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What's New in Digital Marketing Q4 25 Webinar
Our popular, resource-packed webinar is back for Q4 2025! In this event, we look at the latest major trends in SEO, taking a deep dive into AI Overviews and the emergence of Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO). We analyse key updates in PPC, Paid Social, and Microsoft CoPilot. We look at the latest developments and AI agents in e-commerce (WooCommerce vs. Shopify) and broader Web Development. Finally, we provide an in-depth comparison of the latest design software, where we pit Adobe against the powerful new contender, Affinity Designer. This session has all the data and strategy you need to master Q4.
What's New in Digital Marketing Q4 25 Webinar
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- 7. PerformanceMax What Is It? Acombination campaign of all campaign types, all-in-one! Uses AI to decide which campaign types to focus on to get the best results for your budget. Both written ad copy and images/videos are required. Works well with accounts with a lot of conversion data. Usually, e- commerce and lead generation accounts work well also. Advertisers who adopt Performance Max see an average increase of 27% more conversions or value at a similar CPA/ROAS. *data provided by Google
- 8. PerformanceMaxNewFeatures Channel Performance (Beta) Uncoverspreviously hidden data! Reports on which networks are generating impressions, clicks, leads, purchases and other relevant KPI's. Drill down into specific channels and ad formats, including video and ads with product feeds, to pinpoint opportunities for improvement. Combine AI with human intervention to use data + compelling ad copy together .
- 9. PerformanceMaxNewFeatures Asset Insights As wellas network performance, you can now review asset- level insights. Review metrics like CTR, conversion rate, CPA, ROAS per image/headline/description/video. Use those insights to swap out poor-performing assets. Improve metrics incrementally by continuously adjusting poor performing assets.
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- 11. AIMaxForSearch AI-driven bidding thatautomatically adjusts bids to maximise conversions or conversion value. Smart search term matching - using Google's AI to understand the intent behind searches and serve more relevant ads. Automated creative optimisation - rotates headlines/descriptions to perform the best. Broader reach to push your keywords further .
- 12. AIMaxBestPractices Pick a high-volumeconverting campaign to use it with. Keep Final URL expansion off unless you don't mind serving ads on a lot of different landing pages. Keep a close eye on search term relevance and wasted spend. A campaign we tested AI Max for Search on improved conversions by 50% while CPA improved by 36%.
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- 17. MetaAdsLatestUpdates Advantage+ leads campaignsare now available globally Connecting your CRM to Conversions API is easier than ever with integration partners Zapier and Salesforce Meta is testing an automated lead generation feature that gives advertisers the ability to promptly engage with a lead on Messenger: “Chat with your leads on Messenger .” Meta Threads continues to grow, reaching 128 million users per day on average in October
- 18. LinkedInAdsLatestUpdates The ability tobook Calendly appointments directly from an ad in the LinkedIn ads platform. LinkedIn ads have rolled out the ability to optimise bids for conversion value.
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- 22. hello@thedigitalmaze.com GoogleSearchConsoleUpdates-Page1 Annotations in GoogleSearch Console Google has finally added the ability to add annotations to your search results graph in GSC. Simply right click on the graph to add an annotation whenever you make a big website change or upload some big content optimisations. ThebulkofmypresentationisgoingtobecentredaroundAI,buttherearesomeimportant updatesinGoogleSearchConsolewhichneedtobequicklyhighlighted…
- 23. hello@thedigitalmaze.com GoogleSearchConsoleUpdates-Page2 Branded Queries Filterin Google Search Console Y ou can now filter by branded or non-branded query directly in GSC. Click to add a filter , choose 'query' and there is now an option for branded or non-branded queries. Query classification is powered by AI and may mislabel branded and non-branded queries. Data is only available from 13 Nov 2025. Query Groups in Google Search Console Not long ago, Google added 'insights' to GSC, which provide a very quick indication of which pages are performing well or badly for your site. They have now added query groups to this, using AI to clump together similar keywords so you have a better idea of the success of a piece of related content.
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- 25. AIOverviewsvsAIEngines What Are AIOverviews? Formerly known as Search Generative Experience (SGE) The (mainly) text summaries and links that appear at the top of the search results for increasing numbers of searches Generated by Google from indexed content Estimates vary, but studies indicate AI Overviews appear in around 15% of all UK searches Static, but content can change very quickly
- 26. AIOverviewsvsAISearch Engines What Are AISearch Engines? Combine a large language model (LLM) with a search index Generate dynamic answers based on the questions asked Answers provided in a chat-type format where the user can ask follow-up questions. Examples include ChatGPT search, Claude, Perplexity and Bing Copilot
- 27. Google'sAIMode GoogleofficiallyrolledoutAIModeintheUKinSeptember Essentially a superchargedversion of AI Overviews, available in its own tab in Search and interactive, rather than static. Users can ask complex, multi-part questions and get an AI- powered answer Offers an incredibly personalised search experience - responses are tailored to location, preferences, events, search history across Google properties, even Gmail history. Powered by Google's latest AI model, Gemini 2.5
- 28. Who'sUsingAI&How? • • • • • • Chat GPT hasover 800 million weekly active users and handles over 1 billion queries/prompts per day The ChatGPT app has 45 million average monthly downloads 84% of UK marketers say they use AI tools daily. 71.5% use AI tools for search, but only 14% use them daily Google's dominance in general searches has dropped from 73% to 66.9% (Aug vs Feb 2025) 55% of AI users rely on it for writing, but (rightly) with concerns about accuracy Sources: https://www.highervisibility.com/seo/learn/how-people-search/. https://www.hubspot.com/company-news/marketers-double-ai-usage-in-2024 https://searchengineland.com/ai-search-gaining-traction-not-replacing-google-survey-451667 HubSpot AI Trends for Marketers report
- 29. ImpactonSEO Performance Businesses like oursrely on positive referrals - do you know anybody who would benefit from our services? Get rewarded for referring TDM
- 30. Traffic&Visibility Google'sAIOverviewsAREaffectingtraffic,BUTit'sverymuch dependentoncontenttype. • • • • • Studies have showna clickthrough rate drop of 34-46% when AI overviews are present A Sparktoro study found 58% of Google searches result in zero clicks An Ahrefs study found position 1 CTR dropped by 31% for informational queries when an AI overview was triggered Similarweb found that zero-click searches increased from 56% to 69% between May 2024 and May 2025 AI overviews are dense and tall - pushing position 1 around 1,600px down the page, well below the fold. Sources: https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/46578de1-fa7f-49f4-8660-758df7a3405f? https://www.searchenginejournal.com/impact-of-ai-overviews-how-publishers-need-to-adapt/556843/
- 31. UserBehaviour AIsearchisn'ttakingoverfromGoogleandothersearch engines…yet.Butitischangingthewaypeoplesearch. Shift from clicksto answers - AI search provides direct answers and users often don't click through to websites Decreased need for follow-up queries and an increased reliance on AI for recommendations & product comparisons Language is more conversational and natural, e.g. "What are some things to do with kids in Nottingham when it's raining" Users increasingly combining AI search with traditional search and AI overviews
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- 33. BUT…. • • • • • For commercial andtransactional queries, users are still more likely to click through AI overviews are appearing in 99% of informational searches but only 10% of commercial/transactional ones Google's market share is still 90% So there is still (for now) opportunity in optimising for the right keywords Also… Branded searches are trending in the opposite direction - when accompanied by an AI Overview, branded queries see an 18% increase in CTR
- 34. It'snotallbad… • • • • • Good SEO isstill good SEO. Good content is still good content. There are opportunities to increase brand authority if cited in AI results AI can never be a substitute true experience or expertise, or your own original research, data or case studies Visitors from AI search are on average 4.4x more valuable than visitors from traditional search (conversion rate) - this is likely to increase as AI search evolves E-E-A-T matters more than ever .
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- 36. TheLureOfAI If AI isso useful, and reliable, then surely AI produced content must be a short-cut to increased visibility? AI content can be produced quickly , with relatively strict parameters, and at scale. People are turning to it as a way to generate masses of content to add supporting information and improve rankings. Google has said it won't actively penalise for using AI-generated content, so can all content come from AI? Do businesses really need to bother getting content created by humans anymore? Y es they do!
- 37. DoesAI-GeneratedContentRank? "Thebestpositionforhuman-createdcontentisinthefirstfive positions50%ofthetime,whilethebestpositionforAI-created contentisonthesecondSERP50%ofthetime." No. Not ashighly or as often. Research is currently limited by one large scale experiment covering over 20,00 URLS* revealed: *Graphite.io (2024) AI Content and Search, Five Percent, Available at: https://graphite.io/five-percent/ai-content-and-search ThemoreAIcontenttherewasonapage,theloweritwaslikelyto rankbasedonaverageandmedianrankingplaces
- 38. DoesAI-GeneratedContentRank? In 2023, Googlesaid AI content would not be penalised, which some saw as an opportunity to rely on AI content fully . *Google (2023) Google Search's guidance about AI-generated content, Google Search Central, Available at: https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2023/02/google-search-and-ai-content "IsAIcontentagainstGoogleSearch'sguidelines? AppropriateuseofAIorautomationisnotagainstourguidelines. Thismeansthatitisnotusedtogeneratecontentprimarilyto manipulatesearchrankings,whichisagainstourspampolicies." But this wasn't the whole story .
- 39. DoesAI-GeneratedContentRank? While Google didstated AI content will not be actively penalised, they have given more nuanced instruct*… *Search Engine Land (2025) Google quality raters now assess whether content is AI-generated, Search Engine Land, Available at: https://searchengineland.com/google-quality-raters-content-ai-generated-454161 AsofApril2025,GoogleQualityRatersareinstructed*: "TheLowest ratingappliesifalloralmostalloftheMConthepage iscopied,paraphrased,embedded,autoorAIgenerated,or repostedfromothersourceswithlittletonoeffort,littletono originality,andlittletonoaddedvalueforvisitorstothewebsite." Thisbuildsonexistingguidancearoundscaledcontentabuseand content'CreatedwithLittletoNoEffort,LittletoNoOriginality,and LittletoNoAddedValueforWebsiteVisitors(Section4.6.6)'
- 40. HelpfulContentUpdate,Updated In 2022, Googlereleased the Helpful Content Update (HCU) aimed at reducing low quality , spam content on sites trying to improve their SEO. • • • The HCU rewarded content that: The intended audience would useful Clearly demonstrates first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge Leaves the audience satisfied their needs were met And in March 2024, this was even stricter with a further spam update to penalise mass-produced content that delivered no value. This time with an emphasis on original, expert, insight.
- 41. DoesLLMContentMeetHCU Standards? LLMs generate contentbased on what is already out there. By its nature, it can not offer the 'unique or original insight' required by Google. ContentcreatedbyLLMsrepeatswhatthemajorityofothersiteshavealreadysaid.Evenif askedtogiveoriginalinformation-itphysicallycan't. Ahumancandrawontheiruniqueexperiencewithcustomers,knowingcommonlyasked questions,whatisofmostvalue-AIreliesonthequalityofOTHERPEOPLE'Scontentto dictatewhatitincludes. Itisimpossibletostandouttosearchengines,generativesearch,orcustomersifyouare tiedtotheoutputofothers. Itwillalsospotinaccuraciesorlieswhichdragsdown
- 42. WhataboutGEO? If we're expandingbeyond SEO to GEO, will AI-generated content rank in AI search? Notasmuchguidanceonhowtorank,orresearchonwhatsworking.Whatwe dohavesuggestsAI-generatedcontentisnotstilluptostandard,sameaswith SEO. Cancreatecontentthatissuperficiallymeetingneeds(shortsentences, answeringquestionsclearly)buttheinformationcanbeinaccurateandnever beoriginal.Citationsarealsonotreliable.
- 43. IsAIContentUseless? Tocreatebarebonesplansandbriefs Tohelpwithreadability,rephrasingandediting Notaquickfixorareplacementbutasasupport There may bea place for AI in digital marketing but unsupported content creation is not it. But it must always be checked, verified and edited by humans too. Otherwise, it won't just stop you benefitting from additional content - you could even see your visibility suffer as result.
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- 45. Our SEO Team AliceBucknall SEO Account Manager HelenHalfpenny SeniorSEO Strategist NeilBates SEO T eam Lead BeckyMorris SEO Account Manager SusanGiles SEO Content Specialist
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- 49. hello@thedigitalmaze.com ChatGPTAppsPlatform In preview mode,but offering a more open marketplace for developers to build tools and extensions that users can access directly in ChatGPT . Reality: Depends on the quality of the apps. Bestfor… Everyday tasks, you can throw pretty much anything at chatGPT , drafting, planning, summarising, brainstorming. A versatile 'head start' tool GroupChats Y ou can now add up to 20 participants to a shared chat, giving you the ability to collaborate with your friends, family or team. Reality: Useful tool in certain scenarios, saves copy & pasting information all the time. chatGPT5.1&Atlas Slight improvement on 5, Atlas is OpenAI's new web browser , allowing you to ask questions about the specific page and content you are currently on. Reality: Incremental update to 5.1, Web browser is very useful if you are a frequent chatGPT user .
- 50. hello@thedigitalmaze.com GeminiAgent In preview modecurrently, essentially a carbon copy of chatGPT's feature but appears to be quicker . Best use: For handling boring repetitive tasks Bestfor Personal use, research-heavy tasks with their deep research tools, and good Google product integrations (Gmail, Drive etc). Image and video tools are quite good! GeminiLive-Upgraded Using this on your phone is actually quite impressive, live stream your phone camera to gemini and ask it questions. Reality: No major use in work but a handy tool for discovering things outside of the office. Gemini3NewRelease Lots of improvements across reasoning, image and video generation with a much more consumable output. Reality: A big jump forward from previous versions, now close to matching chatGPT for a lot of tasks.
- 51. hello@thedigitalmaze.com Voice Finally added avoice feature to mobile to keep up with the others, for what Claude is good at, not a feature to be used that frequently. Reality: Just a feature that wont get used. Bestfor Long-form content, development debugging, function writing, and complex tasks. ClaudeforChrome&Excel Released some useful plugins for Excel (similar to CoPilot). The extension is just a handy tool to prevent you from going to the app. Reality: Useful in certain scenarios. Claude4.5 Better reasoning, faster and can handle more complex scenarios, still focused around technical skills. Great with long documents and code, autonomy and context memory is now much improved in practice.
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- 57. Customisation Better suited tosites that have a high degree of integrations and complex product data. FullOwnership Much better for sites that need total control over all aspects of their shop B2BPortals Flexible for B2B portals, ERP integrations and wholesale flows. ContentFocused Stores that have a lot of content and solid SEO strategy are better suited to WooCommerce Startups&SmallStores Shopify's onboarding process is simple allowing really quick MVP stores to be created and managed Allinonesolution Everything you need for simple stores is available out the box including hosting and payments. Simplerequirements If you have a simple product structure with minimal integrations Shopify can be a great fit. Teamswithlimitedresources Y ou can create a simple Shopify store quite quickly without needing to lean on technical experts.
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- 62. • Monopolistic • Uncompetitive •Unresponsive • Bloatedsoftware
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- 66. Sowhatdoyouchoose? Pros Pros T eams with talenteddesigners looking for professional, bespoke outputs and collaborative efficiency. A good step up from teams on Canva, but none-design stakeholders will need more hand holding. Great for embedded design teams to control outputs. New teams looking to dabble in improving design outputs. If you've been using Powerpoint and Word to try to make things look good this is for you. Also great for established teams that need flexibility with brand oversight to empower non-designers within brand limits.
- 67. Publisher Designer Photo InDesignIllustrator Photoshop
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- 72. Sowhatisit? • • • • • • One mega app Editvectors Edit pixels Edit layouts AI features All in one view
- 73. Sowhatisit? • • • • • Customisable Cross platform None destructive Compatiblewith Adobe files A genuine replacement for the Adobe "BIG 3".
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