Online advertising has come a long way since its beginning as a static image that used to pop up at the top of a website. Today, we come across multiple types of engaging advertisings online. Ranging from the promotional display ads and PPC to SEO, the options of advertising are quite wide and we’ve listed the top 5 types here.

Although there are many methods available to promote your brand and products online to drive more traffic, the usability and results offered by the mentioned ones is incomparable to the free ads.

Display Advertising

This is one of the most common types of online paid advertising, using images and text. Display ads differ from the other forms of online advertising as they’re not visible in the search results. Most popular forms of display ads are popups, landing pages, website banners, etc.

In most cases, display ads are found on the websites that are used to redirect visitors’ attention to a particular product or service listing page. Display ads work better if combined with the remarketing. In fact, there has been noticed 70% increase in conversion if the visitors are retargeted with display ads.

Pay per click (PPC)

PPC ads are the same that you notice on search result page with a green box “Ad” that are usually displayed on the top of your search results. As the name suggests, PPC ads are the ones that advertisers pay for when a user would click on them. Regardless of its appearance, advertise is charged only for the clicks it receives. For example, if the ad was displayed more than 100 times on search result pages and only 1 person clicked the ad, the advertiser will be charged only for the single click. PPC ads are usually text, with a small image if at all.

SEO & SEM

Search Engine Optimization (SEO and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are the two most recommended methods to promote content online and increase visibility through searches.

SEO – Useful for achieving higher ranking on the search engine results with supportive backlinks, target keywords, linkbuilding, etc. Best suitable terms (keywords) are used in the content to make it visible on search results.

SEM – Unlike SEO, Search Engine Marketing is a paid strategy where the advertising pay each time users click on the ad, instead of paying for the actual ad. Businesses gain specific information about the market via SEM ads.

Remarketing or Retargeting

Remarketing is a cookie-based marketing strategy that does exactly what it says it does. it follows the global online users to remarket them again depending upon their internet browsing history. Online businesses give more emphasize on remarketing as only 2% traffic online actually converts on the first visit. The remaining 92% visitors can be retargeted one they leave the website by then seeing subtle hints.

The process is simple, when a visitor comes to your website, your cookie will follow him (or her) and your product will appear over and over on the screen reminding about your products or services. You can do it yourself with Google Remarketing, Facebook Remarketing and more platforms.

Social Media Marketing

There’s no doubt that social media platforms will just keep growing each year. With millions of active users browsing social media websites through mobile devices, and 1 million new active users joining social media every day, social media marketing is the smartest way to reach to maximum number of target audience. Social media marketing involves organic and paid advertising, depending upon your specific requirements and budget.

Facebook understands the benefit of social media marketing for brands and hence launched Facebook Lead Generation ads to allow businesses attract more visitors to contact brands. In the past 2 years alone, social media advertising budgets have doubled from $16 billion to $31 billion.

Social media platforms one can use for marketing:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Reddit

Best Fit for Your Advertising Needs

Whatever your advertising needs may be, the above-mentioned methods of marketing are sure to suit your requirements. If you’re not ready to spend money on marketing, start with Search Engine Optimization or Social Media Marketing techniques as they’re free and bring organic traffic to your website. Or if you have funds ready for marketing, try one of the paid advertisement types like PPC, display ads, SEM, remarketing, or paid social media ads.