What is role of advertising in the industrial markerting communication mix?

In a very broad sense, industrial advertising must communicate a much more focused message within one or more relatively narrow sales channels. Its goals may include the creation of favorable company and brand awareness, and the generation of sales leads through inquiry funneling (sales conversion) steps.

Narrowing the definition of advertising, industrial marketers develop company or product-centric ads that are communicated through space in industry print publications or websites.

Other industrial marketing communications options include: public relations (PR), direct marketing (direct mail or e-promotions), brochures and company websites, trade shows, and social media.

Advertising typically consumes the largest portion of an industrial marketing budget because it is a "shotgun" approach to message-targeting. The cost of individual ads reflects a certain percentage of wasted circulation and ad distribution - even within specialized markets. This is much more so in print media advertising, than Search Engine advertising which (in theory) displays ads only to those with a single interest in an advertiser's key Words.

Many industrial marketers rely on third party advertising agencies to help them avoid mistakes in communicating the right message to the right audience using the most cost-effective print or internet media.