Digital Marketing vs Digital Advertising - Is there a difference?

Simply put, digital marketing is essentially any type of marketing that takes place online. So, the better question is perhaps to ask, what’s marketing? Well, that’s easy (ish): it’s the act of selling or promoting products and services. So, if we throw the word ‘digital’ in front of marketing, what we get is the online version. Marketing has been around for a long time; the rise of digital marketing and content marketing coincided with the rise of the internet.

Digital advertising is an advert that appears online. To break it down even further, it’s the act of transmitting messages to a target audience via the internet. If it’s an advert, and it’s on the internet, then it’s digital advertising. You’ll have seen ads yourself during your own internet use. Digital advertising takes many shapes; it could involve programmatic display advertising, streaming TV advertising, pre-roll video advertising, press release, PPC ads, and more.

As I said at the beginning of the article, these two terms are often used interchangeably because they overlap in so many areas. At the most basic level, they both exist to bring more customers on board and push the company forward. But it’s important to break things down a little further.

It’s best to think of digital advertising as an element of digital marketing. Marketing is the whole picture. Advertising is a part of the picture.

Your digital marketing will involve a long-term strategy that will push the company towards a specific goal. Advertising is just one of the methods that you can use to reach that goal.

They differ in tone, too. Advertising is direct and (hopefully) unavoidable; digital marketing is subtle and gentler. It comes from the core of the brand; in fact, it can be thought to be the engine behind the brand. 

There’s little value in choosing one over the other. Digital marketing needs digital advertising to be successful, and vice versa. Running an ad without thinking of the marketing element would probably result in an unsuccessful ad. Without advertising, you’d lose a key tool to communicate your digital marketing.

There are similarities and differences between digital marketing and digital advertising. Make both a part of your company’s development, and you’ll see better results.