The world's first banner advertisement was ordered and used by AT&T on October 27, 1994. People clicked on it in a crazy way by today's standards.
Nowadays, people hardly click on banner ads. At least not intentionally for sure. In fact, in some countries, most internet users actively try to avoid ads and banners with the help of ad blockers.
Ad blockers pose significant problems for companies that primarily finance their operations through advertising revenue (health and lifestyle sites, women's magazines, or smaller green sites). But it's understandable why people use them. Banner ads are often cumbersome, not very aesthetically pleasing, and distracting. Moreover, many companies dealing with banners collect and sell data about users.
How did we get here?
There was a time, even in another century, when people actually clicked on banner ads. About 20-25 years ago, banners were considered a novelty, and readers still shared links and linked to other content. This is no longer the case today.
The banner ad that is usually mentioned first was a small rectangle purchased by AT&T on HotWired.com in 1994. About 44 percent of visitors actually clicked on it.
This banner ad initiated revolutionary changes in the advertising industry and other sectors as well. The first banner was part of AT&T's „You Will” campaign, which featured a series of television commercials showcasing the future made possible by the internet. Interestingly, in many cases, surprisingly accurately.
In hindsight, it turned out that although AT&T was the first advertiser, HotWired had 14 more banner ads ready from other companies. (Club Med, 1-800-Collect, Zima, etc.). AT&T's ad just happened to be the first one placed on the site, after which a total of 6 companies' banners ran on the site.
Today we smile at it, but banner ads suddenly became very popular. In 1995, Yahoo announced its own primitive banner advertising agreement, which showcased the logos of five sponsoring companies on the Yahoo site in daily rotation. When the Internet Archive Wayback Machine first captured HotWired in 1997, several ads were already visible on the site, including ads for discounted computers and data centers. An interesting fact, as companies and agencies realized that banner ads could be clicked, they had to create websites for their clients. But the clients themselves were still not sure whether online websites and interaction were a good idea at all.
In fact, many didn't even know if online ads were legal at all?
When users clicked on AT&T's 1994 banner ad, they were taken to a simple landing page where they received more information about AT&T. The answer to the question „Have you clicked here with your mouse?” on the new page was: „Yes! Now let's see what else you will do.” From today's perspective, the page seems quite primitive, but it worked.
The banner ads that started appearing in the fall of 1994 drastically changed the early days of the internet. Including how companies operate and what websites looked like. But just as successful as the first banner campaign was, the effectiveness of the tool began to decline and deteriorate.
Already two years later, in 1996, many complained that banners were „boring and ineffective.” Today's display ads perform even worse. But where have we come from the first banner's 44% click-through rate? Well, here.
What is a good CTR (click-through rate) for a banner ad?
The average click-through rate of banner ads appearing in the Google Display Network is often similar to the average CTR on Facebook, as people „passively” view the ads. With good targeting, of course, click-through rates can be improved, and while the numbers vary by industry, they...
…in the case of an average banner advertisement, the CTR today is around 0.46%.
Well, this is far from the 44% that the first banner produced.
I wouldn't be surprised if the world's very first banner actually performed the best. And no single banner targeted at a large audience has ever come close to that magical 44% click-through rate.
Gábor further articles on the marketing secrets blog.
