Global advertising revenues for online yellow pages and local search are expected to grow from $4.1 billion in 2006 to $11.1 billion in 2011, according to a forecast by the Kelsey Group, a research and consulting company.
The forecast supports real estate industry reports that cite a growth in online marketing. For example, a June report by research and consulting company Borrell Associates states that online real estate advertising grew from a $1.2 billion market in 2004 to a $1.7 billion market in 2005, increasing from a 10.3 percent ad-spending share to a 14.7 percent share. And Borrell expects online real estate ad spending to grow to a $3.1 billion market by 2010.
The Kelsey Group’s Global Directories Forecast 2007 expects the print yellow pages of the global directories marketplace to grow from $26.5 billion in 2006 to $27.8 billion in 2011.
“Bucking the trend of some other traditional media, the global print yellow pages market will grow slightly through 2011, driven by aggressive and innovative publishers,” said Charles Laughlin, senior vice president and program director of The Kelsey Report, in a statement.
“Increasing (search-engine marketing) prices, and the resulting margin compression, are causing resellers and aggregator sales channels to invest heavily in (search-engine optimization) platforms,” stated Matt Booth, senior vice president and program director of Interactive Local Media for The Kelsey Group. “Yellow pages publishers with deployed sales forces are positioning to bring more advertisers and content to the local-search experience as a means to control more of the digital economics,” he added.
“Our outlook for IYP and local search is supported by the latest wave of the Local Commerce Monitor (LCM), our annual research of small and medium-sized business (SMB) advertisers,” said Neal Polachek, senior vice president, The Kelsey Group.
A Kelsey Group analysis of small and medium-sized business advertisers found that these companies continue to use traditional media for advertising though “they are increasingly turning to targeted, vertical electronic media,” according to the announcement.
