valuable for all stages of the funnel in a longer sales cycle.

Also, you’ll want to ensure the ad copy and the landing page the ads go to are relevant to the stage of the funnel. 

Suppose they are still in the early phases of research. In that case, the keyword, ad and landing page should match ideas for remodeling, videos, examples or galleries, not necessarily “Get a quote now.” 

Ads strategy

For short sales cycles

You’ll want to emphasize urgency with phrases like “same day service available” or “24/7 emergency services.”

With these ads, you also have to convince them to contact you instead of competitors. 

This is done in the ad and landing page by highlighting your reviews and mentioning things like:

• Licensed.
• Bonded.
• Insured.
• Top-rated.
• Coupons.
• Discounts.
• Years in business.
• A+ Better Business Bureau rating.
• Etc. 

The goal is for the person to search, click your ad and then call you or book an appointment online as soon as possible. This makes for a few-minute sales cycle. 

Also, for any length of sales cycle, add as many relevant ad assets as possible. The most commonly used include: 

• Sitelinks. 
• Callouts. 
• Calls. 
• Locations. 
• Images.
• Business logos.
• Structured snippets. 
• Lead forms. 
• Prices. 
• Promotions. 

These allow your ad to take up more space on the page and give users more ways to contact you.

Dig deeper: 6 tips for better PPC ad copy 

Long sales cycles

In your ads, speak to different stages of the funnel, matching with keyword searched or targeting strategy with other campaign types. 

The specific ad copy will depend on where they are in the funnel, they may not want to get a quote just yet but want to remodel the bathroom soon.

The ad suggesting to “View a gallery of designs” would speak to them better.

Here are examples of different ad copy for different stages of the funnel:

• “Looking for New Bathroom designs? Browse Our Gallery.” 
• “Get a Quote on Bathroom Remodeling Now.” 
• “Make Your Home More Energy Efficient with Triple Pane Windows.”

This message can be through a responsive search ad, responsive display ad or video ad. The core message would be the same, even in different ad formats.

The ad copy should match the stage of the funnel, and the landing page should also bring them to a relevant page based on the funnel stage.

Using proven landing page templates to jumpstart a new ad campaign with a pre-tested layout and design can be very effective in offsetting high CPL.

Testing a landing page vs. a website page is a common practice to see which brings in the most leads.

Other options for home service leads and phone calls

Google also offers LSAs (local service ads), and Microsoft Ads has a similar ad format called PSAs (professional service ads).

These campaign types have mostly automated targeting with very few optimization features. 

A good option for small businesses or even agencies to test a different lead strategy for home services, but they don’t have a lot of options to optimize if you aren’t getting the results you want. 

Most home services with short sales cycles will run these alongside Search campaigns to see which performs better. 

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Visual content and SEO: How to use images and videos in 2025

Many businesses are finding their digital marketing efforts falling flat despite producing content regularly. The culprit? 

An outdated approach that neglects the growing importance of visual content in SEO.

With tech giants like Google and Apple prioritizing AI-powered visual search, companies that don’t adapt risk losing visibility and relevance.

Many enterprises lack the centralized strategies and governance needed to effectively manage visual assets across departments.

This article outlines a seven-step process to futureproof your visual content and SEO for 2025.

By implementing these strategies, you can leverage the latest trends, optimize for AI-powered search and significantly boost your online presence and engagement.

How are major giants pivoting features to embrace visual search? 

Google is now integrating video and image content, primarily from YouTube, websites and third-party sites, into the Top Insights section of product and AI-generated search results pages. 

This change provides users a richer, more engaging experience by offering a diverse range of information beyond text-based results and reviews. 

It also allows brands to leverage image and video content to boost visibility and engagement. 

Similarly, Apple has released Visual Intelligence with Vision 3, offering new features such as image segmentation and object detection. 

These new capabilities allow developers to build more sophisticated and powerful applications that utilize visual information.

Why are visual content and SEO challenging for enterprises and SMEs?

The biggest challenges in visual content and SEO include a lack of centralization, inconsistent policies, governance and knowledge across departments.

Search is multimodal, meaning content creation should focus on customer intent, considering images, videos, PDFs and all other touchpoints and channels. 

It is evolving beyond text to include diverse visual content. This shift requires a customer-centric approach that prioritizes intent and experience. Many companies struggle with implementing consistent best practices for visual assets across departments.  

With the rise of AI-powered search, it becomes even more critical to centralize all visual assets, ensure they are optimized and consistently distribute them across all channels.

Dig deeper: Visual optimization must-haves for AI-powered search

Top trends in visual content and SEO

Featured images and interactive short-form videos

• These elements are critical for enhancing user experience, as consumers are seeking app-like interactions. 
• Platforms such as TikTok and Instagram Reels have popularized short, engaging videos, making them essential for reaching audiences. 
• Overall, video content helps in engagement and improve conversions and saturating SERPs. 

Personalization

• Tailoring experiences based on audience, journey, demographics, location and intent is vital for brands to succeed. 

Mobile dominance

• Since most images and videos are consumed on mobile devices, it is crucial to ensure that your UI, UX and assets are optimized for mobile.

In-video interaction

• Brands are exploring interactive video formats that allow viewers to choose their own path or engage in features like a 360-degree view and zooming.
• Incorporating polls and quizzes can create a more immersive and engaging experience.

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7-step process to futureproof your visual content and SEO in 2025

Well-chosen featured images or videos significantly boost a website’s click-through rate (CTR) and encourage user engagement. 

It is important to follow best practices such as image relevance to content, high quality, appropriate file size and format and mobile optimization.

1. Curate

Compile a list of all channels, vendors, departments and touchpoints where visual content is created and consumed.

2. Centralize

Establish policies to organize your content. Ensure all images and videos reside in a digital asset management (DAM) system and are accessible via a content delivery network (CDN). 

All channels should access images directly from the DAM, avoiding multiple copies of the same image or video sitting in file folders.  

3. Optimize

Use high-quality, relevant images with appropriate file formats, image tags, sitemaps and structured data to enhance discovery and visibility. 

Leverage Google NLP to check for content marked as inappropriate and prioritize images relevant to the search query. 

Ensure visual content doesn’t affect site speed by using next-gen image formats and implementing lazy loading.

4. Distribute

Ensure content is consumed from one central location. Use cloud infrastructure and a CDN to host and distribute your assets efficiently. 

5. Application, experience and infrastructure

Leverage entity search to gain a competitive edge by implementing a clear visual hierarchy and enhancing content scannability. 

Well-structured, topical pages with relevant images and videos perform better. Develop snackable videos for your unique selling proposition (USP) and customer reviews. 

Create content suitable for visual snippets, such as how-to guides and recipes. The goal is to optimize for Google’s multisearch feature, which combines image, video and text searches. 

Infrastructure is one of the biggest gaps most businesses face. 

Most DAM systems are designed only to store images and lack the capability to optimize them easily. 

Having a DAM that provides real-time scoring of your asset quality and connects seamlessly with your websites and other channels is essential. 

Dig deeper: Future-proofing digital experience in AI-first semantic search

6. Governance and checklist

Establish robust governance and checklists around quality, consistency and usage across all departments. 

Continuously test which images are performing well in SERPs and conversions to refine your checklist.

7. Metrics and KPIs

Develop metrics to track SERP and rich snippet saturation, presence in AI overviews, overall click-through rates (CTR), clicks from visual search, engagement rates and page bounce rates.

As Google and other search engines incorporate conversational AI, short videos, images, and social media posts into search results – shifting away from traditional website listings – these strategies will help you effectively use visual content in 2025. 

Success stories

Using the seven-step process as mentioned above, our clients were able to drive phenomenal success for their images on search. 

A popular hotel in Georgetown saw a 104% increase in the number of times images appeared in search results versus the previous period. 

Search results appearances lift: 

A Massachusetts Resort and Spa saw a staggering lift in its visual search performance:

• + 871% increase in the number of times images appeared in search results versus the previous period.
• + 101% increase in overall image impressions versus the previous period.

Search results appearances lift: 

Impressions lift: 

Dominate visual search with well-optimized images and videos

Video and images are powerful tools for enhancing SEO and boosting online visibility. As LLMs become increasingly skilled at understanding and generating both text and visuals, you must prepare for more integrated visual-textual content creation and optimization strategies. 

By prioritizing these areas, you can stay ahead of the curve in visual content and SEO for 2025. Embracing the latest technologies and features released by major tech companies will enable you to enhance your online presence and improve searchability.

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Structured data and SEO: What you need to know in 2025

Many search engines rely on structured data to enhance user experiences – and this trend will likely intensify in 2025. 

For this reason, structured data is no longer a “nice-to-have” but an essential part of any SEO strategy. 

Here’s what you need to know about structured data, including why it matters, important trends, key schema types, advanced techniques and more. 

What is structured data?

Structured data is a standardized format for organizing and labeling page content that helps search engines understand it more effectively. 

Google uses structured data to create enhanced listings, rich results and various features in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Being included in these features can boost your website’s visibility and organic reach, especially in entity-based searches.

Vocabulary

The most commonly used vocabulary for structured data is Schema.org, an open-source framework that provides an extensive library of types and properties. 

Schema.org includes hundreds of predefined types, such as Product, Event or Person and properties like name, price and description. 

Format

The preferred format for implementing structured data is JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data), which is endorsed by Google and other search engines. 

JSON-LD encapsulates structured data within a <script> tag, keeping it separate from the core HTML. 

This approach makes it more flexible, easier to implement and less intrusive. JSON-LD is particularly useful for dynamic content on larger websites.

Validation

Correct implementation of structured data is essential to be eligible for rich results. 

To verify that structured data is properly implemented and can be processed by search engines, use tools like: 

• Google’s Rich Results Test.
• Schema Markup Validator. 

These tools check for errors or omissions in the schema, ensuring the markup is valid and effective.

Dig deeper: What is technical SEO?

Why structured data matters more than ever

Structured data enables search engines to interpret website content more deeply, enhancing how pages are indexed and presented in search results. 

It allows brands to reach audiences in less competitive areas of search, such as voice and image search, allowing sites to drive traffic and engagement outside of traditional SEO. 

Zero-click search and brand authority

More and more SERP features, like knowledge panels and featured snippets, depend on structured data to provide answers directly in search results. This means users can get information without clicking through the publisher’s site.

This rise of so-called zero-click searches, has made structured data even more indispensable in SEO. 

While these features offer limited opportunity to drive visits, they can boost organic impressions, enhance brand recognition and maintain user interaction with the brand. 

Being regularly shown in the rich results reinforce top-of-mind awareness (TOMA) – and in the E-E-A-T world, a trusted and authoritative brand is crucial for success in SEO.

Key schema types to use in 2025

While new schema types emerge regularly and should be tested where relevant, several “evergreen” types have proven their effectiveness over time.

Ecommerce

Product schema (often used together with Offer and Review schema) is essential for ecommerce, providing details about products, such as price, availability and reviews. 

This schema powers rich snippets like product carousels and review stars in SERPs, significantly improving click-through rates. 

Merchant listings (a combination of Product and Offer schema) can be a great way for new ecommerce sites to gain early visibility and traffic through Google Shopping.

AggregateOffer schema is ideal for marketplace websites, as it enables multiple vendors’ offers to be represented for the same product, allowing users to compare prices and options.

Informational

FAQ schema allows websites to present common questions and answers directly in the search results. 

It is highly effective for improving user engagement by providing concise answers for conversational queries and can appear in rich results and voice search.

Q&A schema is designed for pages where users can submit questions and multiple answers are provided and is often found in forums or community-based platforms. 

It powers a Q&A carousel that features both questions and answers directly in the SERP, increasing visibility and CTR for long-tail queries and conversational searches.

Article and WebPage schema can boost visibility in Google News, Discover and top stories carousels and get exposure in voice search.

Events

Event schema is used to mark up details about virtual or physical events, such as concerts, conferences, webinars or local meetups. 

It provides specifics like the date, location, start and end times, ticket availability, and performers. This information can be included in Google’s event listings, enhancing visibility in local or event-related searches.

Newly supported properties for BroadcastEvent and ScreeningEvent enhance how live events and screenings are presented in search.

Dig deeper: How to deploy advanced schema at scale

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How to use structured data in 2025

While the applications below are not entirely new, their importance is set to increase through 2025 as user behaviors continue to shift.

Entity-based search

Entity-based search is where search engines prioritize entities – people, places, things and concepts – over individual keywords. 

Instead of focusing on isolated words and relationships between them, search engines now better understand connections between entities and how they fit into a broader context. 

Structured data like Person, Organization or Place schema can clearly define relevant entities, enhancing their visibility in Knowledge Graphs and entity-based results. 

Likewsie, SameAs schema can be used to help search engines understand that an entity mentioned on one page is the same as an entity mentioned elsewhere. 

By marking up an entity with SameAs and linking it to trusted external sources, such as Wikidata, Wikipedia or authoritative social media profiles, it’s possible to reinforce the association and improve its recognition and reach in Knowledge Graphs and rich search results. 

Dig deeper: How to use entities in schema to improve Google’s understanding of your content

Speakable

Speakable schema (in beta at Google) is an important tool for optimizing content for voice search results. 

It helps search engines identify which sections of a webpage are best suited for audio playback, including Google Assistant-enabled devices using TTS. 

The goal is to provide concise, clear answers to users’ questions in spoken format. This is especially useful for news websites and publishers, as they can mark up critical content to be featured in voice responses. 

Multimodal search

Multimodal search allows users to query search engines using various forms of input, such as text, images and voice, sometimes combined in a single query. 

This is largely driven by AI models designed to process multiple data types simultaneously. 

Structured data like VideoObject and ImageObject ensure that multimedia content is properly understood, indexed and ranked. 

Schema nesting

Schema nesting allows for the representation of more complex relationships within structured data.

By nesting one schema type within another – such as a Product schema within an Offer schema, further nested within a LocalBusiness schema – it’s possible to communicate layered information about product availability, pricing and location. 

This enables search engines to understand not just individual data points but how they are connected, leading to more contextually rich search results, like specific local availability and offers tied to individual businesses. 

Another example might be a Recipe schema nested within a HowTo schema, further nested within a Person schema. 

This communicates that a specific person (author or chef) created the recipe, which in turn contains step-by-step instructions on how to prepare the dish. 

• Person schema would include the chef’s name, bio and social profiles. 
• HowTo schema would describe the cooking process, including the steps and required materials.
• Recipe schema provides details like the list of ingredients, preparation time and nutritional information. 

This setup would enable search engines to display rich snippets that include the recipe’s creator, ingredients and cooking instructions in a clear and organized manner.

While the primary benefits of schema nesting include improved contextual understanding and enhanced rich results, nesting also adds flexibility for meeting different search intents, allowing search engines to prioritize information based on the query. 

Maximize your search visibility with structured data

Structured data is already a critical driver of SEO success for many websites, both large and small. 

With hundreds of schema types, dozens of Google SERP features and increasing applications in AI and voice search, its importance will only continue to grow in 2025. 

As Google and other search platforms continue to change, carefully and creatively leveraged structured data can provide a significant competitive edge, allowing to gain visibility in existing features and prepare for future opportunities. 

Dig deeper: How schema markup establishes trust and boosts information gain

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The art of AI-enhanced content: 8 ways to keep human creativity front and center

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into content creation, it’s easy to feel like the human element of writing might be overshadowed. 

While AI offers powerful tools that enhance productivity, streamline workflows and even generate content, it’s essential to retain your personal touch to create engaging and authentic material. 

This article explores how you can balance AI with your creativity, ensuring your unique voice shines through.

1. Understand AI’s role in content creation

AI tools can help generate ideas, draft content, edit and optimize for search, making content creation faster and more efficient. 

However, AI lacks the nuanced understanding of human emotions, context and cultural insights that come naturally to humans. 

Recognizing AI’s limitations is the first step in using it as a supportive tool rather than a replacement for human creativity.

Use AI for repetitive tasks, not original thought

AI excels at handling repetitive tasks, but it falls short when it comes to the subtleties of original thought, humor and storytelling. 

By delegating routine tasks to AI, you can free up valuable time to focus on the creative elements that rely on human intuition and personal experience.

• Automate research and data analysis: Use AI to gather information, analyze trends or compile statistics, allowing you to spend more time crafting a compelling narrative.
• Draft assistance: Let AI provide you with a starting point or outline for your content, but take the lead in shaping it into something uniquely yours.

Dig deeper: AI content creation: A beginner’s guide

2. Use AI as a creative partner, not your replacement

Think of AI as a co-creator. It’s there to assist, suggest and optimize – not to replace your unique voice.

AI can provide a structural backbone or help refine your content, but your ideas, insights and personal experiences are what will set your work apart.

Refine AI outputs with human insight

AI-generated content often needs a human touch to make it relatable and engaging.

Review and edit AI suggestions to align them with your voice, adding personal anecdotes, humor and insights that reflect your expertise and personality.

• Inject personal experiences: Add stories, examples or perspectives that only you can provide. This personal touch creates a connection with your audience that AI cannot replicate.
• Adjust for tone and style: AI can mimic various tones but often produces content that lacks warmth or emotional depth. Edit to include the subtleties of language that resonate with your readers.

Dig deeper: How to make your AI-generated content sound more human

3. Customize AI to match your voice

Many AI tools offer customization features that allow you to adjust settings to match your preferred tone, style and language. This ensures that AI outputs align more closely with your established brand voice.

Define your voice

To ensure consistency, take time to define your writing style. Are you formal, conversational, witty or authoritative? 

Establish guidelines that reflect your voice and regularly tweak AI settings to match these preferences.

• Set clear parameters: Provide the AI with detailed prompts that include your desired tone, target audience and any specific stylistic nuances. The more context you provide, the better the AI can tailor its outputs to your needs.
• Iterate and refine: Use the feedback loop to your advantage. If the AI-generated content feels off, refine the prompts and give feedback to nudge the tool closer to your style.

Dig deeper: 3 ways to add a human touch to AI-generated content

4. Provide clear prompts and feedback to AI

AI relies heavily on the quality of the instructions it receives. 

Vague prompts can lead to generic content, while detailed, contextual prompts can produce outputs that better reflect your intentions.

Give context-rich prompts

Instead of generic commands, offer AI tools with specific guidelines. 

Don’t just ask AI to “Write an article introduction.” 

Try “Write an engaging introduction for a blog post about sustainable fashion, targeted at eco-conscious millennials, in a friendly and approachable tone.”

• Focus on audience needs: When directing AI, always keep your audience in mind. Prompt AI to address their pain points, preferences and language style to create content that speaks directly to them.
• Refine outputs with detailed feedback: If AI’s first attempt isn’t quite right, refine it by tweaking prompts or adding more detailed instructions. This iterative process helps align AI-generated content with your vision.

Dig deeper: Advanced AI prompt engineering strategies for SEO

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5. Enhance emotional resonance with AI content

AI-generated content can often feel sterile or detached. 

While AI is good at generating logical and coherent text, it struggles to evoke emotions. Enhancing content with emotional resonance is where human creativity comes into play.

Add emotion, empathy and authenticity

After the AI generates content, go through it with a fine-tooth comb to add emotional elements that AI might miss. Infuse the text with empathy, humor, passion or urgency to make it more engaging.

• Use relatable language: Replace formal or robotic language with conversational and relatable phrases. Address your readers as if you’re speaking directly to them, making your content feel more personal.
• Connect through storytelling: Share personal stories, case studies or real-world examples that illustrate key points. These elements help bridge the gap between AI’s capabilities and human touch.

6. Personalize content for your audience

AI can analyze data to personalize content suggestions based on user preferences, but it’s your understanding of your audience that will make your content truly resonate. Use AI’s insights as a guide, but rely on your knowledge of your readers to fine-tune the final product.

Blend data-driven insights with human understanding

AI can highlight what topics are trending or what keywords to focus on, but only you can interpret this data in a way that speaks directly to your audience’s needs and values.

• Craft tailored messages: Use AI to segment your audience and suggest tailored content, but ensure the final message reflects your understanding of their motivations and desires.
• Maintain authenticity: Even when personalizing at scale, keep your brand’s authenticity intact. Avoid overly automated responses that can feel impersonal or generic.

Dig deeper: How to build and retain brand trust in the age of AI

7. Keep your creative process transparent

Transparency about your content creation process can actually enhance trust with your audience. 

Letting readers know that AI aids in content creation while emphasizing the human touch reinforces the value of your insights and creativity.

Share behind-the-scenes insights

Consider sharing how you blend AI and human creativity in your workflow. This transparency can build a connection with your audience, showing them that while you use advanced tools, your unique voice remains at the core.

• Educate your audience: If AI tools are a part of your content process, explain how they help improve your work. This can position you as a forward-thinking creator who values both innovation and authenticity.
• Highlight human contributions: When presenting AI-assisted content, highlight the areas where your personal input was most significant, whether in crafting the narrative, adding context or injecting personality.

Dig deeper: AI-generated content: To label or not to label?

8. Embrace AI without losing yourself

The ultimate goal of integrating AI into content creation is to enhance your capabilities, not replace your essence. Remember that AI is a tool – an incredibly advanced and helpful one – but your creativity, judgment and personal touch are irreplaceable.

Stay true to your voice

Regularly revisit your content to ensure it aligns with your personal or brand voice. AI should amplify what makes your writing special, not dilute it.

By staying true to your style, you ensure that your audience connects with the real you, even in an AI-enhanced world.

• Continual earning and adaptation: Stay curious about how AI can improve your process, but remain committed to your core principles as a creator. Adapt your use of AI as it evolves, but always keep your voice at the forefront.

Crafting authentic content in the AI era

Balancing AI with human creativity requires a thoughtful approach that leverages technology’s strengths while preserving your authentic voice.

You can achieve the best of both worlds by treating AI as a creative partner, offering clear guidance and incorporating personal insights.

AI can enhance efficiency, improve accuracy, and spark new ideas, but it’s your creativity, empathy and unique touch that will truly resonate with your audience.

Use AI strategically, ensuring your authentic voice remains the highlight of your content. After all, while AI is here to stay, it’s human intelligence that drives meaningful connections.

Dig deeper: Future of AI in content marketing: Key trends and 7 predictions

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