Online Advertising Platforms: 10 Top Picks for Marketers

7 min read

SEO takes time to show results, but ads are something that can bring instant traffic and drive sales quickly.

Earlier, they were not paid much heed, but now online ads have become the backbone of marketing and branding.

However, choosing the right online advertising platform is a prerequisite for the entire process. If you are also planning to promote your brand, then here are 10 top online advertising platforms where you can start advertising to get maximum impact.

Top 10 Online Advertising Platforms

Social media and search engines have become the top places to run ads and gain an instant response from the audience. But their features, pricing, and ad options vary a lot.

The core doubt is how much time people spend on that particular platform, which depends on 1 formula.

The more time people spend on a platform, the higher the chance they’ll see ads, and the better the online advertising platform.

Based on this pattern, here are the top 10 online advertising platforms where you can run your ads.

1. Google Ads

Google Ads is the most used ad platform. You might have observed certain ads appearing just above the search results where you can see “Sponsored” when you search for something on Google. These are Google ads.

There are no uniform ad rates for it, as they vary based on keyword competition, ad quality, etc.

However, you get a bunch of options to run ads on it. These are:

Search ads are seen on the search result pages.
Shopping ads provide concise product overviews and deals
Video Ads for running ads on YouTube.
Display ads for visual campaigns appearing on website pages.
App ads that users see on the Google Play app.

Suggested Read: PPC Campaign Management: What to Check Before and After Your Ads Go Live

2. Meta Ads

Meta ads are the next most-used online advertising form, which includes Instagram and Facebook ads.

Facebook and Instagram each have more than 3 billion monthly users, so they are counted amongst the biggest social media platforms for business.

Like Google Ads, Meta Ads also provide you with decent options to run your ads. This includes:

Image Ads
Video Ads
Carousel ads
Slideshow ads
Collection ads
Instant experience ads

All these categories are to engage the audience based on their interests.

As Instagram has become one of the top social media ad platforms for advertising a brand, these ads work as a channel to gain Instagram followers fast and promote the brand.

3. TikTok Ads

TikTok has also been gathering immense attention, especially from the youth, which makes it a great place to run ads and attract an audience.

However, its reach has been limited in the past few years due to restrictions in certain countries like India

You can consider any of the following ad types.

In-Feed Ads
Spark Ads
TopView Ads
TikTok Shopping Ads

Advertisers can also use its robust targeting features to reach the audience based on demographics, interests, behaviours, or customs.

For these ads, you can use the Campaign Level ad type with a minimum daily budget of $50 USD, and the Ad Group Level type, for which a minimum daily budget of $20 USD is required.

4. LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn is a professional online platform mostly considered best for advertising services.

As per Hootsuite, the average ad cost for LinkedIn ads is

Cost per Click	$5-$10
Cost per 1000 impressions	$30-$60
Cost per lead	$60-$175

Although it doesn’t attract as much audience as compared to Instagram and Google, brands still use it for:

Professional targeting based on job titles, industry, skills, etc.
Appears in professional feeds rather than in unpredictable sections.
Carries comprehensive capabilities from lead capture forms to video awareness drives.
Enhances reach through message advertisements.

5. X ads

X (Twitter) is the most-used microblogging site and is considered a short-form yet productive idea-sharing platform. It is not an entertainment platform, but rather a great social networking site.

Considering its ads, the platform provides certain ad credits for a specific currency amount. See the table below.

People often opt for this advertising platform owing to the multimillion monthly users base and also it is most used to share ideas rather than visual content. This makes it a bit more professional compared to Instagram and YouTube.

6. Amazon Ads

Amazon is the world’s largest e-commerce platform, and that’s what makes it the most magnificent place to run product ads.

Amazon defines its ad functions in the crispest way.

It gives a variety of ad options to users, which include:

Sponsored Products
Sponsored Brand Campaigns
Product Display Ads
Video Ads
Amazon Store
Amazon Native Ads

The prevailing rates of these ads range from $0.80 to $12 based on the type.

7. Microsoft Ads

Microsoft ads are less popular yet a significantly beneficial online advertising platform. Usually, people know it for the Bing search engine, but MSN, Outlook, and Windows are some of the places where their ads appear.

Microsoft ads are best for:

Lower cost than Google Ads
Covers a unique audience
AI integration further simplifies the ad campaign

Here, you will get a couple of ad options such as:

Search ads that appear on the search page of Bing.
Shopping ads that appear when users search for buying something
Multimedia ads that show up on the edge, Outlook, and MSN.

8. Reddit Ads

Reddit is one of the most-used discussion (Q&A) forums and has a good user base. People generally visit Reddit to find answers, and if they see something in the ads that aligns with their needs, they make the purchase right away.

The user can also modify the intent based on certain features such as user interest, geography, devices, etc.

Reddit stands as one of the best online advertising platforms

Lower ad saturation than other ad platforms
High attention
Usually authentic feedbacks

So, those searching for users and a thoughtful audience may opt for it.

9. Apple Ads

Apple Ads is a great opportunity these days since the craze for Apple seems to be rising every time a new model is launched.

These ads are seen on Apple’s App Store and work like other ad platforms, where users bid on keywords and pay that price when a user taps on that particular ad.

The key difference between this online ad platform and others is that Apple Ads takes users directly to the app advertised in the ad and not to a website.

However, it is limited to the Apple App Store, which makes it a bit of a low-key option for advertisers.

10. ChatGPT Ads

ChatGPT has also joined the race of running ads in its conversations. These ads are not shown to users with Plus, Pro, or any Business plan, or to those below the age of 18 years.

As per the OpenAI, currently, these ads appear in 60 countries mentioned below.

Algeria, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam

Also, ChatGPT ads won’t show up in between the answers. Rather, they will appear at the end of the generated response.

Users can run ads through impression-based buying (CPM) or click-based buying (CPM / CPC). Also, they get a detailed report related to impressions, clicks, spend, click-through rate (CTR), average CPC, average CPM, and conversions to make better strategies.

However, these ads don’t appear on any random query. Some ChatGPT best and comparison queries attract ads the most.

Conclusion

Choosing the right online advertising platform is the foundation of a strong branding process. For that, you need to understand where your audience concentrates; for example, Gen Z can be approached better on Instagram and YouTube, whereas professionals mostly visit LinkedIn and X.

Do this math first before processing your ads.