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The World of Digital Marketing

Stage: Getting Started

Target: Anyone with zero marketing knowledge — non-marketing hires, technical staff, new joiners

Reading time: ~10 minutes

Purpose: Before we get into measurement, you need to understand the world you are stepping into.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is simply marketing done online. It is how businesses use the internet to reach people, build awareness, and sell products or services.

Before the internet, brands relied on TV ads, billboards, newspaper ads, and flyers. These still exist, but today the majority of marketing happens digitally — through websites, social media, email, and search engines.

Why? Because that is where people spend their time. The average person spends several hours a day on their phone, scrolling through social media, watching videos, searching Google, and shopping online. Smart brands go where the attention is.

How Do Brands Spend Money Online?

When a brand wants to reach potential customers online, they use a mix of channels. Think of channels as different roads that all lead to the same destination: getting someone to buy your product.

Paid Search (Google Ads) — When you Google "best running shoes," the top results marked "Ad" are paid placements. Brands bid on keywords so their products appear when people search for relevant terms.

Paid Social (Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest) — The ads you see while scrolling Instagram, watching TikTok, or browsing Pinterest. Brands pay these platforms to show their ads to people who match their target audience.

Display & Video (YouTube, Programmatic) — Banner ads on websites or video ads before YouTube content. Great for building awareness.

Email Marketing — Sending targeted emails to people who have signed up or purchased before. One of the most cost-effective channels.

Organic / SEO — Content that appears naturally in search results without paying for ads.

Affiliate & Influencer — Partnering with content creators or websites who promote your product in exchange for a commission.

Marketplaces (Amazon, TikTok Shop) — Selling products directly on third-party platforms where millions already shop.

The Two Types of Marketing Activity

Demand Creation (upper funnel) — Making people aware your brand exists. Think TikTok videos, YouTube ads, Instagram campaigns. The person was not looking for you — you found them. This builds future demand.

Demand Capture (lower funnel) — Catching people who are already looking to buy. Think Google Search ads, retargeting ads, product listing ads.

The challenge: most measurement tools only credit demand capture. They miss demand creation entirely. This is one of the biggest problems in marketing measurement, and it is a core reason Fospha exists.

Why Does Measurement Matter?

Imagine you are spending £100,000 a month on marketing across 10 different channels. Your CEO asks: "Which of those channels are actually working? Where should we spend more? Where should we cut?"

Without good measurement, you are guessing. And bad guesses cost real money.

Here is the problem: a customer might see your TikTok ad on Monday, Google your brand on Wednesday, click an email on Friday, and buy on Saturday. Who gets the credit for that sale?

This is the measurement problem. And it is why the industry has developed more sophisticated approaches — which you will learn about in the next modules.

Key Terms You Will Hear Every Day

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) — How much revenue you earn for every pound/dollar spent on ads. Spend £1,000, generate £5,000 = 5x ROAS.

ROI (Return on Investment) — Similar to ROAS but broader. Includes all costs and measures profit.

CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) — Total marketing spend divided by number of new customers.

CPA (Cost per Acquisition) — Cost to get someone to take a specific action.

LTV (Lifetime Value) — Total revenue expected from a customer over their entire relationship.

CPM (Cost per Mille) — Cost per 1,000 impressions.

CTR (Click-Through Rate) — Percentage who see your ad and click.

Conversion — When someone completes a desired action (usually a purchase).

Impressions — Number of times your ad is shown.

Measurement — Determining which marketing touchpoints get credit for a conversion.

MMM (Media Mix Modelling) — Statistical approach using aggregate data. Privacy-safe and comprehensive. This is what Fospha uses.

MTA (Multi-Touch Attribution) — Tracks individual user journeys. Granular but increasingly broken by privacy changes.

Incrementality — Testing whether marketing actually caused a sale, or whether it would have happened anyway.

Full-funnel — Measuring marketing impact across the entire customer journey.

How This Connects to Fospha

Fospha exists because the measurement problem is real, expensive, and unsolved by most tools. Our platform combines multiple measurement approaches into a single daily source of truth.

Quick Self-Check

Before moving on, you should be comfortable answering:

  • What is the difference between demand creation and demand capture?
  • Why does last-click undervalue brand-building channels?
  • What does ROAS mean and how is it calculated?
  • What is the difference between CAC and LTV?
  • What is measurement and why is it hard?