Business Network MerchantCircle Launches “Pay-Per-Action” Marketing

(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Online business owner network MerchantCircle (www.merchantcircle.com) has launched its “Pay-Per-Action” program, which provides partners and ad agencies access to the MerchantCircle network, which draws 20 million unique consumer visitors each month.

According to its Thursday announcement, the PPA platform enables partners to leverage the MerchantCircle network and deliver highly targeted, local customer leads, offering an alternative to the keywords-based Pay-Per-Click standard offered by companies like Google (www.google.com) and tyBit (www.tyBit.com).

“We’re excited about this new platform, which benefits local business owners during the recession, and helps put their marketing dollars to work in a way that translates into tangible customers as a result,” MerchantCircle vice president Darren Waddell said in a statement. “With more than 20 million unique visitors a month and growing, we’re committed to helping all local business owners by connecting them with local customers seeking their products and services.”

PPA features include highly targeted lead delivery defined by locale and business category, and a fully automated and scalable platform. Also, all activities are trackable, participating businesses receive increased online visibility, and customers only pay for performance. Initial partners include OpenTable, Citysearch, ServiceMagic, NearbyNow, and eLocalListing, as well as Yodle (www.yodle.com), which provides online marketing.

“We’ve teamed up with MerchantCircle to provide an additional source of targeted leads for our local business-owner clients,” Yodle chief executive officer Court Cunningham said in a statement. “With MerchantCircle’s large local consumer traffic, our clients have even more opportunity to find more quality local leads. The best part is our clients only pay for performance.”

MerchantCircle’s PPA launch comes on the heels of other recent partnerships with businesses including online marketing provider Web.com (www.web.com) and distributed media provider Demand Media (www.demandmedia.com), which have both helped grow MerchantCircle’s local business community and improve the local search experience.

MerchantCircle is now the fifth largest Internet Yellow Page directory in the US, according to Quantcast (www.quantcast.com) data.