by Allyson Robison
5 July 2012 10:51
For the third year in a row, calls to Yellow Pages ads have increased according to a recent study from CRM Associates who has conducted the study annually over the past six years.
When following advertisers with the same size ad in the same heading, the study shows that calls to Yellow Pages ads increased by 17% from 2010 to 2011. This is on top of an increase of 10% from 2009 to 2010 and 3% from 2008 to 2009.
What’s important to note is that the calls have been increasing ever since the large economic downturn in 2008. Prior to this time, calls decreased at an alarming rate.
Despite the struggling economy, people are continuing to buy and are doing so using the Yellow Pages.
Ad Content Matters
Two out of three Yellow Pages advertisers experienced an increase in calls. Those experiencing this increase received on average 45% more calls in 2011 than 2010. Those who experienced a decrease in calls (one in three) did so at a rate of 26% fewer calls. Having both winners and losers in the study shows that the Yellow Pages is still a competitive market place for business. Strong ad content can make or break a business’s success in the Yellow Pages.
Return in the next few weeks for our post on how advertisers can increase the effectiveness of their ads.
Call Changes by Market Size Market size had a definite impact on the increase in calls:
- Distribution less than 50,000 – 27% increase (4 Valley Yellow Pages markets)
- 51,000-100,000 – 22% increase (16 Valley Yellow Pages markets)
- 101,000-200,000 – 17% increase (17 Valley Yellow Pages markets)
- 201,000-300,000 – 16% increase (6 Valley Yellow Pages markets)
- 301,000-500,000 – 12% increase (2 Valley Yellow Pages markets)
- 501,000-800,000 – 8% increase (3 Valley Yellow Pages markets)
- 801,000-1,200,000 – 11% (0 Valley Yellow Pages markets)
Loss of Advertisers
Some Yellow Pages opponents want to explain the increase as being due to the loss of advertisers, leading to remaining advertisers receiving more calls. However, consider this: 85% of advertisers receive 98% of all calls; 15% of advertisers, who receive just 2% of calls, are the most likely to leave because they are not receiving enough calls to break even on their ads. That means, at the most, only 2% of calls would be redistributed to advertisers. That still leaves approximately 15% growth for Yellow Pages advertising as a whole.
Read the report from CRM Associates: http://www.myyp.com/Content/Study/Fromholzer_Calls-to-YP-Ads-Increase.pdf
