October 23, 2000 – AdWords launches with a total of 350 advertisers, including Larry Kim
February 2002 – major AdWords overhaul, introduction of CPC pricing
October 2002 – AdWords opens its second APAC office after Tokyo in Sydney, Australia. AdWords’ first client in the region is eBay Australia.
March 2003 – Google launches Google AdSense
April 2003 – Google acquires Applied Semantics, the company whose technology enhances the AdSense service
March 2004 – Google and its approx. 800 employees move into “The Googleplex,” the company’s iconic campus headquarters at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, California
August 2004 – Google files its IPO of 19,605,052 shares of Class A common stock, at a value of $85 per share
November 2005 – Google Analytics is launched, based on the technology behind Urchin, a company Google acquired in March 2005
June 2006 – Google announces Google Checkout
August 2007 – Google introduces the first video ads to YouTube
September 2007 – AdSense for Mobile launched
March 2008 – Google finalizes its acquisition of DoubleClick
September 2008 – WordStream raises $4 million in Series A venture financing
November 5, 2008 – Google abandons a proposed ad agreement with Yahoo! in light of an antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department concerning competition in search
September 2009 – The DoubleClick Ad Exchange is launched
May 2010 – Google acquires AdMob
May 2010 – Remarketing comes to the Google Display Network
March 2011 – Google for Nonprofits is launched
July 2011 – AdWords Express launches
June 2012 – Google Product Search becomes Google Shopping, and transitions from an organic to a paid business model
May 2013 – Keyword Planner officially launches, replacing the retired Keyword Tool in AdWords
June 2013 – RLSA made available to all advertisers after almost a year in closed beta
June 2013 – Larry Kim named Most Influential PPC Expert by PPC Hero
October 2013 – Estimated Total Conversions announced
April 2014 – Query referral data goes ‘Not Provided,’ though some data still available through Search Terms report
August 2014 – Website Call Conversions announced
September 2014 – Ad customizers are introduced
May 2015 – Google confirms mobile search volume surpasses desktop search volume for the first time in 10 countries, including the United States and Japan.
May 2015 – Universal App Campaign type announced
September 2015 – Native Gmail Ads launched
October 2015 – Shopping Remarketing Lists introduced
December 2015 – Google introduces Smart Goals
January 2016 – Google AdWords app launched for iOS
September 2016 – Facebook surpasses 4 million advertisers – a figure we believe to be higher than the total number of advertisers on Google AdWords
September 2016 – WordStream’s AdWords Performance Grader celebrates its 1 millionth report
The AdWords of today bears little resemblance to its earlier incarnations, but it’s easy to forget just how far AdWords has come since its humble launch on October 23, 2000 – when WordStream Founder and CTO Larry Kim was among the very first 350(!) advertisers to use AdWords at launch.
In honor of AdWords’ 16th anniversary, we took a look back through the years to create this interactive history of AdWords. Some of the events in this AdWords timeline were truly monumental, and would forever change not only Google as an organization, but the very landscape of online commerce itself.
From everyone at WordStream, many happy returns to AdWords! Here’s to many more years of innovation and growth.
This content was originally published here.