MarTech and AdTech: What Are They?

MarTech and AdTech are terms used to describe certain digital marketing technologies and companies.

In this article, we will explain their main differences and how they can help you improve your marketing performance.

• What is MarTech?
• What is AdTech?
• What is the difference between MarTech and AdTech?
• How can a MarTech or AdTech help me?
• How Marktech can help you
• Practice 1: Flawless account setup
• Practice 2: Optimized audience selection for ads
• Practice 3: Using a bid and budget optimization tool

What is MarTech?

MarTech is a blend of the words Marketing and Technology. The term refers to tools or companies that solve marketing problems through technology.

To illustrate, the image below shows several well-known MarTechs in the market, grouped by area of focus.

Not every MarTech is the size of a Salesforce: even a simple UTM generator fits the definition.

What is AdTech?

AdTechs are MarTechs focused specifically on advertising technology. In other words, AdTechs are a subset of MarTechs, centered on solutions for online advertising.

Digital marketing has become increasingly analytical and complex. As a result, many startups have built applications to help other companies advertise online more efficiently.

As an example, the image below lists some well-known AdTechs. Several of them, by the way, have since been acquired or shut down: this market moves fast.

What is the difference between MarTech and AdTech?

Although there is plenty of confusion between these terms, the difference is quite simple:

While MarTechs relate to marketing in a broader sense, AdTechs deal specifically with technology aimed at advertising campaigns.

For example, Marktech (the company where I work) is a MarTech focused on online ad performance. That is why it also fits the definition of AdTech.

How can a MarTech or AdTech help me?

The number of companies advertising online keeps growing. As a result, competition for ad space has become fiercer.

Consequently, advertisers who can lean on performance tools for digital marketing get better results in this competitive landscape.

This battle happens on both Google and Meta. If you are still weighing Facebook Ads or Google Ads, we have already compared the two here on the blog.

How Marktech can help you

Picture an ad platform like Meta Ads (formerly Facebook Ads), where many companies compete to show their ads to the same audiences.

This kind of ad platform works as an auction (in Google Ads, the logic is the same). In other words, Meta will prioritize whoever has the best combination of bid and ad quality, not simply whoever is willing to pay the most.

Technology, however, can help advertisers get more results on this kind of platform without having to spend more money to do it.

For example, Marktech, a Brazilian AdTech focused on performance media, uses and recommends the following practices to boost online ad results:

Practice 1: Flawless account setup

When advertising online, we need to make sure every event relevant to the business is tracked.

From there, the ad platform can analyze your user data and steer your ads toward the best-performing audiences.

And this became even more critical after iOS 14.5 and the cookie restrictions: with less signal reaching the platforms, every well-configured event is worth more.

Practice 2: Optimized audience selection for ads

Even though ad platforms have ever more automation to deliver ads to relevant audiences (as with Advantage+ on Meta and Performance Max on Google), they cannot do it without the advertiser's help.

The advertiser needs to define the audiences the ads should reach. Well-built audiences will therefore make your media buying more efficient.

Practice 3: Using a bid and budget optimization tool

To get good results from ads, we need to invest in the highest-performing audiences.

The Marktech platform prioritizes those audiences automatically, making sure you are always investing in the best segments.