How Classified Ads Have Evolved Over The Years

Looking for a place to rent? Searching for a used car to buy? More often than not you'll begin your quest with some online classified advertising site. Or, maybe you'll be going through the classified section of your local newspaper.

Classified Ads or classifieds have been helping people connect and complete transactions since the birth of media. Sellers can advertise their products for a minimal fee. Thus, it is very beneficial to private sellers who can't afford to spend a lot of money. The shoppers on the other hand get to browse various local offers.

For decades, classified advertising was a business dominated by newspaper, earning the print media billions of dollars. However, the marketplace for online classifieds has seen tremendous growth in recent times and offers a far more lucrative prospect. Let us have a look at how this multi-billion dollar business has evolved over time.

The invention of advertising can be traced back to the Egyptian, who used to disseminate sales messages using wall posters made up of papyrus. Similarly, in the Roman Empire, political campaigns and commercial messages were published in the Acta Diuma.

Likewise, the Chinese government, in around 250 BC, produced news sheets tipao where people could also publish lost and found ads and want ads.

In the seventeenth century, advertising via handwritten notices were quite common. These notices, nailed to posts and walls, usually concerned lost properties.

The world saw the first of newspaper advertises when Boston News Letter started printing ads in 1704. As the publication and distribution of newspapers escalated, the advertisement industry flourished as well.

In the 18^th century, London's Morning Herald began classifying its Wants column by category. The credit of invention of modern classified advertising goes to The Philidelphia Public Ledger, for it was the first to promote this type of advertising as a separate department.

The advertisements in print media today can be categorized into two main groups: display and classified. Display ads tend to be elaborate with beautiful photos, colorful texts and intricate design; strategically placed among the regular editorial contents. On the contrary, classifieds are usually text-only, short messages that appear on distinct sections based on their ad category.

While display ads, are more likely to get readers' attention, classifieds are far more affordable. Although they cost buyers a small amount of money, classifieds are hugely profitable for the newspapers. They account for approximately 27% of all newspaper revenues.

However, with the advent of internet era, the print media has seen a steep decline in revenue generated by classified ads. Between 2002 and 2012, print media saw their revenue from classifieds decrease from $15,898 million to $4,626 million, an astonishing 71% drop.

Meanwhile, classifieds have acquired a fertile platform in the worldwide web. In 1995, two companies were started with a vision to reap profits using classifieds on the internet. One was AdOne—a service business that intended to make money by helping newspaper classifieds online. Another was Criagslist that offered ads across a range of categories. It is one of the most successful ventures in online classifieds advertisement.

Over time several other web sites publishing online classified ads have emerged choosing to publish ads related to several fields; or publishing ads dedicated to a single category such as automobiles, or real state.

Given the advantages of the internet, the migration of the classifieds to the internet was inevitable. Newspaper classifieds has a number of limitations: it does not allow for photos; it does not present detailed information. These were no longer problems for the online platforms. Photos and links to details regarding a product are common in online classifieds.

Furthermore, the web technology has provided innovative methods of earning money using classifieds, like the search model. The ad publishing sites like Craigslist fundamentally work on the same model as newspaper classifieds. People pay for publishing and the sites run the ads.
In contrast sites like SimplyHired, that utilize the search model, focus on indexing all the job classifieds and providing keyword search. Simply put, sellers are not paying these sites to get published, but to be found by interested buyers.

Social classifieds is another form of classified advertising that has its roots in the internet. Social Networking sites like Facebook, twitter among others are immensely popular and have a massive user base. Realizing this, Facebook launched the Facebook Marketplace that allows users to post free classified ads in 2007. Other sites like MySpace, Orkut etc. also provide a platform for classified ads. In addition, several start-ups have emerged that help to publish ads across multiple social networks. There are even classified ads search engines like Adswish.

The future of classified ads seems mobile bound. Given the fact that classifieds have generated billions of dollars for print media as well as online platform, it is no surprise that companies are voraciously competing to get the largest share of mobile classifieds.