Even in the days of traditional digital marketing and advertising techniques, the lines between advertising and marketing were often blurred. And using both terms interchangeably was common enough even then. But now, in the era of digital marketing and digital advertising, with mixed and media blending strategies in control, the lines between advertising and marketing have become even more blurred, so much so that even the use of “online marketing” is accepted and “online advertising” as synonymous terms.
However, technically, digital marketing and online advertising are different. And this is how you can see the difference between the two:
Digital advertising is one aspect of digital marketing
Digital marketing Expert begins from the moment a digital marketer begins to establish an online business or product presence. The very fabric of representing a business online is part of the marketing process. Choosing the price of the products, designing the packaging, deciding the angle of appeal of the product to your customers, and choosing what type of advertisements and publications to use are all part of the company’s ongoing marketing strategy. And consequently, conceptualizing, designing, creating and placing online ads is only one part of a company’s marketing strategy.
Digital advertising is an activity, while digital marketing is a process
Digital advertising (also known as online advertising) is often a short activity in the grand scheme of marketing. Typically, digital advertisers work with data provided by digital marketers to design ads. But, many times, especially in the early stages of establishing a new business or new product, digital advertisers primarily create ads that have general appeal. (This also means that the target audience is typically larger for ads than when marketing posts are created and shared online.)
However, online marketing starts from the moment you choose the colors and logo design for your business, and sometimes even earlier. And then this process continues until the dissolution of the business or until the end of time. Because everything, everything, that a business shares online with reference to itself is a form of marketing, be it ads, blog posts, how-to videos, seminar podcasts, or anything else.
Online advertising is based on sales, while digital marketing is based on audience psychology
Online advertising is created with the intention of encouraging people to buy things and is intended to drive sales for a business. And, while digital marketing also has a sales angle, that is not the core concept or foundation of most marketing strategies. Rather, the main goal of digital marketing is to reach people online, who have the potential to become customers of the business. And since online audiences are people who (especially in today’s age) enjoy social experiences online and are very diverse in their interests and hobbies, the psychology of the audience becomes the cornerstone of most techniques. and digital marketing strategies. After all, Most marketing concepts are even customized today based on a specific demographic or specialty of a company’s specialty audience. Therefore, understanding what attracts such audience subcategories (through understanding audience behaviors and psychology) is a must when it comes to online marketing.
Digital advertising makes audiences aware of a brand, while digital marketing develops the brand
Ads, in general, whether we are talking about online ads or traditional ads, are mainly focused on making the public remember a brand and hopefully attracting them to buy a product or service from that brand. However, marketing is all about designing a brand for your audience: Marketing defines the image of the brand and the automatic impression a potential customer gets of a brand when they see or hear about it. Marketing is what develops a brand online and establishes its overall impression in the mind of the audience. So once again, digital marketing is an ongoing process that lasts as long as the lifespan of the business and the brand you are working on.
Digital advertising is a digital marketing tool
Make no mistake: digital advertising is a big part of a business and it makes up a good spectrum of the entire marketing process. But, as stated before, online advertising is just one tool in the toolbox of the digital marketing arsenal. So while digital advertising may be the power tool in this marketing toolbox, it is still a tool that digital marketers use to achieve their brand development and the end of marketing.
Digital marketing has a host of tools and techniques
Digital advertising uses more or less the same (albeit) online versions of ads that were used during the traditional advertising era: dominant text ads, dominant image ads, audio ads, and audiovisual ads. Therefore, advertisements are generally limited to such online media.
However, digital marketing has a wide range of tools and techniques to bring your business, brand and product to the forefront of the masses. And this ranges from blog posts and videos to mobile apps and your business website, SEO, and social media accounts. Frankly, even a simple tweet from a company’s Twitter account is a marketing tool. And so is everything a website that represents the business, or even the e-commerce site where the business sells its products. In short, any online presence that the company, brand, product or service has on the World Wide Web is a marketing tool.
So yes, there is a difference between digital marketing and online advertising. And for those in the industry, or planning to make a career in this digital industry in the near future, it’s a good idea to know the difference. Of course, considering that the Internet itself (thanks to most of the content on the subject designed that way) seems to treat digital marketing and digital advertising as interchangeable concepts, you may never find it necessary to point out the differences between the two. two. However, it is always good to know anyway. After all, these are your tools to use now on the World Wide Web.
