TV vs Digital Advertising: Creating the Right Marketing Mix
With the mass amounts of advertising options available to marketers today, choosing the best option for your business can be overwhelming. You desire the best bang for your buck, but you also need to see a return on your investment. For many advertisers, it comes down to decisions like choosing between broadcast TV advertising and digital advertising … but who’s to say that you have to choose one over the other?
A “one or the other” mindset might not offer the best return or success. In fact, we’ll tell you exactly why you should aim to use both digital and TV advertising together in an omnichannel approach instead of choosing just one, to expand your reach and connect with target audiences.
What’s the Difference Between TV and Digital Advertising?
TV and digital ads are delivered on different mediums and offer different benefits. Consider the follwoing.
- Visual Medium: Television is a more visual medium, making it easy for viewers to picture your brand or service. As a result, these kinds of ads often have a higher brand recall, when compared to digital advertising ads.
- Various Channels: TV ads are exclusively on TV, while digital ads are seen across various digital channels. Digital advertising features a wide spectrum of advertising, including social media, websites, mobile apps, streaming apps, and paid search.
- Targeting Capabilities: Subsequently, TV and digital ads reach different audiences. TV ads reach a broad audience across various geographic locations, while digital ads have more targeting capabilities for optimized messaging. However, by measuring a television program across a media index, you can still ensure your television ads are reaching the right consumers without spending extra media dollars.
Why TV Advertising Matters
The numbers show that TV is as important and valued as ever because of its consistency and effectiveness in delivering ROI to advertisers. According to a report from CNBC’s Catalyst, “Google, Facebook, and Netflix spent 60% of their marketing budgets on TV ads in the UK.” This same trend holds true in the U.S. and other countries worldwide. If these heavy hitters that represent our digital world are heavily investing in TV advertising, it’s a good indication that others should continue to do so, too. TV advertising can:
- Drive Sales: Other research has found a direct correlation between a decrease in TV ad spend and a decrease in sales. TV advertising continues to be an effective medium for brands looking to increase awareness and drive sales.
- Build Brand Authority: TV ads imply to the viewer that a brand has a large presence and customer base. Brands can capitalize on this assumption to build brand awareness and trust.
- Reach a Wide Audience: Broadcast TV advertising reaches viewers on a massive scale. With large-scale exposure, brands can generate awareness and build credibility among a population that might not use other digital channels.
But just because there’s strong evidence for TV advertising ROI, expanding your campaigns into other channels doesn’t mean they can’t be enhanced.
Why Digital Advertising is a Must-Have
We live in a digital society, no doubt about it. People are glued to their devices for both work and play, and there’s no mistaking the power of digital advertising. As a marketer, if you are not implementing digital advertising into your marketing mix, you’re missing an incredible opportunity.
Numbers from Statista show that digital ad spending worldwide amounted to $549.51 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, and that number will grow to $870.85 billion dollars in 2027. This isn’t just a trend—these numbers are growing because, when done right, digital advertising can be incredibly effective for businesses large and small.
Digital Advertising Benefits
- Flexibility: Digital ads are viewable on any device with internet access. Unlike TV ads, which are limited to TV networks, digital ads provide targeting flexibility for advertisers. Additionally, digital ads are easier to adjust and optimize based on performance.
- Retargeting: If a viewer shows interest in a brand’s digital ad, the brand can re-engage the user with the brand. Digital campaigns with retargeting capabilities increase engagement, conversions, and overall reach across various platforms.
Combining TV and Digital Advertising
As digital continues proving its effectiveness and TV remains an advertising staple, weaving these strategies into a multi-channel marketing program is a powerful way to improve your marketing results.
What does this look like? Cross-promotion, engagement, and branding are key focus areas:
- Cross-Promote: Digital and TV advertising can offer a mutually beneficial relationship directly impacting your bottom line. A study by the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) shows that brands, on average, can increase return on investment by 19% by increasing from one media platform to two. That same study found that using a budget with 78% spending on traditional media to 22% digital worked best for audiences as a whole. We suggest using digital channels to promote your TV content. Why? Think about it this way.People interested in what you promote via TV will search for more information on social media or an online search engine. Further driving home why cross-promoting is your best bet, the ARF’s “How Advertising Works” study found that “across categories, the addition of digital to a TV campaign introduces a lift in ROI three times as great as the addition of either radio or print.”
- Create Shareable Content: TV advertising can increase engagement with your creative and the shareability of your content on digital channels. A strong call-to-action that captures the target audience’s attention and drives traffic to the shareable content on your digital channels can help promote these efforts. For example, if you are currently airing an ad on TV, think about adding it to your YouTube Channel, Facebook, or other social sites. Having easily shareable content will encourage people to interact with it more.
- Be Consistent with Your Branding and Messaging: The importance of a consistent message with creativity produced specifically for the advertising channel can’t be stressed enough. If your message is not consistent, your target audience might miss it. They might come across your ad multiple times and not recall or retain it because it was unfamiliar and they didn’t recognize it. A study by the Advertising Research Foundation found that a campaign’s unified creative strategy across platforms is key to the return on the investment. Still, each creative element should be tailored to fit the platform to ensure optimal engagement.
- Create an Omnichannel Experience: According to one study, about 3 out every 4 retail shoppers are using multiple channels when making a purchase. As a result, an omnichannel strategy is more important than ever. Marketers must reach customers on the channels they are engaging with, so a brand’s message must be promoted across various channels.
What You Can Expect from TV + Digital Advertising
The Advertising Research Foundation studied 5,000 global ad campaigns and digested 12 years of data to find that the more platforms your business utilizes in its advertising strategy, the higher ROI it can expect. In fact, “it’s the combination of TV and digital that’s the most powerful of them all with 60% greater ROI.”
We know the importance of delivering ROI with your marketing campaigns, and choosing to utilize both TV and digital advertising together can prove beneficial. Don’t waste time trying to decide on one or the other. Marry these strategies to reach your marketing goals faster and smarter.
Advertise Your Brand on TV and Digital with TEGNA
TEGNA delivers proven results with a multi-channel approach that utilizes TV and digital advertising. Contact us to learn how we can support your brand’s advertising goals.
Frequently Asked Questions About TV and Digital Advertising
How Effective Are TV Advertising Campaigns?
Television advertising campaigns are still effective and popular despite a growing focus on digitization. In the United States, television is the second most profitable advertising medium behind the Internet and accounts for approximately one-fifth of total U.S. media ad revenue. As of 2022, TV ad spending in the U.S. amounted to almost $67 billion U.S. dollars.
Why Is TV an Important Marketing Tool?
Advertising on linear TV is a smart marketing strategy, given its credibility, broad reach, and ability to deliver impactful messages that can resonate emotionally with viewers. Companies seen regularly on TV through advertisements build stronger brand awareness and tend to stick into consumers’ minds.
Is TV Digital Marketing?
Advertising on digital TV, such as streaming, is considered digital marketing. Linear TV advertising is not considered digital marketing. However, implementing a cross-channel approach and advertising on Broadcast TV and Digital TV gives brands the best opportunity to reach target audiences.
What Does Digital Media Offer That TV Advertising Does Not?
With TV advertising, you have fewer targeting options than you do with digital advertising. On TV ads, you choose your advertisements’ channels, airtime, and geographic placement. With digital advertising, you can target audiences based on gender, interests, location, and age and combine different platforms. For example, with digital advertising, you could choose to target pet owners who live in California and target only streaming services or only website ads.
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