Being a method through which many companies promote their products, online advertising has taken off quite a lot with the increase in popularity of the Internet. More and more people frequent the Internet on a regular basis and in doing so notice a plethora of advertisements for some product or another. It is a great method through which both small businesses and multinational corporations alike can market their products and as such, an abundance of these businesses integrate online advertising into their marketing tactics.

Though there is a wealth of techniques through which online advertising can be carried out, the most popular form at the present is through rich media sources. To elaborate, rich media sources include such things as Macromedia Flash and these are used to advertise a company's product. Sometimes they may be quite simple whereas other times these ads can be a little more complex, utilizing such things as streaming video and audio to convey the message in a manner similar to a television commercial. They may appear in a variety of ways while you are browsing the Internet also. Frequently these online advertisements will materialize before the requested content on the website while other times they will scroll across the screen. Some of these online advertisements are, in fact, scaled-down adaptations of actual television commercials. These also appear frequently when you are attempting to view some media source for the Internet.

The infrastructure that is necessary for online advertising can become quite pricy if one wishes to develop an elaborate set of advertisements and as such many small businesses shy away from online aspect of marketing. However for those that can incorporate online advertising into their marketing scheme, it can become a rather beneficial tool. Not only does it permit the expansion of markets but it also allows a company the opportunity to showcase their creativity.