Search, directory companies get 'deal' button to drive traffic

Until now, the deal industry has centred on outbound email marketing, where consumers receive random daily deals from local merchants offering deep discounts in exchange for pre-purchasing consumers walking through their doors with personalized vouchers.

The deal exchange connects the merchant, who wants a customer, sale or hot lead, the publisher, who wants a significant source of new ad revenue and the consumer, who wants a relevant deal from specific merchants and services providers.

To deliver this, Wantsa created a simple button called 'Request a Deal' for any online or mobile publisher that displays directory listings for local merchants. When this button is added to the publisher's directory of business listings, consumers can simply click the button next to the listing of the business they are interested in to register their 'request' for a deal.

Through its automated process, the system delivers the aggregated consumer demand for the deal to the publisher. The publisher, in turn, shares this information with the merchant, showing a proven 'demand' for the deal. Publishers and sales agencies are then able to deliver relevant offers to consumers anxiously awaiting deals from specific local merchants.

In addition to connecting merchants directly to qualified consumers, it also has the capability to administer quick surveys to capture market research or leads.

Major revolution in ad networks

"Think of it as a major evolution of ad networks. The only difference is that instead of creating an ad that results in a click, companies are creating offers that result in real consumer transactions," said Atif Hussein, head of product and engineering for Wantsa.

Publishers deliver the deals consumers want, consumers receive relevant deals they have requested and forgo subscribing to receive random emails with irrelevant offers from over 500 daily deal companies and merchants receive real results that matter to their business without needing to give enormous discounts to create the relevance consumers need.

"The company's mission is to revolutionize the online advertising industry and is uniquely positioned to transform the online advertising industry away from 'cost per click' by offering the first 'cost per result' deal exchange," adds Strebinger. "Its solutions enable publishers to deliver on-going, tangible results that merchants and advertisers care about - qualified customers, purchases, consumer data, and customer engagement."

Process

To help publishers solve the problem of deal inventory, it has created a 'Deal Exchange', where any company who has deal inventory can simply submit its supply into the 'Deal Repository' and, conversely, publishers seeking deal inventory can access deals from various sources.

Its customers span publishers, search, and directory companies including Metroland Media Group, Chicago Sun Times and Time Out.

The service is not limited to companies such as Groupon or Living Social but is open to every deal company with inventory and every publisher looking to deliver relevant deals to its end consumers. Search companies such as Yahoo, Google and Bing are looking to deliver deal solutions that are relevant and meaningful to consumers. Its deal exchange delivers just that.

Wantsa licenses (and privately labels) its technology to online and mobile focused media organizations including search, directory, social and mobile businesses.

It has a global presence with offices in Canada, the US and the UK. For more information, email: or go to www.wantsa.com.