Internet marketing is an expression used for advertising a product or service over the Internet. The method includes pay-per-click advertising, banner ads, e-mail marketing, search engine marketing, blog and article marketing. The method includes information management, public relations, customer service, and sales. Internet marketing works on two basic models, business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C). B2B is a method where companies do business with each other, while B2C involves selling directly to the consumer.

Another not so common business model is the people-to-people (P2P), where individuals exchange goods between themselves. Internet marketing has had a large impact on various industries such as music, banking, and flea markets. Much of the music industry has posted large sales from downloading MP3s and also by buying music CDs on the Internet. Internet marketing has also made a huge impact on the banking industry by offering online banking facilities. Other Internet-related activities, like auctions, have gained popularity and helped many small-time sellers showcase their products for consumers; an excellent example of one such Website is eBay.

Online advertising involves search engines and links. Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN rely on the links in formulating the ranks which are made visible on their Webpage. Advertising on the Internet can help create strategic, interactive communication that helps establish a strong consumer relationship with brands. Some of the expressions used in the Internet field are hits, which count the number of files downloaded, page impressions or page views, which are the number of times a page or a banner ad is displayed, CPM, which is cost per thousand impressions or page views, and banner advertisements. Some of the others are click rate, which is the percentage of visitors who click on a banner ad, and click through, which is the number of people who click on a banner ad and get to the advertiser's Web site.