Digital advertising and Digital Marketing are both very similar, but they are two different ways of publicizing your company and they play important roles. This article will help you understand the thin line between the two. 

The basics: 

Digital Advertising

Digital advertising, also called internet advertising or online advertising is a form of advertising where businesses leverage on digital technologies to deliver promotional advertisements to their target audience. Any advert you see on the internet is Digital advertising. 

There are three types of Digital Advertising

1. Social media advertising (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc) 
2. Display advertising (banner ads, video ads, pop-ups, mobile ads etc)
3. Pay-per-click (google search ads, bing ads etc).

Digital Marketing

This is all marketing efforts with the use of digital technologies or internet. There are different types of Digital Marketing: 

1. Social Media Marketing (SMM)
2. Search Engine Optimization ((SEO)
3. Content Marketing 
4. Email Marketing
5. Affiliate Marketing 

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Social media marketing is the process of creating tailored content for each social media platform to drive engagement and promote a brand or business. It can be used to connect your audience or customers, so they understand your brand better. 

There are three categories when it comes to social media marketing:

a. Organic Social Media: This is the process of creating branded content that’s designed to be enjoyed and shared by your followers & target audience.  

b. Paid Social Media: This is paid advertising on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.

c. Influencer Marketing: This is simply engaging certain people that have social media influence to endorse or promote your brand for a fee. 

Read also: 7 social media tools to try in 2021

Search engine optimization (SEO)

According to Wikipedia, search engine is the process of improving the quality of website traffic or a web page from search engines like Google, Bing, etc. 

There are three ways your website can be found on search engines:

1. Owned: Your website ranks highly because you have a page matching the keywords typed in the search engine (google or bing etc)

2. Earned: Another website writes about your product, service or company with an article that matches the keywords typed in the search engine.

3. Paid: You pay for an ad using keywords someone is likely to type into Google or Bing.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is all marketing efforts focused on creating, distributing or publishing content for a specific audience online. Examples are Blog post, case studies, infographics, audio etc. 

Email Marketing 

This is the process of sending a commercial message to a group of people using email platforms. This email could be advertisement, sales or business requests. 

Read also: 5 ways email marketing can help your business

Digital Marketing vs Digital Marketing