Digital marketing effectively began in 1990 when the Archie search engine was created as an index for FTP sites. During the 1980s, the storage capacity of computers was already large enough to store large volumes of customer information. As a result, companies started choosing online techniques such as database marketing rather than relying on limited list brokers. These databases allowed companies to track customers' information more effectively, transforming the relationship between buyers and sellers.
In the 1990s, the term digital marketing was coined. The first clickable banner ad, the "You Will" campaign by AT&T, launched in 1994. Within the first four months,44% of all people who viewed the advertisement clicked on it. Early digital marketing efforts focused primarily on simple HTML websites and the burgeoning practice of email marketing, which enabled direct communication with consumers.
In the 2000s, with increasing numbers of Internet users and the introduction of the iPhone, customers began searching for products and making decisions online instead of consulting a salesperson, which created a new problem for the marketing department of a company. Additionally, a survey conducted in the United Kingdom in 2000 revealed that most retailers had not yet registered their own domain names. These challenges encouraged marketers to explore new ways to integrate digital technology into marketing strategies. At the same time, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, introduced by Google AdWords in 2000, allowed businesses to target specific keywords, making digital marketing more measurable and cost-effective.
Digital marketing became increasingly sophisticated during the 2000s and 2010s, when the proliferation of devices capable of accessing digital media led to sudden growth. Statistics produced in 2012 and 2013 showed that digital marketing continued to grow significantly. With the development of social media in the 2000s, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, consumers became highly dependent on digital electronics in their daily lives. Digital media growth was estimated at 4.5 trillion online ads served annually with digital media spending at 48% growth in 2010. An increasing portion of advertising stems from businesses employing Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA) to tailor advertising for internet users, but OBA raises concerns about consumer privacy and data protection. In the 2020s, AI-generated responses began to be offered as a replacement for simple search engine results. Digital marketers developed methods known as generative engine optimization (GEO) or answer engine optimization (AEO) to market via these tools.