Advertising services for Gulfport, MS

Income, homes and households

The metropolitan statistical area covers Gulfport and Biloxi.

For housing, the median value is $205,000, 38 percent below the national figure. On income, Gulfport, MS sits at $62,418 per household, 23 percent below the national figure. Both figures matter for pricing and for which offers land.

Who lives here matters as much as how many. Unemployment in the civilian labor force is 6.8%, 2 points above the US share. Among adults 25 and over, 26.7% have at least a bachelor's degree, 9 points below the US share. Age first: the median is 39.8, 0.9 years above the national median. Owners occupy 68.6% of homes, 3 points above the US share.

Set against the state as a whole (Mississippi), household income here is 11 percent higher than the Mississippi figure, the median home value is 21 percent higher than the Mississippi figure, and the business base per resident is 9 percent thinner than the Mississippi figure.

Competition, counted

How crowded is the market overall? Gulfport, MS has 7,882 employer establishments. That works out to 18.7 businesses per 1,000 residents, 25 percent below the national figure (the national rate is 25 per 1,000). Contractors in the home-services trades total 285, or 3.6% of the base, 1 points below the US share. The single largest category in the table below is restaurants, with 793 locations.

The last column divides the local share of establishments by the national share (1.00 = the same mix as the US).

Where competition is thickest: road and paving contractors, self-storage operators, restaurants and automobile dealers all hold a larger share of the local base than they do nationally. Road and paving contractors show it most, with 15 establishments, 1.7 times the share nationwide. Less common here than nationally: roofing contractors, concrete contractors, general freight trucking and beauty salons. With 10 locations, roofing contractors sit at about 42% of the national share. Plumbing and HVAC contractors, general automotive repair and dentists sit near their national proportions.

Three categories dominate by count: restaurants at 793, physicians' offices at 233 and legal services at 189. Scaled to residents, restaurants run 188.3 per 100,000, more than physicians' offices or legal services. The group picture: consumer services (restaurants, salons, child care, grocery) above the national pattern at about the same as, the home-services trades below it at about 75% of.

Reading the numbers as an advertiser

In the crowded trades (road and paving contractors, self-storage operators and restaurants) the map pack decides more calls than the ads do. Business Profile completeness, review volume and review recency become the separating factors, and paid search has to be tight rather than broad. Scarcity in roofing contractors, concrete contractors and general freight trucking cuts the other way: fewer rivals per search, cheaper clicks, and a chance to become the default answer in the map results with a modest, steady effort. Residents here are older than the US median (0.9 years above the national median); they search, read reviews and call, which puts the weight on search, the listing and the phone. High homeownership (68.6%) means a large pool of people who pay for their own repairs, replacements and yard work, which favors the home-services trades in this market. Income 23 percent below the national figure puts price front and center; ads that state the offer plainly and make calling easy do best.