Persuasion is older than currency. Humans have always wanted something, and figured out how to talk others into giving it. That, I believe, is the foundation of marketing we know today. 

Fast forward, and marketing and advertising have been shaping how businesses operate around the world. What baffles me the most is that a lot of people consider them to be the same. 

But they’re not!

That’s why I’ve decided to create this comprehensive guide on advertising vs marketing to end the debate. 

Advertising vs Marketing: TL;DR

Advertising is a key component of the broader marketing umbrella. In traditional terms, brand advertising is when a business spends money for immediate customer action. So, anything you do through paid media can be defined as advertising. 

Marketing, on the other hand, is when a business spends money to identify the target audience, increase brand awareness, and position itself as the authority figure in a given vertical. The goal is to increase revenue, just like advertising. 

So, is marketing the same as advertising? The answer is no. Let’s get into more detail of advertising vs marketing. 

What is Marketing?

Perhaps the most used buzzword. Everyone on LinkedIn is a marketer these days. Thanks to digital marketing, becoming a marketer now takes less time than brewing a cup of instant coffee. 

But it’s all good as long as businesses who hire them get to see the results. 

In simple words, marketing is the long-term game your business plays to establish itself as a valid entity. The biggest caveat here is that you can’t expect immediate results like you do with advertising. Instead, you’re investing to improve the long-term gains of your business. 

According to the American Marketing Association, an ideal marketing strategy should focus on the following factors: 

• Orientation: This simply refers to what you believe in as a business. Think of your mission and vision statements you’ve put on your website. For big companies, this is also known as corporate culture. This is the laying of bricks of your marketing strategy. 

• Mix: A marketing mix is a rough guide for you to make important decisions. For example, how do you decide whether to target Instagram or X (previously Twitter) for your campaigns? Typically, the mix is derived by evaluating customers, communication, cost, and convenience. 

• Environment: It’s just as it sounds. What kind of business environment are you creating for your employees to thrive? This is more relevant when you have an in-house marketing team. If you decide to outsource, however, this plays a lesser important role. 

• Market: This is your target market. Ideally, you should have your fingers on your ideal customer persona (ICP). Proper segmentation of the prospects is the key to success here. 

What you’ve read so far is basically academic jargon. I know this doesn’t help business owners in any way. You’re too busy managing your operations to give a damn about how marketing works. 

Enough of the theory. Let’s get to the part you actually care about. 

How Marketing Helps Make You More Money

Marketing wears many hats, and none of them come cheap. You must’ve heard of buzzwords like digital marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, blah blah blah….

But all of them have one thing in common. They make you money. It’s as simple as that. But your customers won’t give you their money for your product or service unless they feel you deserve it. 

This is where many business owners go wrong. They focus too much on how good their product/service is instead of addressing the pain points of their ICP. 

Let me give you an example. 

Imagine you own a moving company. In your marketing, you boast about how many trucks you have, how many guys you have, what kind of equipment you use, how you label the boxes, etc. 

The harsh reality is that your customers don’t care about any of these. What they care about is whether you can safely transport their belongings from point A to point B at the lowest possible cost for them.

Convince them you’re the safest and cheapest bet, and you’ve already won. 

The catch is, you have to do it better than the competition. The same principle applies to most local businesses servicing a small community. 

To succeed, you need to show up where it matters, consistently. You need to position yourself as the authority figure in your space. For the context of a moving company, the efforts can be: 

• Publishing educational blogs regarding the living conditions of different cities. You need to educate your audience about the living cost, things to do, and quality of education, transportation facilities, etc. 
• Being present on social media. Instead of sharing your features, focus on storytelling. Share how you’ve solved a problem during a previous move. Share how you celebrate your employees’ birthdays. People want stories, not boring texts about how many trucks you have (no offense). 
• Creating your web copy in a way that triggers emotions. Copywriting is a powerful tool, and you need to use it effectively in your marketing strategy. 

What is Advertising?

If marketing is the marathon, advertising is the 100-meter sprint with cash taped at the end.

Think of ads on Facebook or Google. Or, offering a 10% discount across all your products. The whole purpose of advertising is to trigger an immediate response from your audience. 

In terms of advertising and the types of advertising, you’ll typically see the following: 

• Traditional
• Retail
• Online
• Mobile
• Outdoor
• Pay Per Click (PPC)

What’s important is that you understand advertising comes after marketing. Unless you have a clearly defined ICP, who are you going to target with the ads? And if the audience doesn’t know who you are or what you do, why would they buy from you?

Another key component of advertising vs marketing is that advertising is a one-way communication channel. It means the business, as in you, has complete control over how you want to portray your product/service. 

There are typically 3 main channels of brand advertising. 

• Paid Media: This is when you pay a third-party publisher to broadcast your ad. Facebook Ads, Google Ads, email marketing campaigns, etc., are some common examples of paid media in the digital marketing space. In retail advertising, think of TV, radio, billboards, etc. 

• Owned Media: This is when you use your own channels for advertising your product/service. Think press releases, business blogs, newsletters, etc. 

• Earned Media: Arguably the hardest milestone to achieve. It’s when third-party publishers advertise your business without incentives. Newspaper features, media exposure, guest posting, etc., are some common examples of advertising channels. 

How Advertising Makes You Money

There’s a common saying that you need money to make money. Advertising is just that. You’re paying directly to get more reach across various channels. In return, you get more leads and more conversions. As long as your ad copy is on point, you can expect good ROI from advertising. 

But it’s a slippery slope. I’ve seen many businesses spend hundreds of thousands of dollars only to get impressions and no conversions. Advertising can work if you know what you’re doing. If not, congrats on funding Zuckerberg’s vacation. 

Advertising talks at people. Marketing starts a conversation. Yes, marketing takes time, but so does building anything worth a damn. 

So, Marketing vs Advertising: What is More Valuable?

If you’re a small business or a startup, marketing is undoubtedly more valuable than advertising for you. Advertising works great once you have a defined marketing plan and an audience. Until you can get that, sticking to investing in marketing is the right approach. 

That said, I’ve created Outlawed Narratives to help small businesses get a footing in the digital space. I understand the struggles of juggling multiple things at once, and I want to help you take off some of the load.