Digital Advertising Theory

Now in its fourth edition, Digital Advertising Theory examines how technological and media transformations are reshaping the foundations of advertising theory and practice. As digital advertising becomes increasingly data-driven, interactive, and complex, this volume revisits core advertising theories and evaluates their relevance within today’s evolving media environment.

Building on earlier editions, this book is grounded in a contemporary definition of digital advertising that provides a conceptual foundation for understanding digital advertising as a dynamic, multifaceted system. Across this volume, contributors explore how advertising operates across platforms including social media, mobile environments, video, gaming, and AI-driven systems. This book examines developments, such as artificial intelligence, computational advertising, personalization, immersive media, and algorithmic processes, and considers how these forces are transforming how advertising messages are created, delivered, and evaluated. This volume brings together diverse theoretical perspectives to reassess foundational models of persuasion and audience response in light of contemporary digital conditions. Contributors examine how evolving forms of interactivity, data use, and platform dynamics shape consumer cognition, engagement, and behavior.

Providing both a rigorous theoretical foundation and a forward-looking research agenda, Digital Advertising Theory is an essential resource for scholars, students, and professionals in advertising, marketing, communication, media studies, and psychology.

Shelly Rodgers is a Distinguished Curators' Professor and Maxine Wilson Gregory Endowed Chair at the University of Missouri, USA.

Esther Thorson teaches at Colorado State University, USA. She is an Emeritus from the University of Missouri, USA, and Michigan State University, USA.