By Fatima
New Delhi | November 25, 2025
Digital marketing strategist Neil Patel has identified four major trends that he believes will redefine how brands reach customers in 2025. According to a recently circulating online video transcript, Patel said marketers can no longer rely on Google SEO alone or depend heavily on high-profile influencers. Instead, he suggests a broader multi-platform approach to match how users now search for, consume content and discover brands.
Search Everywhere Optimization: Beyond Google
Patel says that the traditional view of SEO – optimising only for Google – is becoming increasingly limited. While Google remains the largest player with 8.5 billion daily searches, it represents only a fraction of global search behaviour.
This means that, across all platforms, approximately 46 billion searches occur every day, and Google captures just 18% of the total search market. The shift, according to Patel, requires brands to optimize for “search everywhere,” including on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Amazon, Instagram, forums and AI-driven tools.
Micro-Influencers Deliver Higher ROI
Another overarching trend that Patel points out is the rapid shift from macro-influencers to smaller creators. Marketers, he said, are seeing diminishing returns from influencers with large followings.
Influencers with more than 500,000 followers generally create a negative ROI of -12.04%.
The performances of those with less than 100,000 followers are far stronger, averaging an ROI of about 36.7%.
This will arguably mean brands focus more on niche audiences and creators with high community engagement rather than large but passive followings.
Content Investment Moving to Higher-ROI Formats
Patel predicts that marketers will reconsider the type of content they are creating. While video and blogs are still popular, brands will increasingly allocate more resources to the types of content that drive better returns.
He identifies a number of formats currently indicating greater ROI potential:
- Webinars
- Case studies
- Live streams
- Newsletters via email
- Podcasts
These formats tend to build deeper relationships with audiences, and Patel suggests they may outpace traditional short-form content in effectiveness through 2025.
Rise of AI Platforms in Consumer Search Behaviour
The last trend concerns the rising power of AI platforms. According to Patel, until recently, the majority of users would rely heavily on search engines to gain answers to their questions. However, new technologies in AI assistants and conversational tools are slowly changing this behavior in terms of information discovery.
The development, he argues, is pushing companies to think beyond traditional search strategies and consider how their content, products, and brands are represented across AI ecosystems.
A Year Defined by Broader Search and Smarter Content Taken together, Patel’s four trends suggest a digital marketing environment where visibility depends less on single channels and more on diversified presence, smart content choices, and leveraging the creators who genuinely influence their communities. By 2025, brands may have to move much faster to keep up with these changing behaviors.
