Here are several excerpts from an article by Businessweek.com reporter Catherine Holahan, Small Biz Ads: The Year of the Web:
On Jan. 17 Michael Rivkin and Alexander Libkind released Zodiac Interactive technology that will let subscribers search for local businesses and never miss a minute of what’s on the tube. Simply hit a button on the remote, and the live-action picture on the screen shrinks to make room for a local search menu, which users can peruse by category or keyword.
Businesses in the vicinity matching the desired criteria are then displayed onscreen. Clicking on a vendor causes the cable subscriber’s phone to ring with the business on the line.
Rivkin, Zodiac’s CEO, plans to support the service by selling interactive banner ads from local vendors on the search screen. Zodiac may charge businesses for the call as do other click-to-call Web services.
“The Final Frontier”
Search is still a primary driver for local Web advertising. But as search ads get more expensive, it’s new products such as pay-per-call advertising and local mobile advertising that have potential to reel in many of the small businesses that have yet to advertise on the Web (see BusinessWeek.com, 1/22/06, “The Small Fry Sour on Search Ads”).
“Local online advertisers are the final frontier in online advertising,” says Colby Atwood, president of Borrell Associates, a research firm specializing in local advertising. “Smaller local businesses were slower to catch on, but they are starting to flow onto the Web at a pretty high rate.
Atwood attributes much of the growth to a realization among small business owners that customers are researching potential purchases on the Internet and new Web services, such as click-to-call advertising, which have made it easier for small businesses without much of a budget to advertise online. He predicts local online advertising will jump more than 32%, to $7.7 billion this year. That’s up from $5.9 billion last year.
Taking Search Local
The quest to capture more ad spending from smaller businesses is attracting traditional search advertisers such as Google. Last year, Google unveiled two local business advertising products in conjunction with its local search and map offerings.
Users can search through Google Local for businesses related to specific keywords near a location. The results are then displayed and marked on the map.
Sponsored links from applicable advertisers appear in a blue box, before directory listings. Google also displays printable coupons, supplied through a partnership with Valpak.com, along with the local search results.
Google also offers free click-to-call services in its local search directory with technology provided by VoIP (VOII), a company that owns a patent on click-to-call technology. VoIP CEO Tony Cataldo says the company has seen steady growth through the involvement of advertisers such as lender Nationwide, which has click-to-call features on its Web site to let customers fill out online forms while speaking with a representative over the phone.
Google is not the only search engine trying to cash in on local advertisers through local search and click-to-call services. Search engine platform Yahoo has offered a similar service on its local search property since 2004.
Internet commerce giant eBay has offered click-to-call services since acquiring Internet communications company Skype in 2005. And in August, eBay and Google announced they would team up to develop click-to-call text ads. They plan to test the services early this year.
Smaller search engine Ask, owned by Interactive Corp. (IACI), also is getting into the market. In December the search engine unveiled its new AskCity service, which combines maps and local search with reviews and tickets from other online sources such as IAC’s online local guide service Citysearch and ticket-service Ticketmaster. AskCity does not yet include advertising but eventually will offer opportunities for local advertisers such as online coupons, says Ask’s vice-president for product management, Doug Leeds.
Web Ads Go Legit
A Web site, however, isn’t the only thing holding local businesses back from advertising online. There is concern about the reliability of tracking for online ads due to click fraud, says Borrell’s Atwood.
There’s also the mixed message from traditional media companies with whom local businesses have advertised. Often they will only sell online ads with print ads, making online advertising appear like an extra rather than an effective medium. EMarketer senior analyst David Hallerman says this will become less of a problem as traditional media companies embrace Web advertising themselves and develop partnerships with Google and others.
For more, check out the complete source article.
