Real estate Web 2.0 company, Zillow.com has unveiled Showcase Ads.  Showcase Ads is a way for local companies to reach Zillow’s audience of real estate agents, homeowners, buyers, sellers, etc.  Through Showcase Ads, local advertisers are able to buy a certain percentage of advertisements within a submitted zip code.  This gives Zillow users the chance to find out what local businesses exist in the region that they are searching for.

Showcase Ads is Zillow’s second advertising platform.  The first was EZ Ads, an advertising platform that has about 13,000 advertisers since it launched in April 2007.  Showcase Ads guarantees that anyone who signs up will reach 25% of those who search for a specific zip code.  Ambitious advertisers can even buy-out 100% of the reach. 

“Zillow is committed to offering local professionals affordable and easy- to-use tools to get in front of our large audience of consumers interested in real estate and buying and selling homes,” stated Greg Schwartz, VP of Ad Sales at Zillow.com. “We strongly believe that the more targeted an ad can be, both at a national and local level, the more useful the consumer will find it and the more successful the advertiser will be.”

Advertisers can place photos and phone numbers of their business on the Showcase Ads.  A consortium of 282 newspapers will be selling Showcase Ads through their own local direct sales teams as well.  The pricing structure for Showcase Ads is geographically based.  Ads that are in bigger cities will have a bigger price.

Signing up for Showcase Ads will be available in the Advertisers section of Zillow.com shortly.  Zillow receives about 5 million monthly uniques per month.

Related Link:
1. Zillow press release
2. Zillow.com