The 10 Types Of Digital Advertising (explained And Classified)
One of the main characteristics of the Internet is its ability to generate very different products; experiences that, beyond having in common the fact of being accessible through electronic devices with screens, bear little resemblance to each other.
This has implications in the world of advertising. If until a few years ago advertising formats had been the same for decades, currently marketing is incredibly dynamic and is constantly transforming, exploring new opportunities for advertisers to have projection and differentiate themselves from their competitors. This has resulted in the types of digital advertising that exist ; All of them are the result of having been experimenting with the options that the Internet makes available to people and companies.
Virtually any company or organization that wants to advertise today, especially if what it offers is aimed at young or middle-aged people, must know the different types of digital advertising. Not only because today practically everyone uses the Internet, but because The digital world offers possibilities for creating advertising campaigns that, used wisely, are highly efficient and allow almost all the money invested to be directed towards gaining exposure to potential buyers.
Plus, make no mistake, even if a company isn’t taking advantage of digital advertising, it’s more than likely that its competition is.
If you want to have an overview of the types of advertising that exist, keep reading; Here you will find them classified according to various criteria.
Types of digital advertising according to how they are adapted to the consumer
This classification is based on the extent to which advertisers try to ensure that their advertising pieces are shown only to certain profiles of potential consumers or clients.
1. Non-adapted advertising
Although they are becoming increasingly rare, there are still cases of advertising that practically appears randomly, without there having been an intention to search for a specific profile of potential consumer. At most, the advertising campaign will take into account the medium in which the ad is displayed (that is, a website, a mailing list, etc.), so that all the people who could see that advertisement have, in principle, the same probability of coming into contact with it.
The only advantage of this type of digital advertising is how easy it is to put it into circulation, so it is suitable for “newbies” and for people who barely have any training in marketing.
2. Advertising adapted by audience segmentation
In this type of digital advertising, there is a certain degree of adaptation to target audiences that are already objectively divided beforehand, thanks to the textual information associated with each user
For example, when certain social networks offer the possibility of showing an ad only to people who live in a certain country or region or only to people of a certain age group, they are making use of those criteria that are guided by database categories.
3. Advertising adapted according to third-party cookies
If in the previous type of digital advertising the degree of adaptation was based on textual information (that is, expressed in words and numerical codes predefined in advance), the adaptation based on third-party cookies is guided not so much by the categories, but more good for the behavior of the users. This is achieved assigning a cookie to each user, so that certain information about their Internet browsing patterns is recorded and accessible to advertisers In this way, as time goes by, it is possible to intuit your preferences and interests based on what you have been visiting and searching for on the Internet.
As you may have guessed, advertising based on third-party cookies can come into conflict with respect for people’s privacy, and that is why many countries force websites to always warn about the existence of these marketing elements. , giving the option to reject them.
4. Contextual advertising
Contextual advertising is the one that adapts to the theme of the page on which it is displayed so that it adapts to users indirectly, under the presupposition that if someone is visiting a certain place on the Internet it is because what is discussed there generates interest.
It has the advantage that it fully respects the privacy of users because it is not based on information collected about each person, and also, tends to adapt better to each person’s preferences in real time (advertising through third-party cookies makes decisions based on what is collected over weeks, regardless of what the person intends to do at a specific time). For example, if a website publishes an article about nutrition for athletes, advertisers of protein shakes may decide that is a good place to place an ad.
Types of digital advertising according to their format
Let’s now look at the types of digital advertising based on the format that the advertising piece adopts, that is, the way the information is presented and how it is perceived by users.
1. Email marketing
As its name suggests, email marketing is based on sending emails to people whose email address was in a specific list These advertising pieces usually consist of emails entirely dedicated to a brand, product or service, although it is also possible that this space is shared by several companies (for example, when adding an advertising banner to a newsletter).
Depending on the degree of information you have about the users who appear in that email list, it will be more or less possible to segment by target audiences, sending those ads only to certain types of people.
2. Advertising banners
Advertising banners are advertising pieces that appear integrated into the layout of web pages, normally in the margins of the content but sometimes also between paragraphs. These ads may consist solely of static visual pieces, or videos, gifs or other formats that incorporate moving images. Besides, They have embedded links, so it is possible to click on a banner and go to the web page that the advertiser wants (normally, the purchase of a product or service).
This is one of the most classic types of digital advertising, but over time, people have become accustomed to paying very little attention to banners. Of course, the chances of a user clicking on it increase greatly if it is part of an adapted advertising campaign.
Related article: “Principle of scarcity: a trick to encourage us to buy”
3. Sponsorships and collaborations
This type of advertising It consists of associating a brand, product or service with an entity that captures the attention of a large part of the target audience and generates follow-up For example, it is common for influencers to promote products through their social networks, and it is even possible to incorporate physical advertising pieces into YouTube videos from a channel followed by a type of people who are likely to buy what is advertised.
Advertising on social networks is one that is based on the options of enhancing the reach of publications on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram… That is, They are publications made from an account opened by the brand or company that is promoted and in which money has been invested so that they have a greater impact, being shown to many more people than would be normal without paying.
You may be interested: “Strategies used by online stores so that we end up buying”
5. Mobile ads
Mobile ads are those in which ads embedded within a smartphone app are displayed They normally have the appearance of a banner like the ones we can find on any web page. To advertise in this way, you have to pay the company that has the rights to that specific application.
6. Search engine ads
Search engine ads are part of what is known as SEM (Search Engine Marketing). This type of digital advertising is reflected in the search results that are located at the top of the results that we obtain when searching for something on pages like Google or Bing so that they are visible to 100% of those who have performed the search by typing certain words or phrases.
That is to say, if the majority of results obtained when searching for something on websites of this type are positioned organically according to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) criteria, with SEM this privileged positioning is obtained by paying the search engines.
Do you want to enhance your digital marketing in the world of psychology?
If you are a psychologist or run a psychology center, We can help you increase and optimize your Internet advertising campaigns At Psicología y Mente we help psychologists have a presence in the digital environment and gain exposure to their potential clients, whether in the field of psychotherapy or in the field of business services.
If you want to know more about how we can advise you in the field of digital marketing or we can help you advertise, contact us at (email protected).
