Whether it’s a furniture ad from a well-known brand like IKEA displayed on Facebook, a sports equipment ad from the popular brand Adidas on YouTube, or a Mercedes Benz ad popping up on Google after your search, it’s likely that you’ve encountered these ads multiple times, sparking your curiosity to click and explore further. These are what we call digital advertising.
In this article, you will get to know more about digital advertising. You will understand why investing in online ads is essential and grasp the differences between online and offline advertising. Additionally, you will explore the various types of online advertising and discover some intriguing examples.
What is Digital Advertising?
Online advertising involves businesses purchasing space on the internet to promote their products.
and services through online media and channels, aimed at delivering messages to target customer groups. This encompasses everything from building brand awareness to encouraging customers to consider the brand, all the way to driving purchase decisions for the brand’s products and services.
Whether you’re searching for products on Google, watching your favorite YouTube channel, or scrolling through your friends’ Instagram stories, you’ll encounter promotional content from various businesses along the way. Trust us, some ads make you more familiar with those brands or may even have you humming their catchy jingles without realizing it.
The difference between online advertising and offline advertising
Let’s get to know the term Offline Advertising (Traditional Advertising) first.
โฆษณาออฟไลน์ หรือ โฆษณาแบบดั้งเดิมคือการที่ธุรกิจซื้อOffline advertising, or traditional advertising, involves businesses purchasing space in traditional media to promote their products and services. This can be seen in newspapers, publications, on television, or on large billboards along highways. The audience who encounters these advertisements must be those who are traveling or present at the location of the media.บนสื่อดั้งเดิมเพื่อทำโฆษณาโปรโมท สินค้าและบริการของแบรนด์ ไม่ว่าจะเป็นบนหน้าหนังสือพิมพ์หรือสื่อสิ่งพิมพ์ บนโทรทัศน์ หรือบนป้ายบิลบอร์ดขนาดใหญ่ตามทางด่วน โดยที่ผู้คนที่พบเห็นโฆษณาจะต้องเป็นผู้คนที่เดินทางหรืออยู่ ณ ตำแหน่งที่สื่อนั้นตั้งอยู่
Today, you can encounter online advertisements (Digital Advertising)
And traditional advertising is seamlessly integrated into our daily lives. For instance, in the morning you might sip coffee and enjoy breakfast while watching live news on Facebook, with a 1-2 minute ad break featuring a ‘Download Now’ button. On your way to work, you drive past a large billboard with a smiling presenter. At work, you might have the TV on, interrupted by ads every hour.
Both Digital Advertising and Traditional Advertising can motivate you to take certain actions through what is known as Call-To-Action in advertisements. Whether it’s a commercial for fitness equipment on television urging viewers to call and place an order, or a beauty product ad on social media platforms like Facebook encouraging audiences to click and make a purchase, businesses can measure the effectiveness of these campaigns in terms of customer responses. However, traditional advertising can only assess results after a decision has been made. In contrast, online advertising offers a more comprehensive evaluation, covering the brand awareness phase, the consideration stage of the target audience, and the decision-making phase.
In addition, when it comes to online advertising, you can precisely define and target your audience for your campaigns (Audience Segmentation). Investing in campaigns and ads to deliver your message to a relevant audience interested in your products and services will yield better results. Moreover, these online ads enable marketers and businesses to analyze the effectiveness of their campaigns more easily—understanding whether they are successful, whether to adjust the target audience, or if other aspects should be modified. In contrast, analyzing data from offline advertising can be quite challenging.
Both online and offline advertising are essential marketing strategies that involve ‘buying’ space to effectively communicate messages from brands to customers. However, they do have distinct differences in certain aspects. Ultimately, it depends on the business’s goals, the type of message they want to convey to their target audience, and how precise and timely they need the advertising data to be.
Why Brands Need to Rely on Digital Advertising
Once you have a deeper understanding of online advertising and the differences between online and offline ad purchasing, let’s explore the reasons why you should continue investing in online ads.
1. The number of online users continues to grow every year
According to the Digital 2021: Global Overview Report compiled by We Are Social and Hootsuite, it’s clear that the number of internet and social media users continues to rise steadily each year. Notably, in 2021, the number of internet users increased by 316 million, while social media users grew by 490 million.
What can these numbers tell us?
These numbers indicate that the online world is expanding significantly, welcoming more and more people. This creates greater opportunities for brands to connect with their target customers who are increasingly engaging in the digital space. As brands invest in advertising their products and services, these ads should effectively reach and resonate with the right audience.
In areas where that group frequently interacts or passes by, it undeniably benefits the brand.
2. Online advertising helps brands achieve their goals
One crucial aspect that modern businesses need to rely on is online advertising. Each brand has different objectives at various stages; some brands need to build a customer base before fully launching their sales, while others aim to drive immediate sales of their products and services. Online advertising is designed to meet these brand needs, which can be categorized into three key goals: Inform, Remind, and Persuade.
- Informing: Literally translating to making someone aware, aims to create awareness about the presence of a brand. In this phase, online ads don’t necessarily need to push for a 100% sale of products or services. Instead, this is the time when your audience—specifically, visitors—are seeking answers or knowledge about specific topics and needs.
What you offer during this time is the act of giving what they are searching for. If you can provide the answers they need, your brand, whether small or large, will surely be recognized.
An example from Harvard Business School Online related to education aims to attract visitors interested in this topic to discover their online advertising brand. They promote it in a way that invites the target audience to explore the products on their website, featuring a compelling call-to-action like Learn More to encourage visitors to take that next step.
If you want to showcase your brand’s expertise further, consider offering initial educational consultations. Use a call-to-action such as Contact Us or Get Free Consultation to engage your audience.
You could create online ads that build brand recognition for your products and services. Consider producing a simple song or a great short video.
When asking about the necessity of online advertising aimed at informing, it’s crucial to understand that you can’t just jump in and start selling your products with ads. Informative online advertising acts as a groundwork for the brand’s products and services that are set to launch in the market. It’s especially vital for brands that are new to establishing an online customer base or aiming to attract visitors to learn more about their offerings.
Of course, everyone has been a customer at some point. When people understand the story behind a brand before making a purchase decision, they are much more likely to buy from it compared to brands they’ve never encountered before.
- Remind: The ultimate goal of online advertising is to highlight the products and services your brand offers to your target audience and customers. You might wonder why it’s important to emphasize this. What’s the point of spending time on it? The simple answer is to create a lasting impression of your brand that customers will recall first. Remember, your business isn’t the only one in the market. There could be dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of products and services in the same category as yours, from small and medium businesses to large corporations. The key to winning over customers and becoming their first thought is to remind them that your products and services are always here for them. Use online advertising to convey how your offerings meet their needs.
Reminder Advertising aims to deliver messages to customers or target groups who are in the consideration process of deciding which brand to purchase from or whether to buy at all. The brand’s role here is to embed itself in their minds. In addition to assisting customers in their decision-making, Reminder Advertising can also be utilized for Retargeting. This involves brands sending advertisements to audiences who have previously interacted with them, such as visiting their website or engaging with their social media pages.
Example: Vimeo has released an ad aimed at highlighting its comprehensive video management application. The copy emphasizes that Vimeo is the place where all your videos belong. With a clear call-to-action, it invites you to discover more and sign up for free.
- Persuade: When brands choose to advertise online, their goal is to persuade their target audience or customers to take specific actions they hope for. This objective allows brands to sell or promote themselves fully, especially since the target audience may already have some interest in certain products or services. If they come across an advertisement that resonates with them, it significantly increases the chances of persuading them to become customers.
The truth is that this objective may not solely refer to ‘selling.’ The wording used in your online ads doesn’t always have to say ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Purchase Now.’ Your business goals might not necessarily aim for customers to make a purchase; instead, they could be about achieving other actions that demonstrate customers are taking the steps you hope for, such as downloading your brand’s app.
Imagine you are the owner of an online beauty business. After successfully launching an advertising campaign to create awareness, the positive response to your ads has driven substantial traffic to your website, achieving your visitor goals. Now it’s time to make those sales happen.
You offer both beauty products and enhancement services, so you’ve decided to promote your clinic through online advertising with the goal of encouraging customers to purchase E-vouchers for services. Your online advertisements can take the form of social media ads on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, featuring enticing calls to action such as Buy One Get One Free Facial Massage or Get 50% Off Your Offer.
An example from the cosmetics brand The Body Shop, which has run online ads in the “Persuade” format, as the brand chose the CTA “Shop Now.”
In summary, brands can rely on online advertising to guide customers and target audiences through the Buyer’s Journey that they have strategically designed. Whether it’s during the Awareness Stage, where the focus is on increasing brand recognition through Inform advertising, or the Consideration Stage, where brands should utilize Remind advertising to create lasting impressions, and finally, in the Decision Stage, where the goal is to drive actions such as purchases. In this case, brands should opt for online advertising that Persuades their customers effectively.
3. Online advertising makes it easier for brands to market themselves
Brands choosing online advertising as their voice for promoting their products and services can target specific customer segments, select the platforms they want to use, and choose the types of media for their communications. Additionally, they can track all relevant data. The benefits of online advertising include
- Online advertising allows brands to effectively segment their audience. By choosing to use online ads to promote products and services, brands can deliver their message clearly and specifically. Advances in technology enable advertising tools on various platforms to precisely identify the desired audience’s characteristics, including gender, age, location, education level, as well as individual behaviors and interests. This not only ensures that the budget spent on advertising reaches the intended audience, but it also provides them with content tailored to their specific interests.
- Online advertising offers the freedom to choose from various ad formats and platforms. It’s not just Facebook where you can see ads. Brands can spread their messages almost anywhere on the internet, whether on search platforms like Google or YouTube, or on social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LINE, or TikTok. These platforms don’t limit advertising to just static images. You have the opportunity to unleash creativity in your online ads in diverse styles, sizes, and formats to enhance interaction between customers and brands.
- Online advertising provides measurable insights that not only enhance audience reach but also allow for tracking and gathering data on the performance of the ad itself. This means brands can determine whether their campaigns are effective or not. Furthermore, once the promotional period ends, brands can compile all the data to create reports and analyze which aspects of their campaigns may need adjustment or improvement for future initiatives.
Online Advertising Models
After gaining a clear understanding of what online advertising is, how it differs from traditional advertising, and the reasons why brands should turn to online advertising,
In this section, you will gain a deeper understanding of the various online advertising formats available.
Online advertising through Display Ads
Let’s get to know the first type of online advertising: Display Ads. These are extremely popular in the digital marketing world. Display advertising utilizes media such as images, animations, and text (copywriting), paired with a Call-to-Action button, to communicate with target audiences across various online channels. You’ll often encounter these ads while browsing websites on Google or watching videos on YouTube, where they appear as small banners.
Image from Developer.fyber.com
Types of Display Ads are as follows
- Banner Ads are advertisements found on the left and right sides, at the top and bottom, or within the content of a website.
- Interstitial Ads are advertisements that display within mobile applications.
- MREC or Medium Rectangle is commonly seen while browsing websites or social media.
- Video ads are the advertisements you often come across, typically presented in the form of Full Screen Video.
- Rewarded Ads are commonly found while playing games, offering players the chance to watch ads in exchange for rewards, such as an increase in their character’s health.
- Rich Media Ads or Playable Ads are online advertisements that create a strong interaction with the target audience. True to its name, Rich Media offers a variety of engaging features, such as scrolling, swiping up, presenting choices, and even creating a 360-degree advertising experience. In simple terms, these ads incorporate interactive elements that enhance audience engagement with the brand.
- Popup ads are a type of advertisement that appears while you’re browsing a website.
Online advertising with Native Ads
Another type of online advertising is Native Ads, which are designed to seamlessly blend in with the content on your screen. It appears as though the ad wasn’t purchased for promotion at all. Native Ads specifically target their audience, and the content within feels integrated with what the reader is currently engaging with.
You may have encountered this before—when reading articles or news on a website, you’ll often see other articles or news suggestions presented as recommendations. This creates the illusion that these are just common articles, not advertisements. This kind of advertising reduces the chances of customers feeling annoyed or having negative feelings towards the brand.
Image fromNT.technology
Types of Native Ads are as follows
- In-Feed Ads / In-Content Ad: The type of ads that frequently appear on your feed, similar to what you see on Instagram or Facebook. As you scroll through your feed, these ads are designed to align with your browsing behavior. For instance, if you’re interested in fitness or healthy eating, you might come across weight loss program ads seamlessly integrated into your feed, complete with a Call-to-Action that directs you to shop on the website.
- Paid Search Ads (PPC – Pay Per Click): Advertisements that appear on Google’s Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs), marked with a small “Ads” label.
- Content Recommendation Blocks: When you read news or articles online and come across suggested content from the website to explore, that’s what we call Recommendation Lists. These curated suggestions often feature catchy headlines designed to entice you, making the reading experience feel valuable as you click to discover more.
- Promoted Lists: An online advertising option similar to PPC, but instead of Google, the platform focuses on shopping websites. You’ll find these products ranked at the top of the page, enticing customers to click and add to their carts.
- Rewarded Video Ads: Ads integrated into games that allow users to engage with advertisements in exchange for rewards after viewing the ad completely.
- Sponsored Content: This type of advertising may not be directly seen from the brand itself, but you might encounter it while watching YouTube, reading articles, or listening to podcasts that feature sponsorship mentions from brands or products that support the content. This is also considered another form of online advertising.
When choosing between Display Ads and Native Ads, which one should you opt for?
Both types of online advertising have their own advantages and disadvantages. If you want to create direct and straightforward ads that clearly convey who your brand is and what products and services you offer, or if you’re looking to use Rich Media to add excitement and interest to your advertising, choosing Display Ads is a great option. Plus, there’s a growing tendency for your target audience to take the desired action you expect.
If you prefer online advertising that doesn’t push direct sales and want to avoid creating a negative image for your brand—since some customers may not appreciate display ads—while also aiming for your products and services to seamlessly blend with websites, media, or personalities, like influencers who can help promote them, then native ads might be the perfect fit for your brand.
Ultimately, it depends on the products and services as well as the brand’s objectives and goals. Some brands may find success by focusing solely on Native Ads, while others might thrive with just Display Ads. There are also brands that effectively leverage both strategies simultaneously.
It is evident that both types of advertising have their own strengths and weaknesses. Brands should carefully consider both options to maximize the effectiveness of their advertising purchases or campaigns. Some products and services are best suited for online channels, while others are more appropriate for offline channels, and some can effectively utilize both avenues simultaneously.
If you are interested in learning digital advertising, Content Shifu offers Facebook Ads Certification and Google Ads Certification courses for you to explore. Learn from Basic to Intermediate levels and receive a Content Shifu Certification upon completion.
Summary
At this point, you may have a clearer picture of what Digital Advertising is and how it differs from offline advertising. You might also wonder why brands today need to adapt to using Digital Advertising. This is driven by the increasing number of online users, the diversity in options to meet brand needs, and the convenience that online advertising provides to brands. Finally, we’ll explore the various types and formats of online advertising that are most suitable for your brand.
In the next section, you’ll discover various online advertising channels, whether it’s through Social, Search, or Marketplace. You’ll learn the strengths and weaknesses of each channel, allowing you to choose the advertising platform that best fits your business needs or objectives.