Here are a few tips on getting players on your server.
1) Use YouTube! This is probably the most successful method of cheap advertising, if done correctly. There's various ways to advertise on YouTube, here are the best three. A) Make videos about your server, either a trailer or a walkthrough/tutorial of your server, but the crucial part is making sure they have lots of tags in the titles. Even channels with zero subscribers can get hundreds of views if their videos are titled "Minecraft: [OP Factions] Server [1.8.8/1.12]- [Need Staff] [Grief] [Raid]" rather than "Minecraft server".
B) Contact channels and offer them "YouTuber ranks" if they make videos on your server. This would give them special perks and a tag (prefix) on your server if they upload videos.
C) If they won't do it for free, pay people to make videos about your server. There are many people on websites like MC-Market who will upload a video about your server on their larger channels if you pay them for it. This will get you a lot of publicity and could substantially populate your server.
3) Buy Advertisements. You can buy advertisements on the websites above, or on other websites.This will put your server on the front page, guaranteeing that you get more results. Some may be more expensive than others for less traffic, so be wary about which ones you choose to buy advertisements on.
