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What Are Yelp Ads?

Digital Advertising

If you've ever looked for restaurant reviews on the internet, chances are you've come across Yelp. Most people nowadays go to Yelp first to discover new places where they can eat out or hang out.

According to Review Trackers, "45% of customers are likely to check Yelp reviews before visiting a business." This means you need to take advantage of Yelp as a platform to advertise your business.

Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or you’re still trying to understand the best outreach methods for your business, our experts at SEO in Fort Lauderdale are here to explain everything you need to know.

What Exactly Are Yelp Ads?

Yelp ads sample
Photo from Yelp

Yelp Ads appear in search results and on business listings. They will typically reveal a company’s:

  • Logo
  • Service Area
  • Customer Feedback OR Specialties
  • Call-to-action (CTA) Button Text
  • Star Rating

This is similar to what's shown in the "organic" section when you run a Yelp search, but it’s accompanied by the yellow "AD" button.

Who Are Yelp Ads Intended For?

Yelp Ads are for company owners who want to reach more people and increase their revenue via Yelp. Yelp Ads showcase your company in crucial spots throughout the site and mobile app, like in the search results and on rivals' business pages, and attract users back to your Yelp Business Page, where they can learn more and eventually contact you. 

These prospective consumers are highly motivated to purchase something from your business. In fact, 97 percent of these individuals make a purchase after browsing Yelp. If someone searches Yelp in your city for your industry, you want to be prominently shown as a potential contender.

How Does Yelp Advertising Work?

Yelp Ads have limited targeting options, which are entirely dependent on the category and service area preferences in your profile. Suppose you don't have enough reviews to use for your ad material. In such cases, Yelp will use a piece of information from your profile. It will automatically combine the regular listing and your ads, with limited control over what shows explicitly for your ads.

The daily budget is the only item you can actually set aside for advertisements.

There is also relatively little tracking. On Yelp, you can't have specific phone numbers for advertisements and organic profiles; one number handles all Yelp traffic.

Yelp has also discontinued monitoring parameters for outbound connections to the company's website.

Is Geotargeting Available For Yelp Ad Campaigns?

Yelp ads geotargeting
Photo from Yelp Support

Previously, there was no option to customize your geotargeting. However, Yelp now offers a handful of alternatives based on the industry in which your company operates.

For example, suppose you own a salon. In that case, you can set your Yelp Ads to geotarget people who are within a 5-mile radius, a 10-mile radius, or a 15-mile radius.

Pro Tip: Service-based companies have a larger radius than local brick-and-mortar establishments. However, these possibilities remain quite limited for advertising.

If you are a franchise with rival locations inside that 5-mile radius, for instance, you will have overlapping ad spending. There's no way to fine-tune it.

If you have plans of using Yelp ads, you need to thoroughly understand your geotargeting in order to determine if you are wasting ad spend outside of your intended location.  

How Much Does It Cost to Advertise on Yelp?

Yelp charges you based on cost-per-click (CPC), and the CPC you spend varies greatly. Marketers can pay as little as $0.30 per click or as much as $40+ per click. The good news is that you can decide how much you want to spend each month.

Moreover, Yelp has a high level of online consumer awareness. Its consumer awareness alone is reason enough to pay attention to the advertising possibilities it offers to reach people.

Clients often ask us, "Should I advertise on Yelp?"

The quick answer is: YES!

At Digital Resource, our experts at SEO in Fort Lauderdale often recommend Google Ads/PPC as the best first step for customers looking to get started with paid ads.

That said, it’s useful to use multiple methods of reaching customers, to see what works best for your business. There are certain types of businesses that often find Yelp especially effective (e.g., restaurants).

How Does Yelp Charge for Ads?

Yelp sends invoices at the start of each month for the previous month's advertisements.

The 'Request A Quote' CTA Button 

On your Yelp page, you’ll see a “Get a Quote” button. If you enable it, the button will allow customers to reach out to you for a free quote. However, if you don’t enable it, it could offer to get quotes from your rivals.

On Yelp, these quote requests are received as messages. Yelp will also provide a business's response rate to these communications. To sustain a high rate, a corporation must reply to every communication it gets.

Pro Tip: Yelp considers two messages sent by the same user to be two different conversations.

Overall Benefits of Yelp Ads

  • Yelp advertisements will boost your visibility on Yelp.
  • Yelp advertising choices have been more flexible for marketers, with contracts removed (pay-as-you-go options are available with no long-term contracts).
  • Consumers are well aware that Yelp is a credible source for reviews; therefore, Yelp is likely to keep its own traffic for some time.
  • Yelp's own pages rank highly on Google; however, this reduces the potential profits for Yelp advertisers.
  • Your website receives traffic with a low bounce rate.

Our Thoughts on Yelp Ads

When we analyze search keywords for our PPC customers, many consumers are looking for reviews, particularly regarding specific companies. These ratings significantly influence how likely someone is to purchase your products or hire your services.

So, whether you try paid Yelp advertisements or not, controlling your Yelp presence is crucial to your online reputation and generating more business.

Let The Experts Run Your Yelp Ads For You

Digital marketer "OK" sign

If you're interested in running Yelp ads for your small business but don't know where to begin, or if you're already running Yelp ads but don't know what return you're getting from that investment, you've come to the right place.

At Digital Resource, our experts at SEO in Fort Lauderdale specialize in digital marketing for small companies. Our team is prepared to help you across a variety of channels, including internet directories such as Yelp.

We can assist you in navigating Yelp's paid and organic aspects and gaining the newest clients.

Contact us today to learn how we've helped other businesses with their Yelp Ad Campaigns and how we can do the same for you.

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