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Display vs. Search vs. Social Ads vs. PPC: What’s the Difference?

Display vs. Search vs. Social Ads vs. PPC: What's the Difference?

A lot of small business owners are confused about which type of advertising they should be using. Display, Search, Social Ads, or PPC? We’re here to help you understand the differences between these types of ads and how to use them effectively. In this blog post, we’ll talk about what each type of ad is and how it can benefit your business.

Display Ads vs. Search Ads vs. Social Ads vs. PPC

Display Ads: The Most Traditional Form of Online Advertising

Display ads are a type of online advertisement that usually appears as a banner or sidebar on a website. The ad uses images and text and has a URL embedded within it. When a viewer clicks the ad, it takes them to the URL so they can purchase a product or service or even just sign up for a mailing list.

Search Ads

Search advertising refers to the ads that appear at the top of your search engine results. Whenever you make a Google search or a query on another search engine, you’ll see that above the organic results are usually several advertisements. These are text-based and appear to be pretty much the same as the organic results, save for a marker showing they are ads.

Read more: Organic vs. Paid Marketing: What’s the Best Strategy?

Social Media Ads

This is a newer form of marketing that allows companies to advertise on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Social display ads usually appear in the user’s feed and are marked as advertisements.

PPC (pay-per-click) Ads

This is less a type of ad and more of an online advertising model. With PPC display ads, advertisers pay each time somebody clicks on their advertisement, but not for the placement itself. This is a highly economical approach for many businesses.

As you can see, there are many different types of digital ads that work for a variety of situations, including search advertising and display advertising. If you are uncertain how to approach online advertising, our SEO specialists in Cumming are here to help. We offer comprehensive solutions that are designed to make it easy for your company to find online success without taking on the tasks yourself or breaking the bank. Known for our successful PPC campaign management and SEO optimization, we have the skills and experience you need and are ready to put them to work for you.

To learn more about online advertising, read: How to Get More Leads With PPC Campaigns.

Jeff Tormey

Jeff Tormey

Founder, SEO Guru Atlanta | SEO since 2001
Jeff started learning SEO in 2001 and founded SEO Guru Atlanta in Cumming, GA. He and his team help local and national businesses rank in Google, dominate AI search results, and turn organic visibility into consistent revenue growth.

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