Google Ads Alternatives: How To Choose Other Ad Platforms

When it comes to digital advertising platforms, Google remains the largest player worldwide. It’s projected to generate roughly 40% of global digital ad revenue by 2027. Business owners looking to reach customers within the Google ecosystem can do so through Google Ads—an online advertising platform that places paid ads across Google Search, YouTube, Gmail, and other properties.

But Google Ads is far from the only option. For ecommerce businesses, factors such as cost and platform diversity make alternatives worth exploring. From TikTok and Meta to Microsoft Bing, businesses can use Google Ads alternatives to reach new audiences and improve online advertising campaign performance.

Let’s explore the factors to consider when choosing an alternative advertising platform, highlighting the best Google Ads alternatives on a variety of fronts, including search engine ads, social media ads, native and video ads, and marketplace ads.

Google Ads and the case for alternatives

Google Ads allows businesses to place ads on platforms owned by Alphabet Inc. (Google’s parent company), including Google Search, YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail, and the Google Display Network, which places ads on websites across the internet. Google Ads uses a competitive bidding system in which advertisers bid on specific keywords or customer segments. The platform then places ads based on factors like that business’s ad spend, the quality and relevance of its ad, and the competitiveness of the ad placement. The cost per click for general keywords on Google Ads can range from less than $1 to $10, with more competitive keywords costing even more.

Despite Google Ads’ reach, many ecommerce businesses explore alternatives for three main reasons:

• Cost. Since the Google Ads platform is so popular, businesses placing bids can face a highly competitive landscape that results in a higher cost per click (CPC), which reduces return on ad spend compared to less saturated ad platforms.

• Diversification. Google Ads covers only Alphabet properties. Businesses can expand their digital ad campaigns into new market segments via other platforms like Pinterest, Facebook, and TikTok.

• Privacy. As potential customers start turning off cookies or using privacy software like VPNs, targeting them with Google’s ad platform may become less effective, possibly leading to wasted ad spend.

Factors to consider when choosing a Google Ads alternative

Whether Google Ads is too expensive or you simply want to diversify your marketing, there’s plenty of value in choosing an alternative. Here are some of the factors to consider when looking for an advertising platform:

• Business objectives. Identify your short- and long-term business goals and select ad platforms that align with them. For example, if your goal is to increase website traffic, you might opt for search engine alternatives like Microsoft Advertising. To increase marketplace sales, you might turn to Shop or Amazon Ads.

• Target audience. Advertise on platforms your target customers already use. For example, LinkedIn would be a useful ad platform for companies targeting business professionals, while Twitch is a better platform for a business targeting Gen Z gamers.

• Budget. Decide what resources you have available for your ad spend, and choose a platform where you can maximize your impact. For example, Microsoft Advertising typically offers lower CPC rates than Google.

• Ad formats. Choose platforms that allow the types of ad formats that suit your marketing materials best. Advertising platforms use multiple ad formats, including banner ads, video ads, text-based content on search engine results pages (SERPs), in-feed social media posts, and native ads that fit organically into content. 

Search engine alternatives to Google Ads

Search engine ads are one of the most popular formats on Google Ads, appearing as text-based promotions on search engine results pages (SERPs). Their key benefit is targeting customers already searching for relevant keywords, which can increase traffic to a particular website (like a product page or blog on your ecommerce website). 

Here are some of the best Google Ads alternatives for search engine advertising:

Microsoft Advertising

The Microsoft Advertising platform allows businesses to place search ads across Microsoft Bing, AOL, and DuckDuckGo. It offers budgeting by the day using a pay-per-click model with no minimum fees. Using the Microsoft Advertising platform, businesses can reach a wide range of potential customers with Bing ads, as the search platform has more than one billion active users worldwide. 

Like Google, Microsoft Advertising uses a competitive bidding model with CPC rates ranging from a few cents to several dollars, depending on the level of competition for a keyword or placement. Microsoft places ads based on your bid, the overall budget for your campaign, and the quality score of your ad (i.e., the relevance of your keywords, ads, and landing pages). Although Google Ads reaches a larger audience (with Google representing more than 79% of global search engine traffic on desktops), Microsoft Bing typically offers lower CPC rates than Google Ads.

Yahoo Ads

Yahoo Ads is an advertising platform that facilitates placing ad units on a range of platforms owned by Yahoo, including Yahoo Search. Businesses can use Yahoo Ads to reach customers across the globe, including markets like Japan—where Yahoo Search holds roughly 10% market share.

Yahoo Ads offers different ad formats—including sponsored, display, and search ads. It uses an auction-based system like Microsoft and Google, with CPC also ranging from a few cents to several dollars, depending on the competitiveness of the ad placement—offering generally lower CPC rates than Google Ads since advertisers face less competition on the platform.

Social media alternatives to Google Ads

• Meta Ads
• Reddit Ads
• Pinterest Ads
• TikTok ads
• LinkedIn ads

Another alternative is placing ads on a social media platform, using images and videos related to your brand, products, or services to target customers on their feeds. Social media advertising leverages large collections of user data (including demographic data and scrolling behavior) to deliver ads to your target audience. 

Here are some of the most popular social media platforms that you can use for advertising your business and offerings:

Meta Ads

Meta Ads uses profile information and user data to target ads to relevant potential customers on major social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The potential reach of these platforms is significant, with one 2025 survey reporting that Facebook has more than three billion monthly active users, while Instagram and WhatsApp both claim two billion each. Businesses can use Meta Ads to reach new customers outside of the Google ecosystem, including an extremely broad audience on Facebook and a younger audience on Instagram (with more than half of Instagram users being 34 years old or younger).

Businesses can use the Meta Ads Manager tool to create campaigns, choose their audience, and upload ad creatives across Meta’s multiple platforms. Using this tool, you can set a daily or lifetime budget for your campaign, and decide on a pricing model—per click, per mille (every thousand impressions), or per user action (like signing up for a free trial or downloading an app).

Reddit Ads

Reddit Ads is a social media advertising platform that lets businesses pay for advertisements that appear to Reddit users based on relevant interests, keywords, and subreddits (web forums for a particular topic). Paid ads on Reddit are called Promoted Posts, and they look like regular posts that fit into a user’s feed—typically in the form of images, videos, or carousels featuring multiple images or videos. 

Since Reddit is such an interactive platform, it offers a unique ad format with Conversation Ads—where you can engage with ongoing conversations on subreddits using promotional content. With more than 606 million monthly active users, Reddit offers a native advertising experience that engages with potential customers in a more organic way than more traditional ad platforms like Google Ads. Advertisers can set their daily budget on Reddit Ads, choosing between a CPC or CPM model, with the price depending on the demand for the ad space related to the specific keyword or topic.

Pinterest Ads

Pinterest is a social media platform with 537 million monthly active users who save pins (like posts) that contain links, descriptions, and images onto different boards (like folders). Businesses can use Pinterest Ads to place ads that look like regular pins and appear in users’ home feeds, category feeds, and relevant search results—creating a more engaging advertising strategy than text-based ads on Google Search. With a less saturated platform than Google Ads, Pinterest Ads generally offer lower cost per click rates. 

You can choose between daily budgets or a total lifetime budget for your campaign, and set specific dates for when you want a campaign to run. Pinterest uses a CPC and CPM model with an auction system where the rate changes based on niche audiences (with higher rates for small competitive niches) and ad quality.

Here’s an example of a sponsored Shopify advertisement on the homepage of Pinterest:

TikTok ads

Brands with a TikTok business account can create ads that integrate with the short-form videos in users’ feeds, including video shopping ads that feature products in action. With more than 1.5 billion monthly active users as of February 2025, TikTok is a popular social media platform for businesses that want to target millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha customers. Beyond in-feed ads, TikTok also offers branded hashtag challenges where a business sponsors a specific hashtag and encourages users to share it, creating a more interactive advertising experience than simple display ads on Google. 

Businesses can also create ads for TikTok Shop—a feature for listing products that users can purchase directly in the app. TikTok relies on contextual targeting algorithms to put paid ads in front of relevant audiences based on demographics and user behavior (including previous behavior with ads). It also uses an auction-based system where advertisers bid using CPC or CPM strategies with rates changing based on the competitiveness of your industry or niche.

LinkedIn ads

Businesses can create advertisements that appear on LinkedIn through the LinkedIn Campaign Manager—where they can create, budget, schedule, and monitor advertising campaigns on the platform. Since LinkedIn is a social media platform for business professionals, it’s well-suited for business-to-business (B2B) companies or ecommerce businesses offering products and services targeted toward professional customers (like luxury writing instruments, high-end electronics, or software tools). 

LinkedIn is also a useful platform for international commerce, as the platform has over a billion members in over 200 countries. LinkedIn includes typical ad formats like image ads, text ads, and carousel ads, but it also offers more unique formats that fit the platform, including Event Ads for promoting upcoming events and Document Ads for previewing ebooks, white papers, or guides that you’ve created. LinkedIn ads use a bidding system and offer a Maximum Delivery option that automates the bidding process to improve the impact of your campaign based on clicks, impressions, or conversions.

Video, streaming, and podcast alternatives to Google Ads

• Twitch ads
• Spotify Advertising
• Roku Advertising

Video, streaming, and podcast platforms provide another avenue for advertising, reaching audiences while they’re already engaged with content. These ads can boost brand awareness and foster higher engagement, since users encounter them in the middle of viewing or listening experiences.

Here are a few of the best options to consider in this space:

Twitch ads

Twitch is a livestreaming platform where content creators can stream themselves playing games, watching esports competitions, making music, and broadcasting other types of live content while interacting with viewers. Businesses can advertise on Twitch through Amazon Ads and create ads in a variety of formats, including stream display ads (SDAs)—15-second video ads that play before or during a livestream. 

On average, Twitch has more than 105 million monthly visitors, and businesses can reach those visitors using a CPM bidding strategy. Businesses marketing to young male audiences can benefit from this platform, as more than 70% of Twitch users are under 34 years old and over 60% are men. 

Spotify Advertising

Spotify is an audio streaming platform that offers advertising in three primary formats: video ads, audio ads, and podcast ads. With more than 696 million monthly active users, businesses can reach potential customers using the Spotify Ads Manager tool. Businesses can use Spotify to reach an engaged, young audience—with a majority of Spotify users under the age of 35.

You can select a goal for your ad campaign (choosing from reach, impressions, video views, and clicks) and target a specific audience based on location and age. The minimum spend for a Spotify ad campaign is $250. The platform uses a competitive bidding model with changing rates based on competition, ad campaign duration, bid cap, and ad format.

Roku Advertising

Roku is a streaming platform for news, sports, music, shows, and movies. Businesses can advertise on Roku using a variety of ad formats—including native ads on Roku’s home screen, video ads that play before or during video content, and action ads. 

Action ads allow users to interact with your advertisement by pressing the OK button on their Roku remotes to make a purchase, ask for more information, or set a reminder. With nearly 90 million active accounts by the end of 2024, Roku offers a more engaged audience when compared to a traditional search engine display ad on a platform like Google.

Marketplace alternatives to Google Ads

• Shop ads
• eBay Advertising
• Amazon Ads

Another place to advertise is marketplaces, which connect buyers with a variety of sellers listing products or services. Marketplace advertising can help you put your offerings in front of potential customers looking for related products or services, which can result in more conversions. 

Here are some of the main marketplaces to consider advertising on:

Shop ads

Ecommerce businesses can run ads on the Shop App—Shopify’s marketplace app that features a wide selection of products from Shopify businesses. You can create advertising campaigns for the Shop app directly from your Shopify admin dashboard. Through the dashboard, you can set your campaign objectives and schedule, establish your ad budget, and choose targeted countries for the campaign. 

The platform has more than 100 million engaged shoppers, and businesses can advertise to those shoppers using a variety of formats, including display ads that appear on the homepage as well as targeted ads appearing in the search results of relevant keywords, topics, or industries. Shop ads can facilitate easier conversions from potential customers making purchases directly on the platform when compared to broader search engine advertisements. Here’s an example of a display ad that appears on the mobile homepage of the Shop App:

eBay Advertising

eBay is an online marketplace that allows individuals and businesses to sell used and new goods to 134 million buyers worldwide. Using eBay Advertising, you can promote a specific product listing on the site, promote your eBay Store, or drive traffic to your own website. 

One of the advantages of eBay Advertising is the option for a general campaign strategy with a fee structure that charges businesses only when an item sells. Businesses can choose an ad rate between 2% and 100% of the item’s total sales amount; the higher the ad rate percentage, the more visibility that ad will gain on the platform.

Amazon Ads

Amazon Ads is an advertising platform that lets businesses advertise to potential customers directly on the Amazon marketplace, which has more than 310 million active users worldwide. On desktop, Amazon advertisements can appear above, alongside, or below search results, and on product detail pages. Businesses that sell products on Amazon can use this ad platform to increase sales by driving traffic to their Amazon stores.

Ads on Amazon are available in three main formats: Sponsored Product ads, Sponsored Brand ads, and Sponsored Display ads. Sponsored Products ads promote individual product pages on Amazon, Sponsored Brand ads include videos or images with multiple products, and Sponsored Display ads appear in various formats like banner ads. Amazon Ads uses a CPC model with rates changing based on seller competition, customer demand, and market trends.

Unify your marketing with Shopify

With so many different advertising platforms available, it can be time-consuming and complicated to run ad campaigns across multiple platforms. However, there are ways that businesses can run their multiplatform ad campaigns from one dashboard. 

Shopify merchants can market products or services on a variety of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Amazon, and eBay—all from the Shopify admin dashboard.