Experts have been predicting the rise of local search engine marketing, and pay-per-click network operators have been working to create the means to support small-to-midsize companies that wish to enter the market - and now Verizon's SuperPages.com is indicating that local search may have already arrived - ClickZ reports.

SuperPages.com's local PPC advertisers have apparently increased their budgets so much that they can't all be spent on the SuperPages network; and, instead of turning that local business away, the company is placing the campaigns on rival PPC networks - Yahoo and Google.

"We've secured $65 million in budgets, but we're not able to spend that in our own network. There's a lot more money in that existing pool of advertisers. If we could spend all of what they gave us, they would increase their budgets even more," VP of E-Commerce Marketing, Eric Chandler, is quoted as saying.

By functioning as a search agency, SuperPages will likely grow its own network, becoming the access point for many small businesses to try search marketing for the first time.

The campaigns will initially be sold on a flat-fee basis.