New Online Ad Service Targets Consumers By Area (NAPSA)—It is now easier for businesses to use the Internet for connecting with consumers in their communities. About 55 percent of consumers used a search engineto find infor- mation about a local business last year, up from 47 percent in 2008, according to market-research firm Kelsey Group. When people are looking for products and services such as restaurants, car repair shops andflorists, they tend to spend their money in an area near wherethey live, work or play. It’s predicted that local search volume Whetherit’s the neighborhood restaurant or florist, locally is how people tend to spend their money. About 55 percent of consumers used a search enginetofind information abouta local business last year, up from 47 percentin 2003, according to Kelsey Group.It’s predicted that local search volumewill exceed 20 billion searchesin the next year. @ and then chooses the local regions where they want to advertise. Pricing is set on a flat-fee sub- will exceed 20 billion searches in the next year and could exceed 30 scription that begins at $29.95 per month and can be paid by credit card. Because the program is sold on a first-come, first-served basis, businesses don’t end up in a bid- from a major drugstore chain to The exact rate is determined by the particular business category, billion by 2009. In response to this trend, Yahoo! Local has designed an easy way for businesses of all sizes— an independently owned bakery— to place ads online that will be seen by people searching for related services in their community. This can help drivefoot traf- fic to their stores and phonecalls to their services at a reasonable price. Called Yahoo! Local Self-Serve Featured Listings, this new adver- tising program enables merchants to get the most out of their adver- tising dollars by targeting their ads by geographic region and product or service category. The ads appear through Yahoo! Local searches, which combined with Yahoo! Maps, had 26.7 million U.S. visitors in March, according to measurement firm comScore NetworksInc. Yahoo! Local Featured Listings was designed with a self-serve function that makes it easy for local businesses to get up and running quickly. The advertiser sim- ply enters information about the business, selects their category, ding war for popular keywords. the geographic location and also wherethe ad will appear. Ads that run on the top—also knownas the “north” of the page—are more expensive than those that run along the bottom to the “south.” Yahoo! Local Self-Serve Fea- tured Listings complements other Yahoo! Local free and paid adver- tising products, which include: e Free Listings: Yahoo! Local offers a free service whereby any merchant can upload detailed information on his or her busi- ness—such as hours, address and phone numbers, products andser- vices offered, Web site or years in business—that can be viewed by all users of Yahoo! Local. Enhanced Listings: For a small monthly fee, merchants can submit additional content such as photos, logo, and marketing messaging that will help visually dif- ferentiate their listing. To learn more, visit http:// local.yahoo.com/listings.
