Retargeting is now available for local marketing campaigns after having been primarily used by national marketers.

The practice, which inserts ads that had previously been viewed on other sites, has become increasingly important for online marketing. But it hasn’t been widely applied for local campaigns. High minimum spending amounts and hands on account management had made it impractical. Retargeting specialists such as Retargeter have a $500 minimum and no self-service options.

Perfect Audience, a 13 person San Francisco startup which began life as WindyCitizen, a Chicago-based hyperlocal site, hopes to change this by making retargeting available on a self-serve basis. The company, whose advisors include former ShopLocal head Brian Hand, connects across Facebook Exchange and more than a dozen display networks. SMBs can get started for free, and are provided with a $50 advertising credit.

The company’s big coup is a new partnership with DataSphere, a provider of SMB marketing solutions that it provides on behalf of local TV and newspaper sites. Perfect Audience will market retargeting efforts to DataSphere’s base of 20,000 local advertisers. The retargeting can be applied to advertisers’ own website, or to DataSphere’s video and coupon-driven LocalSaver business directory. SMBs such as doctors, dentists, bars, theaters and restaurants are eyed as potential customers.

“The biggest thing is staying in front of a prospect,” notes Perfect Audience President Brad Flora CEO. “If you are able to stay in front of Website visitors, you will be the first they call when it is time for them to pick up a pair of shoes, press shirts, etc.” Flora estimates that retargeting can boost company sales by five or six percent.

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Verve Mobile’s CEO Tom MacIsaac is bullish on local publishers’ ability to drive this revenue growth by selling local audiences not just to local advertisers but also to national brands seeking access to local audiences in a trusted context, through partners like Verve.

The secret sauce is Verve’s ability to deliver quality location-based audiences into a system in a way that creates premium mobile CPM values for both local and national mobile inventory by linking to high quality, local branded content. MacIsaac recently shared his views with BIA/Kelsey on where he sees the future of mobile and where he sees drivers and challenges.

MacIsaac concurs with BIA/Kelsey’s forecast of a flip from 60 percent/40 percent national/local mobile spending over the next few years. BIA/Kelsey’s mobile forecast predicts that from 2012-2016 the national/local split in mobile spending will reach 58 percent local for a total local spend of $5.8 billion as national brands continue to find more sales lift in their local initiatives.

Verve Mobile works with over 3,500 publishers and has achieved a level of dominance in the local mobile industry. MacIsaac revealed that the company is targeting $45 million in revenue in 2013, up 80 percent from $25 million this year. Generally, mobile display inventory pricing has lagged both PC display inventory in terms of CPM and CPC even as audience usage has increased dramatically. But, according to MacIsaac, premium pricing for mobile is available today through creating a quality context for advertisers through a combination of trusted, local content and accurate location data for audiences consuming that content.

Verve’s CMO, Greg Hallinan, also spoke to this at BIA/Kelsey’s ILM West 2012 conference held last week in Los Angeles. Verve’s Location Service combines location data with location context to customize the ad execution and creative to maximize relevance to audiences and advertisers.

MacIsaac offered a success formula for local publishers that is simple in concept but difficult in execution. Premium pricing in local mobile inventory will come through local sales forces that are focused on digital products; are driven by incentive compensation to close mobile sales; and by high quality content consumed by audiences that can be geo-located and served in a way that delivers local audiences not only to local advertisers but also sold to national brands seeking access to those local audiences.

“This is a win-win proposition that allows us to write bigger checks to our partners than the ones they write to us. For local publishers who use the Verve mobile publishing platform, we aren’t just a vendor on the cost side of the equation, we’re a partner building incremental revenue,” MacIsaac said. “We have some intellectual property in the works that will further improve our ability to offer even more accurate location targeting of our mobile audiences and maintain the high CPM’s we’ve generated from national advertisers seeking local audiences.”

BIA/Kelsey’s viewpoint is that local mobile ad inventory has such high potential value to national and local advertisers because it is the only medium that increasing is “always on and always there.” Mobile delivers audiences to advertisers that have a “time and place” context that offers a premium utility value to advertisers that will continue to be unlocked in inventory pricing as mobile location sensing and ad network technology continues to improve.

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BIA/Kelsey moderated a panel on “the Out-of-Home User Experience” (click on image for link to streaming video) at MediaPost’s Digital Out-of-Home Forum (DOOH) in New York. DOOH is the third-fastest growing ad medium after mobile and online video.

Paul Lindstrom, senior VP, Nielsen OnLocation, kicked off the panel with data showing video engagement is about 80 percent correlated to advertising recall. Andy Stankiewicz, executive VP and chief communications officer, Akoo International Inc., and David Veckerelli, co-CEO, Digital Displays Network, spoke to how their systems engaged users in unique ways to create video-based user experiences that could drive point-of-purchase sales.

In Akoo’s case, its model is to have large displays in food courts and college student unions playing music videos. Users can interact with the videos using their mobile phones (text, browsers or apps) to select content and make other choices which increases dwell time and user engagement. DDN built and operates the 7-Eleven network of video displays and uses a strategy of mapping content, dayparts and featured products to drive sales lifts.

Generally, the mood of the DOOH Forum was quite positive. The technology has matured into a more capable, cost-effective and efficient buying platform that bridges the physical (i.e., place-based) world to both traditional and digital media. Planning and buying has become easier within vendor platforms but there are still a lot of vendors. Video screens that are connected with an Internet Protocol (IP) address can be interactive, targeted and provide engaging content.

DOOH leverages social context, physical location and user passion (health clubs, bars other places where users select to be based on personal interests). The challenge now is for buyers to become educated about how to understand how their brand strategies can be served by DOOH media in combination with other media. This is a matter of multiplatform planning, buying and creative execution that leverages DOOH’s many digital and interactive capabilities to drive user engagement with compelling experiences.

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There is a lot going on in online media on the East Coast evidenced by the panel on geolocation here at the Internet Summit in Raleigh, North Carolina, sponsored by TechMedia and Southern Capital Ventures. Geolocation continues to be major news given the press coverage of Gowalla, Foursquare, Google and Facebook, which are all chasing the best solution. While an ever increasing number of players continue to move into the space, geolocation remains a growing category as business models are continuing to be developed and consumer needs are finally being recognized.

Simon Salt, CEO of IncSlingers, made the point that “geolocation needs to get beyond check-ins because they are not the end game. Check-ins are merely the portal to engagement and we need to decide what the end deliverable will be.”

Amy Dalton, senior director of marketing for Topix, said that “people are experiencing check-in fatigue where they can’t possibly check in with all the services they have signed up for.”

Salt shared one creative solution addressing check-in fatigue: “POS America is utilizing loyalty cards as a way for automatically enabling check-ins each time the loyalty card is swiped.”

When asked what it will take for geolocation to take hold, Chad Reed, director of field marketing for Whrrl, supported the idea that “marketers need to bring real value to the consumer in the form of deals, offers and meaningful promotions before geolocation will take hold and move beyond early adopters.”

What may move geolocation forward is a broader definition of location. Salt put forth the idea that “location is more than a physical location; it’s a TV show, it’s a store, it’s an event. This is how Facebook will extend how location will be defined.”

The consensus of the panel was that the combination of better smartphone handsets, a new definition of location and the addition of more tangible consumer value — be that promotions, coupons or unique events — will be the main factors going forward that will define the success of geolocation.

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Content remains king on the Internet mainly because there are more ways to produce, connect and interact with content than ever before. According to Rod Smith of IBM, “there are more ways to dig into content than ever before, but it also produces more targeted ways for advertisers to interact with the audiences they are seeking.”

While content is king, the way it is presented online differs depending upon the online medium used. Joe Gregorio of Google points out that “Twitter and blogging have different voices and and different timeframes so communication has to be different. Quick updates versus longer tail content that can be searched have very different purposes.”

Now we are seeing content being merged with local commerce and the social graph in more interesting mash-ups. “Consumer commerce is moving into virtual boutiques where the average consumer can set up shop and sell merchandise and connect their social network to their store, Gregorio says. “Tying into localized information and comments are the keys to the success of this area.”

When asked where the online play will be over the next one to two years, the clear answer was the smartphone. Why? According to Bob Young of LuLu, “we have not even reached the 50 percent mark of penetration and the current demand for content and usage indicates this market will continue to rise as more smart handsets come onto the market.”

The only restriction for the smartphone growth is the data pipeline. IBM’s Smith points out: “Pipes are the issue of what will be possible versus what people want to access. This is causing poor customer experiences. Netflix, Hulu and other major content producers are pushing the networks to do a better job.”

Content will remain king as it drives searches, engagement and eyeballs, meaning content will remain the center of the Web future. Innovation continues to drive online, and the hope is that the data pipes will keep up to help fulfill the consumer promises media companies and online publishers are making.

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ValPak now routinely features TV shows within its coupon offerings. This week, for instance, it has a Delta Airlines Sweepstakes associated with promotions for “The New Adventures of Old Christine” and “Mike & Molly.” In San Diego, the sweepstakes promotion is alongside more typical ValPak promotions for Sears Home Services, Alladin Parking and North County Pavers.

Eventful is going a step further and really pushing hard on the games mechanics for multiple social media promotions. The site has always had a “Demand It” feature for users to solicit events to their town. Now, Demand It has been expanded with eight weekly competitions. Each will enable users to “play” various contests, while being exposed to marketing for movies, TV shows, records, new books or even politicians, liquor and deal-a-day sites.

This week, for instance, the competitions include bringing author Ned Vizzini to a school; winning the premier showing of “Paranormal Activity 2,” a scary movie; being one of three schools to host Cox Cable and MTV’s “Challenge Day”; or five others (including Kiss).

CEO Jordan Glazier tells us “the local targeting capability of the Internet and direct e-mail marketing services like Eventful helps agencies appreciate the benefits of local focus. They are increasingly including local as a requirement within their buys.”

Using services like Eventful, Glazier says that “brand agencies have the opportunity to impact commerce for their clients across strategic segments and markets in ways that historically have been restricted to promotional agencies.” He adds that Eventful is capable of targeting by age, gender, presence of children, household income, city and neighborhood, and types of favored entertainment.

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We had the opportunity to sit down with industry leader MediaTrust to understand the major changes in the in the performance marketing (pay-for-results) category and the challenges of developing a cost-per-lead (CPL) model.

MediaTrust began as an affiliate marketing company, but was continually challenged by the deceptive practices of many affiliate marketers and publishers. Understanding there was a better approach, MediaTrust began vetting each of its publishers and affiliate marketers to ensure the quality of its network and to better assure brands would get quality campaign results. As this strategy gained momentum, MediaTrust evolved into a software as a service platform to better serve both publishers and brands. Today, the MediaTrust platform empowers advertisers to use e-mail, display, search and social media advertising to deliver a site visit, lead or sale. MediaTrust’s success was recognized by Inc. Magazine, which named them the ninth-fastest growing U.S. company in 2009.

Pay-for-results campaigns rely on understanding average customer acquisition costs and lifetime value of an acquired client to know how to effectively build a cost-efficient campaign. According to Trip Foster, VP of marketing, “our goal is to provide opportunities further down the sales funnel because advertisers are willing to pay more the closer we can get them to the transaction.” Publishers have become more willing to work on a performance basis because they are better able to monetize their excess inventory with known brands and increase revenues on what would have normally been sold on an ad network as remnant inventory. “There is no scarcity of online inventory; the real challenge is uncovering inventory on quality sites where brand value is protected and predictable results can be achieved.”

Foster describes MediaTrust’s performance marketing platform as “trusted outsourced marketing, bringing together publishers and online marketers who can provide quality leads or transactions based on a specific cost per acquisition.” Like most multimedia approaches, MediaTrust is platform agnostic focusing more on where quality leads and transactions come from. “We spend a lot of time testing campaigns to determine how best to drive ideal cost per acquisition and are willing to seek out new publishers or affiliate marketers who can best optimize a campaign via online direct response mechanisms such as search, display advertising, re-targeting or e-mail marketing.” The recent acquisition of Bardon Advisors, an L.A.-based CPC and affiliate marketing firm, allows MediaTrust to serve the full online sales funnel with cost per click (CPC), cost per lead (CPL) and cost per acquisition (CPA).

When asked about the growth of the performance marketing category, Foster said “the majority of online campaigns will move to a pay-for-results model. Even brand advertising is tied in some way to a specific response mechanism for more precise campaign measurement and ROI. The local portion of paying only for results, on the other hand, will be a more complicated scenario given the challenges of a smaller scope of geography, more limited inventory and possibly cost-per-acquisition numbers that might not make sense.”

As marketers continue to move away from impression-based online models, performance marketing is seen as a more direct way of measuring ROI, allowing brands and advertisers to maximize spend and grow their business. While multimedia publishers possess a number of online inventory options within their own ad networks, driving significant and affordable acquisition costs requires more specialized tools and partners to build up this portion of their business. As publishers and even broadcasters look to better maximize their online inventory with brand advertisers, online performance marketing seems to be a smart play.

Plan to hear more about MediaTrust’s views on leads-based products and selling at our upcoming Directional Media Strategies conference in Dallas, Texas, where Foster will provide his views on the category on the panel titled “Leads-Based Selling: Salvation or False Hope?”

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“A lot of the conversation in blogs now occurs on Twitter and Facebook,” says cofounder Sebastian Provencher. Using social micro blog sites — the “statusphere” — is “so much easier than blogging,” he says. Provencher adds that the new move is not a 180-degree change. The company has been taking half steps toward a Needium-like product since its launch, for instance, adding real-time search.

Needium will specifically offer consumers an outlet to search for explicit things like services and restaurants, or implicit things (“what’s fun in Boston?”). It also gives merchants the ability to respond with offers after their names are “surfaced.”

Ten to 20 categories are initially being launched, ranging from obvious travel-related categories to smaller ones, such as jewelers. A consumer might ask where to fix a broken watch, says Provencher.

Praized, a seven-person outfit based in Montreal, says it will continue to support its original blogs-based “social media stack”for enterprise clients such as YPG and Examiner.com. In addition to supporting licensees, it will also eventually develop a destination site of its own.

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Clickable has announced that it will add support for Facebook advertising that allows its Pro users to directly compare social and search results. The effort follows initiatives by rival “search resellers” like ReachLocal, Yodle and Orange Soda to broaden their platforms for organic search and display.

It also comes after accounts from Hitwise and others that Facebook is responsible for more traffic to portals, newspaper sites and even IYPs than Google News (although not Google generally).

On the Clickable blog, CEO David Kidder forms a position that “search and social advertising are complimentary. On Facebook, advertisers can be out ahead of the market. Every piece of information that a social networking user provides about themselves is an opportunity for marketers to learn about and target their audience: age and gender; college and occupation; hobbies and interests and relationship status,” he says. “These are the raw materials with which to build targeting ‘personas,’ every one a new potential customer.”

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Content creators that seek to optimize millions of pieces of content for contextual vertical advertising were on full display at Marketplaces 2010 today in San Diego.

Luke Beatty, founder and president of Associated Content, noted that his company was “the first crowd-sourced media platform” and now attracts 16 million unique visitors. Research done for the company shows that users were 125 percent more likely to discuss information that they found on Associated Content with others.

They also were 10 percent percent more likely to carry out additional research; 80 percent more likely to purchase a product or service from advertisers; 53 percent more likely to have people turn to them for advice or opinions; 43 percent more likely to have influence over friends and family; and 25 percent more likely to be trendsetters.

Beatty also noted that 17 percent of AC’s content is local oriented. “It is all about fragmented content,” he said. Short-tail news content doesn’t monetize on Web content. Long tail rules. Local is better being created by the social Web.

Examiner.com CEO Rick Blair said his company is even more focused on local. Blair spelled out a sponsorship model that allows advertisers to sponsor specific writers, or “examiners.” Rates range from $29 to $399. Advertising also accompanies 100,000 to 125,000 e-mails sent out to people who subscribe to specific examiners.

Perfect Market CSO Rob Barrett noted that his new company, which recently partnered with Tribune Co., has made it easier to monetize vertical content, which is earning $9 RPM, as opposed to 85 cents RPM earned from article pages gotten via search. Hard news stories don’t typically monetize very well.

We see which keywords have what CPM, he says. The Toyota recall has been a very effective keyword, for instance.

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