What is digital advertising? A beginner’s guide

One example of flexibility is how quickly digital ads can go live. The process of printing and distributing ads through traditional channels—sending out newspapers, painting a billboard—can take a significant amount of time. In contrast, digital advertising can have a much shorter lead time, showing up on a website almost immediately after the ad is created. For ads that are automatically generated based on a standard template, the process can take literally a few minutes.
灵活性的一个例子是数字广告上线的速度。通过传统渠道打印和分发广告——发送报纸、绘制广告牌——可能需要相当长的时间。相比之下，数字广告的前置时间可以短得多，广告创建后几乎立即出现在网站上。对于基于标准模板自动生成的广告，这个过程实际上只需几分钟。

Unlike print advertising, where an ad can't be changed once it's been published, digital ads are flexible even after the campaign is live. Depending on the specific channel, it may be possible to adjust the creative content, timing and frequency, targeting, and more. This allows for in-flight optimization where you can make adjustments to ad campaigns based on how they are performing.
与印刷广告不同，一旦发布，印刷广告就无法更改，而数字广告即使在活动进行中也具有灵活性。根据具体渠道，可能可以调整创意内容、时间和频率、目标受众等。这允许在活动进行中进行优化，您可以根据广告活动的表现进行调整。

Digital advertising is also extremely flexible in terms of budget. Complex and high-profile digital advertising campaigns may be just as expensive as traditional advertising—or more—but digital ads are also accessible to smaller businesses without significant budgets, and may scale up or down to match your financial investment.
数字广告在预算方面也非常灵活。复杂且高调的数字广告活动可能与传统广告一样昂贵——甚至更贵——但 数字广告也对没有大量预算的小型企业开放，并可以根据您的财务投资进行扩展或缩减。

Another key difference between digital advertising and traditional advertising is precision. Traditional ads in magazines, on TV, or on billboards reach anyone who sees them. In contrast, digital advertising lets you use different methods of targeting in order to be more precise and reach audiences who are more likely to be interested in your ad. For instance, if you sell outdoors equipment, you may choose to reach audiences who are interested in hiking, or reengage shoppers who have browsed your products but not yet purchased. Depending on the format, you may also choose to limit your ad to certain times of day, or exclude audiences who have already viewed your ad once from seeing it again.
数字广告和传统广告之间的另一个关键区别是精准度。传统广告在杂志、电视或广告牌上展示，能够接触到任何看到它们的人。相比之下，数字广告允许你使用不同的定位方法，以便更精准地接触到更有可能对你的广告感兴趣的受众。例如，如果你销售户外设备，你可以选择接触对徒步旅行感兴趣的受众，或者重新吸引那些浏览过你的产品但尚未购买的购物者。根据格式的不同，你还可以选择将广告限制在特定的时间段，或排除已经看过你广告的受众再次看到它。

Search ads, also called search engine marketing (SEM), appear in search engine results pages (SERPs). These are typically text ads that appear above or alongside organic search results.
搜索广告，也称为 搜索引擎营销 (SEM)，出现在搜索引擎结果页面 (SERPs) 中。这些通常是出现在自然搜索结果上方或旁边的文本广告。

Display ads are online ads that use text and visual elements, such as an image or animation, and can appear on websites, apps, and devices. They appear in or alongside the content of a website.
展示广告是使用文本和视觉元素（如图像或动画）的在线广告，可以出现在网站、应用程序和设备上。它们出现在网站的内容中或旁边。

Online video ads are ads that use a video format. Out-stream video ads appear in places similar to display ads: on websites, apps, and devices. In-stream video ads appear before, during, or after video content.
在线视频广告是使用视频格式的广告。流外视频广告出现在类似于展示广告的地方：在网站、应用程序和设备上。流内视频广告在视频内容之前、期间或之后出现。

Also known as over-the-top (OTT), these are a specific type of video ad that appears in streaming media content delivered over the Internet without satellite or cable.
也称为超越顶层（OTT），这是一种特定类型的视频广告，出现在通过互联网传输的流媒体内容中，无需卫星或有线电视。

In the context of digital advertising, audio ads are ads that play before, during, or after online audio content, such as streaming music or podcasts.
在数字广告的背景下，音频广告是在在线音频内容（如流媒体音乐或播客）之前、期间或之后播放的广告。

Take advantage of the precision of digital advertising targeting, so you reach relevant audiences who are more likely to find your ad relevant and engage with it.
利用数字广告定位的精准性，接触到更有可能认为您的广告相关并与之互动的相关受众。

Performance metrics for digital ads can be tracked closer to real-time than traditional ad formats. Stay up to date on how your ad campaign is performing, so you can see what is working and what isn't, and be efficient with your ad spend.
数字广告的性能指标可以比传统广告格式更接近实时地进行跟踪。随时了解您的广告活动表现，以便您可以看到哪些有效，哪些无效，从而高效利用广告支出。

You can customize nearly every aspect of digital ads, from the copy to the visual assets, which audience segments you're reaching, how much your budget is, and more. The best way to find success with your digital ad campaign is to keep testing variables to maximize performance. Make optimization a required part of your campaign execution.
您可以自定义数字广告的几乎每个方面，从文案到视觉资产、您所触及的受众细分、预算金额等。成功的数字广告活动的最佳方法是不断测试变量，以最大化性能。将优化作为您活动执行的必要部分。

Digital ads continue to become more sophisticated. At the same time, so does your audience. Online audiences are discerning, so low-effort copy or irrelevant ad content will not set you up to succeed. In all aspects of your digital advertising strategy—your visual assets, your messaging, even which audiences you choose to reach—be authentic about what you have to offer, so you can genuinely engage your audience.
数字广告变得越来越复杂。与此同时，您的受众也在不断提升。在线受众具有鉴别力，因此低质量的文案或无关的广告内容不会让您成功。在数字广告策略的各个方面——您的视觉资产、您的信息传递，甚至您选择接触的受众——都要真实地展示您所提供的内容，以便能够真正吸引您的受众。