According to recent article in Direct Marketing News, consumers are increasingly searching online for local businesses, and some businesses are already taking advantage of this marked shift in consumer behavior. How about you?

As an Internet user, you're most likely familiar with two of the giants of the Internet – Google and Yahoo, the search sites that are visited by 85 percent of all online Americans every day. What do people search for on these sites? In short, everything under the sun.

Both Google and Yahoo maintain highly innovative advertising programs that differ markedly from those offered by print and other media. Each features a pay-per-click advertising model, meaning that advertisers pay for their ads only when searchers clicks on their ads. Once an ad is clicked, the searcher is immediately redirected to the advertiser's web site, whereupon further action (call, e-mail) may be taken.

What separates the major search sites, as well as Internet Yellow Pages like Verizon's SuperPages, from other media can be summed up in one word: accountability. Because when an advertiser sets up a pay-per-click campaign, it gets real-time, online reporting on the amount of activity its ad or ads have received. Put another way, pay-per-click advertisers know exactly how many web site visits were generated by their ads.

Recently, a number of companies have emerged to take pay-per-click advertising to the next level. These companies have set their sights on local businesses, and help make the online advertising process easier. One company, Los Angeles-based ReachLocal, assists businesses in creating local pay-per-click advertising campaigns on Google, Yahoo and SuperPages. Working with budgets that the advertiser determines, and in whichever towns an advertiser wishes its online ads to appear, ReachLocal optimizes expenditures by placing ads on the sites that will generate the most activity for the dollar. But they don't stop there. In addition to reporting on web site visits, the company provides each advertiser with a record of all the phone calls (including phone numbers) and e-mails the campaign generates. This is accomplished by creating discrete phone numbers and e-mail addresses so that all contacts may be tracked.

No advertising medium will ever sell a house for you. Only people – real estate professionals – can actually make the sale. And while print remains a strong lead generator, the shift to searching for local businesses on the Internet is real. That's why it would be considered wise to consider the benefits of local Internet advertising. Not only do advertisers pay only for performance (clicks on ads), they also automatically receive valuable lead data on demand. This is one medium in which there's no work involved in obtaining the results of one's online advertising campaign. But as with every medium, keep your eyes focused on your return on investment. That's the ultimate way to test whether your advertising is working.

Bruce Mishkin is a sales and marketing consultant specializing in the media business. He was a publishing executive with ABC and The Walt Disney Company, and later president of the New York-based advertising agency, Itwerx. He may be reached at (732) 316-1144, or via e-mail at bmishkin@optonline.net.