Baie! will lake eon i sale next ne: uci Nici Une vill apgxc on waaay iat . ‘a ‘ade each bp tong afe il aL bea “ha weoa 0 je ef ft ra nex sai Nootracdf Name be pamed muotGa "ne =aa er atna OF SMALL BUSINESS Local Sponsored Search: How to Reach Consumers Searching Online For Your Business (NAPSA)—Classified ads. Phone directories. Outdoor signs. Radio ads. 3 a.m. public access television spots. Tse are some of t traditional ways in which small businesses have reacd out to local in sponsored search advertising— only companies with Web sites could take advantage of t payfor-performance model. Now, Local Match offers busi- customers. But as t Internet revolution continues to take hold, local businesses are increasingly turning to Web marketing and online advertising to reach consumers looking for products and services in tir neighborhood. According to recent research by T Kelsey Group, 25 percent of commercial searcs by online consumers today are local in nature. T group also reports that this number will grow as search sophistication and technologies grow. What does this mean to small businesses? It means that, on any given day, hundreds of thousands of consumers are searching online to purchase offline. Consumers who, as more and morelocal businesses appear in online search results, will turn first to Internet search to find tir local bank branch, pizza shop, real estate agent or dry cleaner. How to “Get Local”in Sponsored Search Several online search companies offer “local sponsored search” services that enable small and regional businesses to advertise on Internet search destinations— but not all services are alike. One of t most innovative products available today is Local Match, a local search marketing product recently launcd by Overture Services, a division of Yahoo! Inc. and t pioneer of sponsored search advertising. Local Match was developed based on t company’s original core product, Precision Match (for- merly known as “Pay-For-Performance Search”). Through Preci- sion Match, advertisers bid on search terms in orderto list tir businesses more prominently in sponsored search results across Like advertising in t paper, advertising on t Net can lp you reach many markets at once. t Web. Businesses can control tir position by t amount ty choose to bid on t search terms. And, unlike otr forms of advertising, Precision Match allows businesses to determine tir own price-per-lead and pay only wn a potential customer clicks throughto tirsite. Built on t same pay-for-performance model, Local Match allows local advertisers to target consumers even more precisely by choosing a specific area around tir business. That area can be as broad as 100 miles or as precise as downto 1/2 mile. Now, moreeasily than ever, a small business can decide which consumers are shown tir listings, based on wre tir customers generally come from. For example, a bookstore whose customers usually come from within five miles could choose to pinpoint only users searching for tir products and services within five miles of tir business. Similarly, an auto dealer that services an entire county might choose to deliver its listings to users searching from within 50 miles of tir location. No WebSite? No Worries. T U.S. Small Business Association estimates tre are ap- proximately 23 million small businesses in t nation—less than half have a Web site. Up until t launch of Local Match, such busi- nesses were not able to participate nesses without Web sites t opportunity to advertise online through sponsored search. Local Match advertisers are automatically provided a free, hosted, customizable business information page that offers consumers t information ty’re looking for— including street address, phone number, payment options, hours of operation and a dynamic map— wn ty are searching online for a local business. Is Local Search Advertising For You? Many small business owners, especially those who have never advertised online, often ask, “How do I know wtr local search advertising makes sense for my business?” T answer varies by product—each local sponsored search product is different—soit’s important to research t benefits of each before beginning yourlocal search campaigns. Local Match offers many unique benefits to small and regional businesses seeking to drive online user traffic to tir offline locations. To recap, ty include: High Visibility—Overture’s network of distribution sites includes popular web destinations Yahoo!, MSN, CNN.com, ESPN.com, and Infospace, Precise Targeting—Advertis- ers can target potential customers interested in regions down to within a 1/2 mile of tir business, Customized Business Information Page—Even businesses without Web sites can now take advantage of sponsored search advertising. As users becomeincreasingly engagedin local search, more small businesses will realize t significant value of sponsored search products like Local Match. To find out more about Local Match, visit http://www.overture.com.
