As I have asked in title, which one is best? Advertising and Promotion, both are way of marketing. I have no idea about the difference.
The idea of marketing is to promote products and services. You can promote them in many different ways and indeed one of them is advertising. It's a direct form of promotion because you do not hide that you promote something, for instance this can be a banner on someone's site or blog informing directly about a sale, new product or whatever. You normally pay for this. An example of an indirect promotion can be your forum signature where you can point to your own web site but without telling directly that you want to sell something. Each advertising activity is a promotion but you should also consider other promotion channels. There is no best promotion tool.
I was going to come here to give a fancy reply, but it seems I've been bested...lol! Very good answers. I learned something here too. Thanks!
I feel the two terms are interchangeable. But to look at the main defined differences you just need to know that Advertising is more long term and more expensive to do.... think of paid banners or ads where as Promotions can be a little cheaper and more interactive, i.e. you promote your product by giving away free samples in order to promote the brand and get the word out etc.. But, confusion aside, they are one in the same to me since they both aim to get the same results.