Mobile local advertising: Where Ads announces 100th partner

Where Ads is the advertising branch of mobile location company Where, Inc. The company has on-line and app-based properties – and it created Where Ads to serve ads across those. Since it launched the platform in March it has added it’s 100th publishing partner, and claims to have served 1 billion ads in 30 days.

What’s the story?

Where.com itself is a search and recommendation service based around geo-location. Want to know where a good place for Mexican food is? Search for “mexican” and Where will deliver recommendations on places to go within 1/2 mile, 5 miles or 25 miles.

It launched Where Ads to display mobile advertisements for local businesses alongside your search results. Initially it served ads for generic mobile content – like ringtones or wallpapers – but branched out into retails ads for partnered businesses.

It now claims to reach over 50 million consumers in the USA, and to have served 1 billion ads in a 30 period – including a 24 hour period where it served 33,167 local ads in New York City area this summer. The company also claims that 11% of clicks on a Where Ad get convert to a phone call or directions to the merchant.

What we think?

There comes a point where advertising becomes so informative that it becomes news. If it’s something you really want, then it doesn’t feel like advertising – it feels like information. I’m not saying that it was Where Ads has accomplished. It’s just a general comment on location-based advertising. If the ad you are seeing is for something within walking distance of you, it makes it more likely to be useful.