The Top 10 Advertising Blogs to Follow

What makes a good business or advertising blog? They bring you the current and relevant information in bite-sized, easy-to-digest articles.  It’s information that keeps you on your toes, up to date, and improves your performance. You can see what the competition is up to.

Here is a compilation of ten entertaining and informative blogs. You can benefit from the actionable tips and content from today’s leaders of advertising and marketing. 

10 Advertising Blogs Worth Following

Here are inspirational, original, and thought-provoking blog sites worth your time to peruse.

Ad Age

AdAge.com

Ad Age reports on the gamut of visual advertisements from stunning to shocking, such as in their recent “Shot with an AR-15” anti-gun violence campaign. This blog is the go-to global source for breaking news about advertising. With over 80 posts per week, they cover topics of interest for mid to enterprise-level creative companies. The blog contains seven sections covering every vertical in advertising.

Their Lookbook section is a valuable resource along with their annual “Small Agency of the Year" list. Don’t forget to register for their “Fact Pack,” a PDF loaded with infographic marketing facts that you can swipe for your content.

Ads of the World

More an advertising art gallery than a blog, Ads of the World is aptly named. You can scroll through thousands of ads from almost every nation and topic.

If you need visual inspiration for your next project, this site is your first stop. The website has four sections, Latest Ads, Top Ads, Collections, and Student Ads. Every section has separate groups. In the Collections section, for example, you’ll find groups titled, “Best April Fool’s Day Ads,” “Stylish and Social Seniors,” “Girl Power in Advertising,” “Great Minimalist Ads,” and many more.

There is no better way to get your creative agency juices flowing than by spending time here. You may want to set a timer because it’s hard to leave.

AdWeek

Since 1979, AdWeek has delivered articles and samples that advertising insiders crave. The Brand Marketing section delves into national and international brands to showcase what’s working and what isn’t. The Marketing Agencies section provides a bird’s-eye view of what your competition is up to, and where the big ad money is going.

AdWeek covers everything about TV and video ads. You’ll get interviews and data straight from the industry leaders and, in the Creativity section, you’ll see some of the latest ads in print or online from around the world. With over 160 posts per week, it’s easy to stay informed, and it’s one of the most active blogs on our list.

Hootsuite

Internet and social media marketers get their marketing schooling from the blog posts on HootSuite. They archived every post since its inception, almost 400 pages and counting. The first post was “Molson: a corporate tweeting role model” posted on November 17, 2008, back when social media was in its infancy.

HootSuite is a paid platform to manage social media marketing. However, the blog is free. It may look like it’s geared toward small entrepreneurial businesses, but if you use social media at any level in your business, these articles will help you leverage it.

If there is anything new about any social media channel, or how to tap its potential, you’ll find it here.

HubSpot

Hubspot is first and foremost a CRM system. However, their blog is an incredible source of information about marketing, sales, and customer relationships. In fact, they segment their blog into those three topics.

They have a free resource library from Advertising to Web Design. One nice feature is that every blog post comes with average reading time, so you know if you have time to read just one more before the train reaches your station.

The one must-have for marketers is their annual State of Inbound Marketing Report. The overall content of the blog is for inbound marketing but, you’ll find current data and trends you can use in other advertising verticals.

Kissmetrics

The tagline for the Kissmetrics blog is “A blog about analytics, marketing, and testing,” and it couldn't be more appropriate. This is one of Neil Patel’s flagship sites. Neil is the Guru’s guru when it comes to online marketing analytics. The articles and infographics help marketers learn about measuring every metric and how to leverage each piece of data in the business of online marketing.

If you work in web development, SEO, online sales, or derive any part of your income from the internet, then the Kissmetrics blog is one you need in your toolbox. You’ll only get a post about once a month so that you won’t become inundated with posts.

Mashable!

Mashable is huge. With 10.1 million Twitter followers, they offer value in every post. And, new posts are coming in every few minutes.

The blog contains a lot of video content in each of seven categories. They are Video, Entertainment, Culture, Tech, Science, Business, and Social Good. It’s a smorgasbord to please every palate.

Each category is a vortex of interesting articles and videos which is hard to escape. You can get sucked in for hours searching contents of thousands of posts dating back to about 2008.

The only caveat here is to be wary of the paid content masquerading as genuine content.

Moz

While a great deal of Moz’s content focuses on SEO, there is so much more. Rand Fishkin, co-founder, and charismatic guru teaches internet entrepreneurs the subtler points of internet marketing. His Whiteboard Friday’s video blog posts are a staple of many ad agencies and internet marketers.

Moz has 39 topics where you can search for blogs specific to your interests. Some of these are branding, eCommerce, email marketing, marketing psychology, public relations, and user experience to name a few. Since Moz is also involved in Search Engine Optimization marketing advice and tips for either full-time SEO managers or entrepreneurs, moz.com is a great resource to learn about search, SEO, and content marketing.

They post about four times a week for marketers interested in increasing conversions and sales.

Ogilvy & Mather

“If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.” This was the core of David Ogilvy’s belief and remains the credo of everything they do at Ogilvy and Mather. You’ll find an incredible library of informative, data-rich articles. You can search for articles under 14 topics such as Data, Mobile, Social, and Ogilvy Influencers.

No matter which vertical of advertising you’re in, there is something here for you.

Seth Godin

Each blog post that he writes rarely exceeds 300 words. His blog Seth Godin Type Pad makes every word count.

His posts are witty, and thought-provoking rather than hard-hitting advertising biz speak. Seth understands that the customer comes first and explains things in a way that makes you see advertising and marketing from a unique perspective.

Seth has a lot to offer and the experience to back it up. He’s authored 17 books and was inducted into the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame. He knows a thing or two about marketing, and he shares it with you one post at a time.

The Metrics of Great Blogs

These ten blogs represent an entire spectrum of ideas and information about advertising and marketing. To distill the hundreds of blogs down to ten, we selected these blogs from a combination of social popularity, Alexa rank, and Google Page Rank.

From a single entrepreneur to an agency putting on million-dollar campaigns, you need answers. There is a solution to every marketing company or brand problem in one or more of these blogs.

Broaden your education and creativity by reading blogs from industry leaders, experts, good writers, or influencers.

We hope that you find our subjective list of choices beneficial.