Best Marketing Platforms with High ROI in 2025

Just when we thought there was balance and peace in the marketing world, a series of unfortunate events caused seismic shifts in the digital atmosphere.

Early in the year, Meta announced that it would stop fact checking posts, resulting in backlash from users. The social media giant has been on the decline in recent years, with more people flocking to alternatives like TikTok, Linkedin, Reddit, and Youtube. Public perception and ethics around X have been on the decline since Elon Musk acquired the platform in 2022, with a mass exodus in November and December 2024. The X Alternative, Bluesky, has been growing rapidly in December, reaching 200 million users.

The year 2024 also saw a world in which social media might suddenly seize to exist. On several occasions, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin were down and marketers struggled to pivot to reach their audiences.

Which leads me to my recommendation for the marketing approaches/platforms with the highest ROI: the tried and trusty email, Google Ads and SEO.

You may have heard the phrase that social media are borrowed spaces and that sentiment became even clearer last year when people lost access to their communities for hours at a time. There was fear, frustration and an overwhelming realization that companies and organizations need to own their communities outside of fickle social media platforms.

What does owning your community mean? Focus on building your mailing list with contacts that you can reach directly. Attend events in person and capture those addresses to nurture those leads into supporters.

Develop your website and optimize it for search engines so you are less reliant on constant posting for people to find you. Invest in Google Ads (search and performance max) and Youtube. For the time being, Google is a safe bet, especially for nonprofits who receive $10,000 per month in free advertising through the Google Grant.

Ultimately, you should aim to have as much direct contact with your leads and customer base as possible and build your community outside of the social media space.

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