As local businesses increasingly transition their advertising dollars online, they expect agencies and publishers to furnish them with simple, consolidated solutions supported by tangible, trackable ROI. MerchEngines built its white-label "relationship generation" system to enable online marketing providers to do just that for their SMB clients. In…
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,…
I had the opportunity to meet with Yext CEO Howard Lerman and President Brian Distelburger to talk about their recent product additions and approach to the SMB marketplace. What struck me as I entered their NYC loft-style office is the…
G5 Search Marketing is poised to further leverage its growth in several high-yield verticals after announcing a $15 million investment from Volition Capital to close out its first round of financing. CEO Dan Hobin told BIA/Kelsey that the company plans…
ReachLocal says it is going ahead with its IPO. A new filing with the SEC noted that it will price 4.8 million shares between $17 and $19, allowing it to raise between $81.6 million and $91.2 million -- below the…
McClatchy Co., the third-largest newspaper entity with 30 newspapers in 29 markets, including The Miami Herald and The Sacramento Bee, will aggressively target SMBs in each of its markets via an extended deal with WebVisible. The deal, per release, “will…
In the second “installment” of its quarterly report “State of Small Business Online Advertising, Search Edition," WebVisible reports that its SMB clients increased their online search spending to an average of $2,149 in Q4 2009, an increase of some 30…
Demand Media, Associated Content and Examiner.com are each building up an arsenal of highly searchable “long tail” content. Now add Perfect Market to their ranks, a new company that seeks to provide the same “long tail” search optimized earnings capabilities…
Reply.com this week announced plans to raise $60 million in an IPO. ReachLocal had earlier announced similar plans to go public. The success of one or both companies' efforts will have a major impact on other local-themed companies’ efforts to…
Yodle, the third-party SMB reseller, has now divided its business into “Yodle Sponsored” and “Yodle Organic.” The formation of the latter division, which has been live for a month with 150 clients, is a recognition that SMBs are increasingly relying…
The Berry Co. announced today new alliances with Yodle and Web.com that will add to the portfolio of online product and services Berry will offer its small-business customers. The deals are part of a new branded offering called Berry Leads…
Germany’s Kennst Du Einen, an SEO site that helps local businesses get top search rankings and collect recommendations in the mode of Yelp and ReachLocal, says its run rate reached the 1 million euro mark level in 4Q 2009. That…
Three years ago, BIA/Kelsey created the Marketplaces research program and conference because we saw that local advertising was quickly "verticalizing." Indeed, money and talent have poured in for the new breed of vertical products that would take their place among…
Real-time reservations have moved beyond restaurants, hair salons and parking garages and are now being offered for self storage units. G5 Search Marketing, which specializes in self storage, has teamed with Centershift and United Stor-All Management to launch Web sites…
ReachLocal, the fast growing search and display sales channel for small businesses with operations in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia, has filed with the SEC to raise $100 million in an IPO. The company recently reported that it has…
On a recent visit to Stockholm, we sat down with Eniro President and CEO Jesper Karrbrink, who is managing Eniro through a strategic shift described in a presentation late last year as moving "from print dependence to online opportunity." In a videotaped interview,…
Closing remarks at the Warrillow Summit Toronto yesterday gave advertisers targeting the small and medium-sized business market some hope despite the alarming descent in optimism on the current Canadian economic situation. A recurring theme over the past two days of…
We’re just about ready to go with Interactive Local Media 2008, which is Nov. 19-21 in Santa Clara, in the heart of Silicon Valley. It should be a very important, game-defining event -- and the first one for The Kelsey…
To the ranks of Marchex Connect, WebVisible, ReachLocal, Yodle, Metrix4Media, Orange Soda and others add Clickable, a pay-per-click and search "dashboard" company that has attracted $23 million in venture funding from Founders Fund, Union Square Ventures and FirstMark Capital. The…
When Insider Pages was sold to IAC's Citysearch, it seemed like it was probably a distress sale. Many of the Yellow Pages/ratings and review sites of 2004-2006 were falling apart at the same time. Since then, however, Insider Pages appears…
