Matchpoint Evolves Ad Product, Integrates Widgets
Matchpoint will soon be rolling out a new set of ad products to complement its flagship online lead-gen forms. On its own site, it will integrate more of an IYP setup with searchable business listings. With each search results page, a lead-gen form will be offered that is germane to the category searched.
This broadens the appeal of its destination local search site and gives users the option of calling a business or filling out a quick form that qualifies their needs and prompts a set of businesses to respond (user contact info kept confidential — more on its lead-gen product strategy here).
“After you see who the businesses are, we found that the majority of consumers want to interact with those businesses by going to the Web site or calling them,” says Matchpoint President Peter Adams. “But the ones still in research mode aren’t ready to select a business and are looking for a way to connect that is a little bit more on their terms. They can fill out the lead form and fill out what their requirements are.”
The company is also branching out beyond a destination strategy to package the product as various widgets that can be syndicated to other sites. These sites will include a growing list of publisher partners that we can’t mention yet.
The new ad products themselves include a lead-gen widget for sites in the company’s core home services vertical, as well as new verticals it’s developing such as elective surgery. It will also roll out a widget tailored for IYPs and directory sites, and a text ad product for local destination sites.
The vertically oriented widget will be much like the lead-gen form that appears on its own site, while the directory-oriented product will be a contact widget that lets users request quotes in the IYP environment. The text ad product will meanwhile operate on a cost-per-click and pay-per-call basis and be targeted toward local search or news sites (for pay-per-call, it’s developing a proprietary platform built partly on its acquisition of GetVendors).
All this essentially broadens its distribution, and its proposition to advertisers. This also falls into the destination vs. distribution concept that has caused many companies in the local search space to get more mileage out of unique ad products by pushing them out to more well-traveled publisher partners. We’ve seen this play out in one way or another with companies like Krillion, Everyscape and AgendiZe.
