I had the opportunity to speak with Brad Reynolds, CEO of Mongoose Metrics, a Cleveland, Ohio-based call measurement and conversion analytics company. Reynolds was quick to point out that it is not simply a call tracking company, but rather it is dedicated to linking online and offline conversion so clients can better understand what leads to sales conversions. According to Reynolds, “Our business is based around illuminating the sales funnel related to offline conversions. Our goal is to make it easy to track online and offline conversions side-by-side. We want to drive actions like tweaking marketing spend and efforts with a full basket of information.”

While some companies focus entirely on online conversions, the reality, according to Mongoose Metrics, is that a large majority of transactions occur offline via the phone. In most cases there is a chain of events that lead to an offline conversion. By better understanding how online and offline media influence the conversion path, marketers have a better sense of what media and messages they should be using to maximize their effectiveness. With good offline and online conversion data in hand, brands can personalize their messages across media to create a conversation and a stronger relationship.

Mongoose Metrics has also been busy putting together an effective international local number tracking network and recently put together deals in Canada and the U.K. to deliver true local exchange numbers across both countries. Rather than relying on VoIP numbers or toll-free numbers, Mongoose is now able to offer local telephone numbers better linking businesses to their local area. “Until recently, it had been nearly impossible for Canadian and U.K. companies to use local phone numbers to follow visitors from Web-to-phone to understand how their Web sites drive phone calls and ultimately sales,” according to Reynolds. Mongoose Metrics’ move into the U.K. and Canada is a first step in expanding internationally.

When asked where call measurement is headed in the near term, Reynolds quickly pointed to mobile. “While many feel there will be transactions handled on the handset, the current reality is that most sites are not fully enabled for mobile screens, requiring too many clicks and too much scrolling. People want to get a quick answer to their question and often will revert to contacting the store or company since it is easier — and they have a phone in their hand to expedite the need for information. Click-to-call features makes sense on the mobile Web and will offer yet another layer in understanding where offline conversions are initiated.”

When asked about other developments, Reynolds replied, “Mongoose is currently working on a few proprietary products to provide deeper analytics of incoming calls and hopes to create a way to trigger specific actions tied to a recognized set of keywords. This is yet another step Mongoose is taking to help drive conversions and personalize the communication between consumers and advertisers.”

Mapping has become less about radius of where you are and more about what people define as local, how far people are willing to travel and the importance of certain events or locations in their community. While the advertising paradigm has focused on ZIP codes/postal codes, consumers identify more with neighborhoods or specific areas of cities, which sets up a major disconnect.

The clear trend is the linking of social and mapping to drive action and to link people with their network of friends or favorite bands or events. According to Julia Scott, CEO of Bargain Babe, “linking social and mapping allows people to surface activities and deals that you may not be aware of.”

The goal, according to Darrin Clement, CEO of Maponics, is “to add more context to maps to help drive actions on a localized basis and to understand what is most valuable to the consumer to see on a map.”

A unique view of mapping came from Jason Bosek, president of Parking Data Ventures, who said that “parking is a point of necessity to allow people to utilize and take advantage of destinations particularly in urban areas.” Parking Data Ventures is an example of how mapping is becoming more specific to the needs of consumers beyond what is nearby to how to enable getting and staying in a particular location.

One of the main challenges of mapping pointed out by Clement was that “people’s ideas of local are more personalized to their neighborhoods and cities requiring sites to redefine what they consider local and offering layers of mapping choices to better match needs.” With this more personal view of what is local people are seeking ways to find friends, their favorite bands, sports and recreation activities on what they determine is a reasonable distance to travel or walk.

All this will force marketers and site owners to think more like their consumers and offer the mapping choices they need based on the type of search they are conducting and how they plan to travel to the location they have designated.

Neil Budde of DailyMe and Mike Orren of Pegasus News helped the ILM:09 audience understand what it takes to offer a truly customized news offering that is engaging and relevant.

One of the key takeaways both Orren and Budde discussed was the idea that not everything can or should be customized on the news site. Orren pointed out, “if we customize too much for the customer we take away those items they might stumble upon and become interested in following in the future.” Early days of customization meant sites were built and rebuilt for users as their choices and interests changed, requiring more administration and oversight to make things work effectively. One of the side effects of too much customization is that people were not aware of the level of customization, which took away from users promoting the value of the site to others.

Behavioral tracking is a necessary level of customization as people often say one thing and their behaviors might suggest another. Orren joked that “some people say they like champagne and opera then do searches on cheap beer and honky-tonks.” Without behavioral tracking the site would not have the flexibility to react and adapt to new interests. Budde added “there needs to be a mix of traditional editorial that is constant with personalized choices and behaviorally driven content to make it relevant and valuable.” Behavioral targeting is also valuable in advertising delivery not only for consumers to see items of interest but in more specific targeting for advertisers to reach those who might be more engaged in their products or services.

Orren pointed out, “the goal is to reach those consumers with high levels of interest and engagement to drive more value to advertisers in the way of sign-ups, redemption or attendance.”

Editorial content is one of the greatest drivers and one of the greatest cost issues for localized new sites. Data analytics is becoming a significant tool in helping to identify content trends based on what people are searching for and what they might be reading.

“DailyMe analyzes topics of interest and queries to determine editorial gaps to drive editorial focus or the need for additional freelance writer support to meet emerging needs,” Budde said. The reality of making a hyper-local news site work is a small dedicated editorial staff that not only creates new editorial but can be the aggregators of relevant news from other resources or local bloggers who are viewed as content experts.

The trend in news is definitely focused on delivering personalized content and local information in a single location to make it relevant and easy to access. The goal is to strike a balance between what consumers ask to be shown and what might be of interest either at the moment or what might be an emerging interest.

Google today announced a noteworthy addition to the relevance algorithm that dictates what ads you see throughout its AdSense network. Known as Interest Based Advertising, essentially what it does is add behavioral targeting to a formula previously ruled by contextual targeting.

Its AdSense network (network of websites that agree to host “Ads by Google”), in other words has erstwhile shown ads that relate to content on the page. This will still continue to happen, but ads will also be shown that relate to a given users proven interest in different topics.

This “proven interest” will primarily be dictated by the previous sites users have visited. When a user goes to a given site in the AdSense network (a vast majority of commercial sites), Google will assign a cookie to his or her web browser. It will then use this info to place the user within any of the 600 categories it has set aside for this purpose — a designation that is used to determine the ads shown when the same user visits other sites in the AdSense network.

Partly anticipating privacy concerns and partly to increase relevance even further, Google has also added a dimension that lets users actively choose what kinds of ads they want to see. Think of this as a “manual override” to the automated targeting described above, which lets users go in and check or uncheck the boxes that define their interests.

All together, this is a natural evolution of AdSense that adds an additional degree of relevance to the ads it’s serving. Most moves that Google makes come back to this idea of better relevance. This is also analogous to what it’s already done with personalized search — refining search results based on a user’s history when they are logged into Google (tied to Gmail account).

This can be seen as a consumer-centric play, but it also increases Google revenues. Better relevance, in other words, generally increases click through rates and thus Google’s performance for its advertisers, publisher partners (AdSense) and its own pay per click revenue. For AdSense, this revenue is split with publishers 80/20 in publishers’ favor.

An interesting side note here is mobile: Included in Google’s many moves into the mobile world is the AdSense for Mobile program. As the mobile web becomes more and more like the online web (given devices with full web browsers), mobile search will increasingly mimic the user behavior and dynamics of online search.

The point, as it relates to today’s news, is that behavioral targeting on the mobile device will be that much more relevant: There is one user per device as opposed to desktop computers that are often shared amongst families. There will also be an additional dimension of targeting that is perhaps more powerful than contextual and behavioral: Location. Add them all together and you can see where Google could be headed.

Clearly, SMB marketing is no longer just about local search and directory listings. While search remains an important piece of the pie, display is emerging in its own right.  Marchex, AdReady, Cobalt’s Admission, MediaTraks, Mixpo and Jivox are among those companies that have been targeting SMBs and others for display (and rich media) solutions.

Now, ReachLocal, the independent sales company that pitches local SMBs on alternatives to Yellow Pages advertising, says it is going into selling display ads as well. The company has offices in 30 U.S. cities, as well as operating units in the U.K., Canada and Australia.

The launch of ReachDisplay “employs remarketing and optimization to make customer acquisition for local advertisers a better value,” notes the company’s press release. That’s a lot of jargon, but it means two things: It is cookie-ing consumers who have previously visited a Web site and using the knowledge about consumers to create ad hoc local networks.

AlmondNet actually pioneered the practice several years ago, sharing high CPMs from highly targeted advertising with media providers that allow it to take an ad and place it on a network that features similar content.

Google, as part of a series of cutbacks, is eliminating its Print Ads program, which had 800 newspapers and other print sources participating. The program, which began in November 2006 with 50 newspaper partners, stops selling new placement Feb. 28.

The Print Ads program, launched for Google by online pioneer Tom Phillips (DejaNews, Starwave, Go Network, etc.), used Google’s system to auction off print space. It has been part of a broad effort to engage other media and get beyond online text ads.

“Remember where 93 percent of your revenue comes from,” said Phillips, in a 2007 presentation to the Newspaper Association of America. “Don’t forget your core business. Our goal is to bring more revenues to our partners. We (the print ads program) only survive if the print business thrives. We think we can help turn the table.”

The program has been especially interesting as an alternative to Yahoo’s newspaper consortium, which has been cultivating its online aspirations in search, national advertising and article placement. Print Ads, by comparison, has been entirely about adding new advertisers to the declining print product. Advertisers taking part were not typical newspaper fare. They included Sur La Table, ServiceMagic, Hotel.com, Covad and Blue Nile.

A post on Google’s company blog attributed to Print Ads Director Spencer Spinnell notes that the company remains dedicated “to working with publishers to develop new ways for them to earn money, distribute and aggregate content and attract new readers online. We have teams of people working with hundreds of publishers to find new and creative ways to earn money from engaging online content. AdSense, DoubleClick, Google Maps, YouTube, Google Earth, Google News and many other products are a part of our significant investments to innovate in this space.”

The manner in which Google has positioned Print Ads with parallel traditional media programs (Radio Ads and TV Ads) in the past makes us wonder how this move affects those programs. According to a Google representative we reached today, it shouldn’t at all: Stepping away from newspaper ads is an isolated move, based on dynamics and the current state of the medium itself.

“We made the decision to stop supporting Print Ads based on the impact the product was having for our partners and advertisers. We weren’t having the impact we wanted,” said a Google rep. “With regards to radio and TV ads and how those tie in, we’ve made excellent progress with adding inventory from NBC Universal and the Hallmark Channel, and the Audio Ads program is doing well with more than 1,600 radio stations.”

Additional Reporting by Mike Boland

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Related: See TKG report on Google’s traditional media programs, “Google’s Next Frontier: Traditional Media.”

The phone is quickly advancing as a means of pushing out ad-sponsored content that mimics some of the popular mobile advertising features.

Greg Webster of VoodooVox, at ILM:08, debuted some of the new features of the company’s In-Call Media group, demonstrating additional marketing opportunities via on-hold messages, “pre-call” messages when using calling cards, and distribution over a network of telephone audio outlets such as 1-800-FREE-411, radio stations and major call centers. Many of the major functions include sending information to your mobile phone and being able to push a button to get extended information beyond a typical :09 message now utilized on the network. The ICM interface allows advertisers to set up their own campaign, direct it to specific states and even defined DMAs.

Two case studies clearly showed the power of this emerging media. One study involved the promotion of an event aimed at Hispanics by Food4Less, which utilized “pre-call” messages on calling cards used in identified Hispanic communities. The net result of this campaign was a 40 percent increase in awareness, a 15 percent increase in attendance and a 35 percent increase in new customers. Another approach used by Buena Vista International targeted radio station on-hold messages to promote a limited release movie aimed at teen girls.  The real aim of this new media approach is to take advantage of lost sales opportunities while customers are on hold with messages that are more relevant and appealing rather than simply playing “Muskrat Love” or “your call is important to us.” Much like mobile phone advertising, in-call media aims to provide a more intimate connection with customers to drive specific actions or to raise awareness. 

Press releases are rich in content — richer than most ads. Many local events, businesses and services routinely write them. But they often don’t get past the “about us” sections on their own Web sites. The releases aren’t easily found, unless people know enough to specifically Google them.

The search engine marketers behind Newsforce have a different idea. Founder Dana Todd, a prominent figure in the SEO community as SEMPO’s chair, says the company is buying up AdSense-like space on major online sites, such as newspapers and news magazines, and placing the releases in context with appropriate articles.

Newsforce’s initial newspaper affiliates include Washingtonpost.com, SFGate.com, Dallasnews.com, BostonHerald.com and LAtimes.com. “They really want an alternative to Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network, which don’t look as nice as our headline unit and are less appropriate for the medium,” says Todd.

The way it works is that Lucid Media, a Newsforce partner, scans all the content in the Newsforce database, including the releases, as well as articles and other types of content. It then matches it to the relevant news articles in Newsforce’s publisher network. “If you think about it, there’s really no limit to what we can promote: video, blogs, feeds, etc.,” says Todd. “It just has to be interesting to our readers and acceptable to our publishers.”

The clickthroughs sometimes rival the article itself, Todd adds — even though they are listed as sponsored content. “We’re meeting their guidelines for how to display long-form text advertising alongside editorial, so that it’s clearly interpreted by the readers as sponsored content. We’re happy to comply, as it doesn’t seem to alter our reader response rate much. People aren’t as dumb as marketers think they are – they pretty much know what’s sponsored and what’s not.”

In addition to placing the releases in its network, Newsforce optimizes them for search –local Christmas-oriented businesses, for instance, might have seasonal search terms. They also get them into news aggregators, such as Yahoo News, provide keyword research tools, full analytics and traditional distribution as an option via BusinessWire. “Detailed tracking helps you adjust your content based on real-time reader interaction,” says Todd.Currently, hot topics include Health/Beauty, General News and Business. Local/geotargeted ads aren’t currently available, but are expected to be launched as the site builds out. Verticals, demographic and behavioral targeting are also likely to get a big play, if not more so.

“We are launching with a small number of verticals first,” says Todd. “Verticals don’t typically offer high volume, but they do offer an opportunity for very targeted exposure for companies who want to influence that group. There are a lot of companies that want to have an always-on communication pipeline to a particular audience, such as Internet Mommies or High Tech Influencers. At that point, we’ll have expanded our publishers to include high traffic and influential blogs and Web sites outside the ‘masthead’ news.”

OK, we’ve got the format(s) and “best and brightest” speaker roster set for Interactive Local Media: Extending Local Channels, which is Nov. 19-21 in Santa Clara, California, next to San Jose.

At the top of the list is Angie Hicks, “the Angie” from Angie’s List, and Rodney Rice from ServiceMagic. They’ll tell it all during one-on-one interviews.

More excitement is to be found on a financial panel with Kara Nortman from IAC, and the “Transition to the Internet” sessions with Kevin Cuddihy from Comcast, Larry Olevitch from NBC Local, Lem Lloyd from The Yahoo! Newspaper Consortium and Meredith Papp from Google’s Traditional Media team.

For some people, Interactive Local Media is all about the ad nets. If that’s the case, we have three of the leaders in the vertical and local space: Russ Fradin from Cox’s Adify, Shawn Riegsecker from Centro and Jason Tafler from Gannett’s PointRoll.

And we’ll have plenty of “Community” with Mark Josephson from Outside.in, Mike Orren from Pegasus News, Dave Galvan from Topix and Seb Provencher from Praized.com. We’ve also zeroed in on new business directories in the U.S. and abroad with Chris Smith from Sensis and Eric Peacock from Citysearch/Insider Pages. Watch for some additions there, to be announced shortly.

We are also looking forward to new directions in mobile with Greg Wester from VoodooVox (Greg, of course, is one the smartest analysts to come out of the Yankee Group). We’ll have a lot of other local mobile-related things at the show, including leading-edge local iPhone and Google Android demos.

We’re especially proud to land Mike Liebhold from the Institute For the Future to give us a sense of how mobile, GPS and mapping technologies will affect the future of local media, community and society. Mike is a longtime tech industry leader and visionary at Apple, among other places. All this will be rounded out with some great comScore data on multiplatform local usage from Brian Jurutka, a great presenter and analyst.

What will really make this conference stand out, however, are the multi-paneled “SuperForums” on SMB marketing and video, which we hope will be complete with audience “voting” via laser pen (if we can figure out the logistics with 600+ attendees). The SMB SuperForum is now largely in place with Paul Ryan from DoneRight; Josh Walker from CityVoter; Court Cunningham from Yodle; Todd Crandall from Metrix4Media; Darren Waddell from MerchantCircle; and Mike Englehart, the new CEO from LiveDeal.

On the video SuperForum side, we’re kicking things off with a mini-keynote from Brad Inman, CEO of TurnHere (and founder of HomeGain and InmanNews); great demos; and many top speakers to be announced shortly. Here’s The Kelsey Group URL for where to sign up. (But don’t delay. Prices go up shortly.)

TMP Directional Marketing, an interactive and print advertising agency specializing in local services and franchises like HoneyBaked Ham and The Men’s Wearhouse, is seeing a slight rise in verticalization, more performance-based solutions and ever increasing use of online promotions to drive offline sales, according to longtime industry vet Gregg Stewart, a senior VP at the firm.

The big challenge is to define metrics for success, says Stewart. Search services and maps do very well with online services that have a proximity factor, like online banking. They’re not going to do as much with Internet Yellow Pages. Neither will packaged goods companies.

Categories such as home services (i.e., house alarm companies) are ripe for campaigns, however. “They can have 50/50 lead flow activity,” he says.

For others, it has ultimately got be about gluing together online with offline purchases, and unlocking their content. “Consumers are becoming more sophisticated searchers,” says Stewart. “They want to know what’s in stock; can they get it now.” Merging a Krillion-like service with a Yellow Pages company wouldn’t be far afield, he agrees.

Verticals are also developing but mostly in categories that have locally interfacing brands. Stewart especially likes financial services. They have incredibly large forces, he says. Legal is emerging as well. Looking forward, he sees medical/health care as a huge opportunity, although compliance issues potentially loom large.