Types of online ads

You’ve decided to build a website, whether it’s a showcase or an online store, and now you want to make it visible and place it in the path of potential customers.

However, how can you reach your consumers wherever they are and how can you meet them when they have a problem that you might have the solution to?

Among the possible methods of promoting the products sold are online ads. With their help you either try to arouse the interest of potential customers, or you respond when they show a direct interest by searching for your products.

Depending on your objectives (branding or sales) you can use the following types of online ads.

Ads posted on various classifieds sites

You do not need to own a website to promote yourself through classifieds sites. It is enough to compose an attractive and descriptive ad for what you offer, to add pictures, technical details, delivery method, payment and other aspects that can influence the customer’s buying decision.

The classified ad sites can be general or niche (e.g. real estate, car, etc.), and the display of ads can be free or paid. In some sites there are both paid and free ads, with the exception that the paid ads (sometimes called premium, special, promoted) are placed before the free ads or/and on the first page and are highlighted by different colours than the free ads. They have the advantage of being more easily noticed by potential customers.

In the above case, users are those who are actively searching for a product. Although such advertisements have low visibility, they can be useful if the sites in question are known and accessed by those interested and eager to find a product that meets their needs.

Ads posted in search engines

When you have a website, it needs to be brought to the first page of search engines so that it can be found quickly by searchers. For example, Google ads are paid ads that appear before and after natural results. Ads above and before natural results have an orange icon next to them so they can stand out. According to the new Google Ads standards, a simple search on Google will display 4 ads above the organic results and 3 ads below the organic results.

Such ads are placed through the Google Ads system, and the type of campaign used is the Google Ads campaign in the Search Network.

The user shows interest in what you are selling by actively searching in the search engine, and your ad should solve their problem. Payment is only made when someone clicks on the ad, and you have complete control over the budget, time of day, location, language, etc.

A Google Ads campaign is the best solution when you want to have quick results that can be measured and tracked.

Ads posted on social networking sites

In addition to free posts on your business’s company page, which are only shown to people who follow you, you can also show paid ads to other people on social networks depending on many aspects that help you segment your audience.

In Facebook (through the Facebook Ads system) you can display advertisements according to the interests that users have (they are interested in a certain brand, in a certain activity, they are going to celebrate their birthday, they like to travel, etc.), according to their declared location, age, gender, the type of relationship they are in (for example, you can display ads with wedding dresses for engaged women), the school they graduated from and even their profession.

In LinkedIn, on the other hand, you can display your ads by location, age, gender, the company where the user works, the field of activity, the size of the company, the position held and even the seniority in the job, by the educational institution graduated. The main advantage of LinkedIn is that, being a network of professionals, your online ads can be directed to people in decision-making positions, especially beneficial in the business to business market.

Ads posted on various sites serving banners and text ads

There are many sites that accept advertisements, be they price comparison sites, classifieds sites, niche sites, blogs, forums, news sites, etc.

One example of how you can reach such sites is by using a Google Ads campaign in the Display Network.

Basically a Google Ads account user creates an ad which the system then places on such sites. Through the Google Display Network you can reach over 80% of the world’s audience.

Using such a campaign you can display both text ads and banner ads. The advantage of banners in the display network is that they capture attention more easily than text ads and can be animated.

Advertisements are not displayed randomly, but according to the user’s location, age, gender, the content of the page on which they are displayed, the subject of that page, the interests expressed by users (potential customers may be interested in shopping, fashion, a particular sport). You can also display different ads to those who have already visited the site (through remarketing campaigns via Google Ads) or you can choose the exact sites on which you want to display your banners.

If you are interested in building and implementing an online advertising strategy that will bring you results contact SEMsphere specialists now!