What’s The Difference Between Digital Advertising and Traditional Advertising
As companies continue to look at trends and patterns to help them devise the most successful advertising strategies, an all too familiar song begins to play:
“Digital advertising is poised to overtake traditional advertising this year/Traditional advertising is obsolete and can’t compete with digital/If you’re still using traditional, you’re wasting your advertising budget!”
Catchy, huh? It seems like we are constantly hearing about how traditional advertising is passé, and the only way to compete these days is to throw all your advertising dollars into digital. After all, who wants to be stuck in the past?
But the truth is that while digital advertising certainly has its place in marketing strategies, it would be detrimental for a business to rely solely on it for results. Here are some reasons why too much digital advertising in a campaign can do more harm than help.
Digital Ads Tend to be Ignored or Blocked vs. Traditional Advertising
One reason many people cite for skewing their advertising to digital is that more people are online, so it just makes sense to go where the people are, right? But the trouble with this logic is that just because people are online, it does not necessarily mean they are going to click on, or even notice a digital ad. Most people are online with a specific purpose in mind, and things that (in their minds) get in the way of this purpose, i.e. pop-up and banner ads, tend to be ignored at best, and deemed annoying at worst. So ads that appear when someone visits a website are often viewed unfavorably, especially if they block content. And when people are inundated with too many online ads, they become more and more irritated, which can often lead to the installation of ad-blockers, thus completely defeating the purpose of an all-digital ad campaign.
How Traditional Advertising is More Trustworthy
One of the biggest selling points of digital advertising is that virtually anyone can advertise online. The downside of this is that virtually ANYONE can advertise online. Many people have found their computers ruined because they clicked on an online advertisement that turned out to be just a façade for a nasty virus. Even reputable online advertising networks are not necessarily safe, as they may find themselves besieged by malvertising (“malicious advertising”), which could have dire effects if the user clicks on the ad. Instead of taking them to the proffered website, they are redirected to a malicious site. Of course, this is not to say all online advertisements contain viruses. But even just the chance of an infection means people are far more hesitant about clicking on a digital ad, thus making traditional advertising more reliable.
More Accurate Results with Traditional Advertising
Online advertising tends to use cookies to collect data on people, but this data is not always the most precise way of knowing consumers’ preferences. This is because cookies track devices, not people. For instance, a cookie may detect someone clicking on an ad for a ski equipment site, and then proceeds to send more ads for said site to that person’s computer or mobile device. But that person may have absolutely no interest in skiing, and only clicked on the link to buy a gift for a friend. Thus, the ads would be wasted on them. But traditional advertising uses methods that focus on people, such as having a toll-free number for people to dial, and then obtaining details on each call through things like call tracking reports and call monitoring tools to tell them information such as where callers are located and the times they are most likely to call. This data can help businesses determine which of their advertising campaigns are yielding the most results, while also planning future campaigns with a greater likelihood of success.
We know the digital world is continuing to grow, and to completely dismiss digital advertising would be foolhardy. But it would be even more foolish to completely forego traditional advertising for digital. The best advertising campaigns have a mix of both methods, and utilize strong call-to-actions such as unforgettable vanity 800 numbers for maximum effectiveness. As you look towards your advertising future, don’t be taken in by scare tactics and fads: Go with what works!
Contact 800response For Help With Your Traditional Advertising Campaign
But, don’t just believe us – find out for yourself. Read through some of the customer success stories we’ve had the pleasure of hearing about. See how these businesses have used vanity 800 numbers combined with traditional advertising formats to increase advertising ROI, generate more calls, more sales, and more profits.