Citysearch, Superpages partner for ad exchange

Citysearch and Idearc Media, which owns Superpages.com, have announced a partnership to help better monetize local search traffic across the Web.

Under the agreement, Citysearch will integrate Superpages.com's performance-based advertisers into Citysearch's publisher network. The network is made up of around 50 Web sites and blogs and reaches about 30 million unique users per month. Included in the network are InsiderPages.com and MySpace Local, which announced its partnership with Citysearch at the end of last month and went live April 15.

Additionally, Citysearch's advertisers and content will be incorporated on Idearc Media's Superpages.com and Switchboard.com.

The goal of the relationship is to get more coverage of local advertisers into the networks, said Citysearch CEO Jay Herratti. 

“Each time someone is looking for a local business, advertisers have the opportunity to showcase their ads to those consumers,” he said.

This partnership will greatly benefit local online advertisers, he noted

“If you come to Superpages or Citysearch and become an advertiser, you get tremendous exposure and get infused in all of our different publishers' sites,” Herratti said. “Overnight your information and original ad content gets surfaced on MySpace, Citysearch, Superpages, Urbanspoon, Local.com, MapQuest and others.”

The deal has been in the works for about a year, he said.

“We've realized that increasingly the Web is opening up and the Citysearch brand cannot live inside a closed direct domain,” Herratti explained, “The brand has to be broken into little pieces. So with partners galore we can be in all the places where people can find us. It's a win-win to make Citysearch a prevalent brand through these types of partnerships to be able to monetize all the great traffic we have.”

Citysearch is an operating business of IAC.