The MerchantCircle Business Development Blog

MerchantCircle Announces Pay-Per-Activity Program to Deliver Leads for Partners OpenTable, Citysearch & Others

Good Afternoon, Everyone -

Earlier this morning we announced the launch of our Pay-Per-Action (PPA) Program with initial partners OpenTable, Citysearch, ServiceMagic, Yodle, NearbyNow, eLocalListing and others. The program provides partners and ad agencies access to MerchantCircle’s network of over 20 million monthly unique consumer visitors and 900,000 SMBs on a pay-for-performance basis.

PPA enhances the value of the MerchantCircle network by providing an additional distribution channel for local advertisers to reach consumers searching for their products and services. Because PPA is performance based, local advertisers only incur a marketing expense when a potential customer engages with their business through a qualified activity such as a call or a click.

If you’d like your customers to benefit from being a part of the MerchantCircle network, please contact us via email.

Regards,

Doug Kilponen and Ray Landgraf
Business Development



Official Press Release:

For Immediate Release


MerchantCircle Launches Action-Driven Results Program for Local Business Owners and Ad Agencies

The Pay-Per-Action Program Leverages MerchantCircle’s 20 Million Monthly Unique Consumer Visitors and Drives More Local Customer Leads

Los Altos, CA August 27, 2009 – MerchantCircle, the nation’s largest online network of local business owners, today announced the launch of its Pay-Per-Action (PPA) Program, which provides partners and ad agencies access to over 20 million unique consumer visitors and 900,000 businesses who use the MerchantCircle network each month. The PPA platform enables partners to leverage the MerchantCircle network and deliver highly targeted customer leads to their local business clients on a pay-for-performance basis. Initial partners include OpenTable, Citysearch, ServiceMagic, Yodle, NearbyNow, eLocalListing and others.

“We’ve teamed up with MerchantCircle to provide an additional source of targeted leads for our local business-owner clients,” says Court Cunningham, CEO of Yodle. “With MerchantCircle’s large local consumer traffic, our clients have even more opportunity to find more quality local leads. The best part is our clients only pay for performance.”

Key benefits of PPA:

- Lead delivery is highly targeted by locale and business category
- Platform is fully automated and scalable
- All activities are trackable
- Participating businesses receive increased online visibility
- Customers only pay for performance

“We’re excited about this new platform, which benefits local business owners during the recession, and helps put their marketing dollars to work in a way that translates into tangible customers as a result,” says Darren Waddell, Vice President of MerchantCircle. “With more than 20 million unique visitors a month and growing, we’re committed to helping all local business owners by connecting them with local customers seeking their products and services.”

The PPA launch comes on the heels of recent partnerships with Web.com, a leading provider of online marketing, and Demand Media, the leader in distributed media. Both partnerships grow MerchantCircle’s local business community and improve the local search experience by providing consumers dynamic, relevant content. According to recent Quantcast data, MerchantCircle is now the 5th largest Internet Yellow Page (IYP) directory in the United States.

About MerchantCircle

Founded in 2005, MerchantCircle is the largest social network of local business owners in the nation, combining social networking features with a customizable web listing that allows local merchants to attract new customers. More than 15 million MerchantCircle business listings across the country are easily accessed on major search engines.

Currently, over 900,000 merchants on the MerchantCircle network upload pictures, blog, create coupons and newsletters, and connect with other merchants. In addition to its free services, MerchantCircle offers a portfolio of online advertising services including Search Engine Marketing, Website Directory Submission, Web Content Creation, Instant Website Development and Business Verification Services.

MerchantCircle is located on Main St. in downtown Los Altos, Calif., and is funded by Rustic Canyon Partners, Scale Venture Partners, Disney’s Steamboat Ventures, and IAC. Learn more at www.MerchantCircle.com .

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Labels: Citysearch, Local Business, Merchant Circle, MerchantCircle, OpenTable, pay for performance, PPA, SMB, Yodle

posted by MerchantCircle Staff at 1:23 PM,