With acquisition costs rising and consumer patience shrinking, the pressure is on: every digital experience has to work harder. That was the key message in our recent webinar with Contentsquare: Optimizing Digital Experiences: Strategies from AB Tasty & Contentsquare.
In the session, John Hughes from AB Tasty and Evan Wells from Contentsquare unpacked key findings from AB Tasty’s 2025 Consumer Trends Report and Contentsquare’s 2025 Benchmark Report, revealing what it really takes to deliver faster, smarter, more cost-effective customer journeys in 2025.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the top takeaways.
1. The Rising Cost of Digital Experiences
Traffic is getting more expensive and more competitive.
- Organic traffic is down by 5.7%.
- Paid traffic now makes up 39% of visits.
More worrying? Overall traffic is down 3.3%, even as ad spend rises by 13.2%. Consumers are migrating toward closed ecosystems like TikTok, and search engine changes are squeezing unpaid visibility.
“If someone does land on your site,” said Evan, “you can’t afford to lose them to a clunky experience.”
2. Earning Loyalty
Retention is getting tougher and more expensive:
- 30-day retention is down 7%
- Bounce rates for returning paid traffic are rising
- Brands are spending more to re-acquire the same users
But here’s the good news: Sites with the highest retention also had:
Retention isn’t about loyalty programs anymore. It’s about immediate value:
If the first experience isn’t seamless, fast, and relevant, there might not be a second chance.
As John pointed out:
“Customers are overwhelmed. Consent banners, pop-ups, chatbots… all stacked on each other. The more you push, the more they bounce.”
3. Personalization = Relevance
Our 2025 Consumer Trends research confirms it: Shoppers now expect relevance, not just recognition. What moves the needle?
“It’s not just about product recs. It’s about respect. Show people you’re paying attention, and they’ll come back.” – John
At AB Tasty, we’ve taken personalization beyond demographics into emotional and behavioral segmentation.
With EmotionsAI, brands can now tailor experiences based on what really motivates visitors:
- Safety Seekers: need reassurance (trust signals, easy returns)
- Fast-Trackers: want speed (minimal steps to checkout)
- Community-Driven: respond to peer validation (“others bought this”)
- Comfort Seekers: look for clarity and low friction
These insights can shape everything from PDP content to CTA language. And best of all? It’s not guesswork, it’s behavior-based.
4. Attention Is Dropping – Especially for New Visitors
Consumers are seeing less of your site, unless you’re earning their attention.
From Contentsquare:
- Overall site consumption (time, scroll rate, pages viewed) is down 6.5%
- Returning visitors consume 19% more pages and spend one minute longer on site than new visitors
- More landing pages are now product pages, not homepages
This shift reinforces something we’ve known for a while: homepages are branding, product pages are business. If you want to improve conversion, that’s where you optimize.
5. AI: The Secret Weapon to Optimize Digital Experiences
Both AB Tasty and Contentsquare are embracing AI to help marketers do more with less:
At AB Tasty:
- Our AI Copilot helps teams quickly generate test ideas, reword content, promote blocks, or personalize experiences with natural language prompts.
At Contentsquare:
- Chat with Sense makes it easy to explore analytics in plain English
The goal? Speed up insight, scale up experimentation, and automate repetitive tasks – without sacrificing control.
6. Experiment Often, Act Fast
The most successful teams aren’t just collecting data. They’re closing the loop:
1. Contentsquare shows what’s broken
2. AB Tasty helps you test, fix, and personalize
3. AI helps you move faster, with less effort
Whether it’s launching 1:1 recommendations, fixing high-friction journeys, or adapting content to emotional profiles, the brands that win in 2025 are those that act quickly and optimize constantly.
Key Takeaways
In 2025, optimizing digital experiences isn’t just a nice-to-have – it’s a survival strategy. With rising acquisition costs and falling attention spans, brands need to ensure every visit delivers real value. That means fixing friction fast, personalizing with emotional and behavioral insight, and using AI to move from insight to action at speed. Retention now begins with the first impression, and product pages, not homepages, are where real conversions happen.
The brands that will win are those that test often, personalize with purpose, and close the loop between data and decision-making.
Want More?
Explore the 2025 Consumer Trends Report by AB Tasty.
Check out the 2025 Benchmark Report by Contentsquare.
Watch the full webinar here:
