Local Search Pay Per Click Advertising

Local Search Pay Per Click Advertising: What Are Your Options?

Local search was one of the most written about search engine developments in 2004. Overture and Google both launched pay per click local search advertising programs in 2004 and Yellow Pages websites began announcing advertising programs inspired by the success (and threat) of PPC. Yahoo and Google both began developing local search interfaces designed to persuade users to carry out more local searches and provide them with more relevant results.

Buy beyond the press releases, beta tests and speculation, what pay per click local search advertising options are available today?

Overture’s Local Match (Yahoo!)

Minimum CPC: $0.10

Minimum deposit: $20

Signup fee: None for self service, $99 for Overture’s “Fast Track” service.

Minimum monthly spend: none

Auto bid management: free

Distribution: Currently shown on Yahoo, Alta Vista, AllTheWeb, InfoSpace, Citysearch and “other popular websites” for searches that include US locations.

Information shown: results link to a “Locator Page” including business contact details, business description, location map, driving directions and website link (if appropriate).

Pay per call: none available

Geo- targeting: Based on the location included in the search – e.g. a search for “Pasadena real estate” triggers Local Match results for companies bidding on “real estate” that have specified they serve the Pasadena area.

Keyword system: advertisers specify a list of keywords describing their services or products and then select the area(s)  they serve using a map. Overture’s system shows their ads when searches are carried out that contain their keywords and locations that are within the area(s) specified (more information in “Overture Launches its Local Search Solution, Local Match”).
 
Notes: Bidding in Local Match is separate to Overture’s standard pay per click program Precision Match. There is no minimum monthly spend, unlike Precision Match.

Verdict: This is the first local search advertising program to trial for your website. Yahoo! and the other partner sites have good quality traffic and Overture’s system of matching adverts to the locations explicitly specified by searchers reduces the possibility of adverts being inaccurately served.

The program is open to businesses without a website – which is important for attracting smaller businesses as advertisers.

Improvements: Yahoo! and the other distribution partners will need to persuade more searchers to specify locations in their searches in order to increase the volume and diversity of local search inventory available to advertisers; this can be done by prompting searchers on-screen to enter a location or zip code, or by serving results based on the location specified in their Yahoo! profile.

Further information: http://www.content.overture.com/d/Usm/ays/lm.jhtml

Google AdWords (Local targeting)

Minimum CPC: $0.04

Minimum deposit: None

Signup fee: $5 to open account, self service.

Minimum monthly spend: none

Auto bid management: free

Distribution: Currently shown in main Google SERPs and on Google Local.

Information shown: Standard AdWords text and link to the advertiser’s website.

Pay per call: none available

Geo- targeting: Based on the IP address of the searcher within Google’s main results; based on the keywords and location in the search query on Google Local (e.g. for Lawyers New York).

Keyword system: advertisers specify a list of keywords describing their services or products and then enter the locations they serve. Ads are displayed with the location written underneath them. These locations include the 210 DMAs in the US, individual cities and within a radius of the location of their business.
 
Notes: Bids are in the same auction as standard AdWords results.

Verdict: Google’s ad targeting uses the IP address of the searcher (for the main Google results) and this is the weakness in the system. IP addresses are not always an accurate indication of the location of the searcher because of the way ISPs assign and reassign them over time.

This means ads may be shown to some searchers outside of the intended area and not shown to all within it. Google is working to improve this with ISPs – but how much data they will share with Google, and how useful it will be, is to be seen.

The other problem with Google’s use of IPs occurs when searchers look for a business outside of the area the searcher’s IP suggests they are in. So if you are at work and search for a restaurant near, say, your parent’s house in another city, you won’t get local AdWords results in the standard Google SERPs (but you will in Google Local results). They may see links to Google Local results however at the top of the SERPs.

So advertisers need to run both normal AdWords campaigns with keywords that include locations and locally-targeted AdWords campaigns. Advertisers must have a website to use AdWords unlike Overture’s Local Match program, which offers locator pages with business details to all advertisers.

Google’s local advertising is definitely worth trialling – but you need to be aware that your ads might not be shown to every searcher within the area you target and you still need to run standard AdWords campaigns.

Improvements: Google will need to ensure adverts are served to the right searchers and win advertiser trust in their targeting technology.

Further information: https://adwords.google.ca/select/targeting.html

SuperPages.com

Minimum CPC: $0.20

Minimum deposit: unclear from site

Signup: Self service or paid service. Prices not on site.

Minimum monthly spend: $15

Auto bid management: free

Distribution: SuperPages.com - 20% of the IYP market (comScore's January 2003)

Information shown: Ad text, website link, link to a business profile page hosted by SuperPages.com, email address and a map.

Pay per call: advertisers can add an optional “Free to talk” link to their listings. Searchers click this and enter their phone number in the box provided and receive a call from the advertiser. Alternatively they can talk via their computer. Powered by eStara.

Geo-targeting: Based on the location entered by the searcher.

Keyword system: Advertisers bid on the category their business fits into (e.g. Attorneys > Family Law > Divorce). When searches are carried out a list of matching categories is displayed for the searcher to select from.
 
Notes: SuperPages.com’s PPC advertising is powered by technology supplied by FindWhat.com, which SuperPages.com have add their technology and expertise to.

Verdict: SuperPages.com’s PPC offering is well-designed; the site is a well established destination for local searches and worth trialling as a source of traffic.

Improvements: clearer pricing information before signup and more search inventory.

Further information: https://my.superpages.com/spweb/portals/customer.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=bp_ppc_home

Article: A Preview of SuperPages.com's Pay Per Click Advertising

MSN

Currently powered by Overture. Some local searches include links to local results – for example search for lawyers New York and a link “Were you looking for 'lawyers' near New York, NY” “Were you looking for 'lawyers' near New York, NY” is displayed. PPC results on this page are from Overture.

AOL

AOL has recently improved it’s search interface (see my blog entry here. However the local searches I have tried bring up the standard AOL results page made up of Google AdWords and then natural Google results. AOL partnered with FAST in January to offer an improved local search solution –the ads will probably still be from AdWords.. AOL have a IYP search page at http://yp.aol.com/ too, which features standard IYP listings. I expect to see further chages at AOL search.

Switchboard.com

SwitchBoard offers it’s own “LocalClicks Links” PPC advertising – this is, confusingly, aimed at national advertisers or online-only businesses. “LocalClicks Links” is described on their site as enabling “national retailers and service organizations to acquire new customers and differentiate their business at the local level”. Effectively this adds a live link to your website to an existing Yellow Pages listing.

They also offer “Category-Targeted LocalClicks” which is described as providing “national and regional advertisers who do not have brick-and-mortar locations with a powerful tool to promote their business”.

Contextual ads from Google are served on the right of pages at Switchboard based on the content of the page.

More information: http://www.switchboard.com/advertise.asp?LNK=74:1

Conclusion

These are the PPC local search advertising options available in the US at the time of writing (February 2005). No doubt there will be improvements to these programs and new solutions launched by other IYPs; the bottom line will remain that the quality of traffic they can provide will justify any spend with them.

If you think I’ve missed a PPC local search solution or would like to suggest a topic for a future article, please email me at duncanp at payperclickanalyst .com. I’ll post any updates on the new Local Search Blog http://www.payperclickanalyst.com/localsearchblog/.


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