Video Marketing vs Video Advertising: How they differ and when to use each

If there’s anything the social community has learned in recent times, it’s that video rules all. We see video everywhere: brands, companies, and organizations all use videos on their media platforms to show what they’re offering. Consumers see the message without being conscious of the underlying business strategy. You take them down the path of commerce, arriving squarely at the call-to-action. Do they care if the strategy was video marketing vs video advertising? Nope. But as the company, do you? Yup.

So does anyone really know the difference between marketing and advertising? It’s okay, you don’t have to answer— we’ve figured it out for you.

Targeting

Video marketing is a simpler technique, using a high quality video on your company platforms for the purpose of informing and educating. Video advertising is more complicated. Here, you are targeting specific audiences with your video with the intent of reaching more and more people.

Recurrence

Of course, we will produce your video with careful thought and execution regardless of what you want to do with it. With video marketing, the goal will be to use it consistently for information purposes. On the other hand, video advertising is better for a one-off opportunity to grab and engage the audience in the moment.

Strategy

Related to recurrence, your strategy will be different when you’re attempting video marketing as compared to video advertising. If it’s for marketing purposes, your video will go more in-depth to tell a story. It will do more to explain your company and help the audience get to know your background. In contrast, advertising involves a stronger call-to-action to let your viewers know what you want them to do, and how to do it.

The two fit together like a little logic puzzle. Your marketing strategy is the larger umbrella, and the videos are part of tactics used to implement it. A video advertisement fits snugly into the larger puzzle. You use it as a tactic to connect with your audience.

Cost

Creating a marketing video that you can use repeatedly is more cost-effective. You budget it out and get the product. No more worries. Advertising requires a little more cash. You’ll have to pay when the video is made, placed, and placed somewhere new.

Placement

A marketing video is probably going on your company’s website. That way, a variety of potential clients, tech writers, investors, or whoever else has reason to visit your landing page can all see your video.

However, an advertising video is often tied to a specific initiative and intended for a specific platform. For example, if your company is launching a new product and you want to organize a marketing “blast” you will need to have targets. These may encompass social media, newsletter subscribers, and tech blogs that have written about you in the past. A well-made advertising video is perfect for this scenario! With the right optimizations, it can function equally well across all of these platforms.

In the end…

There is no hard line between videos for marketing and for advertising. Everything exists on a spectrum, and there is no reason a video couldn’t pull a bit of double duty. The primary difference lies in the way you use it, making sure that it fulfills your specific needs in a targeted way.