AN ABBREVIATED HISTORY OF ONLINE ADVERTISING

Curated and Compiled by Yoli Chisholm

Online Advertising

Data AvailableAll Thuerk knew was he was reaching west coast technological enthusiasts. There was no tracking and reporting available.

1978 Birth of SPAM1

Gary Thuerk marketing manager at DEC Digital Equipment Corporation sends first SPAM email sent to 400 users via ARPANET

2

Recipients were angry at unsolicited mail, exposure of their email addresses but he sold $13 million worth

4

Defense Communication agency outraged as it was considered illegal to Use ARPANET for which was not in direct support of government business

5

Email invitation to a Decsystem-20 by Digital product demonstration

3

70’s

Online Advertising

70’s 80’s

Bulletin Board System’s like the popular site Prodigywere used to access news, sports, email, bulletin boards, and weather info all in one place. There was one un-clickable ad at the bottom of every page.

1

Laurence Canter & Martha Siegel 1st to use bulk Usenet posting to promote their immigration law practices.

2

Data AvailableMinimal tracking mostly around # of site hits/visits (logs)

2

  

Online Advertising70’s 80’s Early 90’s

1991 HoTMaiL is launched with personal email addresses and email marketing is born. 1

1993 GNN Global Network Navigator first commercial website to sell clickable banner ad. Ads sold on weekly basis $110 – $11,000/week

2

Early advertisers were ATT, MCI, Volvo, Club Med, 1-800-Collect and Zima4

It was all about impressions. Advertisers wanted “eyeballs”5

1994 Hotwired sold ads for $30,000/12 weeks3

1994 Justin Swathmore creates early blog Links.net 6

Directories evolved to Portals and the “Portal wars” began7

1996 Doubleclick launches DART (Dynamic Advertising Reporting and Targeting)

8

Data AvailableAds sold on a CPI cost per impression/week

Tracking: Impressions, clicks, best performing ads, best performing channels, frequency caps

Targeting: Site/Demographics

Online Advertising70’s Early 90’s’80’s 1995 - 2005

Banner ads or OLAs (On Line Advertising) echoed print and television ads as the creative departments in ad agencies tried to “integrate” their creative messages

1

Microsites were sold as immersive brand “experiences” that helped consumers have an “emotional connection” with a brand

2

1998 SEM Search Pay-per-Click (Bill Gross) advertising arrives (GoTo launches keywords advertising) you could buy your way to the top the higher your bid the higher your placement.1998 Data protection act updated to ensure E-mail marketing includes opt-outs

4

1998 Google launches introduces notion of ad relevancy, introduced the “Click through rate” feature—This meant that if an ad with a lower bid got more clicks than the others above it, it would climb up the ranking ladder. Which evolved to what we now know as a Quality Score

5

1997 using Netscapes invention javascript command “window open” Geo-cities invents “popup’s” 1997 Amazon files patent on Affiliate Marketing but industry credits Cybererotica for inventing it.

3

1999 Exit Exchange invents the more polite “pop unders” with 350 customers. The self-service ad program promises online activation with a credit card, keyword targeting and performance feedback.

6

2000 Google Adwords launches with 350 customers 7

2003 Linkedin, MySpace founded2004 Facebook founded2005 Apple one of Facebook’s biggest advertisers paying $1 per Apple Student group member

8

Data AvailableUser demographics, SPI Site price index evolve ROI, Brand ROI

Evolved from CPI to CPM introduction of CPC

Targeting: Introduction of Keyword targeting

Channel subscribers/Unique visitors by channel

Online Advertising70’s Early 90’s 1995-2005 2006-201180’s

Social advertising arrives 2006 and Apple, Victoria Secret big FB advertisers2006 YouTube launched its participatory video ads and brand channels2006 Admob and Millennial Media launch mobile ad platforms2006 Twitter launches

1

2008 Facebook ads for business launches. Banner ads see their sharpest decline.2

2009 Facebook adds demographic targeting based on language and radius. 2009 Retargeting gains traction. 2009 RTB Real-time bidding introduced.

4

In 2011, Facebook launches Sponsored stories6

2008, YouTube launched promoted videos and pre-roll ads3

2011 FB Ads API introduced so that advertisers are able to advertise to their targeted niche

7

2010, Twitter introduced Promoted trends and Promoted Tweets—the first promoted trend was Disney’s Toy Story 3(Some of the twitters’ early advertisers included Virgin America, Starbucks and Bravo)

5

Data Explodes

Online Advertising70’s Early 90’s 1995-2005 2006-201180’s present

BANNER ADVERTISING“Banner Blindness” causes drop in click-through rates from internet avg. 44% to 0.03%

1

RETARGETINGGiven new relevancy to banner ads giving advertising ability to advertising to people who have already visited their sites

2

MOBILE ADVERTISINGSites are seeing more visitors coming from smartphones than desktop

4

SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING Key to virility is quality content that evokes sharing

5

SEARCH RE-MARKETING LISTS Allows search advertisers to set a different bid for people who have already visited the site

3

REAL-TIME BIDDING (RTB) & PROGRAMMATIC BUYINGUnlike traditional ads, what makes RTB unique is that advertisers only pay for the impressions that they want, and the publishers receives the best rate for that impression. Programmatic buying usesmachines to buy ads.

6

ADVERTISER SSP PUBLISHERNETWORKAGENCY DSP

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Advertising Ecosystem

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