February 11, 2005

Digital directional advertising (DDA) is one of the fastest-growing trends to expect from search, and the Kelsey Group expects DDA that targets the local market is set to increase significantly between 2005 and 2009.

The Kelsey Group projects that digital directional advertising targeted at the local market will generate $10.9 billion in revenues worldwide by 2009, with $5.1 billion specifically coming from the US.

Kelsey explains that directional advertising is delivered to potential buyers when they are in the process of making a purchase or a purchase decision.

Digital directional advertising in particular encompasses local search, Internet Yellow Pages and wireless directory search.

Though Kelsey has downgraded its estimates for the contribution wireless will make to the local digital directional market, the future remains bright for local search, which will account for 66% of US revenues by 2009 and Internet Yellow Pages which will account for 25% of revenues.

As for the kinds of businesses that will take advantage of local digital directional advertising, Kelsey expects 63% of the $5.1 billion expected for 2009 will be claimed by national businesses and the remaining 37% will be claimed by small businesses.

In its new Search Engine Marketing report, eMarketer More than either contextual advertising or paid inclusion, local search promises to be the next major contributor to search marketing spending growth.

As a whole, local advertising is big business, reaching $97.7 billion across all media in 2004, according to Universal McCann. However, only about 1% of that amount, or $1 billion, is spent online.

eMarketer explains that the major barriers to widespread search marketing adoption among small businesses are a weak online presence and lack of knowledge about search in general.

Source: eMarketer