IYP Exchange Aims to Grab National Ad Dollars for Small YP Sites

MediaTraks Global is moving its print yellow pages marketplace to the Web. The YP media firm has launched an auction-based platform in beta for connecting national advertisers with local online yellow pages site publishers.

“One of the reasons we’ve done this is most of the IYPs, outside of the tier one guys… have never ever received national dollars before,” explained Taylor Treese, MediaTraks Global spokesman. “What we began to realize a while ago is some of the smaller YPs have a great brand name in their local and regional market.”

The CMR Gateway marketplace Web site currently lists about 90 publishers in its roster, from Ad Ventures Publishing to Your Town Yellow Pages. CMR stands for “certified marketing representatives,” a designation applied to the independent marketing firms that have traditionally represented advertising in print yellow pages.

Standard sized and rich media display ads are being offered at first through the exchange; those will be sold on a CPM or fixed fee basis, according to Treese. The service will eventually serve CPC and click-to-call text ads. MediaTraks will generate the call tracking numbers for click-to-call units.

The ads are targeted to the local and regional yellow pages sites by YP category and keyword as well as geographically.

At this point the system is not set up to enable advertisers to purchase enhanced YP listings in most cases. “What we need to do is make that uniform across the network,” Treese said. However, he did say advertisers placing ads on a fixed fee basis for a given time period are able to do so.

Publishers can determine types of ads they’ll accept and minimum prices according to market, since certain publishers have better coverage in particular regions or demand differing prices in various markets. Performance metrics and revenue measurements are available for inventory yield management. The system also collects payment from ad buyers.

Though helping small YP publishers garner national ad dollars is the primary purpose behind the exchange, Treese said the system may cater to local advertisers in the future. “Slowly we’ll release an interface for either search engine marketers or the publishers themselves who publish in local regional markets,” he said.