The online local search market is still largely untapped with no way to measure if ad placements translate clicks into real business lead phone calls. Yodle.com, a new player in the emerging category, says its patented algorithm allows small business owners to track exactly how many clicks and phone calls they get in response to their online ads. Yodle says it generates about 7,000 phone call leads a month for its customers
So how does it work? Let's say a caterer in Scranton with no website, who in the past was dependent on local advertising and the Yellow Pages for business leads, signs up with Yodle. Yodle builds an industry-tailored website for the company and purchases strategic search keywords, so that now when a potential customer types "caterers in Scranton" into Google, ads leading to the newly-created site appear. Clicks turn into calls, and the algorithm allows the caterers in Scranton can track exactly how many phone leads are generated as a result of their ad efforts.
Court Cunningham, CEO, previously GM of DoubleClick's marketing Automation business, joined as CEO in April 2007, and Vartan Hagopian, VP Sales, joined in May 2007, from Monster. In addition, Iggy Fanlo, CEO of AdBrite, and Dr. Michael Kearns, Head of the Computer Science Department at The University of Pennsylvania, are joining its advisory board.
