🚀 The 5 Inceptly newsletters that helped marketers win bigger in 2025—Did you miss any?

If the first half of 2025 has taught us anything, it’s this: the game keeps changing—and fast.

At Inceptly, we work with brands every day to help them cut through the noise, scale what’s working, and find new opportunities for growth on channels like YouTube, Google, and beyond. Along the way, we share what we’re learning inside the Inceptly newsletter—no fluff, no filler, just real-world strategies that move the needle.

Here are our five most-read newsletters this year—covering everything from creative breakthroughs to platform shifts—so you can stay ahead of the curve too.

1. Smarter media buying: The decisions that drive growth

Most brands don’t fail because of bad ads—they fail because of bad decisions. In this post, we break down the thinking behind successful media buying: how to time optimizations, how to read campaign signals, and how to make smart calls, whether you’re spending $1K a day or $100K.

👉 Read it here: Master media buying: How to spot and prevent common missteps

2. The YouTube ad that keeps winning, years later

When everyone is chasing the next big thing, sometimes the biggest wins come from sticking with what works. This article reveals how one YouTube ad—running since 2022—continues to outperform newer campaigns by sticking to timeless direct response principles.

👉 Check it out: How a YouTube ad from 2022 STILL WINS in 2025—but with a TWIST!

3. Why YouTube Shorts is stealing the spotlight from TikTok

Short-form video is exploding, but many top creators are shifting their focus from TikTok to YouTube Shorts. This post explains why and what that shift means for brands that want to win the next wave of attention.

👉 Get the insights: Why creators are switching from TikTok to YouTube Shorts (and why that matters for DR advertisers)

4. How we made YouTube TV ads profitable (Yes, really)

For years, Connected TV (CTV) ads were seen as a branding-only play. This case study flips that thinking on its head, showing how one small creative tweak unlocked TV as one of the most profitable channels in our YouTube ad mix.

👉 See how we did it: How we turned YouTube TV ads from a brand play into our most profitable channel

5. The weird literary trick that made this ad impossible to ignore

What does Franz Kafka have to do with direct response advertising? Turns out—everything. This post dives into how one vision supplement brand used an “impossible story” setup (borrowed from classic literature) to create irresistible curiosity in their YouTube ad.

👉 Read the full story: How a vision supplement ad used Kafka’s trick to make you believe the impossible

What does this tell us about digital advertising in 2025?

The top-performing content of the year so far points to some clear takeaways for marketers:

• Creative still drives the biggest wins. Smart messaging, strong hooks, and emotional storytelling matter more than ever, across platforms.

• The platforms are shifting. YouTube Shorts, Connected TV, and omnichannel strategies are rewriting the old playbooks.

• The fundamentals haven’t changed. At the heart of every successful campaign is timeless direct response thinking—understanding your audience, making bold promises, and moving people to act.

Final takeaway: Stay sharp, stay flexible

If there’s one lesson from these top articles, it’s this: what works in digital advertising keeps evolving—but the smartest marketers adapt without losing sight of the fundamentals.

Whether it’s testing new placements like YouTube Shorts or TV, dialing in your creative hooks, or simply making better decisions based on data, the brands that win in 2025 are the ones that stay sharp, stay flexible, and keep learning.

We’ll keep sharing what’s working inside the Inceptly newsletter to help you do just that.

Until next time,

The Inceptly Team

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