YP, a joint owned local publisher and ad network, has released their second quarter Local Insights report on the U.S. population utilizing data collected from the first quarter of 2012.

The report features impressions from the network’s over 300 online, mobile, IPTV, and directory assistance publishers. Overall, the data represents close to 11 billion impressions.

Here’s a look at the top search categories and also a look at which ones have shown the most improvement (Q4 2011 to Q1 2012):

Lets also take a look at what they came up with in regard to where the dollars are being spent. The list below reveals the top ten areas combined for both mobile and PC advertising. As you can see, medical, construction, and legal make up the top three biggest spenders. Interestingly, real estate is at the bottom of the list.

Here are the top 10 spending areas in local advertiser for PC and mobile:

1). Medical (i.e., Dentists, Physicians & Surgeons, and Optometrists)
2). Contractors & Construction
3). Legal Services (used to be number one)
4). Automotive
5). Home Maintenance Services (i.e., Landscaping, HVAC, Maintenance and Cleaning Services
6). Materials, Equipment & Supplies
7). Financial Services
8). Pet & Animal
9). Moving & Storage
10). Real Estate

Now lets take a look at local search traffic as recoded by YP’s networks broken down by the most active cities. They provide the data for both mobile and PC separately, which gives us a nice contrast when you look at how the ranking played out between the two.

Most active local mobile search cities in Q1 2012:

1). San Francisco, CA
2). Lafayette, LA
3). Baton Rouge, LA
4). Orlando, FL
5). Columbia, SC
6). Birmingham, AL
7). Miami, FL
8). St. Louis, MO
9). West Palm Beach, FL
10). Shreveport, LA

Most active local PC search cities:

1). Atlanta, GA
2). Orlando, FL
3). Miami, FL
4). Richardson, TX
5). Columbia, SC
6). St. Louis, MO
7). Tampa, FL
8). West Palm Beach, FL
9). Ft. Lauderdale, FL
10). Birmingham, AL

It’s interesting to see Louisiana state is so big on mobile search, I would have guessed California would have more cities on the list, especially near the top. I’m also a little bit surprised to see Florida and Georgia at the top of the list for local PC search. Again, I would have guessed California or even New York.

In the next graphic, YP breaks search down by device and shows us the top mobile searches overall:

And finally, the following graphic illustrates the mix of mobile devices on the YP network, and how they are contributing to search:

So there you have it. That’s what local search and ad spending looks like for the first quarter of 2012 according to the YP local publishing and ad network.