Ingenio and Interchange Launch Pay Per Call® Distribution on Local.com™
Interchange's powerful search engine connects Ingenio advertisers with local, ready-to-buy consumers
(San Francisco & Irvine, Calif.) - November 7, 2005 - Ingenio, Inc., the company that pioneered the Pay Per Call® advertising category, and Interchange Corporation (NASDAQ: INCX), owners and operators of Local.com, a local search engine, today announced the distribution of Ingenio Pay Per Call listings on Local.com. Ingenio advertisers now appear in relevant Local.com search results when a consumer types in a query for a local business, product or service. This is expected to make it easier for more consumers to connect with local merchants and increase Pay Per Call advertisers' exposure to local buyers nationwide.
"Local.com was designed from the ground up as a next generation local-search product," said Greg Parker, director of strategic alliances at Interchange. "Our goal in creating a new consumer search experience is to provide relevant, comprehensive content through a clean, easy-to-use interface. Ingenio's Pay Per Call listings will give our visitors more of what they're looking for - whether it be a local real estate agent, florist or hotel - and give them access to those merchants through the telephone."
The local market is widely regarded as the next search and advertising frontier. Borrell Associates recently reported that spending on local online advertising grew to $2.7 billion in 2004, a 28 percent increase over 2003.
"Increasingly, consumers are using the Internet as their primary access point for local information and advertisers are heeding the call," said Marc Barach, chief marketing officer at Ingenio. "Pay Per Call is an ideal model for local advertisers who rely on the phone as a customer conversion tool, but need to tap the growing pool of consumers searching online for local products and services. Together with Interchange and Local.com, we are delivering local buyers and sellers a new and compelling online avenue for connecting and doing business."
Pay Per Call is a paid-search advertising model pioneered by Ingenio last year that empowers business - including small and local merchants who may or may not operate a website - to generate targeted phone calls instead of website clicks, and pay only for calls received. Ingenio also powers the industry's only ad distribution network dedicated solely to Pay Per Call. Local.com represents additional distribution for Ingenio's Advertising Network, which is anchored by AOL Search.
Launched in August 2005, Local.com enables consumers to find local businesses, products, and services quickly and easily. Powered by Interchange's proprietary Keyword DNA™ and local-web indexing technologies, Local.com is designed to deliver consumers highly relevant local-search results. The inclusion of Ingenio's Pay Per Call advertiser listings represents an additional way to monetize Local.com's rapidly growing search traffic.
Ingenio Pay Per Call listings are live on Local.com today. Pay Per Call® is a registered trademark of Ingenio, Inc.