Mid-year 2025 is a great time to reflect on how the last part of 2024 and the first part of 2025 performed for media buyers, affiliates and traffic sellers. After all, Q4 is in front of us, and if we want to make it count - we better be ready.
Push Notifications: Adapting to a Changing Landscape
Push notifications faced a tough time recently, thanks to new regulations from Google Chrome and Google itself. These changes made it harder to get new subscribers on board and easier for users to opt out, shrinking the existing user base and slowing growth. In response, many networks have pivoted by introducing new ad formats like in-page push. Unlike traditional push notifications, in-page push doesn’t rely on collecting subscribers and can reach both Android and Apple users across desktop and mobile. This shift has allowed networks to maintain decent performance with fewer regulatory hurdles, offering a fresh way to engage users.
iGaming: expending via adoption of media buying practices
iGaming is still going strong in 2025. Coming off the back of 2024, the industry's seen a big adoption of media buying practices common in other verticals: programmatic buying, retargeting, and in-house Paid Media focus that includes more CPC/CPM ad buying.
Moreover, operators are sharing data with traffic providers, making it way easier to optimize campaigns. The result? A more resilient and adaptable iGaming sector, ready for sustained growth.
Healthcare ACA and Medicare: from regulation challenges to adaptation
2024 was a rough year for the healthcare and Medicare sectors in the U.S., with new privacy regulations and compliance headaches causing serious cutbacks. Q4 was not what we are used to seeing in ACA and Medicare.It took some time but by March 2025 I have seen the strongest buyers adapting - stabilizing their buy, buyers focusing on ACA successfully going into Medicare, and new buyers more open to try Push and in-page formats due to the struggles on Google and Facebook.
Antivirus : Navigating a Slump and starting a Comeback
At the risk of sounding repetitive, 2024 was not ”business as usual” for Anti-virus, especially in Q4 which is usually prime time for software sales. Instead of the usual surge, big names like TotalAV, McAfee, and Norton saw a dip, which even carried over into Q1 of 2025. Despite the slump, the antivirus vertical is a long-term player that always finds ways to adapt. Where one product dropped the ball, other products went in strong with competitive offers, and we have seen new lines of products like identity protection, cloud security and cloud storage, working their way up. Since April, it is showing steady growth.
Display ads making a comeback in performance: Video, Banner and Native
In 2025, video, Banner and Native ads are making a comeback to performance marketing.
of course, they never left. But Some might say they were overshadowed for years by Popunders, and later by high profile formats like Push, and in-page.
Now, we are seeing a surge in their effectiveness, both in direct campaigns and retargeting efforts. The key players here are pre-roll (in-stream) ads, which run inside video players on streaming and tubing sites, and outstream video ads, which pop up anywhere on a site, often in a slider box overlay. On banners this would be the 300X250 and 300X100 which are usually placed in the best and most central spots on websites. Native is less about size, and more about how well it is placed near site content, so they look like a Natural part of the site.
Wanted: a winning Combination of Ad Formats
In 2025, it’s no longer about choosing one or two winning formats, but about building the right mix.
Lets break it down to 2 main parts:
- Beyond the page - Push, in-page, and pop traffic are still doing the heavy lifting, especially in verticals like Antivirus, Healthcare, iGaming and Finance.
- Inside the page - as part of a holistic approach, formats which run inside the webpage - video, banners and Native, are becoming prominent - putting emphasis on iGaming and Dating Verticals.
These 2 combined, create a performance engine that’s much stronger than any format on its own.
Summing it up
In a nutshell, challenges bring hardships as well as opportunities - for those who are willing to learn, make changes and adapt.
While 2024 Q4 undoubtedly saw challenges across the board, it brought it new opportunities in many shapes that could be applied to growing revenues early in 2025 - new ad verticals, new ad-formats, and new work modals & best practices.
If you adopt even some of the above trends in your media buying and affiliation operations - you will reap the rewards
