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ResourcesArticlesWhat Is Advertising? Full Guide With Essentials and Examples
Sales & Marketing
Article
19 Min Read


WHAT IS ADVERTISING? FULL GUIDE WITH ESSENTIALS AND EXAMPLES

Delve into the evolving landscape of advertising in 2023. Discover strategies
and channels to effectively promote your business and drive growth.

Emily Gertenbach
Published
|
Dec 20, 2021
Updated
|
Sep 27, 2023

Emily Gertenbach


Published
|
Dec 20, 2021
Updated
|
Sep 30, 2024
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Advertising is an important part of all business marketing. It helps brands
build awareness and trust among their target audience, as well as respond to
competitors in the same market.

This guide will help you better understand the role that advertising plays in
marketing, and how it can benefit your business. We’ll go over:

 * What is advertising?
 * Why is advertising important?
 * Advertising vs marketing: What are the differences?
 * Traditional advertising
 * Digital Advertising
 * Local vs national advertising levels
 * 4 Advertising examples that will inspire you
 * How to advertise your business in 7 steps
 * Launching a successful advertising campaign

From the history of advertising to tips for starting your next ad campaign, it’s
all here. Let’s jump in!





WHAT IS ADVERTISING?

Advertising is the use of sponsored, branded messages to sell products or
services. The purpose of advertising is to boost revenue, gain an advantage over
competitors, and build brand awareness.

If you walk by an ad on your way to the grocery store, it may appear to be a
standalone billboard or poster. However, single ads are usually part of a larger
campaign. Ad campaigns are a series of advertisements grouped around a common
theme or goal. Companies may create their ad campaigns internally, by working
with independent advertising consultants, or with the help of a third-party
advertising agency.

People have been advertising goods and services in some form since at least the
1500s. Today’s advertisers have more options available to them than ever before,
making ads an effective tool for companies of all sizes.

The two images below show the way one company’s advertising has evolved over
several decades. First, we see a vintage Sunbeam toaster ad, most likely from a
magazine or newspaper. And the second image shows an Australian micro-influencer
with over 28,000 followers shares photos of a Sunbeam toaster in her kitchen as
part of a sponsored post.






‍


WHY IS ADVERTISING IMPORTANT?

Advertising is a very important part of marketing and sales. Through ads,
businesses can:

 * Compete with competitors
 * Raise awareness about new products or services
 * Remain relevant to existing customers
 * Build trust and loyalty
 * Cultivate a pipeline
 * Expand into new markets and regions
 * Boost the sales volume of goods or services

Without advertising, it could be much harder to reach new customers and refute
the claims of rival companies.





ADVERTISING VS MARKETING: WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES?

Advertising is just one part of marketing a product, service, or event.
Marketing involves identifying consumers’ needs and figuring out how to meet
them. The overall marketing process includes a variety of steps, including:

 * Surveys
 * Data analysis
 * Research
 * Product development
 * Testing
 * Implementation
 * Communication

Advertising comes into play during the communication stage of the marketing
process. An ad agency or consultant may conduct market research and data
analysis as part of putting together a strong ad campaign, but they aren’t
trying to identify a market need or develop a product. That part’s already done,
thanks to marketing. Advertisers are likely to be more focused on:

 * Identifying the messaging that target audiences respond well to
 * Locating advertising opportunities
 * Developing a campaign
 * Incorporating all necessary formats
 * Creating ad copy and collateral
 * Launching ads
 * Testing and reviewing ad performance

The data collected during marketing strategy development directly influences
advertising, and in turn, ad performance can impact future marketing decisions.


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TYPES OF ADVERTISING

Ads may exist in multiple formats, even across one campaign. Traditionally,
advertising media took the form of printed magazine or newspaper pages,
billboards, radio sponsorships, and television commercials. Today, this extends
into the digital realm as well with ads appearing online, in email, on
smartphones, and on other internet-connected devices.

Many effective advertising messages involve multi-channel marketing, where a
business releases a mix of ads and content in more than one format. This can
include a blend of traditional and digital advertising formats. Companies may
opt to use any of the following advertising methods:

 * P rint
 * Billbo ards
 * Direc t Mail
 * R adio
 * T elevision
 * SE M (Pay Per Click) and SEO
 * Display Advertising
 * Content M arketing
 * Social media advertising
 * Podcast advertising
 * Programmatic Advertising
   




TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING

From the 1500s to the early 1900s, ads were primarily printed, and full of text.
In the 1930s, this began to change as print ads became increasingly image-heavy.
And as radio and television reached more homes, advertisers began creating
commercials as well.

Many traditional advertising mediums used through the 1900s are still effective
today. While the popularity of different ad formats may have changed—what
appealed to consumers in the 1950s is different than what appeals to them
today—the core principles are the same.




P RINT

Print advertising peaked in the 1900s, before the advent of widespread digital
marketing, and is currently in a decline. However, many businesses still find
some value in print formats including newspaper ads, magazine ads, and
advertorials.


Newspaper ads

Newspaper ads can range from small classified advertisements placed by
individuals to full-page spreads ordered by large organizations or political
parties. This example from the UK’s Daily Telegraph shows a variety of ad sizes
across two pages:



‍

Magazine ads

Magazine ads have undergone one of the most noticeable changes of any print ad
format, becoming far more image-heavy than in the past. Compare these two ads
for Lysol disinfectant, one from 1918 and one from today:




‍

Advertorials

Text-heavy magazine ads do still exist in the form of advertorials. These ads
appear to be a normal informational article but are actually paid for—and often
produced by—a company. It’s very similar to the concept of a sponsored blog
post. Advertorials are a form of native advertising, as they should match a
publication’s tone and format. This example from the Carlsbad Business Journal
reads like an article, but is actually sponsored by a realtor:




‍

BILLBO ARDS

Billboards are a form of out-of-home advertising, meant to leave an impression
on potential consumers as they travel or move about their day. This is one form
of traditional advertising that continues to grow, despite an impact from
reduced travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s effective, as well—80% of U.S.
consumers said they noticed a billboard ad in 2019. As for the biggest outdoor
advertiser? That might be surprising too: it’s Amazon. Despite the company’s
massive hold on e-commerce and digital marketing, they still use billboards.




‍

DIREC T MAIL

Catalogs, restaurant menus, coupons, car dealership flyers, and other forms of
“junk mail” are all direct mail. As the name implies, direct mail is any form of
advertising that goes directly to a potential customer’s home or work mailbox.
The United States Postal Service, Canada Post, Australia Post, and the UK’s
Royal Mail all offer businesses a way to send ads directly to groups of people
based on location and other demographics.

Many businesses use direct mail in addition to email—and it’s still quite
effective. According to Australia Post, 81% of consumers read their mail
immediately upon receipt, and 65% read every single item in their mailbox. You
can even find e-commerce retailers getting in on direct mail, with companies
like Wayfair (and, yes, Amazon) producing print catalogs.




R ADIO

Radio ads rose to prominence in the 1930s, when advertisers sponsored entire
radio programs. In fact, this is exactly how “soap operas” got their name! Soap
manufacturers like Procter & Gamble would sponsor episodes of radio dramas,
filling all the ad spots and building brand awareness with listeners. Like print
ads, though, radio advertising is diminishing in popularity. Radio ad spending
dropped by three billion USD in 2020, and hasn’t fully recovered.

‍



T ELEVISION

Radio commercials gave way to television ads in 1941, when the Bulova watch
company ran the first-ever commercial during a baseball game. It cost the
company $9 —the equivalent of $166 today. Television is the most popular form of
non-digital advertising in the United States today, with over 70 billion USD
spent on television ads in 2019.

Live sporting events are still a great opportunity for television advertisers to
grab consumers’ attention—check out this Upwork ad that debuted during a
football game on Thanksgiving Day in the U.S.:





DIGITAL ADVERTISING


The first-ever banner ad appeared online in 1994. It was a vague, clickable
graphic that led to an AT&T website—and got a massive click through rate of 70%.
Today, online advertising can involve not only computers, but smartphones,
tablets, smart TVs, and other internet of things (IoT) devices.




SE M (PAY PER CLICK) AND SEO

Search engine marketing (SEM), also known as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, is
typically part of a company’s search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. A
common goal of a PPC ad is to generate clicks to a webpage. Companies prepare
ads in advance and submit them to different platforms, such as Google or Amazon,
along with an amount they’re willing to spend to run the ad. From there, complex
algorithms make near-instantaneous decisions about which ads a user will see
based on their interests, keywords, and the company’s budget.

Below, you can see that the first Google results for the search query “learn to
cook” are all sponsored ads:




‍

DISPLAY ADVERTISING

Display ads are banners, images, and pop-ups that appear around website and
social media content. The same display ad may appear to all visitors of a
website, or it may change based on individual users’ data. If you’ve ever
searched for something on your phone and then noticed ads for it on a website a
few days later, that’s display advertising in action.

You can see an example of a display ad on Yahoo.com below—it’s highlighted in
green:




CONTENT M ARKETING

Time for a quick pop quiz! Can you correctly identify which of the options below
counts as advertising?

A. An employee of a cookware company writes a blog post about a product launch
and puts it on the company’s domain

B. The company pays a popular lifestyle influencer to include the new product in
a holiday recipe post on the influencer’s blog

C. A company employee writes a blog post about the new product and pays for it
to appear on a cooking magazine’s website

If you answered B and C, you’re correct.

In example A, the company is engaging in self promotion on their own
website—it’s plain old marketing. In examples B and C, though, money changed
hands, and the content became a paid ad. This type of advertising is very
similar to traditional print advertorials.


In the example below, an Amazon-sponsored article on Forbes is distinguished as
an ad by a small addition to the author’s byline:




‍


SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING

There are two main ways a company can advertise on social media:

 1. Pay the social media platform directly for a PPC ad or a display ad
 2. Pay an influencer to post about a company's products or services as part of
    their normal content creation

Social media ad pricing typically utilizes a pay-per-click model. The platforms
that work best for your company may vary depending on your budget, product or
service, and audience. These factors should all play into your overall social
media advertising strategy.


FACEBOOK

Facebook ads have been an integral part of the company’s business model since
2004. The original ads were heavily text-based and devoid of features. With the
launch of the Facebook Ads platform, now known as Meta for Business, in 2007,
advertising on the social network continued to grow. Meta for Business utilizes
a PPC model and allows advertisers to make ads with photos, text, videos, and
slideshows.



‍


INSTAGRA M

Some Instagram users build an entire career out of promoting brands’ products on
their profiles. These influencers receive payment directly from brands or
marketing agencies, and should use include certain disclaimers, such as “#ad” or
“#sponsored”, to indicate that the post is not organic. Because Instagram
influencers build a community around their content, many of their followers feel
they know the influencer and are receptive to this type of advertising content.
Notice the small labels that indicate that Walmart paid for this post:



‍

Advertisers can also use Meta for Business to run Instagram ads similar to those
on Facebook.


LINKEDIN

LinkedIn also utilizes a PPC advertising model, and is specifically geared
toward B2B advertising. Companies have the option of Google-style text ads, or
sharing sponsored photos, videos, and ads in users’ LinkedIn feeds. Advertisers
can also opt to send message-style ads directly to users’ LinkedIn inboxes.

This Upwork ad is an example of how sponsored content may appear in a user’s
LinkedIn feed:



‍

PINTERES T

Pinterest ads are visual and integrate into the platform’s organic posts.
Sponsored content fits in so well, in fact, that 73% of Pinterest users feel
that brand content makes the app more useful. One unique aspect to Pinterest
advertising is the way in which they label sponsored content.

Ad content includes a “sponsored” label the first time you see it in your feed
or search results:



‍

Once you share the content by “pinning” it to one of your personal boards,
though, the sponsored tag goes away. If someone else encounters this sponsored
content for the first time as a result of your share, it will appear organic to
them.



TIKTOK

TikTok is another social media platform that offers brands a mix of
opportunities, including:

 * Influencer partnerships
 * Do-it-yourself PPC ads, similar to those found on Instagram
 * Managed brand ads created in conjunction with a TikTok sales representative

Ads may include single images, carousels, or videos.



‍




‍


PODCAST ADVERTISING

Podcast ads are a bit like a modern-day version of radio ads from the 1930s. Ads
are often read by a podcast’s hosts, giving the content a conversational,
organic feel. Ads may appear throughout a podcast and are either read live by
the host during the recording or get pre-recorded and inserted during editing.
The latter option gives podcasters and advertisers the flexibility to change ad
content at a date in the future, keeping their brand partnerships up to date.



‍





PROGRAMMATIC ADVERTISING

Programmatic advertising is a type of digital marketing in which ads only
display to people who meet particular criteria. When setting up a programmatic
ad campaign, advertisers can indicate the data they’d like to use to narrow down
their target audience. These data points can include:

 * Demographic factors like age and location
 * Interests and hobbies as inferred from online activity
 * Digital behaviors, including activity during specific times of day
 * Type of device, such as smartphones or computers

Programmatic advertising may involve digital and social media ads, and often
follows a PPC pricing model.





LOCAL VS NATIONAL ADVERTISING LEVELS

Advertisers may choose to run local or national campaigns, depending on their
budget and target market. A national ad campaign may include:

 * Placing billboards across the entire country
 * Running television ads on nationally-broadcast programs
 * Sponsoring a nationally-syndicated radio show
 * Setting your digital or programmatic ad campaign parameters to include an
   entire country
 * Displaying social media ads to all users whose sessions begin in a given
   country

Local advertising campaigns, on the other hand, are narrower in scope and
typically more affordable for small businesses. Local ad campaigns may include:

 * Placing poster-size ads on a regional rail or subway line
 * Advertising on a local morning TV or radio show
 * Sponsoring a local event
 * Narrowing the audience for a digital, social, or programmatic ad campaign to
   a specific postal code, state, or province

Large corporations may mix localization with a national campaign. For example,
if a nationwide retailer like Target wanted to effectively appeal to all
potential customers during a holiday campaign, it could:

 * Run television commercials during a national broadcaster’s nightly news
   program
 * Partner with popular influencers from different regions of the country
 * Send direct mail flyers sorted by postal code, each featuring deals specific
   to the recipient’s local Target stores

Bigger isn’t always better when it comes to advertising. Being highly specific
about your target audience—including location—can help you get the largest
return on your advertising investment.





4 ADVERTISING EXAMPLES THAT WILL INSPIRE YOU

Great advertising often does more than state straight facts—it appeals to the
viewer’s values or emotions. This is one of the reasons why clearly
understanding your target audience.

The four companies below are great examples of effective advertising in action.



COCA-COLA

Founded: 1886

Mascot: Polar bears, Santa Claus

Slogan: “Real Magic” (2021)

Coca-Cola does a great job of maintaining consistency in advertising. While its
slogan regularly changes, Coca-Cola keeps its ad campaigns focused on happiness,
community, and refreshment. Coupled with the brand’s iconic white-on-red logo,
Coca-Cola ads typically leave lasting impression on consumers. So much so, in
fact, that various aspects of Coca-Cola campaigns have actually made their way
into pop culture as a whole.

One of the most notable examples of Coca-Cola’s importance on pop culture is the
way many children picture Santa Claus. The now-popular style of depicting Santa
Claus as a rosy-cheeked, jolly man with a beard originated in a 1931 Coca-Cola
ad and remains consistent today:



‍



‍

Though Coca-Cola does have a digital marketing and social media presence, the
company relies heavily on endorsements and product placements as well national
print and television advertisements.



GEICO

Founded: 1936

Mascot: Martin, the GEICO Gecko

Slogan: “15 Minutes Could Save You 15% or More on Car Insurance”

Originally formed in 1936 as the Government Employees Insurance Company, GEICO
did not start advertising to the general public until the 1970s. For the next
few decades, GEICO would try out a variety of advertising formats and mascots
until settling on their popular “GEICO Gecko” in 1999. While the gecko mascot
appears in a majority of GEICO’s advertising, the company also utilizes humor
and pop culture parodies to turn a conventionally boring topic—insurance—into
something enjoyable and memorable.



‍

The company uses a mix of print, television, and digital advertising to reach
its potential customers, including “pre-roll” ads that play before content on
streaming platforms.


LEGO

Founded: 1932

Mascot: Various iterations of the LEGO minifigure

Slogan: “Only the Best is Good Enough”

LEGO advertisements typically appeal to adults who are buying LEGOs for
themselves or their children. Because the core component of each LEGO set—the
brick—hasn’t changed much since the 1940s, LEGO can leverage multiple
generations’ sense of nostalgia. This is readily apparent in LEGO’s 2021 ad
campaign that mirrors a well-received series of ads from the 1980s:





‍

In addition to its ads, LEGO also engages in a variety of content marketing
efforts using paid and earned media that also appeals to children.


NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

‍Founded: 1888

Mascot: None

Slogan: “Further”

Since its inception in the late 1800s, National Geographic’s footprint has
expanded from a print magazine to a television channel and online content. Every
National Geographic print magazine features a yellow border around the cover. By
incorporating that same color and shape into its current-day logo, the National
Geographic brand is instantly recognizable across ad types and formats.

National Geographic advertising often creates an emotional appeal by
highlighting a problem that is likely to be of interest to its target market.
Take, for example, the ad below—its subject holds a plastic straw the same way
they may hold a cigarette:



‍

This is a great example of a brand knowing its audience well. By following up on
the emotional appeal with a way to find more information, viewers are able to
get an introduction to National Geographic and its content.




HOW TO ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS IN 7 STEPS

If viewing the great ads above has inspired you to begin advertising your
business, you’re in the right spot! Keep reading to learn more about how you
can:

1. Understand your audience

2. Create personas

3. Determine where to advertise

4. Develop effective ads

5. Test with potential customers

6. Review results

7. Evolve your advertising strategy


It’s important to follow each of the below steps in order to maximize the effect
of your ads.





1. UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE

It’s very important to identify your target audience before launching any ad
campaign. If you skip this step, your ads may be directed toward people who are
not going to buy or use what you’re selling. This leads to a lower return on
investment and wasted advertising costs.

To develop your target audience, you’ll need to:

 1. Establish whether you are selling to individual consumers or businesses.
 2. Develop data points that fit a particular profile, including values,
    interests, age, relationship status, income, occupation and location
 3. Conduct market research around the proposed target audience to confirm there
    is a need and desire for your product or service
 4. Check out the competition’s advertisements and success rates

Once you’ve developed a target audience profile, think about any ways that you
could break it down further. If you’re able to create two different ad sets that
can appeal to secondary groups in your target audience, this may help to boost
conversion rates.





2. CREATE PERSONAS

Take the target audience data you developed in step one and use it to create
buyer personas. Personas are profiles of fictional people that represent your
target groups. Each persona should include:

 * A descriptive name, such as “Home chef Harry”
 * Demographic data including an age range, income level, occupation, location,
   and interests
 * Goals and pain points that this person may have
 * Things this person may value or fear
 * Daily habits this person may have

Use these personas when discussing and structuring your ad campaigns.





3. DETERMINE WHERE TO ADVERTISE

Next, think about where your target audiences are most likely to consume ad
content. You may need to utilize more than one channel to reach all of the
people represented by your different buyer personas.





4. DEVELOP EFFECTIVE ADS

Once you’ve settled on a target audience and advertising channels, begin
developing ad content. Your ads may be different across channels, or for each
persona. This is perfectly fine—but try to carry a consistent theme or emotion
through each ad. Doing so will help the ads become recognizable to viewers who
may move across platforms or persona groups.





5. TEST WITH POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS

Before launching your full ad campaign, it’s important to test your ad with
potential customers. If the budget allows, you may want to test your ads against
a focus group. This can help you get feedback about your ad before it appears on
billboards or online.

If you aren’t able to run a focus group, start by rolling your ad out to a
limited audience segment and see how it performs. If you’re running digital ads,
you may be able to implement A/B testing. These tests show you which version of
an ad performs best for a given audience, and can be particularly useful when
developing programmatic ad campaigns.

Without testing, you may miss an opportunity to improve the impact of your ad.





6. REVIEW RESULTS

You’ll need to continually review the results of your ad campaign, both directly
after testing and once the ads launch. If you aren’t seeing the performance you
expected, you may need to make changes to the campaign or the product itself.

This can happen to anyone, including large companies like Coca-Cola. After
nearly 100 years of successful marketing and advertising, the beverage company
hit a roadblock in 1985. Their advertising campaign for “New Coke” fell flat—not
because the ads were bad, but because people hated the product. Because
Coca-Cola monitored the way consumers perceived the product and campaign, they
quickly realized the problem and rolled back all changes 79 days after launch.
If Coca-Cola had not been paying attention, the brand and its sales may have
suffered long-term damage.





7. EVOLVE YOUR ADVERTISING STRATEGY

Every ad campaign is a chance to evolve and improve your advertising strategy.
By taking lessons learned from one ad and applying it to another, you can build
your brand’s awareness, trust, loyalty, and revenue over time. Take any of the
four classic companies above as an example—while core aspects of their brands
remain consistent, the way they advertise continues to evolve with changing
consumer demands and preferences. If a brand does not make these changes, it can
become outdated and lose market share to a competitor over time.




LAUNCHING A SUCCESSFUL ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

Whether you’re interested in advertising nationally or globally, traditionally
or digitally, you don’t have to figure it all out on your own. There are plenty
of great independent marketing strategists and advertising consultants who can
help. Get started advertising more strategically by posting a job on Upwork
today.

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AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

Emily Gertenbach
B2B SEO Content Writer & Consultant

Emily Gertenbach is a B2B writer who creates SEO content for humans, not just
algorithms. As a former news correspondent, she loves digging into research and
breaking down technical topics. She specializes in helping independent marketing
professionals and martech SaaS companies connect with their ideal business
clients through organic search.



Read more about Emily Gertenbach

B2B SEO Content Writer & Consultant




Read more about Emily Gertenbach

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Table of Contents


What is advertising?
Why is advertising important?
Advertising vs marketing: What are the differences?
Types of advertising
Local vs national advertising levels
4 Advertising examples that will inspire you
How to advertise your business in 7 steps
Launching a successful advertising campaign
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