The first clickable banner ad got clicked by 44 percent of viewers
In 1994 AT&T ran the first clickable web banner, its You Will campaign, and within four months 44 percent of the people who saw it clicked. That banner belongs to the early years of digital marketing, a field that has since moved from simple web pages and email to social media, automation and, lately, AI-written search answers.
The field's roots reach back to 1990, when the Archie search engine was created to index FTP sites. Even in the 1980s, computers could hold enough customer data for companies to swap rented mailing lists for their own databases, changing how sellers tracked buyers. The phrase digital marketing was coined in the 1990s, when efforts centred on plain HTML websites and a new habit of emailing customers directly.
The 2000s scrambled everything. With more people online and the iPhone in their pockets, shoppers researched and decided without a salesperson. A British survey in 2000 found most retailers had not even registered their own web domains. Google's pay-per-click advertising took hold, and the arrival of Facebook in 2004, YouTube in 2005 and Twitter in 2006 let brands talk with customers directly. Marketing automation appeared in 2007, using software to segment audiences and personalise campaigns across several channels at once. By 2010 an estimated 4.5 trillion online ads were being served each year and digital media spending was growing by 48 percent, much of it driven by behavioural targeting that raised worries about privacy.
Each channel has its quirks. Email is cheap and fast but easily feels intrusive, so its success hinges on wording and design. Affiliate schemes carry a risk of partners claiming commission they did not honestly earn. Games can carry ads too, and a player who dislikes a game may quietly sour on the brands inside it. Among video ads, those shown after the clip tend to be remembered best.
The latest shift began in the 2020s, when AI-generated answers started replacing plain search results. Marketers responded with generative engine optimisation, also called answer engine optimisation, aimed at getting their products mentioned by those tools. Marketing that also runs through non-internet digital channels is what separates the broader field from online marketing alone.
Source: Digital marketing
