See Who’s Advertising Where

Article Source: http://washingtonpost.com

 By Kim Hart  |  April 30, 2008; 3:10 PM ET  

One of the main challenges for online advertisers is figuring out which Web sites are worth their advertising dollars. How do they know where their competitors are advertising? How do they figure out whether a banner ad would be more effective than a keyword search ad?

A new search engine called Yureekah launched this week to help ad agencies and advertisers find where competitors are advertising and determining the best options for future brand advertising.

Devaraj Southworth, one of its creators, said the idea stemmed from his own company’s needs. He runs a small creative agency and a media planning firm, and it often took several weeks to put together an online ad strategy because he had to manually go through Web sites, ad networks and portals to figure out where his client should be visible. Southworth said he’s even had to cancel a campaign because finding that information was too labor-intensive to meet the deadline.

He envisions, for example, a small boutique hotel using the service to find out out where Marriott and Hilton are advertising. The small business owner can then determine how best to spend his money to compete for patrons.

“Clients always ask us, ‘Where are we and where should we be?'” he said. “This can help level the playing field so everyone can figure that out,” not just the advertisers with huge budgets.

The site is currently free to use, but Southworth says more features will be rolled out that have revenue potential. Right now the information is coming from portal sites his firm works with, but he is trying to add information from more ad networks and publishers in the future.

===GREAT IDEA, BUT LIMITED SET OF ADS ON IN THE INDEX. WILL BE INTERESTING TO CHECK BACK IN A FEW MONTHS. MORT-

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