Mackerel Media’s Search, Media and Digital Marketing Roundup – December 2025
As 2025 comes to a close and planning for the year ahead begins, here’s a look at the main updates across digital search, social and ecommerce from December, and what they mean for the new year.
This December Google rolled out their December 2025 Core Update, which ran from the 11th of December to the 29th. This latest update is designed to discover and suggest relevant, satisfying content to users across all sites, rather than targeting specific penalties. As with previous core updates, there may be some shifts in search position and visibility. Mackerel Media can assist with reviewing your website’s performance and how we can help improve your organic visibility going into 2026. Please contact us if you have any questions.
2025: The Year We Asked Google Everything
Google released their Year in Search 2025, which reveals the top trending results for actors, movies, games, recipes and travel destinations throughout 2025. The top search globally was Google’s own ‘Gemini’, followed closely by ‘India vs England’. In the UK ’28 Years Later’ was the most searched for movie, and ‘Adolescence’ was the most searched for TV show. ‘Oasis’ and ‘Cat Burns’ were the top male and female music artists searched for, and the most popular ’What is’ search was ‘When is Easter’ The way people searched also changed, with more users asking questions in conversational ways, with phrases such as ‘How do I…’” reaching record levels.
Google has updated their Merchant Center Product Studio with new creative tools which means you can now animate and improve product images within their interface. Static product photos can be turned into short animated clips, distracting backgrounds can be removed, and you can improve the overall quality of images, all without leaving Merchant Center. These tools are designed to speed up the creative process, especially for shopping ads and social content, making it easier to test which images get the most attention.
Local Intent, Now With Pinpoint Accuracy
Google has also expanded their channel controls within Demand Gen PPC campaigns by adding a Google Maps placement. This means that advertisers can now show their ads within Google Maps alongside other channels like YouTube, Discover and Gmail. Alternatively, dedicated Maps-only campaigns can now be set up for local targeting. This update provides great control over Map placements, making it easier to target users during local searches.
LinkedIn has introduced a new suite of ad tools to help build brand awareness for B2B advertising. These ad tools include a reserved top-of-feed ad placement for guaranteed visibility and personalised creative based on user profile data (such as a user’s job title, company or industry) to make ads feel more relevant to each individual. LinkedIn has also added AI-powered ad variants which can help with ad split testing and campaign optimisation. These tools will help brands target the right professionals earlier in the buying journey with less manual work.
Instagram Takes Its Best Guess At You
Instagram has released a new feature called Your Algorithm, which shows users the topics that Instagram thinks that a user is interested in based on their previous activity. Users can now adjust their interests to see more or less of certain content, add their own and even share their algorithm snapshot to their Stories. This update aims to increase transparency and help users see more relevant content while avoiding unwanted recommendations. For brands, this means that you should focus on clear, topic-specific content which best aligns with user preferences to improve organic reach. This feature is being introduced in America and will expand globally in English in 2026.
Turning “Skip Ads” Into “Let’s Chat”
Finally, YouTube is updating Shorts ads so that advertisers can turn on comments for eligible ads. The aim is that now ads will start to feel more like organic Shorts and encourage engagement with users. Short ads can now include a link directly to your website, helping to make it easier for viewers to continue their journey to using your services and perform better, especially during busy shopping periods.
