Advertising: The Complete Beginner’s Guide

Last Updated on October 27, 2021

What is Advertising?

Advertising is a form of communication-an advertisement is a message whose purpose is to persuade. Advertising tries to convince consumers that one good or service is superior to those of competitors and therefore should be purchased. This could include everything from soft drinks to cars, credit cards, and even political candidates!

Businesses pay big bucks-billions of dollars every year to advertise their products because they are so eager to get customers’ attention and form brand loyalty early on with young consumers who are still forming their buying habits. If you’ve ever wondered why companies shell out big money for TV commercials during popular programs like “American Idol,” that’s why! Every time a commercial airs during this show, hundreds of thousands of consumers are exposed to the product being advertised. And with all those eyes glued to their television screens or watching on their smartphones, these companies hope that customers’ interest will be piqued by what they’re seeing-and that customers will reach for their wallets and start spending.

This is why advertising is so important: Advertising boosts sales, which in turn boosts revenues for companies. And because businesses are doing well financially, that means more jobs are created thanks to all this new revenue!

The Most Popular Types of Advertising

There are five main types of advertising out there today:

• Print ads;
• Radio advertisements;
• TV commercials;
• Outdoor advertising (such as billboards); and
• Online advertisements (such as website ads).

Each type of advertising has its own rules and regulations, of course, but they also have many things in common-more than you might think!

For starters, all advertisements have a definite goal: To sell a product or service, to inform consumers about an item for sale, or simply to entertain the audience with amusing ads. No matter what type of advertisement it is-whether it’s on television or shared on social media-the ultimate purpose is always the same: To get people to take some sort of action as a result of having seen that ad.

When it comes down to marketing tactics, there are two main strategies advertisers use: push marketing and pull marketing. With push marketing, businesses advertise their goods and services directly to potential customers. This is the oldest form of advertising out there, and it can work well if you have a large budget for your ad campaign. With pull marketing, however, businesses don’t advertise their goods or services directly to customers. Instead, they put the task of selling themselves on potential customers by encouraging them to seek out information about the products or services being advertised. Consumers are more likely to trust recommendations from people they know than advertisements created by businesses-and that’s why this indirect method of selling is so effective!

The Main Goals of Advertising Marketer

Every advertiser has one main goal: To get as many eyes as possible on its products or services! Whether your advertisement appears in print (like an ad in the newspaper), online (on someone’s blog or website), or on television, your goal is always to get as many people as possible to take a look at what you’re trying to sell.

When an advertisement appears in print, it’s the designer’s job to make sure that the ad stands out from all of the other advertisements surrounding it. The words and images used need to be eye-catching and informative, but most important of all, they have to persuade consumers that whatever product or service is being advertised is a good buy! With a simple advertorial, it can be easy for advertisers to find success with this approach because even if only one consumer decides to contact the company after seeing the ad, its job has been done.

With online advertising, marketers really have their work cut out for them if they want to make any sort of an impact on their target audience. Unlike print advertisements, online ads are rarely seen by many people at once-which means if someone goes to a website and sees an advertisement for a product or service they have no interest in buying, there’s not much point in continuing to advertise that item! Online advertisers also face tough competition from websites that offer similar products or services, which is why it’s important to find the most effective way to grab consumers’ attention if you’re going to be successful.

With television commercials, marketers are truly blessed because even if only 30 seconds out of every minute are dedicated to advertising, those 30 seconds can account for as much as 50% of all online views. If you really want to make the most of your commercial, think about putting it on YouTube as well as television-it does no good for a business if people saw and liked its ad and then couldn’t find it again.

When marketers advertise something like a product or service online, their main goal is simply to get potential customers interested enough in what’s being advertised that they’ll actually go check out the company’s website. By advertising products or services successfully online, businesses can generate additional revenue through things such as affiliate marketing. This type of advertisement allows companies to link their advertisements with other websites so when someone clicks through from the advertisement and buys something from those other sites, the original business still gets some money.

If all goes well with this sort of indirect marketing, a business can see its sales steadily increase as it’s promoted through the Internet. By making sure that each advertisement is well-written and informative, companies can generate more leads from potential customers who are interested in their product or service but need just a little extra push to actually buy it.

When done correctly, advertising can be an incredibly effective way for businesses to promote their products and services to new consumers. As long as you’re able to grab peoples’ attention and convince them that what you’re advertising would benefit them somehow, your ad will likely be successful!

The History of Advertising    

The term “advertising” has an interesting history: It dates back to the 1630s when producers of alcoholic beverages would advertise their offerings by hanging up signs with colorful images outside their doors. The engravings on these signs were designed to attract attention-and because so many people drank regularly, what better place than at the bar next door? Over time, the sign makers became more skilled and specialized in their craft: They came up with appealing slogans and images that they would then print on the signs. These slogans and images were specific to the client, making them more attractive and eye-catching than their rivals’. This practice of using sign makers turned into a full-blown industry: One day, businesses owners realized it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to pay for some signage instead of just hanging up pieces made by local artisans. And thus advertising as we know it was born!

Early advertisements didn’t have much in the way of rules or regulations: Just about anything went as long as you could get attention and spark interest in whatever you had to offer. Over time, however, there came a need for standardization: Consumers started getting annoyed at having to wade through haphazard advertisements that didn’t follow any rules or regulations. Around the turn of the 20th century, ad people in different countries began to come together and agree on some basic guidelines for advertising.

These days, all advertisements have definite goals: To sell a product or service, to inform consumers about an item for sale, or simply to entertain with amusing ads.

For thousands of years, since the beginning of recorded time, in fact, humans have been trying to sell each other stuff. Marketers and advertisers took advantage of every opportunity they had to get their products in front of consumers: from cave drawings to stone tablets to word-of-mouth. It wasn’t until 1865 that we saw the first major shift in advertising with the invention and rise of newspapers and magazines. Before then, most advertisements were small notices in business directories or on billboards. The next big shift came just a few decades later when mass production became popularized – leading to more businesses flooding newspapers and trade journals with ad space for their products.

Advertising continued to evolve in the late 1800s and early 1900s when marketers started to take notice of how successful newspaper ads were. Companies began advertising their products through commercial spots on radio starting in 1920 with AT&T as one of the earliest adopters. Later that same decade, companies began using TV ads for their products too. In fact, Coca-Cola was one of the first major advertisers with a Coke commercial airing in 1950 during a football game between The University of Georgia and North Carolina State.

From print ads in newspapers and magazines to commercial spots on radio and TV, advertisers have been trying to get us to buy stuff ever since we crawled out of our caves. As the technology evolved over time, so too did – from billboards to direct mailers and beyond. And while some forms of old school advertising fell by the wayside, such as billboards and print ads, new forms of advertising began to emerge such as digital and telemarketing.

What do Advertisers Need to Know about Digital Media?

The popularity and availability of digital media have skyrocketed in the past decade – and it shows no signs of slowing down. These days, we can’t go more than a few minutes without seeing an ad pop up on our computer screens or mobile devices.

But what exactly is digital media? What are some common forms of online advertising? How are ads delivered to us via these channels (“Targeted” vs “Broad”)? And most importantly how does all of this affect advertisers?

Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves! To understand why advertisers need to know about digital media, it helps to first define some terminology related to online advertisements:         

Digital Media: Includes both print ads and TV/radio broadcast ads

Targeted Advertising: Advertising that is specifically geared towards a certain group of people (ie- people who like baseball)

Broadcast Advertising: general advertisements (ie- commercials on TV or radio)

To sum it up, digital media is any type of advertisement that appears online. These can be print ads on websites like Craigslist or The Penny Hoarder, commercial spots airing during the Super Bowl, banner ads for products similar to yours across all sorts of different websites, etc. And because digital ad buying has become so widespread in recent years, advertisers need to know about digital media too!

Simply put, digital media has become a crucial part of an advertiser’s overall strategy. Whether you’re selling shoes or cars or even medical procedures, your ads need to be seen and heard by the right people in order for them to work effectively.

Targeted ads typically take the form of banner or sidebar ads that you would see on a news website, for example. These ads target specific people based on their browsing history (which websites they visit), demographic information (which social media groups they join), and sometimes even by current location (with GPS technology). For instance, if your desired customer base is sports fans between 18 and 34 years old who like to shop online, you can purchase advertising space targeting these individuals across multiple different websites with banner ads featuring your company’s logo and contact information.

Broadcast advertisements include TV/radio commercials (not available in all countries) along with print newspaper or magazine ads. These kinds of advertisements are designed to be seen or heard by a large group of people at the same time – ideally, everyone in their target market! Broadcast ads can also utilize geo-targeting to make sure that your ad only shows up on screens based on location. For example, an ad for a restaurant might show up during a popular cooking show for individuals living within 5 miles of the restaurant’s location.