Ad tech and martech are two different terminologies. The primary difference between the two is their target audiences. The target audiences of marketing tech are its existing customers, and for ad tech anonymous audiences are targeted. Also, when you go in depths of the two, differentiating is difficult.
There are some critical differences between marketing technology and advertising technology. The difference lies in what these two technologies offer.
The tools used to manage marketing processes, digital content, customer analytics, and workflows are a part of the marketing technology ecosystem. Marketing technology can also be considered as advanced CRM. Thus, the idea in martech is to focus on existing customers through the database. In this way, a marketing team has a record of customer behavior to carry out customized communications.
Marketing tech entails most of the marketing entities like creative, CRM platforms, SEO, design, and even ad tech to some extent.
Ad tech is defined as technologies that help in the programmatic buying and selling of advertisements. The database of digital identities, also called demand-side platforms and data management platforms, are covered under ad tech. It also includes exchanges and networks used by publishers to sell their digital ad spaces.
Ad tech is used by businesses to concentrate on specific customers. The base of ad tech is not that strong. Companies prefer ad tech over automatic media buying. The reason is growing frauds in ad space caused by breaking logic rules. With direct-response marketing, ad tech can reduce vast amounts of ad spending.
Leading marketing cloud vendors have acquired ad tech companies and incorporated its features into their products. This is called as full marketing advertising stack. The trend is expected to prosper in future.
Thus, marketing tech and ad tech are similar to an extent as they have many common things among them. Nevertheless, their differences are mainly because advertising is the most visible kind of marketing. Both ad tech and marketing technology are generalized explanations of a variety of data sources and technologies. The common goal of both the techs is to reach the right audience at the right place, at the right time, and of course, with the right message.
Marketing tech and ad tech overlap based on their association with the customer. The debate over the usage of these data and its ownership creates a blur over marketing technology and ad tech. The question is the ownership of the data. Till a solid answer is found, determining efficiency and the total value of marketing and ad tech stays problematic.
