Digital Marketing Digest | September 2025

From Reddit ads to cart recovery: 2025 trends shaping smarter digital marketing strategies

Welcome back to Cleverbridge's Digital Marketing Digest! Our blog dives into the latest industry news, trends, and must-know topics. Our goal is to keep you updated on the ever-evolving marketing landscape.

In the past few months, we’ve seen digital marketing evolve in ways that demand attention — and fast action. AI is reshaping how content is discovered. Reddit is emerging as a surprisingly effective channel for driving qualified traffic. And small conversion tweaks (like exit-intent messaging) are quietly unlocking measurable revenue gains.

At Cleverbridge, we’ve been on the ground floor with clients through it all, helping brands like EndNote test, learn, and grow across channels. In this edition of the Digital Marketing Digest, we break down the most relevant shifts, what they mean for your strategy, and how to turn them into smart wins: whether you're fine-tuning email performance, experimenting with paid media, or planning for the next algorithm update.

Here's a sneak peek at the main topics we'll cover in this edition:

1. Reddit Ads for EndNote: Early results show promise in non-traditional channel.

2. What’s really changing in email marketing, and how to stay ahead of it.

3. What YouTube’s latest changes tell us about how people watch — and how marketers should respond.

4. Winning back lost revenue: How exit-intent messages morph hesitation into action.

Testing the waters on Reddit: Promising early returns for EndNote ads 

At Cleverbridge, we’re always exploring new ways to help our clients connect with their audiences. For EndNote, a leading reference management software used by researchers and students worldwide, we recently took a new leap with Reddit. 
 
Reddit, known as “the front page of the internet,” is a vibrant community platform where millions of users engage daily in niche discussions, ranging from academic research to pop culture. Adding Reddit to EndNote’s marketing mix allowed us to boost brand awareness, reach highly targeted audiences, and drive more quality traffic to their site. 
 
Here’s how our Reddit campaigns have been performing so far: 

First campaign: 

• Successfully reached a broad audience with strong impressions and clicks that translated into meaningful site visits.
• Maintained cost-efficiency with eCPM and CPC metrics, in line with industry benchmarks.
• Recommended next steps: adding retargeting audiences, refreshing creative assets with carousels or videos, and extending campaign length for better optimization. 

Second campaign: 

• Built on the first campaign’s success with a larger budget, broader geographic targeting, and longer flight time.
• CTRs exceeded industry benchmarks, peaking at 0.7%, while keeping CPCs stable.
• Retargeting efforts and keyword-focused ad groups delivered more engaged and relevant traffic.
• Early purchases from this mainly brand awareness-focused campaign show encouraging signs of ROI. 

What’s next? 

• We’ll continue to refine our process, including custom retargeting audiences like cart abandoners and page visitors.
• New creative formats and interactive elements are on the horizon to boost engagement even further.
• Sustaining momentum with a steady budget and data-driven optimizations will help us maximize our reach and results.

Stay tuned for more updates as the campaign evolves!

Rules are changing for email marketing — and we’ve got you covered 

Jay Schwedelson calls email “the only marketing channel that offers an equal playing field for all marketers” — and he’s absolutely right. In the inbox, your brand sits right next to giants like Netflix, Adobe, and Headspace. Every email has the same opportunity to earn the reader’s attention.

But how customers engage has become harder to predict in 2025, thanks to mailbox provider updates and changing privacy & accessibility regulations. This is making brands focus on relationship-building with campaigns that are more personalized, complex, and content-driven.

Data-driven campaigns are more robust, and companies that invest in email marketing consistently report that advanced personalization drives the highest returns. Litmus’ State of Email report echoes this, highlighting engagement-based segmentation as one of the most impactful tactics marketers can use.

To succeed, brands must move beyond batch-and-blast tactics and lean into smarter, more thoughtful email marketing. The playing field may be equal, but those who win will be the ones who create experiences that feel timely, relevant, and deeply human. 

So how do you win that game? Start with smart-send-time optimizations and compelling subject lines to maximize open and click rates.

Winning attention is only part of the challenge — measuring success has become more complex. Traditional KPIs have lost reliability, and privacy-compliant strategies are essential to continue creating powerful campaigns that can be meaningfully measured. Stats like click rates, customer lifetime value, and long-term engagement are now our North Star metrics.

At Cleverbridge, we continuously monitor updates to accessibility and data privacy regulations, ensuring our email programs remain compliant and high performing.

Why it matters: Email is still one of the most cost-effective, relationship-building channels available — but only if you adapt. We help brands stay ahead of the curve by building future-ready email strategies that respect privacy, prioritize engagement, and still drive results. Because when the rules shift, the winners are those who know how to play better — not louder. 
 
🎉 YouTube turned 20: What’s changed, and what still lies ahead?  

2025 marks a major milestone — not just for Cleverbridge, but for YouTube as well. Both companies are celebrating 20 years of innovation, growth, and adapting to change. And just as Cleverbridge continues to evolve in the world of digital commerce, YouTube is transforming how users discover and engage with video content. 

As YouTube enters its third decade, key trends and priorities are taking shape. Shorts remain a dominant force, with more than 90 billion views per day. Yet, even as viewership soars, user engagement metrics (likes and comments) are tapering off — signaling a shift toward more passive, scrollable consumption. 

Meanwhile, YouTube's algorithm is becoming increasingly sophisticated. Beyond clicks and views, it now factors in rewatch rates, watch duration, and even direct viewer feedback via surveys to fine-tune recommendations. 

In a blog post, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan shared three core focus areas for 2025: 

• Strengthening YouTube’s role as a cultural hub with expanded support for live events and podcasts 

• Empowering creators as entrepreneurs by offering new monetization tools and streamlined brand partnerships 

• Elevating the TV viewing experience as it officially surpasses mobile as the platform’s most-used screen 

AI will also play a bigger role in 2026, driving smarter tools for content creation, language translation, and safer user experiences. 

As two 20-year veterans in the digital space, Cleverbridge and YouTube are looking toward the future — where adaptability, creativity, and smarter technology continue to lead the way. 

Wait, Don't Leave: Cart recovery logic isn't magic — it's psychology, timing, and the right tools
 
Cart abandonment is one of the biggest challenges in ecommerce. Shoppers browse items, fill up their carts — and then often after that, leave. No purchase. No explanation. According to our very own Friction Report, nearly half (47%) of software sellers lose a quarter of their prospective orders at the point of sale.

The good news? With the right tactics at the right moment, you can win many of those sales back.

One of the most effective strategies to combat cart abandonment is the “Wait, Don’t Leave!” (WDL) layer, which is essentially an exit-intent pop-up. It detects when a user is about to leave the website (e.g., moving their mouse toward the browser’s close button) and triggers a targeted message that convinces them to stay and/or convert.

On average, we see conversion rate increases of 5–10% after implementing this feature — a high-impact boost for such a lightweight intervention. 
 
What's typically included in a WDL message:

• Cart reminder: A quick recap of the items they're about to leave behind
• Incentive: A limited-time offer like "10% off if you complete your order now"
• 1-click return: A direct link back to the checkout page
  

• Limit frequency: Trigger it only once per user to avoid annoyance
• Time it right: Test different trigger moments for best results
• Tailor your message: Match tone and incentive to the situation
• Measure impact: Track conversions before and after to prove ROI 

Conclusion: Don’t let carts go cold.

Losing carts is part of the funnel, but recovering them is part of a winning strategy.

With our WDL layer, you can turn hesitation into action, and lost carts into real revenue. When paired with email flows, a clean checkout UX, and smart messaging, it combines to form a low-effort, high-impact part of your funnel.

💡 Ready to recover more carts? 
 
Talk to our team or request a demo to see how easy it is to integrate a WDL layer into your site.