Digital Element, a business unit of Digital Envoy, will support local IP geotargeting for LocalAdLink, a division of Beyond Commerce. NetAcuity will allow mom-and-pop businesses to better choose and target ads from local merchants to people who venture online.

When companies register and list their business with LocalAdLink, a local business search directory and advertising network representing more than 14 million companies, the technology supported by Digital Elements will match the person's location with ads from stores offering products and services in their area.

Digital Element EVP Rob Friedman says the system chooses the ads depending on the person's geographic location by identifying the IP address. He cites the decline in print advertising effectiveness and reliance on Yellow Pages as a factor in the increase of geographic and contextual-based targeted ads, especially among small businesses looking for ways to reach local customers online with less ad dollars.

And while the platform designed for LocalAdLink doesn't match the ad with the consumer's prior behavior, Digital Elements does have the capability to support behavioral targeting (BT) services with help from partnering companies.

In fact, Digital Element works with the "AOL advertising network, which does some behavioral targeting, as well as the Microsoft Ad Network and DoubleClick," Friedman says. "We supply the smarts for IP targeting, not the BT smarts -- though the companies like Audience Science can leverage our technology to target consumers based on their behavior."

Targeting in any form has grown in popularity. Microsoft recently signed a deal with Advance Internet, which uses retargeting technologies through Microsoft's Audience Extension program where Advance Internet can sell users who have performed specific actions on sites owned by them, but found on the Microsoft Media Network. For example, a user who has visited MLive.com's Auto section in the last 14 days and is now found on the Microsoft Media Network.

Microsoft does not own the sites where user data is captured. In the case of Advance Internet, these sites are owned by Advance Internet. Advance Internet will sell display advertising on the Microsoft Media Network to local advertisers and leverage Microsoft's audience targeting technologies, such as Geo-Targeting, Behavioral Targeting, and Profile Targeting.

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