ReachLocal Launches in Western Europe with Office Serving United Kingdom

Global Internet Advertising Firm Uses Technology and its Team of Internet Marketing Consultants to Help Small- to Medium-Sized Businesses Follow Consumers that have Migrated from Offline to Online Search; Transparent Solution Allows Advertisers to Monitor Their ROI in Real Time.

November 19, 2008

(LONDON) ReachLocal Inc. (http://www.reachlocal.co.uk), a leading global provider of local online marketing solutions for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), announced today it has begun offering online advertising services in the United Kingdom by launching ReachLocal UK Ltd., headquartered in London.

Using a national and proprietary team of Internet Marketing Consultants (IMCs), ReachLocal allows SMBs to drive customer leads from major search engines to their phone with a simple, scalable, automated and transparent Internet advertising solution. ReachLocal creates and optimizes search campaigns against one budget that links businesses' online advertising spend to their offline sales activities. This provides true advertising return-on-investment transparency and optimization through its technology platform.

"Our technology drives qualified leads from the Internet to the phone because local businesses value a customer's phone call over a website visit as it converts better to a sale,' said John Mazur, Managing Director of ReachLocal UK. "In a down economy a local business's potential customers are doing ever more research on the Internet before they make buying decisions. It's essential that a business follow customers to where they are searching online. Plus, ReachLocal's solution allows our advertisers to know exactly how its advertising spend is converting to sales.'

Research firm eMarketer reports that while the economic downturn was bringing down the total advertising spend in the UK, online advertising actually grew to £1.7 billion in the first half of 2008, which is a 21 percent increase from the first half of 2007. Paid search advertising accounts for £981 million, or 58 percent, of the total £1.7 billion spend. In spite of the recessionary climate, eMarketer anticipates that paid search advertising in the UK will grow to nearly £3 billion by 2012.

Harry's Carpets in Farringdon is among the first local businesses advertising with ReachLocal UK to take advantage of the consumer shift from offline to online search. In just over two months Harry's Carpets received over 100 calls and over 150 submitted online estimate forms, while reporting a 60 percent sales closing rate.

"I have always advertised through traditional media such as the newspaper and phone book. ReachLocal's Internet Marketing Consultants have not only educated me on online advertising, but also advised me how best to convert leads into sales," said Andrew Oates, proprietor of Harry's Carpets. "We dived in at the deep end with ReachLocal and the response has been incredible. In fact, it transformed us from being very quiet to being very busy."

ReachLocal currently provides paid search advertising through Google, Yahoo!, MSN and other search engines to over 12,000 local businesses in over 30 markets around the world, including the UK, US, Canada and Australia. Located at 2 Queen Caroline St., Hammersmith, London, businesses may call ReachLocal on 0203 178 6956 or visit http://www.reachlocal.co.uk.