What the Tech is on-site vs. off-site advertising?

Digital marketing generally comes in one of two forms: on-site and off-site.

Despite the rather on-the-nose nature of these two terms, in practice there’s a considerable amount of nuance to on-site and off-site media. Each one plays a vital part in a brand’s online marketing, and entire sections of the digital media industry are built around their function. Any effective marketing campaign will include plans for both.

To better understand on-site versus off-site media, we’ve assembled this handy guide to understanding how the two operate, the separate roles they play in a marketing campaign and how they complement each other.

What is on-site media?

On-site media is any media that a brand puts on its owned-and-operated web properties — that is, its website and apps — to market its goods and services. On-site media can take many forms: blog posts, SEO keywords, flashy product images, audio, promotional videos, interactive product displays. Anything on the site that shows how exceptional and useful the brand is and urges you to buy.

What is off-site media?

Off-site media, then, is all of the media a brand publishes on other properties, usually in the form of advertising. There are numerous channels brands can use for their off-site media, including search, social, display, video, mobile, podcasts — anywhere you can place an ad in front of a consumer online.

As we wrote above, the names are rather self-explanatory.

Sounds simple — I thought you said there was some nuance?

The distinction between on-site and off-site is obvious enough, at least in general terms. But on-site versus off-site gets more complicated in relation to retail media, which is how the terms are most often used.

Back up…What is retail media?

Retail media is the hottest thing in advertising. In just a little more than a decade, the retail media category has gone from an afterthought to more than a quarter of all the dollars spent on advertising in the U.S. (That comes out to nearly $60 billion this year, but who’s counting?)

Generally speaking, retail media is when an online retailer — Walmart, Amazon or Albertsons, for instance — sells ads on its website, usually in the form of a sponsored post or a priority listing in search results. Brands can buy these ad placements to showcase their goods to any of the retailer’s visitors.

How does on-site vs. off-site work in retail media?

For retail brands, on-site media refers to the example immediately above: a consumer brand buying an ad on a retailer’s website. Hence, “on-site.”

On-site ads are a no-brainer for consumer goods brands. When a consumer is on a retail site, they are typically browsing with the intent to buy something. Advertising to them while they’re actively considering a purchase — at the “bottom of the funnel,” in adspeak — can put them over the edge and help influence them to buy the advertised product.

Off-site retail advertising involves advertising a retail good outside of a retail environment, such as on Facebook or in display ads.

Okay, so it is simple

Not exactly. The problem with this distinction is that the line between traditional publishers and retailers is getting blurrier.

A lot of social media platforms, such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, are increasingly making shopping an integral part of their platforms. TikTok has a dedicated retail destination within its app, Instagram allows brands to set up virtual shops on the platform and users to buy directly from posts, and YouTube has made its videos shoppable too.

This hasn’t changed the on- versus off-site definitions, though. On-site retail media still refers to ads that run on traditional online retailers and off-site refers to ads on search, social and display platforms. But as social and retail continue to converge, it’s possible these usages may change.

That shifting perception shows just how large, rapidly changing and complex the world of retail media is — so complex that a seemingly straightforward difference between on- and off-site might soon be rendered moot.