The 9 Main Types of Online Advertising

Online advertising, also known as internet advertising or web advertising, is the strategy of using the internet as a marketing channel to promote your products/services to potential customers.

The 9 main types of online ads include banner ads, product listing ads, native ads, demand-side platforms, social media ads, video ads, affiliate ads, email ads, and guest blogs.

Online advertising is a cost-effective way to promote your business to customers, but if you’re starting to advertise online, you will be overwhelmed by the number of options available.

To help figure out the best online advertising options for your business, we have a list of the best types of online advertising, how they work, and what advantages they can have in online business marketing.

What Is Online Advertising?

Online advertising, digital advertising, internet advertising, or web advertising are the ads across different websites and other online advertising platforms.

Unlike traditional ads, online advertisements allow you to target a specific audience based on historical data (past online activities) or demographics like gender, location, and age.

The best part is that online ads can be interactive, and users can respond to them by clicking or visiting your website. You can also track metrics to determine the effectiveness of your ad campaigns.

An understanding of online advertising can help you create your own marketing strategy tailored to your target audience. And you can use metrics and data to improve your advertising campaigns to increase online sales for your business.

Why Should You Choose Online Advertising

Various types of online advertising remain a tried and true way for creating brand awareness. They’re also the best way to generate leads and bring in sales.

The growth trajectory of the US advertising landscape is clear, and online advertising is leading the way.

Still, ad-blocking software continues to grow. Remember how Apple added an ad-blocking feature to their mobile devices and computers. This made it more difficult for businesses to reach out to their target audiences.

So why does internet marketing continue to prevail in advertising? The main reason is that it’s cost-effective for what you get in return.

Benefits of Online Advertising For Small Businesses

• Gets traffic coming in fast.
• Better targeting, even if your budget is limited.
• Easily collect data to analyze consumer behavior and market trends.
• Allows new small businesses to compete and create brand awareness, even in competitive online spaces.

But to get these benefits, you have to connect with your target audience using different types of online advertising. Each type has its benefits and the right method of execution.

Let’s look at the top 15 types of online advertising you can use to increase traffic to your website and generate leads.

9 Types Of Online Advertising

1. Banner Ads

Banner ads or display ads allow you to purchase a predetermined space on a website to place ads. The goal of banner ads is to get brand exposure that can help you get new customers who don’t know about your business yet.

You can also use display ads to retarget users who previously interacted with your website to remind them about your business and encourage them to purchase.

You can choose what time of day your banner ads appear and target them by demographics. Here is a banner ad example by Amazon that we saw on a blog site while reading about small businesses.

Advantages Of Banner Ads

• These ads can be an image, a video, plain text, or an animation.
• You can set the shape, size, and decide the placement of these ads, making them highly customizable.
• You can use the Google Display Network to reach millions of websites from your Google Ads account to display banner ads.

Disadvantages Of Banner Ads:

• The internet is overcrowded with banner ads, and they have a low CTR (click-through rate) because most people ignore them.
• These ads are blocked by Ad-blockers, preventing them from getting to users.
• Banner ads cost more than they’re worth when you compare the high price of ad space to the low click-through rate.

2. Product Listing Ads

Product Listing Ads (PLA) are the ads that appear when you’re looking for physical products on a search engine like Google. They are also called shopping ads.

These online ads are pay-per-click (PPC) ads, which means you only pay if someone clicks on the ad. If your ads get 1 million views and just 100 clicks, you will be charged for the clicks only and not the views.

Here are the Product Listing Ads that showed up when we searched for basketball shoes on Google.

If your website is not getting organic traffic and you’re still working on your SEO, Product Listing Ads can help you get traffic fast, which is highly relevant and likely to convert.

What is the difference between regular Google Ads and Product Listing Ads?

Since both Google Ads and Product Listing Ads are set up using Google Ads, online businesses often get confused.

The only difference between the two is that Product Listing Ads can be used for physical products only, and Google Ads can be used for any business.

Advantages Of Product Listing Ads:

You get immediate traffic with Product Listing Ads even if your SEO is not good or if you don’t have organic traffic on your website yet.

Disadvantages Of Product Listing Ads:

Product listings are labeled as Sponsored, showing that these are ads, and your CTR (click-through rate) can go down compared to organic results.

3. Native Ads

Native ads go with the website’s design, so they look like part of the content instead of standing out as regular ads.

The sponsored search on Google is a great example, as it matches regular listings. Instagram story ads are also a great example because they look like normal stories, making you watch before you realize they are ads.

Ads still have a clear label to show they’re paid content, like the “Sponsored” tag on Google results when you search for “social media services”.

Advantages Of Native Ads:

• They don’t interrupt the user experience like pop-ups or flashy banners.
• Media publishers can make money from ads without compromising their site’s design or user experience.
• Native ads help cut through ad fatigue, as people are more likely to notice them than traditional ads.
• Users view native ads 50% more than banners, so you get better visibility and higher click-through rates from them.

Disadvantages Of Native Ads:

• Native ads are expensive compared to banner ads.
• You need websites that match your brand style, which limits your advertising options.

4. Demand-side Platforms (DSP)

A demand-side platform (DSP) is an online advertising tool you can use to buy mobile, search, and video ads from multiple channels in one place.

You bid on ad space across networks in real time from a single dashboard without having to connect with individual vendors like on Google Ads.

Demand-side platforms use programmatic advertising to place your ads contextually using an algorithm.

You set your budget and target audience in advance. When someone visits a site, the algorithm decides which ad to show, using a bid to choose between you and other brands competing for that audience.

Advantages Of DSP:

• DSP platforms partner with third-party data providers so they can help get data about the users who clicked on your ads.
• Since the algorithm targets a highly relevant audience, you will see a higher conversion rate.

Disadvantages Of DSP:

This requires a higher initial cost to integrate the DSP tool.

DSP tools can be hard to use and often require a steep learning curve to get the most out of them.

5. Social Media Ads

Social media platforms make it easy to run targeted ads. You can narrow your audience by age, gender, job title, location, interests, and past purchases, helping you reach the right audience with a relevant message.

Run A/B tests across different platforms to see where your audience responds best. And focus your budget on the top-performing platforms to get a higher return on investment (ROI).

Here’s an example of a Facebook ad (marked “Sponsored”) by Dollar Shave Club promoting their shaver.

Advantages Of Social Media Ads:

• Social media ads are affordable, depending on the platform.
• You can target the audience you want.
• Social media ads can spread on their own through likes and shares.

Disadvantages Of Social Media Ads:

• Negative feedback from users can damage how others see your brand on these platforms.

6. Video Ads

Video ads are paid content that plays on platforms like YouTube or TikTok. You pay per view for video ads, and it costs about $0.10 to $0.30 per view.

The exact amount depends on your industry and keyword competition. You can also set a max budget, so you’ll never spend more than that. The most common YouTube ads are skippable in-stream ads that play before the main video.

You have to pay if someone watches at least 30 seconds of the ad or clicks on it. Unskippable in-stream ads appear before, during, or after videos that are over 10 minutes long. Add a clear CTA for more conversions.

Advantages Of Video Ads:

• Since In-Stream ads run on a CPC (cost-per-click) model, they’re budget-friendly.
• Video ads give you lots of room to be creative and promote products online.
• You still get a few seconds of exposure even if someone skips the ad.

Disadvantages Of Video Ads:

• You can’t control which videos your ads appear next to, and some may end up alongside harmful content on YouTube, which you want to avoid.
• In skippable ads, it can be difficult to get your message across in 5 seconds before viewers skip them.

7. Affiliate Ads

Affiliate ads are basically affiliate marketing. It is when a website or a person promotes your products or services and earns a commission for each sale made through their referral.

Advantages Of Affiliate Ads:

• You get a high return on investment (ROI) from affiliate ads because you only pay the commission on a sale.
• You can set all the terms of your affiliate program and decide how much commission you will pay per sale.
• If you choose relevant affiliates, you can reach a specific audience within your niche.

Disadvantages Of Affiliate Ads:

• You don’t have control over the creative and branding aspects of affiliate ads.
• You need a proper plan, clear terms, and search for relevant affiliates to start an affiliate program.

8. Email Ads

You have two options for email advertising. You can place banner ads or links in newsletter headers or footers. Or create an email marketing list by asking for user preferences and sending targeted email campaigns based on these preferences.

Advantages Of Email Ads:

• Email ads are free business advertising, so you don’t have to pay for them like in other types of online marketing.
• You can segment your email list for a better click-through rate CTR.
• Email ads are the best online marketing because they do not disappear and are stored in the user’s inbox like any other regular email.

Disadvantages Of Email Ads:

• Email ads get low CTR (click-through rates) because people don’t open promotional emails.
• Email ads get fewer clicks unless the content is directly relevant to the audience.

9. Guest Blogging

Doing a guest post on a well-known website will increase your traffic and help build awareness of your business. It’s an advertising tactic you will find in most online marketing 101 guides.

Keep in mind that guest posting standards have changed a lot over the past two years. Create an online reputation management strategy and avoid spam content to save your website from SEO penalties.

Choosing sites relevant or related to your business is one of the smart ideas to increase sales.

You can add their guest blog to your site. It’s a two-way street, after all. So invite others in your industry to post on your site.

They will likely share the post with their current readers as well and expand your online reach in the process. But make sure that you’re only posting high-quality content without too many links. Otherwise, Google might crack down.

Advantages Of Guest Blogging:

• It can increase your website traffic by marketing your business to a new audience.
• Builds brand awareness and credibility when featured on reputable sites.
• Guest posts support SEO through high-quality backlinks.
• Guest blogs grow your network and open up new partnership opportunities. This can help a lot if you’re a B2B online marketing business.

Disadvantages Of Guest Blogging:

• Poor-quality guest post can lead to spammy backlinks and SEO penalties.
• Some websites charge for guest posts or have strict publishing rules.

Conclusion

These 9 types of online advertising can all help you bring in more traffic. That said, you should be selective about which ones you focus on first.

Put the most effort into the type that works best for your business, then gradually add other types of online advertising to build on what’s already working.

If you’re looking for help getting started with advertising your business online or need online marketing tips, we can help. Contact us and we’d love to hear from you!

Types of Online Advertising FAQs

What are different types of online advertising?

Banner ads, product listing ads, native ads, demand-side platforms, social media ads, video ads, affiliate ads, email ads, and guest blogs are different types of online advertising.

What are the 4 types of advertising?

Display Advertising, Video Advertising, Native Advertising, and social media advertising are the 4 types of advertising.

What are the four main types of digital advertising?

The four main types of digital advertising are search, display, social, and video advertising.

What is the most popular online advertising?

The most popular online advertising is search advertising through Google Ads. They are popular because you can target a highly relevant audience that is looking to purchase. PLA (product listing ads) are an example of search advertising.