Manta and BIA/Kelsey will join forces on a webinar next week (June 29 from 2 pm – 3 pm Eastern Time) that looks at the vexing problem of acquiring very small businesses at a customer acquisition cost that doesn’t break the bank.

The webinar will be modeled after a new BIA/Kelsey White Paper sponsored by Manta that examines how audience extension can be a powerful tool for B2B marketers that are trying to keep their customer acquisition costs manageable, a big challenge for those targeting very small businesses in particular.

Audience extension is a data-driven targeting technique that lets a publisher extend the reach and frequency of impressions for advertisers by finding sources of traffic outside of its direct domain. Audience extension also enables advertisers to reach new target audience sets and convert these prospects into customers at an acquisition cost much lower than if they purchased an audience of similar size directly. The strategy maximizes the return on existing data investments.

The white paper, “Audience Extension: A Path to Low Cost Customer Acquisition”, defines audience extension and frames it within the context of the challenges presented by targeting small businesses at scale. Breaking through to lower customer acquisition cost, along with reducing the cost of goods sold, is key to reaching the very small business customer. Most media companies with large deployed sales channels have focused on SMBs in the middle to top range of the pyramid (based on spend or revenue) because the cost of sales is too high to pursue very small businesses.

The report is illustrated with examples from SMB-focused brands running Manta audience extension campaigns, suggests a viable model for acquiring those hard to reach long-tail SMBs.

Audience extension campaigns require careful set up to be effective. And they take time to work. “This is not a light switch, it’s a dimmer switch,” Manta’s VP of Sales and Business Development Joey Glowacki said.

Manta is one of the largest online resources dedicated to small business, delivering products, services and educational opportunities geared to help business owners become more competitive in their respective industries. The Manta directory’s millions of monthly visitors search its database for individual businesses, industry segments and geographic-specific listings.

You can register here to join next week’s webinar.