Hello, community! As is tradition at the start of the year, everyone tries to predict what surprises marketing has in store. We’re no exception (even if it’s already three months in) — so here’s our take on what affiliate marketing might look like in 2025.
Before we dive in, let’s remind you that last year we also shared the Top 5 Trends in Affiliate Marketing for 2024. Check if our predictions held up!
Social Media Shifts
Let’s start with the biggest one — the power dynamics among social media platforms are changing. We can safely say that Elon Musk has killed Twitter. The platform’s ad revenue from 2023–2024 clearly reflects this. What’s more, Statista’s forecasts suggest things will only get worse in the future.
Despite that, X (formerly Twitter) has still stirred the pot. Although Musk promised the platform would become a beacon of free speech, things turned out differently. Reduced reach for posts about the war in Ukraine, the boosting of certain politicians who sympathize with Musk — we could list examples of this Orwellian “freedom” for a while.
However, there is one development that could significantly impact how we interact with social media this year — reduced moderation and a shift of responsibility for content accuracy onto the community itself.
The main innovation? Community Notes. These are small tags that accompany posts, adding context or even debunking misinformation. They look like this:
You might think: it’s just a feature — what’s the big deal? Well, then came Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement, where he said Facebook will soon implement similar community moderation tools to reduce platform-driven censorship.
This could easily become a trend. And if it does, it may influence how effective our affiliate campaigns — especially those based on free traffic — perform on social platforms. These notes could either hinder us or actually help promote offers more effectively by weakening traditional moderation. Let’s wait and see how Meta implements this — and which other big platforms follow suit.
Organic Search Will Get Harder
While Google continues to improve its search engine, it seems those updates are hurting webmasters more than helping them. Why? Because Google is doing everything it can to stop users from clicking through to websites — and instead provide all the info they need right in the search results.
Take a look: Google’s shopping tab is essentially a giant product scraper. Then there are featured snippets — the giant blocks you see at the top of the search page when you ask something.
And now, with AI integration making search results even more complete, people rarely need to click away — Google gives them the full answer upfront.
This means SEO traffic is only going to get harder to capture — especially for informational websites.
On top of that, keep an eye on GEO — not geography, but Generative Engine Optimization. Instead of optimizing for SEO, you’ll be optimizing for AI-driven search systems. An example? Google’s own LLM-powered interface — or even an AI-native search engine like Search GPT.
According to Gartner’s forecast, by the end of this year, about 70% of internet users will regularly use — and trust — generative search engines.
More Businesses Will Adopt AI
One last note about artificial intelligence. Beyond search engines, AI will become a major force in many other industries — especially ones relevant to affiliates.
Take eCommerce for example. We expect even more online stores — especially large marketplaces — to use AI for ultra-personalized product suggestions. AI will analyze preferences, sizes, colors, and fabrics to recommend the perfect product — all automatically.
AI will also be used more in content creation. No, machines won’t replace humans just yet. But we’ll increasingly see content co-created by people and AI — and that’s the new normal.
Conclusion
The year is just beginning, and it’s still hard to say exactly where marketing will go. But some trends are already emerging. We hope this short analysis helps you better optimize your campaigns, adapt to modern realities — and get more profit in 2025!
Already making plans to outsmart Google’s algorithms? Then join our Telegram community — you’ll find like-minded enthusiasts there!
Respectfully yours, Geek!