What’s the dif­fer­ence? Marketing vs. ad­ver­tis­ing

Ad­ver­tis­ing is the targeted dis­tri­b­u­tion of messages as paid ads on various media, in order to promote a product or service. Marketing, on the other hand, refers to a wide spectrum of strate­gies and ac­tiv­i­ties that are meant to meet the needs and desires of customers and build long-term con­nec­tions with them. Ad­ver­tis­ing is one of many different kinds of marketing ac­tiv­i­ties. In this article, we’ll explain in depth some of the dif­fer­ences between marketing and ad­ver­tis­ing.

What is marketing?

The term marketing includes many different areas, processes and ac­tiv­i­ties that are all focused on promoting and selling products or services. The marketing process starts with market research, which will form the foun­da­tion of your marketing strategy. Your marketing strategy should be based on these four prin­ci­ples, the four Ps of marketing:

• Product: The product or service that’s being offered should be designed to meet the needs or desires of your target group.
• Price: The price of your product or service should be low enough that your target group can afford it but high enough to make a profit.
• Place: The place where your product or service is offered should be easily ac­ces­si­ble for your target group and conducive to making sales.
• Promotion: You should promote your product or service in a way that gets the attention of your target group.

Marketing goals will vary from brand to brand and campaign to campaign. Some possible goals are, for example, in­creas­ing sales, boosting brand awareness or con­nect­ing with your customer base. Marketing is one of the most important factors in the success of a company or brand.

What is ad­ver­tis­ing?

Ad­ver­tis­ing is an important sub­cat­e­go­ry of marketing that aims to make potential customers aware of a brand, product or service, in order to persuade them to buy or use it. A defining char­ac­ter­is­tic of ad­ver­tis­ing is that you need to pay for it — think, for example, of TV and radio ads, bill­boards, banner ads online and social media campaigns.

Ad­ver­tis­ing is used to convey a targeted message about a brand, product or service at a specific time. The content of any given ad­ver­tis­ing will vary based on target group, medium and purpose. It might be in­for­ma­tive, en­ter­tain­ing or emo­tion­al­ly appealing as a means of capturing the attention and interest of your target group.

What is marketing vs. ad­ver­tis­ing?

Marketing consists of a number of different ac­tiv­i­ties. Ad­ver­tis­ing is one of these marketing ac­tiv­i­ties and acts as part of a marketing strategy. It’s a product of the marketing process or the result of that process that’s shown to the outside world. That’s why the terms marketing and ad­ver­tis­ing are fre­quent­ly (if in­cor­rect­ly!) used in­ter­change­ably.

While ad­ver­tis­ing is a more short-term marketing activity, marketing is about un­der­stand­ing your customers and de­vel­op­ing a long-term strategy for in­creas­ing their sat­is­fac­tion and loyalty.

What kinds of marketing are there?

There are many different kinds of marketing. We make the general dis­tinc­tion between tra­di­tion­al and online marketing. However, tra­di­tion­al and online marketing can be combined with each other in a marketing mix. In­di­vid­ual marketing strate­gies can also differ in their goals, target groups, strate­gies and the media and platforms they use. Here are some of the most common kinds of marketing:

• Digital marketing refers to any marketing strate­gies that are im­ple­ment­ed on digital channels, including search engine marketing (SEM), newslet­ter marketing, content marketing and social media marketing.
• Content marketing is a form of digital marketing in which high-quality and in­for­ma­tive content is created and published in order to draw a target group to a website and win them over for a product or brand.
• Social media marketing is a type of digital marketing that takes place on social media platforms. It’s es­pe­cial­ly popular among ecommerce companies.
• In­flu­encer marketing also takes place on social media. It involves iden­ti­fy­ing relevant in­flu­encers for a brand or company and in­te­grat­ing them into the marketing and com­mu­ni­ca­tion strategy.
• With inbound marketing you don’t approach potential customers directly, and instead get their attention through useful content. It requires that customers are already looking for certain products.
• Outbound marketing refers to a marketing strategy in which customers are shown ads on various channels, even if they haven’t expressed an interest in making a purchase.
• Mul­ti­chan­nel marketing uses various channels such as email, social media, search engine marketing and print media in order to reach a larger audience.
• Om­nichan­nel marketing uses digital, analog and physical channels to interact with customers. Unlike with mul­ti­chan­nel marketing, these different areas overlap smoothly with each other.
• Word-of-mouth marketing is when products or services are recommend by customers to other customers. It includes literal word-of-mouth rec­om­men­da­tions in person as well as digital referrals.
• Viral marketing works similarly to word-of-mouth marketing in that it relies on people spreading the word in order to gain a wide reach as fast as possible. The user won’t see this as classical ad­ver­tis­ing and is therefore more likely to share it.
• Guerrilla marketing uses un­con­ven­tion­al and cost-efficient tactics like street art, viral campaigns, flash mobs and ad­ver­tis­ing stunts. It’s often used by small companies with a limited marketing budget.
• Ex­pe­ri­en­tial marketing involves creating unique and memorable ex­pe­ri­ences in the form of events and in­ter­ac­tive ac­tiv­i­ties for customers. The goal is to create a positive im­pres­sion of the brand and foster long-term con­nec­tions with the brand or company.
• Per­for­mance marketing is a data-driven marketing strategy that con­cen­trates on mea­sur­able reactions and trans­ac­tions such as clicks, leads, sales and other con­ver­sions.
• Affinity marketing is aimed at target groups that share a common interest. The goal is to create a con­nec­tion between the brand and its target group by appealing to common interests, values or beliefs.
• Gender marketing works based on the as­sump­tion that people of different genders have different pref­er­ences, needs and behavior when it comes to consumer goods. It involves targeting a product, service or ad­ver­tis­ing campaign to a specific gender.
• Green marketing involves promoting products or services based on their sus­tain­abil­i­ty. The goal is to appeal to users who are conscious of the impact of their purchases on the en­vi­ron­ment.

What types of ad­ver­tis­ing are there?

There are a number of different types of ad­ver­tis­ing. They can be broken up into the cat­e­gories of tra­di­tion­al vs. digital ad­ver­tis­ing. Tra­di­tion­al ad­ver­tis­ing involves ads that are shown in a specific location so that as many people as possible see or hear them. It includes:

• Radio ads
• TV ads
• Print ads (bill­boards, magazines, and other print media)
• Store­front ad­ver­tis­ing
• Pro­mo­tion­al giveaways

Digital ad­ver­tis­ing includes all forms of ad­ver­tis­ing that are dis­trib­uted on digital channels. Below are some examples.

• With search engine ad­ver­tis­ing (also known as SEA), ads are shown in search engine results.
• Display ad­ver­tis­ing, also known as display marketing, includes all forms of ad­ver­tis­ing that work with graphic ads online, such as banners, videos and animation.
• Native ad­ver­tis­ing can appear either online or offline in print media. It involves ad­ver­to­ri­als, which are in­dis­tin­guish­able from normal editorial content.
• Pay-per-click ad­ver­tis­ing is a form of online ad­ver­tis­ing in which ad­ver­tis­ers pay for each click on their ad. PPC ads appear on search engines and social media, for example.

In addition to mass ad­ver­tis­ing, there are also more targeted and per­son­al­ized ways to come into contact with customers. These direct ad­ver­tis­ing strate­gies include letters and emails, ad tracking on websites using cookies, tele­mar­ket­ing, SMS marketing, product tests and home visits. The challenge with these forms of ad­ver­tis­ing is that the person you’re con­tact­ing has to give consent for the use of their data in advance.

How do you plan an ad­ver­tis­ing or marketing campaign?

A suc­cess­ful ad­ver­tis­ing or marketing campaign requires careful planning. You should take the following things into account:

1. Set goals that you want to achieve with your campaign. For example, you might want to increase brand awareness, boost sales or strength­en re­la­tion­ships with customers.
2. Define your target group and identify their needs and interests. That way you can create content that’s tailored to that de­mo­graph­ic.
3. Set a marketing budget and use it as ef­fec­tive­ly as possible.
4. Create a marketing plan that lists every­thing you need to do to achieve your goals.
5. Research the com­pe­ti­tion. How do they do their marketing? What can you do better?
6. Implement your marketing campaign. Con­stant­ly keep an eye on KPIs so that you can make ad­just­ments to your campaign as necessary.
7. Measure results, optimize and repeat your campaign, if necessary, in order to get the best possible results.