There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to promote your brand. You can explore many advertising types depending on your audience, business model, and specific use cases.
Some of your customers are actively searching for answers on Google. Others are passively scrolling social media. No matter where your target audience spends time, there’s a type of ad to meet them.
A comprehensive approach is key if you want to maximize your exposure. So, if you’re curious about which types of advertising there are and how to use them, look no further.
Contents
- Social media advertising
- Display advertising
- Influencer advertising
- Pay-per-click advertising
- Mobile advertising
- Direct mail advertising
- Radio and television advertising
- Over-the-top (OTT) advertising
- Podcast advertising
- Print advertising
10 types of advertising to know and use
You probably won’t juggle all 10 types of advertising at once. But it will be useful to understand them all so you can choose the best options for your business.
1. Social media advertising
Social media advertising is one of the most popular forms of digital marketing. And for good reason. There are over 5 billion social media users, so you’re bound to find an audience for your message.
Social media advertising includes any ad you come across on social media platforms. They may be videos or images placed organically in your newsfeed or banner ads located across the top, bottom, or side of the screen.
Story ads are a popular social media advertising type.
Social media platforms can vary drastically in the ads they offer. For instance, there are several types of Facebook ads alone (e.g., carousel ads, shopping ads, lead ads, etc.).
Add in LinkedIn, Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok, and you’ll see there are dozens of ad types on several platforms available to you.
How to use social media advertising
Social media advertising can be highly effective and provide a great ROI. But it’s essential you do your homework. Social media platforms vary widely in both the ads they offer and the audiences that frequent them. You need to know which one makes the most sense for your brand.
Here are a few things to consider:
- Think about your audience: Where do they most frequently hang out?
- Think about the platform: Is your ad more professional? LinkedIn is a good fit. Is it casual and playful? Instagram or TikTok might be better.
- Think about your budget: Each platform charges different rates, so make sure you’re getting the best value for your dollar.
Once you’ve identified one or more social media platforms, create an ad and launch it. Make sure you set all the right targeting parameters, as these will help your ad reach the right audience and make those impressions count.
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2. Display advertising
Display ads are one of the most visible types of advertising. These ads are clearly marked as advertisements and separated from other content on the screen. They can be banner ads, popup ads, or even video ads that show before or during a chosen video.
Display ads are useful for building brand awareness and conversions, as they can show up just about anywhere and often contain clickable calls to action (CTA). On top of this, they can also appear in front of users who have never visited your site before, landing totally fresh leads.
Display ads are often used for retargeting, allowing you to get your brand in front of someone after they’ve visited your site. Are you running a sale and want to make sure a former visitor knows? Have a new product you want to get in front of potential leads? Remarketing display ads are for you.
How to use display advertising
Display ads can be a great way to experiment if you’re looking to gauge interest in a new product or service or trying to figure out your audience or messaging. That’s because display ads provide real-time analytics.
Before launching a display ad, make sure you have compelling creative. Keep image copy minimal, have a powerful CTA, and ensure the overall package fits well with your branding.
This ad is a great example of how imagery, copy, and a clear CTA work together.
Once you’ve launched a display ad, keep a close eye on its performance. Those real-time analytics can help you decide if you need to pull the plug and revamp the ad or double down on your ad spend.
3. Influencer advertising
With influencer advertising, you partner with an online influencer to market your product or service. It stands out on this list because influencers bring a trusting audience, which can take a long time to develop using other types of ads.
Influencer advertising itself can take a few different forms, like:
- Sponsored posts: You pay the influencer to promote your brand on their page.
- Giveaways: You send the influencer your product to give away in a contest.
- Events: You and the influencer partner for an event, whether in-person or online.
- Commission agreement: The influencer promotes and sells your product, getting a cut in commission.
- Review: The influencer reviews your product, and if you both agree to the content, posts their review on their platform.
How to use influencer advertising
If you’re interested in influencer advertising, the first thing you need to do is identify some potential influencers. Do your homework and look for influencers that align closely with your brand, audience, and values. You also want to make sure the influencer doesn’t have any kind of controversies attached to them, as this will inadvertently attach to your brand if you partner up.
Next, reach out to the influencer and explain what your brand does and stands for and what you have in mind. Keep things conversational and light out of the gate, as you don’t want to come across as insincere.
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4. Pay-per-click advertising
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a common form of digital advertising that appears across sites, search results, and social media. With PPC ads, you can choose a keyword, set a budget, choose specific interests and locations, and launch the ad.
What makes PPC ads appealing isn’t just the large and targetable audience you’re potentially reaching. It’s also the payment model itself. With PPC ads, you only pay when the ad is clicked, not displayed (hence the name).
How to use pay-per-click advertising
Pay-per-click ads, because of their model, are great for those looking to watch their budget. They’re also great for businesses that don’t yet rank for a lot of keywords on search engines. With PPC ads, you can bid for a keyword and show up on the top of important search results.
PPC ads are likely a solid fit if either of the above scenarios fits your business. When using PPC ads, there are a few things to consider:
- Tighten up your target audience: A loosely defined audience will result in a lot of clicks and few conversions, burning your budget.
- Make sure to bid on the right keywords: Pick PPC keywords that balance competition, relevancy, and attainability.
- Have a concrete budget: Set your goals and be ready to shift your spending quickly to the most successful ads.
- Closely monitor your ad performance: Are you getting a lot of clicks? Are they converting to sales? Keep answering those questions and refine your strategy.
Fortunately, PPC ads are easy to tweak. If you don’t feel you’re getting value from the campaign, pause it and adjust the language, keywords, audience, etc. Relaunch it and monitor it, then rinse and repeat.
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5. Mobile advertising
Mobile advertising uses some of the same tactics as other ad types, but it aims to reach new customers through their mobile devices.
Mobile ads can appear on websites, show up on social media platforms, or be served to app users. There’s also a subset of mobile ads called SMS marketing, where brands send texts to people who have opted in for those communications.
Like other ads on this list, mobile ads are highly customizable, from targeting to design and beyond.
How to use mobile advertising
Because mobile advertising is so similar to other forms of digital advertising, so are the strategies to make it work. Remember these principles as you consider your mobile marketing plan:
- Define your audience: Remember that your mobile audience may be different than your audience at large.
- Create a mobile-friendly ad: Use good mobile copy and design techniques so people don’t get frustrated with your mobile ads.
- Consider geotargeting: If you have a physical location, try geotargeting to get ads into your customers’ hands at the perfect time.
Refine your approach over time. Like PPC, you can quickly pause mobile campaigns and change up your approach. If things aren’t going well, tweak them!
6. Direct mail advertising
Direct mail advertising might be old school, but it’s still alive and well. When was the last time you checked your mail? The odds are that there was at least one direct mail piece in there.
Any kind of mailers—coupons, catalogs, fliers—are considered direct mail advertising. Unlike the previous forms of advertising mentioned on this list, this one requires actual physical media. Unlike the previous forms of ads mentioned here, direct mail requires more physical effort.
While direct mail adverts require the actual printing and mailing of materials, they have some benefits. Direct mail ads allow you to reach a local audience, which is especially helpful if you have a physical location or an event coming up.
Direct mail can help you stand out in a sea of digital communications. A piece of direct mail with a flashy design can make an impression.
How to use direct mail advertising
Direct mail advertising is a lot of work, so you want to make sure it’s worth the effort.
Like any ad, you want to make sure you have a target audience in mind. In this case, it may be a local audience if your business services a specific geography.
Next, make sure the mailer is truly eye-catching. Making your highest value jump out on the mailer is a good start. Is it a discount? Make the discount nice and big and impossible to miss. Promoting an event? Include a relevant image and make sure the event details are bold and pop.
You also want to make sure there’s a strong and easily visible CTA. Use an action verb like “call” or “book” and give clear next steps.
7. Radio and television advertising
Radio ads have been around for over 100 years, and television ads aren’t far behind. These staples of the marketing world play during breaks in the programming and are passive since the audience doesn’t have to scroll or click to see or hear them.
You can find many classic television ads on YouTube.
Both radio and television ads come with a wide range of price tags, mostly depending on the size of the audience. For most small businesses, a local radio or TV ad can be feasible. They can be a wise investment, especially if you share an audience with those programs.
How to use radio/television advertising
For a long time, it was difficult to know the exact audience of a particular TV or radio show. You had to rely on the ratings from companies like Neilson to test a sample of the viewership.
Now, though, TV and radio advertising are much more trackable, even using heatmaps to see which parts of a screen a viewer focuses on.
Even with that in mind, try to include ways to track an ad’s effect. One great way is to advertise a discount code specific to those channels. Then, you can see their exact impact on your sales and revenue.
Also, keep in mind national stations and networks are costly. It’s best to start small and keep things local for your test runs. If it goes well and you can afford it, expand from there.
8. Over-the-top (OTT) advertising
Over-the-top, or OTT, ads are those that show up with any kind of online streaming content. Over-the-top ads can show up before, during, or after any streaming content and are typically video ads.
As of 2024, 61% of people have cut the cord and moved exclusively to video streaming services, and the trend seems to be increasing. In other words, the audience for OTT ads will only get bigger from here.
How to use OTT advertising
There’s a lot of good news with OTT ads. Not only are they popular, but they’re also fairly straightforward to implement.
Like most digital advertising types, OTT ads can be launched in a few steps:
- Plan: Choose who you want to reach.
- Shop: Find a platform or platforms for your OTT ad. Will it appear on Hulu? Peacock?
- Develop: Plan out and create the actual ad. Make sure it fits platform guidelines.
- Launch: Buy the OTT ad space on your target platform(s).
- Monitor: Track the performance of your ad and revise it as needed.
An OTT ad will usually cost far more than a simple banner ad on a site. It will also require more effort to create. Try testing the ad creative on another platform, like YouTube, before launching your OTT ad. Take what you learn in the limited run and apply it to the OTT ad.
9. Podcast advertising
If your daily drive is accentuated by a podcast, you’re not alone. As of 2024, 53% of American adults listen to podcasts regularly. This represents a huge audience of people who repeatedly turn their attention to a channel you can advertise on.
Podcast advertising represents the paid ads that play before, during, or after a podcast episode. They can also appear on a podcast’s web page (although that’s crossing over into other digital ad types).
A podcast advertisement can come in the form of a pre-recorded ad that plays separately from the show, or it can be a scripted piece the podcast hosts read during the episode.
How to use podcast advertising
Podcast advertising is similar to working with an influencer. You need to find a podcaster who shares your audience, can authentically speak about your brand, and won’t blow your whole budget on a 15-second spot.
From there, learn about the different types of available podcast ads, like pre-roll and outros. Define your goals (do you want awareness or conversions). Write your scripts. And track your ROI.
10. Print advertising
We saved the oldest form of advertising on our list for last. Print advertising has been around since at least the time of the ancient Egyptians when tradesmen scratched out promotions on papyrus.
The most well-known print advertisements in the modern age appear in newspapers and magazines. Printed flyers and brochures also fall into this category.
While print ads hardly offer the targeting or real-time analytics of digital ads, they aren’t without some benefits. If your audience enjoys leafing through a physical magazine or needs something to take away at an in-person event, printed ads are the answer.
How to use print advertising
Print ad success relies on the same mix of audience, relevance, and budget as other advertising strategies.
Some versions of print ads are extremely expensive, like a full-page spot in a popular fashion magazine. But others, like a humble pamphlet you hand out at a local fair, can be very accessible for small businesses.
A high-quality image and clear copy are the basis of a great print ad. Coupons and QR codes help make them more effective and trackable.
Know these 10 types of advertising
You may not plan on spending big bucks on a primetime TV ad or see a need for a full-page magazine spread, but it’s useful to know the basics of how all these advertising formats work. That’ll give you the context to make the best choices for your business.
And once you’ve chosen, having benchmarks, like for the costs of Facebook and Google Ads, you’ll know if you’re getting great results.
