The Edge Gap: Why Experimentation Is Important For Brands In 2025

Forbes

23-05-2025

Liam Wade - Performance Director at Performance Marketing Agency, Impression.
In 2025, the biggest risk in marketing isn't making a bold move—it's playing by the book.
AI-driven tools have made marketing faster, smarter and more scalable. But they've also created a paradox: When everyone is using the same software, platforms, targeting models and campaign techniques, competitive advantage collapses. Best practice has quietly become common practice, and that's where the danger lies.
I'm in conversation with at least 10 new brands per week. Nine out of 10 of them say the same thing: What's "tried and tested" isn't working anymore. Some blame the algorithm. Others realize they've become too cautious.
This is the "edge gap"—the space between brands optimizing for efficiency and those exploring for effectiveness. The only way to close it without wasting budget? Treat experimentation not as a tactic, but a mindset—a strategic advantage in an overly risk-averse landscape.
Marketing in 2025 is marked by an uncomfortable truth: Everyone is using the same tools to chase the same outcomes.
Meta's Advantage+ campaigns hit a $20 billion annual run rate in Q4 2024—a 70% year-over-year increase. Meanwhile, 95% of retail advertisers using shopping ads have adopted Google's Performance Max, according to Tinuiti's Digital Ads Benchmark Report Q4 2024.
These aren't just trends; they're signs of a marketing ecosystem that's been optimized into sameness.
This is the edge gap in practice: the growing divide between brands that stick with automated, AI-driven campaign systems and then focus on efficiency, versus those actively exploring new paths to stand out.
The edge gap is the widening space between marketing strategies that sharpen a brand's competitive edge and those dulled by algorithmic automation, uniform targeting and the rinse-and-repeat logic of platform and industry best practice.
It's not a theory; from the clients I speak to, there are signals across the industry that marketers chasing a competitive edge are starting to walk away from "black box" campaign types in search of something more original.
Algorithms don't just optimize—they homogenize. And we're all using the same targeting technology. So when every brand plays by the same rules, creative solutions become the only way to get a competitive advantage within your advertising.
Many brands think they're innovating, but they're only tweaking. Adding more data, cutting "wasted spend" or rotating similar creatives may boost ROI, but these are optimizations, not exploration, and rarely drive real revenue growth.
Exploration means going off script and testing bold ideas outside the industry playbook. It's trying unfamiliar channels, formats or creative styles, and even breaking tools to use them differently.
The trap is that iteration feels safe. It offers progress without disruption and wins boardroom approval with fast, measurable results. But over-optimizing what already exists limits exploration and weakens long-term performance. Real progress needs a system, one built on experimentation.
Experimentation is the antidote to risk-averse marketing.
It gives brands a way to explore bold ideas without betting the entire budget. It's not guesswork, and it's not chaos—it's a system for learning. It's a way to try before you buy, measure before you scale and push boundaries with purpose.
High risk can equal high reward. But experimentation works as the arbitrator, minimizing those risks by testing parts of the strategy before deciding where to invest fully. It gives teams the confidence to try something genuinely different, without getting shut down at the first sign of uncertainty.
The upside is well documented. Bain has highlighted countless examples where marketing experimentation has driven measurable ROI growth. And yet, McKinsey reports that only 25% of C-level marketers say they've embedded a test-and-learn culture into their teams.
The gap isn't one of knowledge—it's one of commitment.
Too often, data and analytics teams are focused on proving value, not growing it. They're looking backward at what worked, not forward at what could.
Experimentation flips that model. It uses data as a launchpad for future media effectiveness, not just past efficiency.
Saying you value experimentation is easy, but embedding it into how your team thinks and works is far harder. The best brands share three traits:
They reward original thinking and protect teams who take risks. Failure is essential for discovery. At Impression, some of our best-performing ads started as long shots. True creative progress requires leadership to back bold testing, financially and culturally.
Not every idea needs testing, and not all tests deliver instant results. Smart teams prioritize high-impact hypotheses, bets that, if right, unlock real growth. Too often, testing is used only to justify spend, leading to cautious, shallow efforts that are cut too soon. Real learning requires time and commitment.
Without structure, testing loses credibility. Vague or biased experiments create confusion, not clarity. That's why rigorous data science is nonnegotiable. It means setting clear hypotheses, managing variables, using control groups and ensuring significance before declaring wins.
Strong teams treat experimentation as a continuous system for learning, not one-off projects.
In a marketing world increasingly shaped by black-box automation and AI, we've been guilty of adjusting our businesses' goals to fit the platform's best practices.
But when everyone is optimizing using the same tools, best practice becomes common practice.
Standing still is falling behind.
Experimentation isn't just a tactical add-on. It's a cultural capability, a mindset that allows your brand to move fast without falling into the sameness trap. It's how you test the unconventional and find your next breakthrough before your competitors do.
Because as we rocket through this decade, the edge gap will only widen. It will separate the brands that play it safe from the brands that grow.
Perhaps you're lucky right now … if your competitors are still following standard practice, you're probably doing fine. But that won't last. Eventually, someone in your category will decide to explore.
One type of brand will focus on iteration. The other will explore. And only one will survive.
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