Here you are watching a video on YouTube when suddenly an ad appears, interrupting your train of thought and slightly annoying you. It is not just in videos either, but when you are also shopping online when you see an ad that shows a product you were searching for in Google just a few hours ago.
The Early Days
Online ads have evolved and become smarter since their development in the late 90s, when the internet’s emergence as a highly accessible tool for search engines first gained popularity. This meant that advertisers had to capitalize and earn profits from the new trend in town.
Before the 90s ended, GoTo.com launched the pay-for-placement service where advertisers were able to place their ads on top of search engine keywords. This trend started slowing down, as its effectivity was only based on which company paid more. In response, Google launched AdWords in 2000 and introduced the Quality Score Model, which measured clickthrough rates, adding more value to pay-per-clicks.
Shift to the Hyper-Targeted Area
By the mid-2000s, the internet has reached its peak, while traditional ads at the time started to become less effective. It was also during this time when social media was in its infancy, with Facebook starting to work with advertisers in 2006 by including a few links here and there and a couple of small ads.
As time went by and Facebook realized they had a gold mine of user information, the ads started to target demographics, a trend that continues to this day.
Present Day
Today, ads have taken over videos and subscription services, on top of social media and internet browsers. Ads have also started getting a bad reputation, however, for their intrusive nature, privacy issues, and even the potential to contain malware and viruses, measures that should be handled by threat intelligence through security operations from Servicenow and other similar applications.
Despite their bad reputation, ads have become better in capturing their desired targets. They also continue to grow, with digital advertising’s revenue presently valued at around $40 billion.
People can disable ads through means such as AdBlock and premium services of subscriptions such as Netflix, Amazon, and Youtube. With this, how can digital marketing continue to grow? Fortunately, strategies are being done by the way of other marketing strategies.
- Native ads that are not designed to be intrusive are advertised, well, naturally. These ads are cleverly placed to blend in with content users are reading, such as posts, videos, or content in news feeds. Aside from these mediums, native ads can be integrated in educational means or a video series. Native ads get the achievement of capturing their audience without them realizing it.
- Marketing with the help of influencers can help capture a target market of obsessed fans and loyal supporters. Brands should be able to choose the right influencer for their product or service and promote their image using a relevant campaign for their target audiences.
- Content marketing means brands can reach their target markets through engaging and informative videos, blogs, or articles. Unlike traditional ads, content marketing can be done in a glance to combat the consumer’s attention span and provide all the relevant details and information in the blink of an eye. Brands can utilize anything under the sun, such as images, video clips, GIFs, and even memes to take advantage of the evolving market.
Ads nowadays are becoming more personalized, thereby becoming more effective and resulting in better ROI. Even with various AdBlockers, digital marketing continues to grow by finding other mediums to reach the right people and become more effective advertisers in the quick-changing world of marketing and advertising.
