Local Search Ads Rise = Income Opportunity
Saturday, March 11th, 2006 at 7:16 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine
Among the many large scale changes wrought by search engines, both to the Internet and society in general, one of particular interest to affiliate marketers is the use of Local Search.
Whether in the form of paid contextual ads or just organic results, one of the drawbacks - along with the advantage - of the Internet has been its lack of geographic awareness.
Users in China want to know about the latest hot video games and - after a quick search - bingo! The engine displays the latest incarnation of Xbox related info. Couple that search with an ad that shows an online vendor and a customer in Asia can buy the same product as his cousin in Seattle.
But, as studies continue to show, many still prefer to research online but buy offline. Well, offline still almost always means locally. Even travelers rarely want to lug that purchase back to home base.
And some businesses are inherently ’stuck’ in one place. Now that Starbucks has over 10,000 outlets around the globe you could probably get a latte in Zimbabwe. But if you want to buy a house or a horse farm, it’s still going to be at some particular latitude and longitude.
It’s no accident, therefore, that Realtors are among the largest spenders on local ads, both online and in newspapers. And it should come as no surprise that the local search ad market is predicted to double in 2006, to nearly $1 billion.
Affiliate marketers have become expert at making their sites and businesses appeal to visitors from all over. And that one-size-fits-all approach was always one of the web’s strengths, after all. Now that it’s getting easier to find local products online, it’s time for some to rethink things.
Paradoxically, many sites can increase income by making at least part of the ‘real estate’ attractive to a narrower audience. Your neighbors might actually be your next best customers.
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