Speaking Sensis

In answer to the flood of questions about local search (how big is it, where do people search and so on), here’s a three part series looking at local search in Australia and the role Yellow Pages® plays. To begin with… what is local search and how big is it?

So, you just got engaged. Congratulations.

And commiserations too.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not being some sort of mean-spirited marriage maligner here. I’ve been married for a decade and it’s a wonderful institution.

But I can tell you from bitter experience that between now and your wedding night you’re going to confront a world of pain.

And you’re going to need an army of people to help you through it. Like reception centres, cake makers, musicians, caterers, jewellers, insurers, removalists, party suppliers, travel agents, florists, car hire, dressmakers, formal wear.

And that’s just for the happy day. What about the real estate agents, conveyancers, removalists, insurers and goodness knows what else you’ll need as you start your life together?

One of the most common ways Australians find these products and services is through local search. The world of local search includes services like Yellow Pages® or White Pages® directories in print, online or mobile, voice services like 1234, online mapping / local search sites like Whereis.com.au, Google Maps, the local search section Microsoft’s newly launched Bing and so on.

Local search services are like giant buying guides. They help people search for suppliers of the products and services they need. They support purchase decisions by helping people find, assess, compare and contact the right supplier.

Often (but, admittedly, not always) in their local area: which, to state the obvious, is where the term local search comes from.

Now, local search is a seriously popular way of buying. About 60% of the Australian population (over 10 million people) use one of the more popular print or online local search services every month(1).

And this usage is often concentrated around significant life events, like the aforementioned marriage, leaving home, buying a house etc. To give you an idea of what I mean, over 78% of people who built or bought a new home or apartment in the last year use local search every month. That’s over 17 percentage points more than the general population(2).

And because local search users are basically looking to complete a sale, the likelihood that they’ll contact a business is very high. In fact, 90% of Yellow Pages® searches result in a call being made(3): a conversion rate (in advertising speak) that is virtually unmatched by any other form of advertising.

Given this level of performance, it’s not surprising that local search has an enormous advertiser base. There are, for example, over 300,000 Australian businesses advertising in the Yellow Pages® today.

Businesses just like these…

So, clearly, local search is big. Big usage. Big potential return on investment. Big advertiser base.

But it’s also different. Advertising in local search is a totally different experience to virtually all other forms of advertising.

And there’s a simple reason for that. While most other forms of advertising interrupt consumers, local search is a service they consciously access – an information service full of advertising that actually helps them make decisions.

This makes local search unique in four very distinct ways.

1. Local search is very much a small and medium enterprise form of advertising. It’s about local businesses reaching out to local buyers. It is one of the most popular forms of advertising among Australian SMEs.
2. Local search drives direct contact, not purely brand equity. It can convert to things like calls, visits… customers, rather than purely brand outcomes like awareness.
3. Broadcast advertising – like TV, print display ads, outdoor etc – relies heavily on emotional appeal. Local search runs on informational appeal. The things that make local search campaigns work go beyond strong differentiators and calls to action. Simple pieces of information like phone numbers, opening hours, brands and products sold, credit cards taken, testimonials and so on can potential contribute massively to the impact of local search advertising.
4. And local search is directly comparative. People look at competitive ads and compare them, which doesn’t generally occur in broadcast advertising. So you potentially need to think far more about competitors’ ads than you do in other forms of advertising.

So that’s a brief primer on local search. Keep an eye out for the next episode – GROWING – early next week.

UPDATE: Part 2 – GROWING – is now online. Check it out here.