Darby Sieben -

Late last week, Google announced that it has started to place business ads in their local search. We are now starting to see the convergence of the “world wide web” with truly local relevance. What’s important to note is that the majority of purposes are done with a 5km radius of a person’s home, so this is a very significant launch for Google in its desire to capture more local revenues (the next big growth area.).

Will this be coming to Canada – for sure. With YellowPages.ca powering Google Local Canada, there can be no doubt that these powerhouse companies will figure out a way to serve up local ads.

As reported by MarketingVox,

“As anticipated, Google has officially launched a map-based advertising feature that allows businesses to place photos and logos inside balloons that mark on Google Maps where the merchants are located, CNET reports. Barnes & Noble and Ralph Lauren have purchased keywords and have tested the new Local Business Ads system, according to Dominic Preuss, product manager for Google’s local advertising.

Certain searches on Google Local bring up icons – coffee mug, car, flower, etc. – representing the type of business; a click on the icon brings up a “balloon” containing more information – a logo, photo or link to the merchant’s site. Local Business Ads merchants bid on keywords and pay per click as with AdWords. The ads show up on the maps and Google’s main search results page as regular text ads.”

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 3rd, 2006 at 9:30 am and is filed under Search Engine Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.