Will Search Marketing Cut into Yellow Page Ad Spend?

According to a recent survey of small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) in the US, from the Kelsey Group and OneStat, 43% of respondents use Web site marketing.

The report notes that 17% of small and medium-size companies are utilizing search engine advertising, and mentions that even though most SMBs (77%) use yellow page advertising, search could eventually cut into yellow page ad revenue.

As eMarketer Senior Analyst David Hallerman pointed out in his Research Brief this week, Why the Surge in Search, according to IAB and PwC, search advertising has jumped from claiming just 1.3% of interactive advertising in the US in 2000 to having a 15.4% share of US interactive ad spending last year.

Hallerman notes that the growing popularity of search advertising can be traced back to two simple reasons — nearly all Net users use search engines, and the medium is an inexpensive ad tool. As the DMA and US Bancorp Piper Jaffray reported in March, search advertising cost just $0.29 per lead, whereas yellow page leads cost $1.18 each, so it makes sense that the Kelsey/ConStat report should point to search as a threat to yellow page advertising.

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