{"id":21405,"date":"2020-01-28T17:50:08","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T17:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/glosario-digital\/online-advertising"},"modified":"2026-09-19T15:22:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T15:22:42","slug":"online-advertising","status":"publish","type":"encyclopedia","link":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/online-advertising","title":{"rendered":"Online Advertising"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"boxpad wp-image-79857 size-full alignright\" style=\"margin-top: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/publicidad-online-en.jpg\" alt=\"Online advertising\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/publicidad-online-en.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/publicidad-online-en-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><strong>Definition:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Online advertising<\/strong> is paid promotional communication distributed through websites, applications, platforms and other Internet-connected services.<\/p>\n<p>It forms part of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/paid-media\">paid media<\/a> and can be used to generate reach, present an offering, attract visits or promote an action. It should not be confused with all digital marketing: an organic post, an owned website or an email sent to a database does not necessarily constitute advertising.<\/p>\n\n<h2>How online advertising works<\/h2>\n<p><strong>The advertiser defines the objective, budget, audience and creatives, while a platform, publisher or intermediary manages their distribution.<\/strong> Placements may be purchased directly, reserved for a period or allocated through auctions and automated systems.<\/p>\n<p>Delivery depends on factors such as the channel, format, bid, budget, context, available signals and platform rules. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/programmatic-buying\">Programmatic buying<\/a> automates part of inventory selection and purchasing, but it does not comprise all online advertising.<\/p>\n<p>Payment may be linked to impressions, clicks, views, actions or other agreed units. The purchasing model does not by itself determine campaign quality or guarantee results.<\/p>\n<h2>Online advertising formats<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Online advertising brings together different channels that may share formats, audiences and purchasing systems.<\/strong> Main categories include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Search advertising:<\/strong> It displays ads related to queries, products or other criteria within search results and services.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Display advertising:<\/strong> It distributes banners, responsive ads, video and other visual creatives across web and mobile inventory. It is explained in more detail in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/display-advertising\">display advertising<\/a> entry.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Social media advertising:<\/strong> It uses each platform&#8217;s formats and delivery systems to promote content, profiles, products or services.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Video, audio and connected television:<\/strong> It inserts ads into players, broadcasts, podcasts, music services and connected audiovisual content.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Native advertising and sponsored content:<\/strong> It adapts its presentation to the surrounding environment but needs to be identifiable as commercial communication.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Retail media and marketplaces:<\/strong> It promotes products or brands within digital shops, commercial platforms and other environments close to a purchase.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A sponsorship placed in a third-party newsletter may be online advertising. By contrast, messages sent through an owned mailing list belong to email marketing and do not necessarily involve purchasing advertising space.<\/p>\n<h2>Advertising governance<\/h2>\n<p>Advertising may be selected according to the surrounding content or topic, approximate location, language, device, time or characteristics defined for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/target\">target audience<\/a>. It may also use the advertiser&#8217;s first-party data or segments provided by platforms.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A narrower audience is not necessarily more relevant or effective.<\/strong> Available signals may be incomplete, inferred or outdated and do not by themselves demonstrate interest or purchasing intent.<\/p>\n<p>When targeting uses identifiers, profiles or personal data, the relevant information, legal basis, consent and control requirements need to be applied. Exclusions, frequency and possible discriminatory effects arising from the selected criteria should also be reviewed.<\/p>\n<h2>Online advertising evaluation<\/h2>\n<p>Measurement needs to correspond to the campaign objective. Impressions, reach, frequency, views, clicks, visits, conversions, revenue and other defined actions may be analysed.<\/p>\n<p>Cost may be expressed through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/cpm\">CPM<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/cpc\">CPC<\/a>, cost per view, cost per action or other models. <strong>An impression, click or attributed conversion describes a different event and does not by itself demonstrate the incremental effect of advertising.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Results may be affected by incomplete attribution, invalid traffic, low viewability, excessive repetition, ad blocking, unsuitable placements or discrepancies between platforms. Analysis should also consider the creative, offering, post-click experience, brand safety and inventory quality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Definition: Online advertising is paid promotional communication distributed through websites, applications, platforms and other Internet-connected services. It forms part of paid media and can be used to generate reach, present an offering, attract visits or promote an action. It should not be confused with all digital marketing: an organic post, an owned website or an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":79859,"template":"","encyclopedia-tag":[1224],"class_list":["post-21405","encyclopedia","type-encyclopedia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","encyclopedia-tag-digital-advertising"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/21405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/encyclopedia"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"encyclopedia-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia-tag?post=21405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}