WHERE Claims Ads Lift CTR 3X

According to Fierce Wireless , uLocate launched Where Ads a service to offer hyper-local mobile ads. Of note, uLocate claims, "the click through rates on WHERE Ads exceeded other mobile ads by as much as three times.

This reinforces the findings of eMarkerter and others -- location adds relevancy and with relevancy 
consumers are more apt to click.


Coverage also at Gigaom.com, Internet2go, etc.

Mobile Users Like Geo-Targeted Ads

Not only do mobile users want personalized services, they like geo-targeted ads, according to a recent survey by eMarketer.

The recap of the study makes a point of highlighting “Geo-fencing” by 1020 PlaceCast, which provides personalized marketing messages to shoppers based on their location.

The responses to the 1020 Placecast ShopAlerts program were as follows:

* 60% said the location-triggered messages were “cool” and “innovative.”
* 79% claimed to be more likely to visit a store.
* 65% made a purchase.
* 73% were likely to use the service again.

While the cool and innovative comments may wane as this type of advertising become more common, you have to be excited to hear nearly 80% of the recipients would be more likely to visit a store due to the ads.

Yext - Why Doesn't Local Media Think of This?

Here's another example of a monetization solution local media could have thought of and didn't and now should consider experimenting with -- Yext Inc. It a is a point solution that could be part of a sales/service package for an SMB and could also be extended to media's local directories pages for lead generation revenue.

Yext places ads all over the the Internet for local businesses . Yext analyzes calls (via speech-to-text) generated by those ads and only transfers calls to businesses that could result in sales. Yext shares its revenue from advertisers with the publishers. The company plans to use the new funding to help it reach a greater variety of advertisers.

Local Based Advertising

Check out this company. It is the first company I have seen that has really figured out how to deliver location-based advertising. They blow away companies like LAT49. The later focuses on delivering ads on maps. The implementation is simple and unsophisticated. Placecast processes multiple types of location, demographic and other information and then adjusts the ad delivery based on what is relevant in terms of location. They have a robust network of advertisers. They have sophisticated engines that drive the ad delivery and they can plug and play with major players such as DoubleClick/Google.