In June 2004 Yahoo! based Overture, (Now defunct and Known simply as Yahoo! Marketing services), launched what is popularly perceived as an answer to Google’s services – Local Match. Since then any Web based advertising that targets the local population on the basis of Geography is referred to as Local Matching. Local matching is just another example of how the Internet has pervaded every aspect of our lives today.
.According to a study released by The Kelsey Group and Bizrate.com in spring 2004, approximately 25% of all online buyers are searching for products and businesses near their home or office.
According to the director of The Kelsey group’s Digital directories division the number of local searches in terms of percentages is approximately 10% of all the searches conducted. This figure being a rough estimate and the real figure could be much higher especially since the study was conducted way back in 2004 which was four years ago.
The idea behind Local Matching is to allow businesses to bid on keyword phrases and to display their advertisements that would be targeted at searchers who are specifically looking for certain types of products and services within a predetermined geographical radius of the business's physical location.
With the Local Matching technique, advertisers will be able to easily target searchers within a particular geographical region that could be anywhere from as near as half a mile to as far as 100 miles away from their business.
Determining the physical location of searchers is something that is flexible and to be done at the site’s end. Some sites require users to provide their area codes or their postal addresses before delivering local search results. There are also sites that would be content to rely on IP addresses.
In order to make use of the Local Matching option Local businesses who do not have a website would need to go in for an option that offers a custom business page that key details like street address, phone number, hours of operation, payment options, maps and even driving directions.
Out of all the local businesses in the market today the majority relies on the word of mouth publicity which is now an outdated concept in the sense that people don’t just walk in off the street anymore. It can still work if a certain amount of advertising were to done and in that realm of advertising the best possible alternative is local matching.
Local matching represents the best of both worlds. One gets advertising at a reasonable rate and at the same time the reach to specific audience is guaranteed. What also needs to be understood is that the whole process needs to be streamlined with the vision that one has for the business.
Local Matching will revolutionize the way people look at adverting and will also ensure that the mainstream advertisers are integrated into the Internet way of working. Local matching is the future that has arrived early. As one popular advertisement for an electronics company says- the future is now, and now is the time to get into local matching.
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