The Oxford dictionary defines an advertisement as “a notice, picture or film telling people about a product, job or service.” While that definition definitely holds true, the types of advertisements have definitely expanded to include more things than just notices, pictures or films. In this post, we will take a look at the different types of advertisements present in today’s world. If you are new to the world of marketing and advertising, you might be surprised by the numerous types of advertisements that are there.

Let’s take a look at the different types of advertisements used today:

#1. Social Media Advertisements

Today’s world is social media obsessed, so it’s only logical to kick our list off with Social Media Advertisements. Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and pretty much all social media sites offer a relatively inexpensive avenue of advertising (with an incredible reach). Paid social media ads are the kind of advertisements that focus on reaching your target audience depending on how much you pay. It is then adjusted to how many people see the ad and engage with it. Organic social media ads are the type of advertisements that generate a good amount of word-of-mouth buzz. Let’s assume that you post something on your business Facebook page that offers a free product if your followers like it and tag a friend.This kind of advertisement can be posted free of charge and can increase people’s awareness about your brand.

#2. Video Ads

This type of advertisement engages with your target customers on a digital level. Create a short video and post it on your social media or pay to have it run on sites like YouTube, Hulu and popular blogs. A video ad can be created by experts from an agency or even done by your in-house team, or just you, if you happen to be a jack of all trades.

#3. Display Ads

This category includes digital and newspaper advertising. Digital ads are the updated version of newspaper advertising. Conceptually, it’s the same but it has been updated to resonate with the 21st century marketing ecosystem. What you essentially do is buy ad space on websites that appeal to your target demographic. For example, if you want to advertise your sports equipment and gear, it will be better for you to buy an ad space on a sports-related website. You can create text ads, which essentially look just like traditional print media ads, the floating banner above the site’s contact and even wallpapers with your product or service on the site background.

The major difference between display ads and the ads you find in newspapers is the use of search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. These techniques help reach your target audience more effectively. If you utilize proper SEO techniques, your target audience will be able to find your products more easily via Google search. These types of advertisements are typically also Pay Per Click (PPC), which means you bid on keywords most associated with your service or products and pay for your results to be at the top of the search engine search. Another variation of that is Cost Per Thousand, which involves paying a flat rate to show up in search results 1,000 times.

#4. Radio and Podcasts

Verbal promotion may be a sort of advertisement which will be repeated often as a part of radio or podcast shows. You can have a standard sort of ad (usually a jingle) recorded to be played periodically or there’s also the prospect of sponsorship. Narrow down the types of podcasts your audience subscribes to or the station they most often tune in to. Then you can create the ideal type of advertisement for your target audience.

#5. Newspapers and Magazines

These types of advertisements are traditional but effective even today. Combining this sort of advertisement between a local, statewide and national medium works as a great marketing campaign strategy. Plenty of people still reach for their morning newspaper as soon as they get up or like to browse through a physical copy of a magazine ever so often. Also, most newspapers and magazines also have a digital version these days. Advertisers can combine the physical versions of the advertisements with their virtual versions.

#6. Outdoor Advertising

Now that billboards have gone digital, it’s a huge way to make an effective statement. Transit ads are another kind of advertisement that falls under the outdoors category. You can feature your product or service on buses, taxis, bike messenger services and cabs, food truck rental in New York. Promoting your product with this technique gives you the benefit of excellent brand recognition as these sorts of advertisements are seen everywhere daily and make your offerings hard to forget.

#7. Direct Mail and Personal Sales

Direct mail, or the art of sending a compelling sales letter by snail mail to your target audience, can offer a healthy return on investment for small businesses if it’s done right. The process starts with identifying your target market, then sending an enticing offer out to all of those prospects. Measuring the responses helps you in finding out which type of customers are responding to this format, so you can be more precise when it comes to selecting your next set of target customers.

In a similar vein, direct or personal sales are still an enormous area of advertising, especially for little businesses. Good salespersons can use their skills to persuade customers to buy a product. If the salesperson is particularly effective, the customer will still spread the word about your product through recommendations and referrals.

#8. Email Marketing

A kind of advertisement that is focused on your existing customers, email marketing involves your customers signing up for promotional sales or newsletters focused on your brand. Email marketing is an updated customer loyalty promotion program and works very well when you treat customers as insiders with special privileges

#9. Product Placement

This kind of advertisement is becoming more common with every passing day. If you pay for a podcast host to mention the fact that they use your product or pay a television show to feature a character talking about or using your service, that is product placement. You can also reach out to popular YouTube content creators to plug your product in their videos.

#10. Event Marketing

If you pay and sponsor the kit for a sports team or sponsor an event where your company’s name will be visible everywhere, you are involving yourself in something called event marketing. These types of advertisements help a vast and diverse group of customers to familiarize themselves with your name. During the event, a lot of people hear your name and associate it with the event they are witnessing. They might go back home and do some research on your brand. Many companies also look to conventions for this niche of advertisement.

While there are a lot of types of advertisements in today’s world, what all advertisers must always remember while using them, are these words of John Oglivy: “What you say in advertising is more important than how you say it.”