We see a lot of advertisements on a lot of platforms every day. For example, the newspapers- pamphlets, hoardings, online advertisements and many more, are a common sight while flipping through the pages. Advertising is one of the most important promotional activities that helps in improving business. Growing up, we have seen, heard and read advertisements through multiple platforms like radio, Television, Newspapers, etc. You have many options to advertise in, but choosing the effective and the best way is always needed to promote business.  In this article, we will discuss the difference between print and online advertising.

Print Advertising

Print advertising is perhaps one of the oldest modes of advertising after the age-old oral form of advertising. The invention of the print medium was a revolutionary change that was brought about in the world, which led to many changes in the way we perceive advertising. The strength of newspapers is the medium’s ability to carry forward informative advertising owing to four reasons:

• The trustworthiness of the medium
• The less amount of intrusiveness
• Keeping up the limits of presentation and
• The Informative Environment

The benefit of print advertising is that we can always target a specific group of audience. When it comes to print advertising, the most important factor to take into consideration is the circulation of the newspaper or the magazine used. To tackle this issue, we will have to choose the print medium with the best circulation. But the downside is that to post an advertisement in such a medium, the cost will be very high and the results can still not be what is expected.

Online Advertising

With the onset of the internet, we have witnessed a paradigm shift in many of the traditional methods of doing things. Advertising is one such thing that has gone digital. We are seeing advertisements displayed on our electronic devices on the internet, in our apps, and even on our email accounts. Digital Marketing companies build a strategy around your goals and business needs which would make sure that your company gets the best reach to a targeted audience that helps you get the best return on investment with a pocket-friendly budget.

In a study conducted by Vinaya Kumar CM and  Mehrotra S on the impact of online vs print advertising, they attempted to find out which medium is more effective in today’s challenging times with stiff competition faced by small businesses all around. We see that many businesses focus on both media for their advertisements as a try to diversify their market reach. This is a good approach but the issue is the cost that incurs. And this cost might sometimes be so high that it can become unaffordable.

While sticking to print advertising the business might be able to cover certain demography, yes. But the issue is that the advertisement will be limited to just plain texts or images that might not bring about the factor of curiosity among the customers.

This is where online advertising comes to the rescue. We can see that online advertisements can break the fourth wall that the print medium fails to achieve. Online advertisements have that one capability to bring the interaction factor into play while the print medium fails to do so. This ability of online advertisements will give more exposure to the users and this can exponentially increase the results in a positive manner. Unlike print advertisements, their online counterpart can record the behaviour of the customers and execute actions in real-time, giving you more insights into how your ads are performing from impressions to clicks to the bounce rate. Another important fact here is the growing usage of online media by the youth of today. A single online advertisement can reach customers in a geographically diverse market easily that the print media will have restrictions accessing.

With digital marketing, businesses can run ad campaigns which land directly to their potential customers’ screens. Every advertisement’s main goal is to make the product or service reach its’ potential customers or consumers. But with print advertising, the target base is too wide and to funnel down the leads becomes a complex process as there is no defined process or technology that lets us measure the campaign’s success. Here’s where online advertising wins the ground. Online advertising is targeted to the potential users by tracking their preferences, recent activity, and usage preferences. By running online advertising campaigns, businesses can target the ads to users who literally are ready to use the product or avail of the services or at least consider to use it in the future. This way, not only the business can convert the leads to sales, but also increase their brand awareness as the users who see the specifications most likely refer it to their acquaintances. We have already seen the success stories of different brands who have completely switched their marketing online. With Google Ad services, Instagram targeted Ads, Facebook marketplace, Amazon market place, etc., businesses now have the feasibility to interact directly with their target audience without having to make noise doing print advertising.

The data collected by Vinaya Kumar CM and  Mehrotra S clearly shows that the youth of today highly react and respond to online advertisements compared to the print medium. Purchase decisions of the people were compared and it showed that 65% of the people rely upon online advertisements for deciding their purchases. Effectiveness of advertisements, attractiveness, the memorization of an advertisement and other things were all showing a positive curve toward online advertising compared to a print advertisement according to their research.

Conclusion

We know the importance of print media and the effect it possesses on society. Still, owing to the fact that we are in a changing world and the hefty cost to advertise in print media, online media advertisements are actually the best option. Considering the fact that the majority of users are shifting nowadays to the use of online media for many things like shopping for groceries, consulting doctors to almost every factor in their daily lives, online advertising is going to be your best friend to boost your business. So, if you still haven’t decided or are still in a dilemma and need some assistance in creating a perfect online advertisement strategy, We at DMC can be your best friend. Contact Us