When considering how to invest your brand’s budget in advertising, you have plenty of options. From traditional formats like print ads and TV commercials to more modern avenues like social media and podcasts, each type offers unique benefits. Learn more about five of the most popular types of advertising and discover successful examples across different platforms.
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Types of advertisements
Advertisers have a variety of options for reaching their target audience. Here are five of the most popular types of advertisements:
Print advertising is a traditional form of marketing that uses eye-catching visuals and ad copy to connect with potential customers. You can find print ads in newspapers, magazines, and flyers, as well as on posters and billboards.
The cost of print ads varies widely, depending on the medium and length of your advertising campaign. For example, renting a billboard for a month could set you back several hundred dollars or tens of thousand of dollars, depending on the market. Similarly, taking out an ad in your local newspaper might cost a few hundred dollars, whereas a small ad in The Washington Post can cost thousands.
Social media
Social media ads are advertisements that appear on social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, and Pinterest. One of the biggest advantages of social media advertising is it lets you target users in specific demographics with specific interests.
Each platform offers its own advertising options. For example, you can run digital banner ads on Facebook’s website, or you can pay the platform to serve one of your posts (composed of text, images, or video) to users beyond your following. Pricing for social media ads varies, depending on the platform, the specific type of ad, and the scope and duration of your advertising campaign.
Web
There are a plethora of digital advertising options beyond social media. Any website—from a blog to an online publication—can run banner ads around the margins of its content. Email marketing involves sending targeted ads directly to users’ inboxes.
Search ads are another popular form of digital ad, appearing at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). These advertising campaigns target specific keywords to appeal to users who are actively looking for related products or services. The cost of an online ad depends on many different factors, meaning it’s possible to design an advertising campaign that will work with any budget.
Radio and podcast
Radio and podcast advertisements reach potential customers using an audio format. Radio ads are more traditional, airing during breaks in programming. A 30-second radio ad can cost up to thousands of dollars, depending on the market. Since many radio stations are local, radio advertising can work especially well for local businesses.
Podcast advertising is good for targeting a niche audience that’s interested in a particular subject. This specificity means advertisers can choose podcasts that are closely related to their products and can resonate with their target audience. A pre-recorded 60-second podcast ad costs, on average, between $15 and $30 CPM (cost per mille, or cost per thousand impressions), while deals requiring the host to read the ad generally cost more.
Television and streaming
TV commercials are short (typically 15 to 30 seconds) ad placements that air during breaks in television shows or other programming. Broadcast TV ad spots can reach a wide audience but tend to be expensive, averaging more than $30 CPM. Small businesses with tight budgets might instead consider running advertising campaigns on local TV, which averages $20 CPM, or on cable TV, which averages $16 CPM.
Streaming ads use the same format as TV commercials but appear on a streaming service, such as Amazon Prime or Disney+. Since streaming services are able to gather more data on their viewers than TV networks can, video ads on a streaming platform can reach a more niche audience. This additional value is reflected in the pricing, which averages $50 CPM, with options ranging from $25 CPM to $75 CPM, depending on the program during which the ad will run.
12 of the best advertising examples
- Fly by Jing
- Gymshark
- Liquid I.V.
- Fashion Nova
- Ridge
- Nectar Sleep
- Oatly
- Ruggable
- The Farmer’s Dog
- Kitty Poo Club
- Flourist
- Verve Coffee Roasters
A successful advertising campaign can take many forms. Here are 12 excellent advertising examples across different platforms.
1. Fly by Jing
Fly by Jing makes Sichuan sauces and spices. The brand has used social media to connect with its audience since its viral Kickstarter campaign in 2018. During Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month in 2022, Fly by Jing was one of 11 Asian American food companies that collaborated on an Instagram giveaway designed to boost followings for all involved. “We're a really tight-knit community and love activating with each other’s audiences regularly," says Jing Gao, the company’s founder.
2. Gymshark
Gymshark, a fitness apparel company, uses YouTube videos as a content marketing tool. The brand shares workout videos and other fun video content made by trainers, athletes, and fitness influencers to engage viewers and showcase the brand’s products through product placement.
3. Liquid I.V.
Liquid I.V., an electrolyte drink mix brand, targets Gen Zers and millennials with a multiplatform advertising campaign, including podcast ads and streaming ads on Hulu and Peacock. The company has sponsored dozens of podcasts—including The Bill Simmons Podcast, Sounds Like a Cult, and Anything Goes With Emma Chamberlain—with the podcast hosts writing and reading the scripts for the ads. This approach, which is similar to influencer marketing on social media, can make the ads feel more authentic to listeners because they’re coming from a trusted source.
4. Fashion Nova
Women’s clothing brand Fashion Nova shares customer’s social media posts on its Instagram page. As a result, Fashion Nova’s followers see real customers wearing the brand’s products versus only models. In this marketing strategy, resharing user-generated content lets the brand source a wide variety of images without the need for a photo shoot. The images serve as testimonials for those considering a purchase and potentially make customers feel more connected to the brand.
5. Ridge
Minimalist wallet company Ridge offers a great example of visually appealing digital advertising. One successful ad campaign used banner ads to highlight the difference between the company’s wallet and a traditional wallet in a side-by-side comparison showing how much slimmer the Ridge wallet is. It also extended this same messaging to its Instagram page.
6. Nectar Sleep
Mattress company Nectar Sleep ran an advertising campaign targeting Google search results for competitor Tuft & Needle. By bidding on its competitor’s name as a search term and using attention-grabbing ad copy (“Don’t Buy That Other Mattress”), Nectar Sleep’s goal was to persuade Tuft & Needle’s potential customers to buy its product instead.
7. Oatly
Businesses often turn to digital marketing to share their most creative ads, but oat milk company Oatly believes print advertising is still worth investing in. It ran a fun and thought-provoking print campaign in The Guardian and its Sunday publication, The Observer. The full-spread ads, cover wraps, and commissioned articles used cartoon characters Norm and Al to challenge traditional food norms and encourage readers to consider plant-based options.
8. Ruggable
Washable rug company Ruggable used influencer marketing to increase its return on ad spend (ROAS) by 32%. It partnered with 400 influencers, including parents, pet owners, and interior designers who share the interests of the brand’s target audience. These partnerships have resulted in 2,300 posts, 36 million impressions, and 166,000 new followers for Ruggable.
9. The Farmer’s Dog
Direct-to-consumer dog food brand The Farmer’s Dog ran a Super Bowl commercial in 2023 that attempted to forge an emotional connection with viewers while urging them to choose healthy food for their pets. The ad tells the story of a girl and her labrador, following them from childhood and puppyhood onward. Eventually, the girl becomes a woman with a baby of her own, and her (now senior) dog is still by her side. The commercial closes on the words: “Nothing matters more than more years together.”
10. Kitty Poo Club
Kitty Poo Club, which sells cat litter and disposable litter boxes on a subscription basis, has run successful ad campaigns on Facebook. When the company launched, its paid Facebook ads resulted in 1,400 new customer sign-ups in just 20 days. Now, the brand focuses on sharing customer testimonials and, based on engagement data, chopped its one-minute video ad into two 30-second ads.
11. Flourist
Flourist, which sells freshly milled flour, has a strong content marketing strategy to promote products. It shares profiles on its farmers, educates its audience on different types of flours (and how to store them), and offers recipes for sourdough bagels, an heirloom tomato galette, glazed lemon cake, and other baked goods.
12. Verve Coffee Roasters
Ads on search engines, such as Google, can be a powerful tool for reaching an audience with a high purchase intent. But Verve Coffee Roasters doesn’t want members of its target audience to just scroll past its Google search ad, so the California company offers multiple links to various landing pages, including to a subscription page, an online quiz to “find your coffee match,” a page with discounted products, and information about how it sources its beans. This strategy helps guide various customer segments to the parts of Verve’s website in which they are most interested.
Advertisement examples FAQ
What are the different types of advertising?
Some of the most popular types of ads include print, social media, online, radio, podcast, television, and streaming.
Why is advertising important?
Advertising—such as print ads, sponsored content on social media, and commercials on streaming services—is how brands reach potential customers and nudge existing customers to return.
What is an example of a good advertisement?
Examples of good advertisements include Fly by Jing’s Instagram collaboration with other Asian American businesses, The Farmer’s Dog’s emotional Super Bowl commercial, and Oatly’s creative print campaign.
