Definition

Online marketing

Online marketing (also called Internet marketing or web marketing) is marketing and advertising on the Internet aimed at building awareness about a company’s products, services or brand, drive traffic to its website and increase sales.

Companies use many different online marketing strategies, including the following:

  • Pay-per-click (PPC)—Paying to have ads appear on search engines like Google when users search on keywords related to a company’s products or services.
  • Banner advertising—Paying to place ads on other organizations’ websites.
  • Search engine optimization (SEO)—Making sure the company website uses keywords and other techniques to rank highly in search engine results.
  • Content marketing—Publishing online content (e.g., blogs and social media posts) on topics of interest to customers.
  • Email marketing—Emailing promotional business information or offers to prospective or existing customers.
  • Social media marketing—Posting content and advertising on social media platforms such as Facebook, X or LinkedIn to become better known and promote products or services.

More about online marketing

All online marketing has a cost, but some forms have a more direct cost than others—e.g., pay-per-click versus SEO. However, even SEO costs a company time and effort, which should be considered marketing expenses.

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