The 9 Top Places to Advertise Online In [2020]

Good advertising is crucial for every successful business so it’s crucial to learn which are the best places to advertise online.

Regardless of the size of your business, you will want your advertising efforts to go beyond your local advertising channels.

Online advertising provides you with a convenient method to market your services and products to potential customers.

There are numerous options to select from when you are considering places to advertise online.

From local directories to massive paid search platforms, you can reach nearly any target audience you want.

If you run a small business, you might want to advertise your offerings to as many prospects as possible.

However, not all online marketing platforms are suitable for all customers.

To help you determine the best tools that can help you realize your ROI goals, we will discuss the top places to advertise online.

Let’s take a look!

One of the slightly obvious but extremely important places to advertise your business online is Google.

According to statistics, there are approximately 3.5 billion searches performed per day on Google.

The platform offers you three major opportunities for your company to get a presence on Google’s search results pages.

That means you don’t have an excuse for not having an online presence on Google.

These opportunities include:

• Search Ads: The first opportunity is via Google’s search Ads. These adverts are essential because they enable you to reach your customers in real-time as they look for the services and goods you offer.
• Google My Business: The second opportunity offered is through Google My Business listings, and it’s free to operate. This method allows you to provide people looking for your company with basic information.
• Organic listings: The last opportunity is through Google’s organic listings. To show in the organic listings, you require an SEO plan that will incorporate work on your website’s backend in your site’s content.

• It allows you to target specific audiences
• You can reach a bigger audience
• It easy and fast to set up
• Keyword marketing ensures that your Ads remain relevant
• It allows you to design multiple types of Ads
• Analytics provides you with insights to continually improve your advertising
• Remarketing with Google enables you to maintain a healthy connection with your past visitors
• The keywords keep your business competitive
• Google advertising works within your set budget
• It is easy to measure the success of your marketing campaigns

• High-value keywords are usually competitive
• Pay per click advertising can get expensive
• People rely on natural results more than Ads
• Google Ads require expert management

One of the other great places to advertise your business online is Facebook.

Facebook is among the social media platforms that are most widely used by many people.

Almost 2.5 billion individuals worldwide use Facebook, which accounts for over 30% of the total population worldwide.

With many people using the Facebook platform, you can rest assured that you will reach a target audience that is relevant to your business.

That is where audience targeting, one of the most influential features of Facebook advertising, comes into play.

Facebook advertising includes a wide range of adverts types, including:

• Lead ads
• Video ads
• Story ads
• Photo ads

Video ads are ideal for branding and product explainer videos, while photo adverts are excellent for sharing image content collections.

Story ads enable you to utilize a combination of a short-form video and photo content.

• You can reach a wider audience
• Reaching customer is pretty easy through targeting
• You can market with minimal investments and still realize good results
• It helps you create good relationships with your customers, which helps in building customer loyalty and brand image
• You don’t have to be a professional marketer to advertise your business with Facebook because it is easy to use
• Facebook team is constantly developing the platform to ease user’s experience and boost business opportunities
• It allows you to track customer behavior across different mobile devices

• It is time-consuming and requires a lot of effort to keep the business pages up-to-date
• Facebook has limited budgeting options
• Facebook’s algorithm limits brand messages’ visibility leading to less organic views

You can also market your small business on Instagram via Facebook Ads Manager.

According to statistics, Instagram has more than 1 billion users monthly across the world.

The majority of these monthly users fall between 18 and 34 years.

There are three major ways that you can market your business on Instagram:

• Creating advert campaigns in your Facebook Adverts manager to get access to full targeting capabilities.
• Promoting stories and posts right away from your Instagram account.
• Designing adverts using your Facebook Page and promoting them on both Instagram and Facebook.
• The first option is the best for small and medium sized businesses and creating customized campaigns for your target audience on Instagram.

The types of ads supported by Instagram include:

• Video ads
• Photo ads
• Story ads
• Shopping Post ads
• Ads in Explore

Currently, the most interesting types of ads are Shopping Post ads and Ads in Explore.

Many people utilize the Instagram Explore option to discover their interests and find new content creators.

Furthermore, adverts on Instagram Explore offer you a good opportunity to place your business in front of new audiences.

• Instagram increases brand visibility
• Your business will enjoy detailed targeting
• Instagram Ads enhance brand awareness
• It offers a high engagement rate
• Instagram offers various advertising options
• Their adverts drive traffic to your business website

• It has a limited audience
• It allows minimal text copy
• Instagram has diminished organic reach
• It is time-consuming

Twitter has more than 330 million users every month across the world.

The majority of these users fall between 35 and 65 years old.

Twitter is not as huge as Instagram or Facebook, and its advertising capacity is also limited.

However, it’s still among the best social media networks for content marketing.

This platform can also help you generate more engagement and reach more people.

Twitter is ideal when you want to market blog posts, articles, or other content that can assist you in establishing your company as a strong authority in your industry.

You can also utilize the platform to tweet about coupons and sales.

• Twitter has a global reach
• It allows you to engage with a large audience
• You can reach many people with keyword targeting
• Twitter enables you to have active dialogues with your audiences
• It allows you to use scheduled tweets keep your audience engaged

• Twitter allows limited messaging
• It is fast-paced, and your business might go unnoticed
• Users might see promoted or sponsored tweets as spam
• It is time-intensive

Most of the users on this platform are working professionals, making it a perfect place for business-to-business (B2B) marketing.

It is also effective for service-based businesses that significantly draw from certain professions.

As a social advertising platform, LinkedIn allows you to create video ads or banners in users’ timelines such as Facebook.

You can also use text ads and inbox adverts in the sidebar.

• It allows you to measure the impact and success of your messages
• You can deliver targeted messages with one call to action
• It drives stronger engagements and responses than conventional mails
• LinkedIn has a higher lead quality
• It offers targeting options that are related and specific to the user’s needs
• You can create an advert account and use the self-serve options based on your advertising goals
• It offers varied Ad formats to select from

• It has limited learning resources
• Quality leads or clicks come at a higher cost compared to other platforms
• It is not an ideal platform for e-commerce

According to Forbes, the YouTube search engine is the second biggest after Google, with more than 2 billion monthly users worldwide.

YouTube ads appear as stand-alone promoted videos displayed after performing searches.

The ads also appear during and before other YouTube videos.

You can easily target interests and demographic information when making YouTube ads.

As a result, you can serve the videos to more relevant and specific audiences that are already watching YouTube videos on related topics or from similar brands.

• You will enjoy ultra-targeting advertising
• It offers content marketing possibilities
• Since YouTube has a wider reach, your message will reach a bigger audience
• YouTube advertising is more measurable than conventional advertising
• It has less competition
• YouTube is free to use
• It has no video length regulations
• Sharing videos is pretty easy

• Creating YouTube videos takes more time than other platforms
• You need to do your marketing
• It has a slow growth
• You have no control over the form of content your ads appear with

TikTok is a new player in the social media marketing world. It has around 500 million active members each month.

It is all about developing creative, short, and sometimes funny videos.

However, the advertising options are limited and are mostly geared towards increasing awareness.

TikTok started allowing advertising recently but does not hyperlink posts to any websites.

Therefore, the businesses using TikTok focus mainly on boosting brand awareness instead of driving traffic or leads.

• It allows you to develop creative videos
• Your brand will be exposed to millions of users
• TikTok adverts play automatically
• You can easily reach new markets

• Advert censorship is quite common
• TikTok is not a suitable platform for audiences above 30 years
• TikTok adverts are quite expensive

Pinterest has 300 million active users. It is a unique social media network with highly engaged users who are predominantly female.

Pinterest is the only social media platform where people come to see adverts from the brands they love since the platform is all about great visuals.

It is ideal for businesses with female target buyers’ persona.

Pinterest is also an excellent option for businesses that depend on good photography to promote and sell their offerings.

• Pinterest offers extended pin lifetime value
• It has a higher conversion rate
• Driving traffic with Pinterest is pretty easy
• It is ideal for visual brands
• Pinterest helps boost your brand SEO
• It is free to set up and use

• Pinterest caters predominantly to women
  
• It is quite expensive to automate
• It is very time-intensive

Snapchat has around 218 million users who are mainly made of persons between 18 and 24 years.

The platform provides a few advert types, including sponsored tiles, Snapchat Discover, augmented reality or AR lenses, and story ads.

The ad types supported by Snapchat are quite similar to Instagram’s advertising options.

However, the AR lenses make Snapchat a bit unique.

The AR lenses are typically sponsored by businesses to create incredibly interactive moments that the platform users can utilize and share with friends.

• It supports one-on-one interactions with customers
• Snapchat allows you to reach younger audiences
• It is an excellent option for influencer marketing
• Snapchat offers a great way to demonstrate company culture

• The images have short lifespans
• Snapchat has limited engagement
• It is content-heavy, so you need a lot of content to remain active
• Snapchat is not ideal for straight-up marketing
• It is quite difficult to create an impact

Online advertising is becoming quite competitive, and many businesses are shifting to digital marketing to drive more traffic and leads.

The above list does not cover all the platforms you can use to market your business, but it does highlight the top places to advertise online.

Even within all these online platforms, there are various marketing strategies that you can use.

However, not all of these marketing strategies will work for every business.

Before trying these platforms out, you need to do your research to learn how they work and their charges.

Afterward, you can create different ad campaigns and test them on various platforms to determine what works best for your business.

Navigating the online advertising world can be confusing, particularly with the current proliferation of search engines and social media networks.

If you don’t know where to start or would like to ensure that your marketing budget doesn’t go to waste, you can contact us.

Our professional agency can help craft an effective marketing path for your business to give you higher returns on your investment.