Local Online Media Planning Options, Part 2

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Local and "hyper-local" online advertising is becoming more and more prevalent in our vernacular, as media planners. In my effort to compile and categorize the online advertising opportunities in local, we've already explored considerations, search, Internet yellow pages, local directories, location review sites, and regional media sites in part one of this column. This week we're going to review some more kinds of opportunities, and next time, we'll conclude by listing mobile.

Top Portals, Ad Networks, and Publishers

Almost all the top portals and ad networks can now provide geo-targeting, either through technology or registered user data. One central resource to find most of these players is the Interactive Advertising Bureau's member directory. The more sophisticated the publisher or network, the more you can fuse your buy with multiple targeting capabilities, which you might find serves to deliver more effective results for your campaign. As with any ad campaign, you'll want to monitor and audit, but in the case of geo-targeted advertising, you'll also want to compare delivered impressions against non-geo-targeted traffic.

Contextual, Advertorial, and Lead Gen Buys

Like regular ad networks, many contextual, advertorial, and lead gen opportunities can also be geo-targeted. Here are a few of the more well-known companies in this space specifically:

• ContextWeb
  
  
• Kontera
  
  
• Vibrant Media
  
  
• Adhere (formerly Industry Brains; particularly appropriate for B2B targeting)
  
  
• Adfusion and NewsForce
  
  
• Q Interactive

Local News and Organization Sites

In part one, we provided resources to locate regional media sites, but media sites aren't the only source of local news (and some regional media are not represented by the aggregators mentioned in part one so you might want to dig beyond them).

• Newspaper directories -- between the Nationwide Newspapers and National Network LP, you have close to 30,000 news sites covered. If you need global coverage, turn to OnlineNewspapers.
  
  
• Looking to reach a local audience through Internet radio? Check out TargetSpot.
  
  
• Visitor Centers and Chamber of Commerce sites -- although not all of these kinds of sites accept advertising, some do. To locate visitor centers and tourism sites, try a database search on the Discover America site; to locate a Chamber of Commerce, try ChamberFind.

Traffic, Weather, Sports, Real Estate, Job Listings, and Relationship Sites

By their very nature, these sites offer up localized content as well as geo-targeted advertising:

• Traffic sites like Traffic.com, Traffic411, and Autos.AOL.com's "Check Local Traffic" feature.
  
  
• Weather forecasting sites Weather.com, Accuweather, Weather Underground, and downloadable tools like Weather Bug.
  
  
• QuadrantOne can deliver advertising on local weather, events, sports, and news sites.
  
  
• Speaking of sports, don't forget ESPN, CBS Sports, and Sports Illustrated.
  
  
• There are many real estate directory sites to turn to for advertising, e.g., Apartments.com, ForRent.com, Rent.com, Zillow, Realtor.com, and ForSaleByOwner.com.
  
  
• Dozens of job listings exist and offer geo-targeted advertising, the most well-known of which are Monster and CareerBuilder.com.
  
  
• Similarly, dating sites like Match.com, Chemistry.com, and eHarmony, as well as wedding planning sites like TheKnot offer local advertising.

Other Ideas for Local Media Planning

• AdReady -- you can do a direct geo-targeted buy, but AdReady's technology is also the backbone behind a lot of regional sites now able to deliver low-cost advertising to small and medium-sized businesses.
  
  
• Game networks like Gunggo.
  
  
• Podcast advertising like Wizzard Media.
  
  
• Custom-selected blogs like BlogAds, Federated Media.
  
  
• Notice Technologies -- online advertising for small business.

Do you have any local media planning favorites I've forgotten? Drop me a line or leave a comment below and be heard! And remember, part three will cover mobile, so stay tuned for that.