The Evolution of Digital Advertising and What It Means for Brands Today

Digital advertising has come a long way since the widespread proliferation of the internet in the late 90s. Once upon a time, digital advertising was very limited in its abilities despite the potential it showed to outperform print and TV ads. Nowadays, there are several ad platforms and networks to choose from that cater to every stage of the customer journey – and brands that choose not to participate miss out on a powerful way to reach new and existing customers. Let’s take a deep dive into how digital advertising has evolved over the years.

The Early Days

The internet of today bears only a slight resemblance to the World Wide Web that people began getting access to in the late 1990s. This was a time before search engines, social media, and large tech firms dominated the landscape.

In those halcyon days, advertising options were quite limited. The most popular form was the banner ad, which were simple, clickable graphics that appeared on early websites. There were some ad networks that would sell space – these networks would then usually pay a cut of the proceeds to various websites for placement.

This form of advertising actually still lives on in the form of networks like the Google Display Network. While it is not as dominant an ad format as it used to be, Display tends to still perform well as part of a Retargeting campaign – where you serve ads to visitors of your site who haven’t converted. E-commerce stores make use of Display Network retargeting campaigns extensively to drive more sales.

The Rise of Google and Facebook

The middle part of the 2000s saw a shift in the direction of the internet with the growth of Google and other search engines, as well as the launch of Facebook. It wasn’t long before Google and Facebook developed their own digital advertising platforms – and these platforms completely changed the game for brands.

No longer did brands need to broadly target an audience with TV, print, or banner ads. Now, Google and Facebook offered advertisers a seemingly limitless quantity of data and targeting options. You could now be hyper-specific about the exact audience you were targeting. Google and Facebook could make use of the data they gathered about visits to your website or social media profile and create lookalike audiences from their own data to serve your ads to people likely to make a purchase.

If we think of print, TV, and early banner ads as today’s brand awareness-themed campaigns, Google and Facebook opened the possibility for brands to target customers much farther along the buyer’s journey than ever before.

And on Facebook specifically, advertising transformed from a one-way communication channel into a fully interactive, community-driven experience. Now brands could listen to their customers much more easily and provide new ways to truly wow their audience and create a memorable experience. Digital advertising turned into an essential part of building a brand.

The Rise of Mobile

Another huge development in the mid-2000s changed the way we thought about advertising. This was the announcement and launch of the iPhone in 2007, which introduced the concept of segmenting internet traffic through the use applications, or apps. Apps evolved from simple shortcuts to a corner of the internet into arguably the cornerstone of our connected experience.

It didn’t take long until advertising became a viable avenue for brands. Developers created games and other apps that were sold to customers as free, but which featured advertising throughout. Ads on mobile apps take several forms – banner, rewarded ads, and interstitials became the most popular. And as mobile internet speeds went up, new forms such as video ads started to proliferate.

And these days, with so much internet traffic originating from a mobile device, brands need to be especially cognizant of their digital advertising efforts. Websites and landing pages need to be fully optimized for mobile. Google and Facebook campaigns should include mobile versions of ads to capture traffic on apps. All of these efforts serve to reach the ideal customer where they are.

Influencer Marketing

In the past 10 years, influencer marketing has turned into a massive industry, and its not hard to see why. As customers place more and more emphasis on authenticity from the content they consume online, influencer marketing has taken off as a way for brands to get seen on networks such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

Unlike traditional celebrity endorsements, influencer marketing emphasizes relatability and niche appeal – which is especially important for the younger generation of internet users.

Final Thoughts

So what do brands need to take away from this brief look at the history of digital advertising?

Digital advertising now has more avenues than ever before – and it’s important for the brand to identify what they’re looking to achieve before engaging with it. In the old days, you only had to focus on brand awareness – and that led to a vague sense of success if you ended up with more sales.

But these days, you can target a customer from start to finish with a wide array of different advertising campaigns. So, you need to have a pinpoint approach. You can’t use the exact same messaging for a Google campaign as you can for a Facebook campaign – or a Facebook campaign for an influencer campaign, for example.

In addition, we cannot emphasize enough how important it is to keep mobile traffic in mind. The majority of traffic coming into websites is from mobile – and often there are multiple visits to a website. That represents an amazing opportunity if your brand website is clean, optimized well, and speedy.

Digital advertising can be rather difficult to navigate, with all the options out there. But with the help of digital experts like those at Pink Dog Digital, your brand can get the word out and start to build that brand narrative that leads to lifelong advocates for you and your products.

Contact Pink Dog Digital to Learn More About Digital Advertising for Your Organization

Digital ads may be the solution to taking your business ahead of your competition. Creating an effective ads campaign and following best practices will help you improve your website’s traffic and conversion rates. 

At Pink Dog Digital, we are ready to help you get started on your digital ads journey. Our talented and experienced marketing team will work with you to create effective PPC campaigns.

Some of our services include:

• Digital advertising
• Social media management
• Content creation
• Search engine optimization
• Web design

Don’t hesitate to call us at 410-696-3305, email us at pinkdogdigital@gmail.com, or contact us via our website for more information.