Advertising is one of the fundamental forms of marketing communication. The term refers to the practice of promoting products, services, ideas, or brands to influence people’s behavior, typically to persuade them to buy or take some desired action.
As mentioned, it is a key element of marketing. The act of advertising produces ads, which are the individual message carriers.
Ads can be found across various platforms such as TV, radio, print, digital media, and social media.
One of the most prominent distinguishing characteristics of ads is the fact that advertising is, most often than not, paid. Meaning, the channels that are showing the ads to the potential customers are receiving compensation in the form of money, or otherwise, in order to put the ads on their medium.
Ads are usually targeted at a specific audience. That is done as not everyone buys everything. With time, marketers and advertisers figured out that specific people tend to buy specific products and services.
Therefore, it is of no use to the advertiser to spend money on people who are, by default, not interested in the product or service offered by the advertiser.
Advertising is a form of communication. The channel – the means through which the message is sent – is a different phenomenon.