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Yellow Pages Advertising: Does it Still Work Today

Yellow Pages: Maybe you have been wondering if yellow pages or phone book advertising still works. Or searching throughout the web to know if yellow pages advertising is worth your time for your local business.

In this post, we are going to share some statistics that will help you see the comparison between phone book advertising and local search marketing.

Yellow Pages

The statistical comparison between phone book advertising and local search marketing

We are going to see that through recently published numbers

Phone Book Vs. Local Search Marketing Statistics

ComScore found that more than half of the U.S. has replaced the phone book with an online search, and that number is growing as mobile usage grows.

A stat from MSN reviewed that 70% of Americans don’t even open their phone books. Only 11% use white pages.

Brightlocal’s yearly survey nailed it straight – 97% of consumers run straight to the internet in search of local businesses in the past years.

Five years ago, it’s been observed that less than half of the world population was using their phone book regularly. Still, phone directories are a $3 billion industry.

According to CRM Associates, the average Yellow Pages ad brings in more than 80 calls annually for about $800, or a cost of $10 per call.

Also, a national display ad averages more than 235 calls per year for $28 per call, for a total cost of $18,800 annually. – Source

That said – display ads, on average, have a conversion rate of less than 1%.

The above statistics would have informed of the relevance and the worth of yellow pages advertising or phone book advertising and has given you reasons why local search marketing is the present ad strategy and even in the future.

Here is the drawing line…

Very sure, phone book advertising is challenging – why because you will need to invest up to a year in advertising before you can figure out your lead source. Alternatively, you can identify the lead source by asking every caller how they came about your contact.

Local search marketing is easier, in the sense that – tracking people that have viewed your listings or clicked to call or gained directions through directories. More so, you can as well monitor your web traffic and a lot more things at your fingertips.

The last option for you…

Yes, we have shown you numbers that tell you that phone book or yellow pages adverting is far dying and less or non-effective as local search marketing, yet phone books are on print every day. This simply means that businesses will still have to employ yellow pages or phone book advertising.

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