More than 200,000 businesses on Yell.com can now extend their reach
thanks to a new online advertising tool unveiled last week by the
business directory.
Companies advertising on the site which pay for ‘netReach’ will see
their ad pop-up on third-party websites that are in the same coverage
area and are relevant to their business offering.
Six such websites, including the Manchester Evening News and Multimap,
have so far used the system, in which they display the business listing
in a ‘Yell’ branded capsule.
These ‘partner’ sites, which benefit by boosting the experience of
their users by providing them relevant ads, can choose which listings
appear, thereby eliminating competition issues.
In a salvo against Google, Yell said partner sites which use the
marketing tool gain a level of control “not available from general
search engines” over the ads they carry.
Moreover, thanks to each business paying an annual fee for the wider
promotion of their service, the partner site carrying the ad receives a
share of the revenues, calculated on a pay-per-click basis.
In return, the marketed business gets “great exposure and more leads”,
Yell says, without having the headache of having to regularly monitor a
pay-per-click programme.
Businesses can also gauge if the service is worthwhile for them by
receiving monthly reports on how many times their advert was displayed
and clicked.
Peter Boler, head of digital sales at the Manchester Evening News,
explained that the content of the promotions during its trial of the
tool were ideal for its audience.
“We needed an advertising syndication programme which always serves
adverts which are contextually relevant and appropriate for a news
website,” he said.
“The sophisticated filtering…avoids any potential problem and ensures
we retain the high levels of reader trust we enjoy. This gives us great
peace of mind.”
Ian Bowen-Morris, head of ad syndication at Yell.com, explained that
the trend of web users blocking irrelevant content is driving web
publishers to find a reliable ad syndication product.
“Your advert will appear on a variety of local and national sites,”
Yell said in a message aimed at its 207,000 advertisers, rather than
its 2m listed firms.
“To ensure the best quality of leads for you, your listing will be
shown in the same coverage area as your Yell.com advert or when user
searches match your business.”
Explaining netReach to website owners or publishers, Yell said: “Within
a capsule on your site, we will serve relevant Yell.com listings to
enhance the user experience. Every click on listings within the
Yell.com capsule will generate revenue for you.
”A full range of capsule sizes are available to allow you to make best
use of your site without compromising design or positioning.
“The content served within the capsule can also be tailored to your
site, ensuring that each listing returned is relevant, either in
context or coverage. This also means that adverts can be pre-defined so
as to ensure listings complement your site and are not competitive.”
Like the advertisers, partner sites get regular reports on the number
of times the capsule has been viewed and clicked, along with the
revenue generated, on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
Micro-businesses seeking to boost their presence on the Web can access netReach
today. Existing advertisers on Yell.com pay an annual add-on fee, or
new customers create an advertising package to include the tool, which
was co-developed by tech start-up Mirago.
Mar 18, 2008
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