In order to reach local consumers and provide better exposure to local small and midsize businesses and local locations of regional and national businesses, online directory Superpages.com teamed up with eStara.
The technology company’s call-tracking and monitoring services will provide the infrastructure that powers Superpages.com’s pay-for-calls advertising network for both online and print advertisers.
Superpages.com is also now offering eStara click-to-call as a premium service to advertisers looking to differentiate their ad listings, and provide more ways for customers to connect to them for free.
“Local search is about connecting consumers with businesses in the most relevant geography for the consumer,” said Robyn Rose, vice president of marketing for Superpages.com. “Local search is frequently about an offline transaction made with a service-based business or at a retail store. Consumers are getting smarter, and while research is done online for products and services, the majority of transactions still occur offline.”
According to the US Department of Commerce, 97 percent of US retail spending occurs offline.
“EStara allows local and toll-free telephone numbers to be provisioned in real time by Superpages advertisers,” said eStara’s CEO John Federman. “This means that new campaigns can be added in a matter of minutes. Additionally, eStara’s inventory of cleansed local and toll-free numbers is the largest in the industry, allowing tens of thousands of advertisers to track multiple ads simultaneously.”
EStara keeps hundreds of thousands of telephone numbers sitting on the shelf for at least 45 days to ensure they do not get phone calls from previous owners, or are not too similar to popular numbers. Cleansing is important.
Also, eStara’s “find me/follow me” capabilities route calls to multiple phone lines to make sure no lead goes unanswered. This enables publishers to route calls to multiple advertisers participating in auction-based or pay-per-call programs.
According to the Kelsey Group, more than 70 percent of small-business advertisers prefer phone calls over other contact. Call tracking, along with click-to-call, allows publishers to deliver leads to advertisers the way they prefer: over the phone.
EStara’s VoIP infrastructure allows for reliability, scalability and real-time provisioning and reporting which make it possible for publishers like Superpages to support auction-based and pay-for-performance models.
Superpages drives traffic to its advertisers through relationships with more than 250 Internet sites, including Google, Yahoo, MSN, Local.com and 1-800-Free411.
Superpages.com targets local consumers on a nationwide level.
“Superpages gains unprecedented insight into the effectiveness of its online and print advertising spend because eStara’s services provide granular detail for each lead that’s delivered from their advertising,” Federman said. “Advertisers can see where calls are coming from, plus which ads and keywords are generating phone calls and quality leads. This helps Superpages paint a complete ROI picture for its advertisers.”
