The 10 types of digital advertising (explained and classified)

One of the main characteristics of the Internet is its ability to generate very different products; experiences that, beyond having in common the fact of being accessible through electronic devices with a screen, are very similar to each other.

This has implications in the world of advertising. If until a few years ago the advertising formats had been the same for decades, today marketing is incredibly dynamic and is in constant transformation, exploring new opportunities for advertisers to have projection and to differentiate themselves from their competitors. This has resulted in the types of digital advertising that exist; all of them are the result of having been experimenting with the options that the Internet makes available to people and companies.

• Related article: "The 25 types of mailers (explained and classified)"

What types of digital advertising are there?

Virtually any company or organization that wants to advertise today, especially if what offers is aimed at young or middle-aged people, you must know the different kinds of digital advertising. Not only because today almost everyone uses the Internet, but because

the digital world offers possibilities for creating advertising campaigns that, used wisely, are highly efficient and they allow almost all the money invested to be directed to gain exposure to potential buyers.

Also, make no mistake, even if a company is not taking advantage of digital advertising, it is more than likely that its competition is.

If you want to have an overview of the types of advertising that exist, read on; here you will find them classified according to various criteria.

Types of digital advertising according to their mode of adaptation to the consumer

This classification is based on the extent to which advertisers try to make their advertising pieces be shown only to certain profiles of potential consumers or clients.

1. Unadapted advertising

Although they are increasingly rare, there are still cases of advertising that practically appear randomly, without there having been an intention to search for a specific profile of potential consumer. At most, the advertising campaign will take into account the medium in which the ad is displayed (that is, a web page, a mailing list, etc.), so that all the people who could see that ad have, in principle, the same chances of coming into contact with it.

The only advantage of this type of digital advertising is how easy it is to get it out there, so it is suitable for "newbies" and people with little training in marketing.

• You may be interested in: "7 keys of Psychology applied to Marketing and Advertising"

2. Advertising adapted by audience segmentation

In this type of digital advertising, there is a certain degree of adaptation to target audiences that are already objectively divided in advance, thanks to the textual information associated with each user.

For example, when certain social networks offer the possibility of showing an ad only to people who live in a certain country or region or only people of a certain age group, is making use of those criteria that are guided by categories of bases of data.

• Related article: "Emotional Marketing: reaching the customer's heart"

3. Advertising adapted according to third-party cookies

If in the previous type of digital advertising the degree of adaptation was based on textual information (that is, embodied in words and codes predefined numerical values), adaptation based on third-party cookies is guided not so much by categories, but rather by the behavior of the users. This is achieved assigning a cookie to each user, so that certain information about their Internet browsing patterns is recorded and accessible to advertisers. In this way, as time passes, it is possible to intuit your preferences and interests based on what you have been visiting and searching for on the network of networks.

As you may have guessed, advertising based on third-party cookies may come into conflict with respect for people's privacy, and That is why many countries force websites to always notify about the existence of these marketing elements, giving the option of reject them.

• You may be interested in: "Behavioral segmentation: what is it, characteristics, types and functions"

4. Contextual advertising

Contextual advertising is the one that adapts to the theme of the page on which it is displayed, so that it adapts to users indirectly, under the assumption that if someone is visiting a certain place on the Internet, it is because what is discussed there generates interest.

It has the advantage that it fully respects the privacy of users because it is not based on information collected about each person, and also, tends to adapt better to the preferences of each one in real time (Advertising by third-party cookies makes decisions as collected over weeks, regardless of what the person intends to do at a specific time). For example, if a website publishes an article on sports nutrition, protein shake advertisers may decide that this is a good place to place an ad.

• Related article: "The 7 elements of an advertisement"

Types of digital advertising according to its format

Let's now go on to see the types of digital advertising based on the format that the piece adopts advertising, that is, the mode of presentation of the information and its way of being perceived by users.

1. Email marketing

As its name suggests, email marketing it is based on sending emails to people whose email address was on a specific list. These pieces of advertising usually consist of emails entirely dedicated to a brand, product or service, although they also It is possible that this space is shared by several companies (for example, when adding an advertising skirt to a newsletter).

Depending on the degree of information you have about the users that appear in that email list, it will be more or less possible to segment by target audiences, sending those ads only to certain types of persons.

2. Advertising banners

The advertising banners are the advertising pieces that appear integrated in the layout of web pages, usually in the margins of the content but sometimes also between paragraphs and paragraph. These ads may consist solely of static visuals, or may consist of videos, gifs, or other formats that incorporate moving images. What's more, they have embedded links, so that it is possible to click on a banner and go to the web page that the advertiser wants (normally, when purchasing a product or service).

This is one of the more classic types of digital advertising, but with the passage of time, people have become used to paying very little attention to banners. Of course, the chances of a user clicking on it increase a lot if it is part of an adapted advertising campaign.

• Related article: "Principle of scarcity: a trick to encourage us to buy"

3. Sponsorships and collaborations

This type of advertising consists of associating a brand, product or service with an entity that captures the attention of a large part of the target audience and generates follow-up. For example, it is common for influencers to promote products through their social networks, and it is even possible to incorporate pieces of physical advertising on YouTube videos of a channel followed by a type of people prone to buy what is announces.

4. Social media advertising

Advertising on social networks is one that is based on the options to enhance the reach of publications on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram... That is, are publications made from an account opened by the brand or company being promoted, and in which money has been invested to have a greater impact, being shown to many more people than would be normal without paying.

• You may be interested in: "Strategies used by online stores so that we end up buying"

5. Mobile ads

Mobile ads are those in which ads embedded within a smartphone app are displayed. They usually have the appearance of a banner like the ones we can find on any web page. To advertise in this way, you have to pay the company that has the rights to that particular application.

6. Search engine ads

Search engine ads are part of what is known as SEM (Search Engine Marketing). This type of digital advertising is reflected in the search results that are located at the top of the results that we obtain when searching for something on pages such as Google or Bing, so that 100% of those who have made the search remain visible by typing certain words or phrases.

That is, if most of the results obtained when searching for something on websites of this type are positioned organically according to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) criteria, with SEM this privileged positioning is obtained by paying the search engines search.

Do you want to boost your digital marketing in the world of psychology?

If you are a psychologist or you run a psychology center, We can help you increase and optimize your advertising campaigns on the Internet. In Psychology and Mind we help psychologists to have a presence in the digital medium and gain exposure to their potential clients, either in the field of psychotherapy or in the field of services for Business.

If you want to know more about how we can advise you in the field of digital marketing or we can help you advertise, get in touch with us through [email protected]