In simplest terms, any marketing effort you carry out online is known as digital marketing. Contrary to popular belief, digital marketing is not a single activity. It's a combination of several online marketing strategies, including:

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising
• Social media advertising
• Social media marketing
• Content marketing
• Email marketing
• Affiliate marketing
• Influencer marketing

Even if you are hearing the words PPC (Pay-Per-Click) for the first time, you probably have come across it earlier. PPC refers to the ads you see at the top of Google and other search engines. As an advertiser, every time a user clicks on your ad, you have to pay a small fee to the search engine. PPC ads help buy visitors to your site rather than drive them organically there. When done right, PPC ads are worth it as the fee you pay to drive users to your site is undoubtedly lower than the cost of acquiring visitors via other common channels.

Digital marketing promotes your brand, products and services to a larger audience, helping you increase brand awareness and build trust and loyalty among your target audience. It's more cost-effective than traditional advertising methods. It helps to level the playing field, allowing you to compete with the bigger brands in your industry. It helps to generate leads promotes conversions, thereby driving sales and revenues.

Traditionally, digital marketing has eight significant branches. They are:

1. Email marketing
2. Mobile marketing
3. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
4. Content marketing
5. Social media marketing
6. Paid ads
7. Analytics
8. Marketing automation

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is a type of digital marketing strategy that helps increase your site's visibility on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). It refers to running paid ads on search engines that help in increasing brand awareness and site traffic. SEM should not be confused with SEO. SEO organically drives traffic to your site, while SEM involves paid ads to increase site traffic.

In digital marketing, CTR refers to Click-Through-Rate. It is a metric that measures the ratio of the number of times your paid ad was clicked to the total number of impressions. The higher the CTR, the better is your PPC strategy. If you notice a low CTR, it indicates it's time to revise your PPC strategy.

Impression refers to the number of times users see your social media posts or search ads. Anytime a user opens your social media post or comes across your paid ads, it is counted as an impression. The impression should not be confused with engagement, where the latter term refers to the number of times a user engages (comments, likes, clicks or shares) your post or ad.

Lead generation is a digital marketing process that attracts, identifies and transforms casual visitors to your site into prospective business customers. You can generate qualified leads for your business using various digital marketing strategies and tactics like social media ads, email campaigns, or even offering them free digital guidebooks that they can download via a landing page.

A digital marketing campaign refers to the process of executing a well-planned digital marketing strategy across all digital channels. The purpose of a digital marketing campaign varies depending on the brand objectives. Some popular goals include:

Qualified lead generation

Increasing brand awareness

Boosting site traffic

Driving conversions

Building customer loyalty

Establishing brand authority

SMM (Social Media Marketing) is a digital marketing strategy that involves using social media channels to promote and advertise a brand, product or service. SMM is an effective way for companies to connect with existing customers reach out to new ones while building brand awareness, authority and tone.

While running ads on search engines and social media, you must set the CPC (Cost-Per-Click). This refers to the maximum amount you're willing to pay for a click on your ad. When the ad is shown to users, you may be charged the CPC or lower than it. The final amount you pay for the click is the actual CPC.

The ten major types of digital marketing strategies include:

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising
• SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
• Social Media Marketing
• Content Marketing
• Influencer Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing
• Mobile Marketing
• AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality) Marketing

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