Marketing vs. Advertising: Can You Spot the Difference?

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Growth marketer Vedika Bhaia is right here. But what’s the difference?

Here’s our two cents: advertising is a subset of marketing.

The three elements of marketing

Marketing is an umbrella term, made up of three core categories:

• Paid (a.k.a. advertising) — Think paid social media and paid search. On these channels, you pay to rent the attention of an audience someone else built. 
• Owned — This includes email marketing, SEO and content marketing. It’s not free, because it takes headcount and software, but you don’t pay per message or per view — you’re reaching an audience you built yourself. 
• Earned — This encompasses PR and word of mouth, and it’s the closest to free. (Though PR agencies are pricey.) It’s people hyping your product or company to their audiences out of genuine enthusiasm. 

Our takeaway? 

All marketing has a cost — at the very least, it takes time! But it’s not advertising unless you’re paying to reach someone else’s audience.