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.