Digital advertising has become one of the main sources of revenue for any business.
Unlike traditional advertising, advertising online is affordable for any company – you can reach more people for less money – and more effective, since it lets you build a closer relationship between businesses and consumers.
In this post we’re going to explain a bit more about the types of advertising that exist on the internet, the size of the advertising business and the latest trends in digital marketing. If all of this is clear to you, you might feel ready to start developing your first campaigns.
· What Is Internet Advertising?
Digital advertising (another name for internet advertising) basically consists of advertisers distributing ads or advertising content through digital devices in media outlets (digital newspapers or magazines, blogs, video or apps) and social networks, with the aim of reaching their potential customers.
The purpose of an advertising campaign varies depending on its goals:
· Branding: building a brand, seeking visibility and recognition; getting the company into the consumer’s mind.
· Capturing leads: getting users’ data to store it in a database and be able to run mailing campaigns, for example.
· Earning clicks: the profitability of many campaigns is measured by the clicks obtained and the users’ engagement rate.
· Direct sales or acquisitions: The ultimate goal of any strategy is to sell a product or service, so there is little more to say about it.
What Types of Advertising Are There?
Digital advertising can be carried out in different ways and formats. Some of the most widely used are the following:
· Search network advertising:
Ads that appear by default when you run any kind of search on search engines like Google. It is used to generate traffic and conversions and works through keywords.
· Display network advertising:
These are Google Ads or Video Ads. These commercial initiatives let you narrow down and segment your buyer persona (by filters such as location, age, interests, gender, etc.) and create ads through a simple editor where you can modify the format, message and segment according to a budget. A successful example of this is YouTube promotional videos, which are very engaging thanks to their audiovisual content.
Social networks are ideal for brands because they can learn from their consumers by offering them specific content created especially to meet their tastes and needs. In addition, this approach provides valuable information about which posts work best, and it does not require a big financial investment. Social networks also have great segmentation capabilities and greatly encourage customer loyalty.
Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads, Instagram Ads and LinkedIn Ads are examples of platforms that offer ads. Practically all social networks include paid advertising, although not every platform is suitable for every advertising initiative. A tip: choose the tool that best fits your message; keep in mind that video is gaining ground (especially live video) and include valuable content, with storytelling built in.
· Email marketing:
this advertising technique is very effective because it lets you segment your contacts and send personalized commercial messages that build engagement and closeness with your customers. At Mailrelay we are experts in emailing and have developed a new sending platform, Mailrelay v3, to optimize your relationships with your subscribers. The tool, with an improved design, optimizes data segmentation and gives you an extra edge in campaign creation and analytics.
· Remarketing:
Also known as retargeting, it consists of running campaigns through personalized ads aimed at users who have already visited the website and did not complete any expected action (subscription, purchase, recommendation, etc.). Tools such as Facebook or Google Ads are very useful for this.
· Native advertising:
Paid promotional messages in contextual format (related articles, sponsored content and advertorials) or visual format (banners, widgets, GIFs or pop-ups).
· Mobile Ads:
Advertising aimed at smartphones and mobile devices in their different sizes and formats (text, photos, videos or audio, for example). It includes call-to-action buttons and strategic placements to grab attention. One of the most widely used tools is Google Ads.
· Content marketing:
You can collaborate with blogs from media outlets related to your sector and bring visitors to your site through a network of websites (previously chosen and analyzed) that collaborate in publishing content about your products and services. You can also use content marketing to offer discounts, highlight the value of your company and organize contests or special promotions.
· Google Shopping (also known as Google Merchant):
This tool includes a price comparison engine that is accessed through an HTML form. The user types in the product they are interested in and the comparison engine builds a list of the sellers that market it, along with their information and price.
Access is free for any company and includes the possibility of integrating Ads, like the rest of the spaces on the Google network.
Types of Advertising: Statistics and Business Volume on the Internet
Internet advertising investment continues to break records in Spain. In 2023, it reached almost 5 billion euros, an increase of 9.8% over the previous year and an impressive 20.8% more than in 2021.
This growth confirms that companies are increasingly betting on the digital environment to connect with their audiences.
Where Is the Most Money Currently Invested?
- Internet searches (Search): This channel is king, with an investment of 1,616 million euros (32.5% of the total). This includes ads on Google and other search engines.
- Social networks: Increasingly popular, they generated 1,410 million euros, growing by 10.3% compared to 2022. It is one of the most effective ways to reach a young, segmented audience.
- Display ads (banners and others): They totaled 1,122 million euros, up 11% from the previous year.
Emerging Formats on the Rise
- Connected TV: Although it is still an emerging channel, it grew an astonishing 98.6% in 2023. Ideal for those who want to combine television and digital.
- Digital Audio: Thanks to the rise of podcasts and streaming platforms, this format grew by 54.6%.
Other Interesting Trends
- Automated advertising: It already accounts for 71.3% of all digital investment. This includes programmatic ads, social networks and search engines, which shows the weight of technology in the industry.
- Branded Content: With 960 million euros invested and growth of 19.3%, it’s clear that integrating content and advertising works.
What Can We Expect in the Coming Years?
Forecasts for the coming years are very optimistic, with expected growth of between 11% and 19%. This means that digital investment will remain the main driver of the advertising market in Spain, consolidating itself as advertisers’ favorite channel.
In fact, it already represents 61.7% of total media investment, far surpassing traditional formats.
Advantages of the Types of Advertising on the Internet
Although there is still a long way to go in data privacy, connections, streamlining payment methods and the lack of trust among users, digital advertising has many advantages rooted in its mass distribution and reach. Below we list some of them:
· Cost: online advertising is more affordable:
Offline advertising is more expensive than online advertising and it also requires fewer intermediaries and physical media or spaces (printing, advertising space, signage, etc.). In addition, the ratio between investment and profit is also higher.
· It’s more “democratic”:
Much more accessible to all types of audiences: big and small players (agencies, large corporations or small business owners and entrepreneurs) use the same tools to have a digital presence.
· Immediacy and speed:
Contact with the customer is much more direct and fast. Relationships are smoother and the bond between brand and consumer grows closer.
· Individuality:
Online advertising lets you segment the audience and address specific, highly targeted personas. It is even used to build loyalty, and the relationship between brand and customer does not end with the purchase of the product; it continues afterwards.
· Purpose:
Traditional advertising is measured with certain parameters and is geared toward the purchase. Digital advertising seeks to place the product/service in the consumer’s mind (recurring purchase or engagement, for example).
· Metrics:
Until now it was very difficult to measure the impact of a given campaign (clicks, impressions, CPC, CTR,…), but digital advertising offers comprehensive metrics and truly valuable data for firms, which can make decisions based on them. Conventional media such as television, radio or print are harder to measure in terms of conversion; knowing the data and artificial intelligence make companies more effective.
· Advertising and entertainment, together:
New media such as video bring originality to campaigns with the formats that are most successful among users. Some advertising initiatives only make sense on YouTube, for example, because the product’s specific target audience requires it.
· Global reach:
The high penetration of the internet means it reaches a wide community of users spread all over the world. This multiplier effect is an advantage for campaigns.
· Immediacy, speed and effectiveness go hand in hand with internet advertising:
Having data and statistics practically in real time, you can get all the details of your initiatives and track ROI far more effectively.
· Flexibility; the ability to make changes:
Knowing the metrics and analyzing campaigns makes it possible to introduce changes that can be vitally important; you can even manage ‘crises’ more effectively.
Profitability of Internet Advertising
Monetizing a blog or website with online advertising alone is quite complicated – even if you have chosen a niche market with little competition – because to make it profitable you need a considerable volume of traffic (thousands of daily visits to the site), time and a lot of internal SEO work.
Despite all this, if you take care of certain aspects, such as structural hierarchy and basic technical requirements, you can achieve good numbers with the help of advertising.
You can also earn passive income from website visits if you publish content frequently and become relevant to Google’s algorithms, or turn to affiliate programs.
All in all, organic advertising is not a cure-all, because by entrusting the financial side of your project to external players (companies like Google or Facebook Ads) you become vulnerable to any changes these tech giants may make to their business policies.
Moreover, in this market of bids and auctions, large organizations are the ones that come out on top because of their revenue and visit volume. It is very difficult to compete on equal terms here, but it is better to move up one level at a time and compare yourself with those on the same rung as you.
Two main players are involved in the internet advertising machinery.
On one side there are the advertisers, who are interested in selling their product/service; on the other, the customers or buyers who browse the internet and are the target audience of the campaigns created by the advertisers. In between these two are:
· Creative agencies, whose role is to create the ad and make it more attractive so that it hooks people
· Media agencies, which optimize the distribution of the ads created by the former
· Publishers and content creators (websites, blogs or media outlets) who display ads coming from different channels, one of them being ad networks, which are in charge of buying and selling ad space from different platforms.
· Conclusions
Digital advertising is very effective at reaching consumers all over the world. This multiplier effect finds an ideal breeding ground in the smartphone, which consumers use more every day. All in all, it is important to establish a strategy in advance and welcome technological advances, since it is increasingly hard to win over an audience saturated with information and commercial messages.
The good thing about internet advertising is that you can quantify, correct and polish mistakes, as well as make improvements practically in real time. Thanks to data analytics, brands test and experiment with their audience and adapt better to changing needs.
In this context, email marketing remains relevant in web advertising and stands out for its ability to reach the target audience. Moreover, its tracking and measurement options make it a top alternative in digital advertising. See its effectiveness for yourself by visiting the Mailrelay website.
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