Advertisement… what is it about?

Advertising is a promotional activity that aims to sell a product or service to a target audience. It is one of the oldest forms of marketing, the aim of which is to influence the actions of your target group in order to persuade them to buy, sell or other activities. By using a highly relevant message, your ad can be niche (targeting a small audience) or generic (targeting a large audience).

Advertising is much older than most other marketing activities, such as e-commerce marketing. Since the Internet has become widely available, advertising has been divided into two types: traditional advertising and digital advertising.

The term traditional advertising refers to press, television and radio advertising that have been popular for over 150 years. Press advertising was the most effective form of marketing because it hit the target group directly through leaflets, newspapers and mail. Digital advertising regards any online marketing activities such as display advertising, PPC, social media advertising, etc. This form of advertising is cheaper and easier to track, which is why it has become a more widely used form of marketing.

Creating product advertisements is the first step in your product lifecycle. It acts as a product introduction and can be a great way to promote your brand to the world. Before the product is manufactured, sales forecasts are calculated in order to rationalize production costs. After a product is created, sales must become a reality, and effective advertising is how companies can present the product to the world.

Today, digital advertising has become a science. Companies can be highly targeted and can track every conversion from an ad with a single click. This control and traceability make advertising very important in marketing, such as attribution modeling and conversion rate optimization (CRO).

Types and possibilities

Depending on the type of ad and medium, we can expect different results. Some types of advertisements are dedicated only to a specific group of recipients. The most important types are:

• Press ad (printed) Print advertising is an effective way to promote your brand in a magazine, newspaper, periodical or on a leaflet.

• Billboards Located in cities around the world, billboards can be static or moving advertisements for products, selling just about anything.

• TV advertisement Television advertising has been the most popular way of presenting a product to consumers for over 50 years. Its appeal has only slightly decreased since digital and mobile marketing entered the scene.

• Radio ads Radio advertising, although purely audio, is still very effective. There are two different audiences: older audiences and those who listen to the radio on the way to work. Creating ads that are short and direct will keep your audience interested; anything else will overwhelm them.

• Advertising on social media Social media platforms have grown in popularity, and with this new trend, advertising has emerged. Placing your promotional ads on these sites you love is cost effective as you can target them more accurately than ever before. You can select age range, interests, locations and much more with just a few clicks.

• Browser advertising Search engines use effective advertising also by displaying products that are tailored to keyword searches. This form of promotional advertising is great for retargeting and remarketing to people who have already been interested in the product.

• Mobile advertising The use of mobile devices has increased tenfold in a short time. Mobile-oriented advertising may include SMS, app advertising, and website advertising aimed at mobile users.

• Pop-ups Websites are always trying to get more conversions and sales in the sales funnel. The way to do this is through effective advertising. It's a good idea to have pop-up windows with call-to-action windows. They encourage you to return to the page when it is about to exit through an exit popup. Pop-ups with discount codes or a link to a specific product can be of great importance for a potential customer.

Online and offline advertising

Offline advertising is pretty underrated right now. However, it does have many important distinguishing advantages:

• Builds trust faster. Every company that uses high-quality traditional marketing media looks more credible in the eyes of the customer.
• Makes a lasting impression on customers. According to marketing statistics, people remember traditional advertisements, especially print advertisements such as flyers, brochures, and posters, better than online advertisements. Reading traditional advertisements requires more focus from the recipient.
• They cannot be ignored. People face various forms of offline marketing in their lives, whether they like it or not. Could be outdoor shoe advertising, radio advertising of a training platform, product packaging and even a leaflet handed to them on the street.
• Can target groups that don't use the internet. A large part of the population, the older generation and all those who are not online for one reason or another. Offline marketing helps brands reach these groups.

While there are many benefits to offline marketing, it does have its limitations:

• Its effectiveness cannot be accurately measured. Although marketers have found ways to track the effectiveness of some offline marketing materials, these methods are limited.
• It's usually expensive. While print marketing is cheap, other forms of offline advertising, such as magazines, billboards, and TV commercials, are expensive. This is due to the costs of labor, production, distribution and rental of advertising space.
• Its range is limited. All depends on marketing budget. If a business is on a budget, it will find it difficult to reach areas outside of its immediate neighborhood.
• Printed ads are allowed for a limited time only. When advertising space is used, you can only conduct offline marketing to a limited extent.
• Internet marketing uses the Internet, its tools and applications to increase brand awareness. This includes online listing registration, search engine optimization (SEO), website development, social media, online banner ads, email marketing, video, and more. Pros of online advertising:
• It is measurable. You can easily see real-time results and measure the return on investment (ROI) of your online marketing efforts with the right tools. You can also see how many views, followers, likes, shares, and purchases were generated by the ad.
• It's cheap and convenient. Internet marketing is available to all types of businesses around the world as long as they have a computer and an Internet connection.
• Has a global reach. Companies do not limit themselves to promoting their brand in their neighborhood. Their business will be able to reach customers even outside their country.
• Allows direct feedback from customers. Customers can simply send an email or comment on a post if they have any comments or questions about the brand.

While online marketing has many advantages, there are also some disadvantages.

• Requires specific knowledge. To understand how to create advertisements, you need to know how online marketing works.
• Can not reach those who are offline. With online marketing, you can't reach an audience which is not tech-savvy, or just got overly annoyed with ads, and turned off social media advertising, or choose to pay for ad-free apps.
• Competition is tough. With so many local and international companies that advertise their brands online it may be difficult to differentiate yourselve in the digital space.
• Building trust takes time. People participating in online activities are always vulnerable to online scams, fake links, hacks and data breaches. It makes it difficult to gain the trust of the customers.

Measurability of effects

Various types of tests are used to measure the effectiveness of an advertisement. These are: exposure; attention, understanding, change of attitude, and behavior or action.

• Exposure For advertising to be effective, it must gain exposure, i.e. how many consumers have seen or heard the message. Without exposure, your ad is doomed to failure. Whether the media used was effective can be found out by examining circulation or audience data (i.e. the number of newspaper copies sold, people passing billboards or city buses, people living in the broadcasting area, etc.); or conducting brand awareness research.

• Attention Advertising cannot be effective unless it grabs the attention of its target consumers. This attention can be obtained by asking consumers to indicate the extent to which they will recognize or remember each advertisement. Various mechanical devices provide attention indicators to help tomeasure this factor.

• Understanding Consumers use advertising as a means of obtaining information. It is impossible to inform them of something if they do not understand the message. Marketers apply various comprehension tests, such as recall tests. They can also ask consumers how they understand the message they have recently heard or watched.

• Change of attitude The attitude towards a product or organization, both before and after an advertisement, is measured with measuring instruments that research opinions about the brand or product.

• Action Advertising is intended to stimulate an action or certain behavior. Intention can be measured empirically and answers to some questions can be analyzed to understand future purchasing trends.

If you want to learn the basics of advertising and marketing, Webinar Universe is recognized as an excellent resource to prepare you for this career path. Even if you're not into advertising, it's worth knowing how it works!