Locally Relevant Web Ads Earn High Click Though Rates

Locally Relevant Web Ads Earn High Click Though Rates

The ability to find the ads on search engines add an extra
kick

CLIFTON SPRINGS, NY, Oct. 21, 2003 -- Our-Hometown.com
(http://www.our-hometown.com), the leading innovator of
profitable business solutions for community newspapers,
announced today that the click through rates of its online
print display ads far exceed typical web ads. In addition,
these online display ads (which are extracted automatically
from the print version of the newspaper) are recognized by
the major search engines, generating even more traffic for
advertisers.

Our-Hometown.com's patent pending technology puts preview
images of the display ads next to the newspaper's online
content that click through to full-size versions of the ads.
Overall 1.40% of the time a newspaper web page is displayed
with the preview ads, the readers click on them to get the
full version. This click through rate far exceeds the rate
that typical web ads produce (0.61% according to
DoubleClick's Q2 2003 Ad Serving Trend Report).

A recent improvement called "Search Engine Friendly Display
Ads" allows the ads to be found on major search engines when
users are looking for products and services that are
advertised in the ads. After entering keywords, the ads are
listed among the standard type listings returned by the
search engines. When the text listing is clicked on, a full
size image of the display ad appears. When these clicks are
added, the rate grows to 1.93%.

If the advertiser had their web address in the original
print ad, a link is automatically displayed in addition to
the ad for the user's convenience. The ads have the added
advantage that there is no extra work to create them for the
web, because they are automatically extracted from the print
edition.

The number of times the ads are clicked from search engines
isn't dependent on the number of page views the newspaper's
web site receives because it's the search engines that list
them.

ABOUT OUR-HOMETOWN.COM

Founded in 1997, with the goal of helping clients make a
profit from their web sites, Our-Hometown.com is the leading
creator of innovative and profitable business solutions for
community newspapers. The company offers news conversion and
hosting services with a means to run print display ads
online, an WYSIWYG  browser based editing tool, classified
ad and subscription order forms, and other cost saving and
revenue generating tools.