Study: Portals Poised for Growth in Local Ad Marke
New York, NY, July 7, 2006— According to a new report from JupiterResearch, portals are poised to grow in the local advertising market.
The report entitled "Local Advertising: Blending Categories to Compete Effectively,"found that portals have begun to layer classified, directory and yellow pages advertising into their local services in new ways.
"Portals are experimenting furiously in local media, driven by competition with each other," said Barry Parr, JupiterResearch Analyst and author of the report. "By mixing local classifieds, maps, news, reviews of local merchants, and yellow pages listings on one locally-oriented page, portals are moving in the direction of erasing the artificial distinctions between local advertising media that are embedded in a century or more of print media practices."
JupiterResearch has found that one-third to one-half of online local yellow pages searches are immediately preceded by a visit to a portal. While local advertisers say that printed yellow pages are the number one source of leads today, Internet yellow pages have grown to become their second most popular ad medium.
"Local advertising media should broaden their distribution using syndication and data services to compete with portals," said David Schatsky, President of JupiterKagan. "Yahoo! currently has more market share than the next five services combined, including both Google's and MSN's local services."
Trackable leads and demonstrable performance are strong benefits of online advertising, but traditionally, businesses in local markets have not had the skills, tools, time, or ability to measure the performance of their advertising. More than two-thirds of local advertisers today are only counting ad clicks or nothing at all and less than one-third are counting leads or calls generated by their online advertising.
