The Complete Guide to Paid Advertising in 2025

How PPC, Performance Max, Programmatic, OTT/CTV, Social, and Emerging Formats Work both Individually and Together to Drive Real Business Results

Paid advertising isn’t a single tactic, it’s an evolving toolkit that spans search, social, display, video, streaming TV, audio, native placements, and even digital billboards. Each format has its own strengths, costs, and optimization levers, yet the best-performing campaigns rarely rely on just one. Instead, they stitch multiple channels into a connected customer journey: awareness on the big screen, consideration in the feed, conversion in search, and retention through remarketing.

This article breaks down every major category of paid media you’re likely to touch this year, explaining how each works, when to use it, and how to layer them for maximum impact. Bookmark, share, and link back. We’ll also be completing future deep-dive posts that will build on the foundation set here.

Pay Per Click Search Advertising (Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising)

What is Pay Per Click?

Classic “PPC” shows text ads above or beside organic results when users search specific keywords on Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and partner networks. Advertisers bid in real time for each click.

What are PPC Ads Best Used for?

Intent rich moments, essentially moments when someone literally asks for a solution such as “emergency plumber,” or “best CRM for nonprofits”. Search ads harvest existing demand rather than creating it.

Key Pieces of PPC Advertising

• Keyword match types (exact, phrase, broad, broad-match-modified) control reach vs. relevance.
• Quality Score (QS) factors ad relevance, landing-page experience, and expected CTR. If you raise your QS it cuts your Cost Per Click (CPC).
• Ad extensions (call, location, sitelinks) boost visibility and drive micro-conversions such as tap-to-call.

Items to Watch Out for

High competition industries like legal and insurance can cost $50–$150 per click. Tight negative keyword lists, compelling ad copy, and granular account structure keep ROI healthy.

Performance Max Campaigns (Google Ads)

What is Performance Max in Google Ads?

Launched in 2023, Performance Max (PMax) is Google’s black box campaign type that serves ads across all its inventory. Search, Display Network, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, and Discover are all optimizing toward a single goal such as purchases or leads.

What are PMax Ads Best For?

Performance Max ads are best utilized by data rich advertisers with clear conversion signals, whether they be online sales, website conversions, or CRM synced offline conversions. PMax is powerful for ecommerce catalogs and local services chains that want broad reach without managing dozens of separate campaigns.

How it Differs from Standard PPC

• You provide assets such as headlines, descriptions, images, and videos. Google assembles and places creatives autonomously.
• Targeting is audience signal first rather than keyword first.
• Reporting shows aggregated asset group performance, not granular placement data, so the transparency is much lower.

3 Tips to Win Clients and Customers with PMax

1. Feed clean first party conversion data via enhanced conversions or offline import.
2. Exclude brand keywords from PMax if a standalone Brand campaign already dominates them to prevent cannibalization.
3. Group products or services with similar margins into separate asset groups to control ROAS targets.

Programmatic Display & Video

What are Programmatic Ads?

Programmatic buying uses real-time bidding (RTB) on ad exchanges to place banners, native units, and out-stream video across thousands of websites and apps. Think of it as the evolved version of display ads with AI-driven audience and contextual targeting.

These Ads are Best for

Programmatic ads are best used for mid-funnel expansion and retargeting. Programmatic excels at reaching narrowly defined audiences like people looking to purchase a luxury SUV or fintech decision makers at scale.

Core components

• Demand-Side Platform (DSP): Your control console such as The Trade Desk, DV360, or Amazon DSP.
• Data Management Platform (DMP) / CDP: Houses first party data to build audience segments.
• Data providers: Oracle, Epsilon, Experian supply 3rd-party audiences when compliant.
• Supply-Side Platform (SSP): Publisher inventory pipes like Google Ad Manager and Magnite.

Advanced options

• Dynamic creative optimization (DCO) personalizes messages on the fly.
• Contextual AI targets page topics instead of cookies, which will become critical in the seemingly cookieless future.
• Digital out-of-home (DOOH) extends programmatic into connected billboards and airport screens.

OTT / Connected TV (CTV) Advertising

What is Over The Top (OTT) Advertising?

Ads delivered within streaming video services and Smart-TV apps: Hulu, Peacock, Roku, Amazon Freevee, Pluto TV, and countless FAST (free ad-supported TV) channels.

Why OTT and Connected TV are Different

• Up-front budgets once reserved CTV for big brands. Now self-serve DSP integrations let mid-size advertisers target households by zip code, genre, or behavioral segments.
• Completion rates hover at 90 percent plus because users can’t skip the ads. CPMs, ranging from $20 to $40, are higher but ads are effective.

How is OTT Measured?

• “Incremental reach” shows what percent of CTV impressions hit households not reached by linear TV.
• Device graph vendors match exposed households to website visits or online purchases for closed-loop ROAS.

What Scenarios are Best to Use OTT/CTV?

OTT and CTV should be used for Brand storytelling utilizing 30-second spots and retargeting for users who visited your site but didn’t convert.

Paid Social Media

Platform	Strengths	Popular Ad Types	Typical Use Cases
Meta (Facebook, Instagram)	Largest multi-demo reach, granular interest & lookalike targeting	Image, carousel, Reels, lead-gen forms	Ecommerce, local services, B2C lead gen
TikTok	Viral short-form video, creator marketplace	In-feed, Spark Ads, TopView	Brand awareness for Gen Z & Millennials
LinkedIn	Professional segmentation by job title, firm size	Sponsored content, message ads, conversation ads	B2B demand gen, recruiting
Pinterest	High intent for DIY, fashion, home décor	Promoted pins, idea ads	Visual discovery, remarketing
X / Threads / Reddit / Quora	Niche communities, topical feeds	Promoted tweets, conversation units	Real-time engagement, thought leadership

Why Social Matters in 2025

Algorithms prioritize creative quality and engagement signals. Ad relevance scores can slash CPMs when your posts feel native. Social media also feeds remarketing lists for search and programmatic channels.

Native & Sponsored Content

These are ads that mimic the look and feel of editorial content within news feeds like Taboola or Outbrain, or in-platform sponsorships in publications like Forbes BrandVoice or BuzzFeed sponsored quizzes.

The Right Time to Utilize Native Content

You should put native content into motion for top of funnel storytelling. Native units capture attention without banner blindness. They work well for SaaS thought leadership pieces, long-form product guides, or quiz style lead magnets synced to a nurturing funnel.

What Metrics to Watch for

You should review time on page, scroll depth, and assisted conversions, rather than immediate sales, as leading indicators of success.

Audio Ads & Podcast Sponsorships

Streaming audio platforms like Spotify, Pandora, and iHeartRadio and podcasts sell 15 to 60 second slots or host read endorsements. Interactive “call-to-Spotify-list” ads and dynamic ad insertion let you geotarget commuters or retarget users who paused a music session.

Audio Ad Use Cases

If you are looking to generate brand lift during commutes, awareness for local events, or product education where visuals aren’t required, audio ads can be the right answer.

5 Ways These Channels Work Together

1. Awareness Layer
   OTT/CTV, Programmatic Video, and Broad Paid Social build reach.
2. Consideration Layer
   Native articles, Carousel social ads, and YouTube in-stream explain benefits.
3. Intent Layer
   PPC Search, Shopping Ads, and Gmail Sponsored Promotions capture high-intent queries.
4. Conversion Layer
   Remarketing across Display, Facebook/Instagram, and Performance Max nudges cart abandoners.
5. Retention & Upsell Layer
   Email automation, CRM-synced audience lists, and post-purchase social ads drive reviews and repeat sales.

A unified measurement framework by setting up first-party pixel, server-side tracking, and UTMs ensures credit flows correctly across touchpoints.

Budgeting & Attribution

Rule of 70 / 20 / 10

• 70 % to proven channels (often Search and/or Meta).
• 20 % to scale contenders (OTT, Programmatic Video).
• 10 % to experimental formats (Reddit, in-game ads, AR filters).

Attribution models

While last click attribution favors search, data-driven or algorithmic models spread credit across the funnel. Post iOS 17, server-side tracking and modeled conversions are table stakes.

Creative & Landing-Page Alignment

• If your search ad promises “24/7 AC repair”, The landing page needs to reinforce that with a click to call header option.
• If the OTT spot highlights “90-day free trial”, retargeting banners should reinforce that offer. You should not introduce a new call to action.
• If your Programmatic display ads drive users to white-paper downloads, lead forms must preload name/email from audience data to ease friction.

Consistency boosts Quality Scores, relevance metrics, and ultimately lowers customer/client acquisition costs.

Compliance & Privacy Considerations

Region	Key Laws	Impact on Paid Ads
US (state level)	CCPA/CPRA, Colorado, Virginia privacy acts	Opt-out links, GPC signal support, limited use of sensitive segments
EU / UK	GDPR, ePrivacy Directive	Legitimate-interest assessments, CMP consent for cookies
Canada	CPPA (pending)	Explicit consent for personalized ads
Global	Google’s Privacy Sandbox, Apple SKAdNetwork	Modeled conversions replace some deterministic signals

Prepare with server-side tagging, first party data capture, and contextual targeting strategies.

4 Future-Facing Formats to Watch

1. Retail Media Networks such as Walmart Connect and Instacart Ads are closing the loop on in store purchases.
2. In-Game Programmatic displays billboards inside AAA titles updated in real time.
3. AR/VR placements, such as sponsored lenses and metaverse product trials, are emerging advertising formats to watch.
4. AI-Generated Dynamic Creative are GPT-powered copy variations tailored at the impression level.

Being an early mover lets brands lock in lower CPMs and gather proprietary performance data before channels mature.

Putting It All Together: A Sample Cross-Channel Blueprint

• Month 1 – 2 (Rapid Validation)
  Launch branded and non-brand Search, high intent retargeting Display, and Meta lookalike campaigns.
• Month 3 – 4 (Scale Awareness)
  Add OTT/CTV ads featuring 15 second cut downs of the hero video and feed the resulting site visitors into a PMax remarketing audience.
• Month 5 – 6 (Diversify & Optimize)
  Layer Programmatic Native for thought leadership, test TikTok TopView bursts around product drops, and integrate Amazon DSP if selling DTC on-platform.
• Quarterly
  Consolidate performance data in a BI dashboard, adjust channel weights, refresh creative, and A/B test landing page variants.

Ready to Elevate Your Paid Media Mix? SEO Runners can Help!

Navigating today’s paid-ads landscape means juggling bidding algorithms, privacy rules, dozens of creative formats, and evolving attribution models. Whether you’re spending $3,000 a month on local search ads or $3 million a quarter across CTV, PMax, and programmatic, a cohesive strategy, not scattered tactics, separates runaway ROI from wasted impressions.

SEO Runners has deep, cross-channel expertise: granular keyword management in Google Ads, advanced audience building in The Trade Desk, Storyline split-testing for OTT, thumb stopping social videos, and the analytics horsepower to stitch it all together. We already manage budgets for scrappy startups, national franchise systems, and international brands, proving that the right strategy scales up and down.

Looking for a partner that can build, optimize, and unify your entire paid-ads ecosystem? Let’s talk today! We’ll map each channel to a specific funnel stage, craft creative that resonates, and deliver the transparent reporting you need to prove true business impact no matter how fast the media world evolves.