The Yellow Pages Association last week announced that the “Rental Service” Yellow Pages heading ranks 42^nd out of more than 4,000 headings and generates more than 54 million references annually.

“The rental market is nearly a $33 billion industry that has grown from $18.5 billion in 1998,” said Ken Hughes, vice president of communications of the American Rental Association, Moline, Ill. “This represents a compound annual growth rate of 7.4 percent.”

When consumers or businesses reference the “Rental Service” Yellow Pages heading, they most frequently need heavy construction equipment (32 percent), lawn and garden tools (22 percent), party-related items (15 percent) and power tools (8 percent).

In addition, Yellow Pages advertising has proven to be a powerful and effective medium for rental stores, as 90 percent of “Rental Service” look-ups result in a transaction. Additionally, active shoppers search the Yellow Pages for rental information two times more than any other advertising medium, according to YPA.

“Historically, rental stores have relied on print and Internet Yellow Pages to help generate business because of the medium’s high return on investment — $6 of profit for every $1 spent on Yellow Pages advertising,” said Larry Small, director of research of YPA. “On average, these businesses can expect their Yellow Pages display advertisement to deliver more than $107,000 in revenue annually.”

According to YPA, the top 12 most frequently referenced headings are: Restaurants, Physicians-Surgeons, Automobile Parts, Automobile Repairing-Service, Pizza, Attorneys-Lawyers, Automobile Dealers, Dentists, Hospitals, Plumbing Contractors, Beauty Salons and Insurance.

Originally founded in 1975 as the National Yellow Pages Service Association, the Yellow Pages Association is the trade organization of a print and digital media industry valued at more than $26 billion worldwide. It has members in 29 countries.