Yellow pages have launched a new product based on Google adsense and link networking - it's called
netReach and basically you advertise on Yell.com and (for a fee) your business listing will show up on other sites within their network - currently The Manchester Evening News, Multimap and Genie Knows.
Your link will/may show up on these sites when an appropriate search is performed - much like adsense/adwords from Google - infact the way ads are displayed are very similar in appearance.
Yell group says about netReach:
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Ideal for SMEs, Yell.com netReach will launch in March as an annual fee add-on for existing Yell.com advertisers, while new customers can create an advertising package including the product. It will remove the pain of managing a PPC (pay-per-click) programme for the smaller business. The Yell.com netReach network aims to give advertisers extended reach across a network of high-quality, relevant sites to deliver proven value and strong leads. netReach is designed to deliver excellent value for money for the advertiser and is transparent in its processes and costs.
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Yell.com, launched in 1996, now has 207,000 searchable advertisers. The 49 per cent revenue growth it reported in the third quarter, to £101.5m, was responsible for all of Yell's growth in the UK in the period, more than offsetting the 4.4 per cent decline in print revenues.
As a forever sceptic of the whole yellow pages strategy (unless you are a plumber) it's surprising to me that considering their weight in the media market place, Yell.com has ONLY aquired 207,000 searchable listings in the past 12 years. Whether that is just a reflection of their high prices or a result of many dissatisfied customers is for you to decide.
It remains to be seen just how effective the netReach ad syndication will prove to be. Is it enough just to have your advert randomly shown or is it important to have it shown in context with what people are actually searching for?
Yell states on their site:
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Adverts will be served in a relevant context meaning more targeted leads
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However, from looking at it in action on various pages of
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ you can see a selection of rather random ads, on one page in particular Google adsense showed the relevant links to business and accounting whilst the netReach ads showed a nursery, heating and pet supplies!
Yell.com also currently run PPC ads (at a minimum of 20p per click), the £180 netReach annual fee money may be better spent on a pay-per-click campaign instead - if you have any experience of netReach being an effective advertising tool for your business, do let us know.
Details of netReach can be found here
http://www.yelldirect.com/netreach/work.html
James.
Yell netReach - Yellowpages new link network
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