A Taxonomy of Online Marketing Methods

Abstract

This chapter presents a systematic review of over thirty (30) types of online marketing methods. It describes different methods like email marketing, social network marketing, in-game marketing and augmented reality marketing, among other approaches. The researchers discuss that the rationale for using these online marketing strategies is to increase brand awareness, customer centric marketing and consumer loyalty. They shed light on various personalization methods including recommendation systems and user generated content in their taxonomy of online marketing terms. Hence, they explain how these online marketing methods are related to each other. The researchers contend that the boundaries between online marketing methods have not been clarified enough within the academic literature. Therefore, this chapter provides a better understanding of different online marketing methods. A review of the literature suggests that the 'oldest' online marketing methods including the email and the websites are still very relevant for today's corporate communication. In conclusion, the researchers put forward their recommendations for future research about contemporary online marketing methods.

Full text

Chapter 14
A Taxonomy of Online Marketing
Methods
Mohammad Hajarian, Mark Anthony Camilleri,
Paloma Díaz and Ignacio Aedo
Abstract
This chapter presents a systematic review of over 30 types of online marketing
methods. It describes different methods like email marketing, social network
marketing, in-game marketing and augmented reality marketing, among
other approaches. The researchers discuss that the rationale for using these
online marketing strategies is to increase brand awareness, customer-centric
marketing and consumer loyalty. They shed light on various personalization
methods including recommendation systems and user-generated content in
their taxonomy of online marketing terms. Hence, they explain how these
online marketing methods are related to each other. The researchers contend
that the boundaries between online marketing methods have not been clari-
ed enough within the academic literature. Therefore, this chapter provides a
better understanding of different online marketing methods. A review of the
literature suggests that the “oldest” online marketing methods including the
email and the websites are still very relevant for today’s corporate communi-
cation. In conclusion, the researchers put forward their recommendations for
future research about contemporary online marketing methods.
Keywords: Online marketing; digital media; websites; search engine
optimization; Web 2.0; social media; blogs; review sites
14.1 Introduction
The origins of online marketing can be traced back to 1978, when Gary Thuerk
forwarded the rst advertising emails to 320 people (Oetjen, 2019). Since then,
online marketing has changed signicantly with the advances in technology.
Strategic Corporate Communication in the Digital Age, 235–250
Copyright © 2021 by Emerald Publishing Limited
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved
doi:10.1108/978-1-80071-264-520211014

236 Mohammad Hajarian et al.
In 2019, $333.25 billion was spent on digital marketing, and this expenditure is
projected to increase to $517.51 billion by the end of 2023 (eMarketer, 2019).
Google alone has registered a $24.1 billion income from AdSense and AdWords
during the third quarter of 2018 (Rosenberg, 2019). Most of this income was
generated through contextual digital advertisements (ads) that was presented to
online users (Hassan & Privitera, 2016). These descriptive statistics suggest that
online marketing is increasingly being used as a tool for corporate communication.
Generally, the marketing mix consists of the four Ps: Product, Price, Place and
Promotion. In online marketing, the Place represents social networks, websites
or mobile applications, to name a few, while Promotion is related to advertising,
branding and public relations (Harvey & An, 2018). Yet, the researchers contend
that the characteristics and effects of online marketing methods are still unclear
in the academic literature. For example, the concept of inuencer marketing is
often associated with electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) marketing and/or mes-
senger marketing is related to social network marketing in nonacademic sources.
Therefore, this chapter identies the online marketing terms and differentiates
between online marketing methods and online marketing strategies. It describes
those terms that are used to calculate the effectiveness of digital advertisements.
Hence, this contribution provides a better understanding on the taxonomy of
online marketing terms and concepts. It addresses a gap in the literature as it
sheds light on the differences and similarities of each online marketing method.
To this end, the researchers have conducted a systematic literature review that
categorized different online marketing terms, explained their usage and specied
the boundaries and relationships between them. They describe online market-
ing strategies such as gamication, viral marketing, recommendation systems,
among others. Hence, this review will help corporations to identify the most suit-
able online marketing methods and strategies that can increase the effectiveness
of their online marketing approaches.
The rest of this chapter is structured as follows: in Section 2, the researchers
explain their research approach. In Sections 3–5, they categorize the online mar-
keting literature in three main sections: (i) online marketing methods; (ii) strat-
egies; and (iii) pricing models. In Section 6, they put forward their theoretical
implications of this contribution and clarify the relationship between the online
marketing terms. In Section 7, they put forward their recommendations for future
studies that are focused on online marketing methods. In conclusion, in section 8,
they have featured a summary of this chapter.
14.2 Research Approach
A Google search about “online marketing” has identied the existing online mar-
keting terms that are being used by marketing practitioners and in academia.
Moreover, a Google Scholar search revealed some of the most popular aca-
demic articles, chapters and books that were related to this topic. Google Scholar
allowed the researchers to identify those articles which included online marketing
within their title, abstract, keywords and in their main body. The researchers noted
that there were peer-reviewed journals that were focused on computer science

Taxonomy of Online Marketing Methods 237
and digital advertising, that have published contributions on online marketing.
Hence, their review has considered the academic articles that better represented
online marketing methods, according to the publisher’s reputation and recency
(i.e., publishing year). Where the articles involved experiments in the realms of
computer science, the researchers have described those experiments to show the
role of computer science in online marketing. In some cases, the online marketing
terms were not available in the academic literature; however, they were presented
in nonacademic websites. Admittedly, this search about the related notions has
helped the researchers to recommend further research about online marketing
in academia. The researchers have categorized and classied different online
marketing methods into three categories: online marketing, online strategies and
pricing models. To this end, they followed Turban, Outland, King, Lee, Liang,
and Turban’s (2018) methodological stance for their systemic review on online
marketing. Then, based on these categorizations, the researchers have indicated
the relationship between each online marketing term. Hence, the researchers illus-
trate the similarities and differences between different online marketing methods,
as they have visualized the boundaries between various methods.
14.3 Online Marketing Methods
Several online marketing terms are methods that can be implemented to increase
online visibility and to enhance the sales of products or services. One of the well-
known online marketing methods is the use of email marketing. It is one of the
most popular digital tactics. Despite the current popularity of social media, many
individuals still prefer to receive the news about the brands via emails (Camilleri,
2018a). Email marketing is very effective in terms of return on investment (ROI).
However, there are many ways that can improve the email marketing performance
(Conceição & Gama, 2019). Sahni, Wheeler and Chintagunta (2018) found that
by personalizing email marketing (e.g., adding the name of the receiver to the
email subject), the probability that the receiver reads the email increases by 20%.
Conceição and Gama (2019) have developed a classication algorithm to predict
the effectiveness of email campaign. The authors suggested that the open rates
were based on the keywords that were featured inside the email. They maintained
that the utilization of personalized messages and the inclusion of question marks
in the subjects of the email can increase the chance of opening an email. Moreo-
ver, they hinted that there are specic times during the day where there are more
chances that the marketing emails will be noticed and read by their recipients.
These times can be identied by using data mining technologies.
Direct emails could be forwarded to specic users for different reasons. Evans
(2018) described advertising emails in three categories: (i) promotional emails that
raise awareness about attractive offers, including discounts and reduced prices of
products and services. This type of email is very helpful to increase sales and cus-
tomer loyalty. Some innovative marketers are using disruptive technologies, includ-
ing gamication to reward and incentivize online users to click their email links;
(ii) electronic newsletters that are aimed at building consumer engagement. Hence,
these emails ought to provide high-quality, interactive content to online users.

238 Mohammad Hajarian et al.
These emails are also known as relational emails that are intended to build a
rapport with online users; (iii) conrmation emails that are used to conrm to the
customers that their online transactions were carried out successfully. These types of
emails are very valuable in terms of branding and corporate image. In sum, the elec-
tronic newsletters are intended to redirect online users to the businesses’ websites.
Another major online marketing method is the social network marketing.
Brands and corporations can feature their page on social media networks (e.g.,
Facebook or Instagram) to communicate with their customers and/or promote
their products and services to their followers. This can result in an improved
brand awareness and a surge in sales. On the other hand, customers can write
their reviews about brands or even purchase products online (Smith, Hernández-
García, Agudo Peregrina, & Hair, 2016). Thus, social network marketing can
have a positive impact on electronic positive eWOM advertising in addition to
enhancing the customers’ loyalty (Smith et al., 2016).
There are other forms of social network marketing including inuencer market-
ing, video marketing and viral marketing, among others. The social networks are
providing various benets to various marketers as they can use them to publish
their content online. Their intention is to inuence online users and to entice them
to purchase their products or services. Liang, Wang, and Zhao (2019) have devel-
oped a novel algorithm that can identify the effects of inuencer marketing content.
Notwithstanding, various social networks such as Facebook and Instagram are
increasingly placing the businesses’ video ads for their subscribers. In both cases,
the advertisers may use Facebook marketing (Instagram is owned by Facebook) to
identify the most appropriate subscribers to serve their ads (Camilleri, 2019). The
social networks are a very suitable place for targeted advertising because they have
access to a wide range of user information such as their demographical details and
other relevant information (Hajarian, Bastanfard, Mohammadzadeh, & Khalilian,
2019a). However, online users may not always be interested in the marketers’ social
media messages. As a result, they may decide to block or lter ads (Camilleri, 2020).
One of the most protable and interesting online marketing methods is the
eWOM (see Hajarian, Bastanfard, Mohammadzadeh, & Khalilian, 2017). The
internet users are increasingly engaging in eWOM. More individuals are shar-
ing their positive or negative statements about products or services (Ismagilova,
Dwivedi, Slade, & Williams, 2017). Hence, the individual users’ reviews in online
fora, blogs and social media can be considered as eWOM. Ismagilova et al. (2017)
stated that the businesses would benet through positive eWOM as this would
improve their positioning in their consumers’ minds. Moreover, eWOM is also
useful to prospective consumers as they rely on the consumers’ independent com-
ments about their experience with the businesses’ products or services. The con-
sumers’ reviews and ratings can reduce the risk and search time of prospective
consumers. In addition, individuals can use the review platforms to ask questions
and/or interact with other users (Hajarian, 2015b). These are some of the motiva-
tions that lure online users to engage in eWOM.
Inuencer marketing is another type of online marketing that is conspicuous
with the social media. The inuencers may include those online users who are
promoting products or brands to their audiences. Hence, inuencer marketing

Taxonomy of Online Marketing Methods 239
is closely related to eWOM advertising. However, in this case, the inuencer may
be a popular individual including a celebrity, gurehead or an athlete who will
usually have a high number of followers on social media. The inuencers may
be considered as the celebrities of online social networks. They are procient in
personal branding (Jin & Muqaddam, 2019). Hence, the social media inuencers
will promote their image like a brand. Thus, the inuencer marketing involves the
cooperation of two brands, the social media inuencer and the brand that s/he is
promoting (Jin & Muqaddam, 2019). Social media inuencers can charge up to
$250,000 for each post (Lieber, 2018), although this depends on the number of
their audience and the platform that they are active on. The inuencers work on
different topics such as lifestyle, fashion, comedy, politics and gaming (Stoldt,
2019). It is projected that inuencer marketing will become a $5–$10 billion mar-
ket by 2020 (Mediakix, 2019). It is worth to mention that the gaming inuencers
are also becoming very successful in online marketing.
Viral marketing is another method of online marketing that can be performed
by regular social media users (not necessarily inuencers). The social media sub-
scribers can disseminate online content, including websites, images and videos
among friends, colleagues and acquaintances (Daif & Elsayed, 2019). Their social
media posts may become viral (like a virus) if they are appreciated by their audi-
ences. In this case, the posts will be shared and reshared by third parties. The
most appealing or creative content can turn viral in different social media. For
example, breaking news or emotional content, including humoristic videos have
the potential to become viral content as they are usually appreciated and shared
by social media users.
The social networks as well as the messengers like Facebook messenger, Whats-
App, etc. are ideal vehicles of viral marketing as online users and their contacts
are active on them. Similarly, other marketing methods such as email marketing
can also be used as a tool for viral marketing. In viral marketing, the inuencers
can play a very important role as they can spread the message among their follow-
ers. Hence, the most inuential people could propagate online content that can
turn viral. Nguyen, Thai, and Dinh (2016) have developed algorithms that iden-
tify the most effective social media inuencers that have more clout among their
followers. In a similar way, businesses can identify and recruit inuential social
media users to disseminate their promotional content (Pfeiffer & Zheleva, 2018).
Their viral marketing strategies may involve mass-marketing sharing incentives,
where users receive rewards for promoting ads among their friends (Pfeiffer &
Zheleva, 2018). There are business websites that are incentivizing online users, by
offering nancial rewards if they invite their friends to use their services.
Videos are one of the best methods for marketing. Abouyounes (2019) esti-
mated that over 80% of internet trafc was related to videos in 2019. He pro-
jected that US businesses will spend $28 billion on video marketing in 2020. The
relevant literature suggests that individuals may be intrigued to share emotional
videos. Such videos may even go viral (Nikolinakou & King, 2018). The ele-
ments of surprise, happiness as well as other factors such as the length of the
video can affect whether a video turns viral or not. Abouyounes’ (2019) reported
that the individuals would share a video with their friends if they found it to be

240 Mohammad Hajarian et al.
interesting. Alternatively, they may decide to disseminate such videos on social
media to share cognitive (informational) and/or emotional messages among their
contacts. Hence, the term “social video marketing” refers to those videos that
can increase the social media users’ engagement with video content. Over 77% of
the business that have used social video marketing have reported a positive direct
impact on their online metrics.
With the rise of social media, many online users have started to rene the
content of their online messages to appeal to the different digital audiences. The
online users’ content marketing involves the creation of relevant messages that are
shared via videos, blogs and social media content. These messages are intended
to stimulate the recipients’ interest. The content marketers’ aim is to engage with
existing and potential customers (Järvinen & Taiminen, 2016). Therefore, their
marketing messages ought to be relevant for their target audiences. The online
users may not perceive that the marketed content is valuable and informative for
them. Thus, the content should be carefully adapted to the targeted audience.
The content marketers may use various interactive systems to engage with online
users in order to gain their trust (Baltes, 2015; Díaz, Aedo, & Zarraonandia,
2019a; Díaz & Ioannou, 2019b; Díaz, Zarraonandía, Sánchez-Francisco, Aedo,
& Onorati, 2019c; Montero, Zarraonandia, Diaz, & Aedo, 2019). To this end, the
advertisers should analyze the interests of their target audience to better under-
stand their preferred content. Successful content marketing relies on the creation
of convincing and timely messages that appeal to online users. Zarrella’s (2013)
study suggested that some Facebook and Twitter content is more effective during
particular times of the day and in some days of the week.
Native advertising present promotional content including articles, infograph-
ics, videos, etc. that are integrated within the platforms where they are featured
(e.g., in search engines or social media). In 2014, various business invested more
than $3.2 billion in this type of digital advertising (Wojdynski & Evans, 2016).
Native ads may include banners or short articles that are presented in webpages.
However, online users would be redirected to other webpages if they click on
them. Parsana, Poola, Wang and Wang (2018) have explored the click-through
rates (CTRs) of native advertisements as they examined the historic data of
online users. Other studies investigated how native ads were consistent in differ-
ent situations and pages (Lin, 2018).
The advertorials are similar to native ads as they are featured as reports or
as recommendations within websites. They are presented in such a way that the
reader thinks that they are part of the news (Charlesworth, 2014). This type of
advertising can be featured as video or infographic content that will redirect the
online users to the advertisers’ websites. Besides, these ads may indicate a small
“sponsored by” note that is usually ignored by the online users. In some regards,
this is similar to the editorial content marketing, where editors write promotional
content about a company or a website. However, in the case of editorial market-
ing, the main purpose is to educate or to inform the readers about a specic sub-
ject. Therefore, such a news item is usually presented free of charge as it appears
at the discretion of the editor. Nevertheless, both advertorial and editorial
marketing can have a positive impact on brand awareness and brand equity.

Taxonomy of Online Marketing Methods 241
Both online and mobile users are coming across online marketing messages
on their screens. The mobile devices have become very popular as people are
spending more time using them. They are always connected to the internet, even
when they are out and about. Hence, they can access a wide array of informa-
tion online. At the same time, they are sharing their personal information with
the technology giants, including Google, Facebook and Microsoft, among others,
about their online activity as well as their location. These features make mobile
marketing a very promising online marketing method (Berman, 2016). The short
message service (SMS) marketing and the multimedia messaging service (MMS)
were recently the most popular methods of mobile marketing (Ferreira, 2017).
However, with the emergence of smartphones, other online marketing methods
such as social network marketing, app-based marketing and email marketing
were also made available through mobile marketing. The app-based marketing is
a type of mobile marketing as businesses’ ads are featured in mobile applications
(Gosling, Crawford, Bagnall, & Light, 2016). Mhaidli, Zou, and Schaub (2019)
reported that many app developers rely on app-based marketing to make money
as they are not earning enough from in-app purchases. The app-based marketing
is different from other types of mobile marketing like SMS and MMS, because
they are based on mobile applications. Companies such as Google Admob,
MoPub, Amazon and InMobi are using app-based marketing as they cooperate
with advertisers and developers (publishers). For example, Google features ads
in their YouTube app. Gao, Zeng, Sarro, Lyu, and King (2018) have analyzed
the mobiles’ infrastructures in terms of their features and capabilities to identify
how to improve the quality of mobile ads. These authors discovered that Google
Admob is the most suitable ad company in terms of resource usage. Besides they
reported that the full-size banners are very effective for app-based marketing.
Various technology companies including Google and Facebook among others
are tracking their users’ movements when they are out and about. Hence, these
technology giants are providing location-based marketing opportunities to many
businesses. However, this innovative marketing approach relies on the individu-
als’ willingness to share their location data with their chosen mobile applications
(apps). For example, foursquare, among other apps, can send messages to its
mobile users (if they enable location sharing). It can convey messages about the
users favorite spots, including businesses, facilities, etc., when they are located in
close proximity to them (Guzzo, D’Andrea, Ferri, & Grifoni, 2012).
Currently, the messengers are growing at a very fast pace. It may appear that
they are becoming more popular than the social networks. Messengers such as
WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, WeChat and QQ, among oth-
ers, have over 4.6 billion active users in a month (Mehner, 2019). This makes them
a very attractive channel for online marketing. Since messengers can provide a
private, secure connection between the business and their customers, they are very
useful tools for marketing purposes. Moreover, the messengers can be used in con-
junction with other advertisement methods like display (or banner) marketing,
viral marketing, click-to-message ads, etc. Online or mobile users can use the mes-
sengers to communicate with a company representative (or bot) on different issues.
They may even raise their complaints through such systems. Some messengers like

242 Mohammad Hajarian et al.
Apple Business Chat and WeChat, among others, have also integrated in-app
payments. Hence, the messengers have lots of possible features and can be used
to improve the business-to-consumer (B2C) relationships. In addition, other mes-
sengers like Skype, Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, etc. can provide
video conferencing platforms for corporations and small businesses. These systems
have become very popular communication tools during COVID-19.
Other online marketing approaches can assist corporations in building their
brand equity among customers. Various businesses are organizing virtual events and
webinars to engage with their target audience. They may raise awareness about their
events by sending invitations (via email) to their subscribers (Harvey & An, 2018).
The organization of the virtual meetings are remarkably cheaper than face-to-face
meetings (Lande, 2011). They can be recorded and/or broadcast to wider audiences
through live streaming technologies via social media (Veissi, 2017). Today, online
users can also use Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn live streaming facilities to
broadcast their videos in real time and share them among their followers.
The display (or banner) marketing may usually comprise promotional vid-
eos, images and/or textual content. They are usually presented in webpages and
applications. Thus, online banners may advertise products or services on internet
websites to increase brand awareness (Turban et al., 2018). The display ads may
be created by the website owners themselves. Alternatively, they may have been
placed by Google Adsense on behalf of their customers (advertisers).
The display advertisements may also be featured in digital and mobile games.
Such online advertisements are also known as in-game marketing. The digital ads
can be included within the games’ apps and/or may also be accessed through pop-
ular social networks. The in-game marketing may either be static (as the ads can-
not be modied after the game was released) or dynamic (where new ads will be
displayed via internet connections) (Terlutter & Capella, 2013). Lewis and Porter
(2010) suggested that in-game advertising should be harmonious with the games’
environments. There are different forms of advertisements that can be featured in
games. For instance, advergames are serious games that have been developed in
close collaboration with a corporate entity for advertising purposes (Terlutter &
Capella, 2013), for example, Pepsi man game for PlayStation.
The latest online marketing technologies are increasingly using interactive sys-
tems like augmented reality. These innovations are being utilized to enhance the
businesses’ engagement with their consumers (Díaz et al., 2019c). The augmented
reality software can help the businesses to promote their products (Turban et al.,
2018). For example, IKEA (the furnishing company) has introduced an aug-
mented reality application to help their customers to visualize how their products
would appear in their homes. Similarly, online fashion stores can benet from
augmented reality applications as their customers can customize their personal
avatars with their appearance, in terms of size, length and body type, to check out
products well before they commit to purchase them (Montero et al., 2019).
The banner advertising was one of the earliest forms of digital marketing.
However, there were other unsophisticated online marketing tactics that were
used in the past. Some of these methods are still being used by some market-
ers. For instance, online users can list themselves and/or their organization in an

Taxonomy of Online Marketing Methods 243
online directory. This marketing channel is similar to the traditional yellow pages
(Guzzo et al., 2012). The online directory has preceded the search engine mar-
keting (SEM). This form of online advertising involves paid advertisements that
appear on search engine results pages (like native ads). Currently, SEM is valued
at $70 billion market by 2020 (Aswani, Kar, Ilavarasan, & Dwivedi, 2018). The
advertisements may be related to specic keywords that are used in search queries.
SEM can be presented in a variety of formats, including small, text-based ads or
visual, product listing ads. The advertisers bid on the keywords that are used in
the search engines. Therefore, they will pay the search engines like Google and
Bing to feature their ads alongside the search results.
The search engine optimization (SEO) is different from SEM. The individu-
als or organizations do not have to pay the search engine for trafc and clicks.
SEO involves a set of practices that are intended to improve the websites’ visibil-
ity within the search results of search engines. The search engine algorithms can
optimize the search results of certain websites, (i) if they have published relevant
content, (ii) if they regularly update their content and (iii) if they include link-
worthy sites. Although, SEO is a free tool, Google AdWords and Bing ads are
two popular SEM platforms that can promote websites in their search engines
(through their SEM packages). Various researchers have relied on different sci-
entic approaches to optimize the search engine results of their queries. For
example, Wong, Collins and Venkataraman (2018) have used machine learning
methods to identify which ad placements and biddings were yielding the best
return of investment from Google Adwords.
14.4 Online Marketing Strategies
Some of the online marketing terms may also be considered as strategies as they
can be implemented to increase the marketing effectiveness of a business. One
of the most important strategies in online marketing is personalized marketing.
Various marketers are increasingly using recommendation systems as they share
their consumers’ online reviews about their products and services. The cocreation
of content is benetting both the consumers and the corporations. Recommenda-
tion systems can help customers to get informed about new products that they
like while corporations can enhance their user engagement by providing a person-
alized shopping experience for the users (Lee & Hosanagar, 2019). Some popular
review sites are also using contextual marketing as they target and retarget online
users with relevant ads when they leave their webpages (Wu & Bolivar, 2008).
They use cookies to track the online (and mobile) users’ through the internet.
Google AdSense is one of the most successful advertising company that is imple-
menting contextual marketing as it presents promotional content that may appeal
to online users (Mei, Li, Tian, Tao, & Ngo, 2016). Such contextual marketing
approaches can also be used in various apps including digital gaming technolo-
gies as they can feature advertisements in them (Yoo & Eastin, 2017).
The content-based and collaborative recommendation systems are two major
types of recommendation systems (Cheung, Kwok, Law, & Tsui, 2003). The
collaborative recommendation systems can identify the users’ preferences and

244 Mohammad Hajarian et al.
personalize advertisements for them. For example, Hajarian (2015a) has used the
Apriori algorithm to identify relevant advertisements according to the individual
users’ demographic information. He reported that the online users’ data are a key
factor for personalized marketing. Similarly, Hajarian et al. (2017) has used fuzzy
logic to better understand the online users’ interest levels in products. Hence, he
identied the most relevant advertisements for them. Other researchers suggested
that articial intelligence, big data and text mining can be used to identify the
most effective ads that can have an effect on individuals (Amado, Cortez, Rita,
& Moro, 2018). The interaction design is also an important factor for customer-
centric marketing. For instance, Mei et al. (2016) suggested that PageSense is
effective in captivating the online users’ attention as it places the advertisements
in prominent areas. Previously, Atterer and Lorenzi (2008) have developed a
method that clearly indicated what content is being sought by online users. The
researchers have explored which parts of the screen was capturing the online
users’ attention. Such ndings are useful to marketers as they will enable them to
better understand online users. Hence, they may be in a position to improve the
effectiveness of their display advertisements inside webpages.
The cross-platform marketing is one of the emerging strategies in online mar-
keting. Online users, including businesses can align different digital media chan-
nels in a cohesive manner, as their followers may switch between environments
and devices (Neijens & Voorveld, 2015). The cross-platform advertising allows
them to communicate with different consumer segments across several channels.
It is worth mentioning that cross-platform and mobile advertising markets will be
worth over $80 billion by 2020 (Marketsandmarkets.com, 2019). Notwithstand-
ing, many online marketers are increasingly using gamication to engage with
online users (Hajarian, Bastanfard, Mohammadzadeh, & Khalilian, 2019b). Very
often, the online games are being used in conjunction with other digital media
including social media networks (Tondello, Orji, & Nacke, 2017). The social
media subscribers may be intrigued to receive rewards and incentives for watch-
ing an advertisement and/or to click on display ads.
14.5 Online Marketing Pricing Models and Their ROI
Marketers incur charges by the digital platforms including websites, social media,
etc., to promote their products and services. However, they can measure the effec-
tiveness of their digital marketing methods. They can evaluate their ROIs as there
are various metrics that can measure their online marketing performance. For
example, the pay per click (PPC) and the cost per click (CPC) are such popular
metrics, among others. Advertisers pay search engines like Google or Bing each
time their ad is clicked through by online users. Hence, the CPC refers to the
actual price that is paid for each click.
Successful PPC campaigns are dependent on high CTRs because they repre-
sent the ratio of users who click on a specic link to the number of total users
who view a page, email, or advertisement (Hajarian et al., 2017). CTR is com-
monly used as a metric to evaluate the effectiveness of particular websites or
email campaigns (Camilleri, 2018b). CTR is calculated by dividing the number

Taxonomy of Online Marketing Methods 245
of clicks (on ads) by the number of impressions (Hajarian, 2015a). The higher
the CTR (i.e., close to 1) indicates that the ads were clicked through and that the
display advertising is yielding results. Many publishers use the “cost per thou-
sand” (CPT) metric. This is also known as the “cost per mille” (CPM) metric as
advertisers are charged for every 1,000 views or clicks. This performance measure
calculates the relative cost of a digital marketing campaign, by dividing the cost
of the ad by the number of impressions (expressed in thousands) that it generates.
Other metrics include the “cost per second” (CPS), pay per view (PPV), etc. CPS
is a time-based advertising metric. In this case, the publishers charge the advertis-
ers according to the time that is spent on the advertised link. The PPV (i.e., also
known as cost per view – CPV) is a pricing model relating to video marketing and
inuencer marketing.
The engagement rate measures the users’ interactions within social networks.
It is calculated by dividing the sum of social media interactions (including likes,
shares, comments) by the number of followers of the corresponding social net-
work account (Hopperhq.com, 2018). This metric helps brands and companies
to identify the best social media networks for their digital marketing. Similarly,
other metrics, including pay per post (PPP) and the cost per follower (CFP), are
used to measure the effectiveness of inuencer marketing in social media plat-
forms such as Instagram. Hence, the inuencers may charge the advertisers on
the number of followers that they attract for their respective sponsors. The pay
per lead (PPL), cost per lead (CPL) and cost per action (CPA) are other online
marketing metrics that are used to quantify the conversion rates (and lead gen-
eration). Similar terms include cost per acquisition (CPA) or pay per acquisition
(PPA) and/or cost per engagement (CPE) (Berkowitz, 2009). In addition, the cost
per install (CPI) and cost per download (CPD) metrics are industry terms that are
used by app developers.
14.6 Research Implications
This chapter sheds light on the relationships and boundaries between various
online marketing methods. First, the researchers have identied the online mar-
keting strategies (e.g., brand awareness, personalized marketing, etc.). Second,
they featured the online marketing approaches (e.g., social network marketing,
messenger marketing, etc.). Third, they described the metrics that may be used to
measure the effectiveness of online advertisements.
The latest online marketing methods are increasingly relying on social media
and messenger marketing. For example, inuencer marketing is being carried out
through various social networks. For instance, today’s corporations can use inu-
encer marketing to promote brands, products and services. The inuencers may
use social media such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and weblogs to
inuence their followers’ purchase intentions. Another important platform for
inuencer marketing is YouTube as every month it has over 1.8 billion active users
(Statista, 2020). Factors including the inuencers’ trust-ability, social inuence,
quality of arguments and information can determine the effectiveness of their
marketed content on YouTube (Xiao, Wang, & Chan-Olmsted, 2018). Various

246 Mohammad Hajarian et al.
studies indicated that more corporations are using more women, rather than men,
for their inuencer marketing (Sammis, Lincoln, & Pomponi, 2015). They are
increasingly building relationships with individual social media inuencers as
well as with agencies to enhance their online marketing strategies. Several market-
ing agencies are also providing inuencer marketing services to their customers.
However, the inuencer marketing content may or may not become viral among
online users (Daif & Elsayed, 2019).
There are different benets of using social media platforms like YouTube, Face-
book and Instagram, among others. These networks can help the businesses to
improve their engagement with online users. At the same time, they allow them to
monitor and analyze their trafc. Notwithstanding, there is scope for the business
to utilize the messenger channels, including Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
These messengers convey personalized, interactive messages in real time, and they
can support various multimedia technologies. Hence, the messengers are a good
vehicle for content marketing (Mehner, 2019). However, there are other digital
marketing approaches that still remain very popular among online users, includ-
ing display ads in webpages, native ads, user-generated content, reviews, etc..
Many businesses are using SEM to improve their visibility in search engines. Very
often that are retargeting or remarketing online content to build brand awareness.
They use Google AdWords to present promotional content to online users. Alter-
natively, they may publish their consumer reviews, endorsements and ratings. It
is in the brands’ interest to connect with online users to prevent negative eWOM
(Ismagilova et al., 2017). The negative publicity can have a dreadful effect on the
business (Bhandari & Rodgers, 2018). Therefore, the businesses’ marketers ought
to monitor online conversations. They may use crawlers to track eWOM publicity
in different websites including social media (Puri & Kumar, 2017).
Recently, many businesses are also integrating gamication technologies to
engage with online users. They are providing interactive opportunities to engage
with prospective customers. This research indicated that in-game marketing is a
new online marketing method. Marketers may benet from cloud gaming (Hsu,
2019) and google stadia. They can advertise through cloud gaming platforms in
real time. This can present new challenging opportunities for software engineers.
They may avail themselves of new media technologies and online marketing
methods including personal fabrications (Baudisch, 2016) and object market-
ing among other options. The latest advances in technology have provided them
with additional interactive channels, pricing options and monitoring metrics for
online marketers.
14.7 Summary
This chapter has presented a systematic literature review that has categorized dif-
ferent online marketing terms. It also highlighted the relationships between them
and discussed how they can be combined to increase the businesses’ online mar-
keting performance. Hence, the researchers explained how online marketers can
measure the effectiveness and the success rates of their online marketing tactics.
They raised awareness about the boundaries between online marketing methods

Taxonomy of Online Marketing Methods 247
as they delineated the intersections between different online marketing terms.
Finally, the researchers have pointed out their implications to practitioners and
have identied future research areas.
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