Local online advertising is growing
into big business. With ad revenues expected to reach $144.9
billion in 2014 according to BIA/Kelsey.
As the slow decline of traditional advertising dollars shift
to digital media buys, there is a battle brewing between the
Internet big boys and social networks. All, of which, are
trying to carve their own niche and gain the local advertising
dollar.
Google's re-branding of it business center to Google
Places was the gun-shot to begin the race.
Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, Foursquare, Yelp and
even Apple are all stepping up their local advertisement game.
Google already offers a new advertising program called Tags.
For $25 per month you can make your business stand out in
Google Maps
Local adverting can be broken down to 3 main categories;
Search, consumer review sites and social networks. The mobile
presence is also very large and begining to explode. Although
the mobile market seems to be more app drive than search engine
driven.
SEARCH
Obviously the main players have the upper hand here. Bing
diplays Foursequare data in maps. Now that the Yahoo deal(get
Link here) is final, Microsoft will gain more market share.
And, Google is Google. The services of Google Places such
as tags and promtional tweets get deaper in to the local advertising
market. Let's not forget Twitter which also doubles as a search
engine. Twitter offers geotagging and the news, soon-to-be
Twitter for business. (get Link here)
CONSUMER REVIEW
Yelp and City Search - Foursquare with its "tips"
section lets user comment their current location and give
a review. All Google Place Pages include consumer reviews
with both text and star ratings. These reviews are also easily
accessible via Google Buzz for Mobile and Google Maps
SOCIAL NETWORKS
Twitter, Foursquare, Google and Facebook are the main palyers
in the local advertising competitition.
Google's Google Buzz has not hit a home run with users. There's
also Google Latitude -- an always -on location-sharing service
that started as a Loopt clone -- which now has 3 million active
users. It's the intersection of Buzz and Latitude on mobile
devices that will help Google nail down local advertising
dollars.
Twitter is really trying to ramp up relevancy of geo-located
tweets, but they've never quite been able to do what Foursquare
has done -- demonstrate the significance of location-sharing.
As discussed above, there could be a perfect storm brewing
for the day when geo-aware tweets are tied to places and Promoted
Tweets are available to all potential advertisers.
Facebook announced it has plans to start adding location
tweets which will give Foursquare a r un for it's money. All
in all it's going to be a bumpy advertising ride. I think
the small business will win out in the end.
Chase Rogers is the founder of Chase New Media, LLC. Chase
can be reached at (561) 702-8251. The company's web site is
http://www.chasenewmedia.com |
