Nearly one-half of US national advertisers surveyed are currently pursuing local online advertising, according to a September 2008 study conducted by Sterling Market Intelligence for Marchex. More than four out of 10 said they were putting at least 25% of their online marketing budget into local targeting. “The data shows that national advertisers clearly understand the Internet drives in-store sales and they’ve begun to integrate local into their marketing mix,” said Greg Sterling, principal of Sterling Market Intelligence, in a statement. Some types of local online advertising spending may be more effective than others, according to a study published in August 2008 by the Online Publishers Association and JupiterResearch. The researchers found that about one-half or more of US adult local content users surveyed trusted local newspaper, TV station, portal and yellow page Websites. Respondents were more skeptical about content on local city guides, magazine, classified and user review sites.

Tags: big spenders, greg sterling, internet drives, local online advertising, market intelligence, marketing budget, marketing mix, national advertisers