Yelp Advertising

tmiklethun · Feb 10, 2014

I hear alot of people about yelp on here. I had a free profile for along time, but never got any traction on it because I was so far down the list. Last month one of their reps called me pitching paid advertising. After some negotation I agreed to $325.00 a month for 600 impressions per month for 6 months with a $325.00 buy out.

I was quite nervous because January was an off month for me and I knew the budget would be tight, but went ahead with it. Now I am concerned because I am 10 days, 1/3, into the my first month and I have had a total of 38 views, per yelp. One third of 600 views is 200. It seems I am about 162 views short of their goal for the first 10 days.

For those that advertise on Yelp is this normal?

Ron K · Feb 10, 2014

They are pushing me hard same offer 600 impressions. I think if you live in a smaller market 600 might be a stretch. I hope Mickey chimes in here soon and any of the other Yelpaholics.

Hoody · Feb 10, 2014

There are talks that Yelp and Yahoo have teamed up where reviews are concerned. Yahoo did this with Bing, and at times you'll see Bing reviews on Yahoo local searches. Yahoo has been very interested in purchasing Yelp for a while now, but so has Google. Google offered 500 million for the company, while Yahoo offered 750 million - however Yelp has not accepted either offer yet.

The reason I mention this is because they have been pushing really hard to increase revenue for what I am going to assume is to make their company more attractive financially with the current deals on the table.

For anyone deciding if Yelp(paid advertising) is a good move for them I would recommend searching for common things on Yelp such as restaurants and hotels and see if people in your area are leaving reviews, and then look at service based businesses, plumbers, hvac, contractors, other carpet cleaners to see if people are leaving reviews. If many people frequently leave reviews then it could be a great move and decision, if they are not - I would steer away from doing it. The point of reviews are so prospects will see them and want to call based on them.

jcooper · Feb 10, 2014

Travis,

Sense your now on the hook for 2k over the next six months the first thing you need to do is get some reviews. Call your mom, aunt, sister, anyone! You won't get much from yelp(or any) without good reviews.

IMO - I would have suggested you get the reviews first, then think about signing up w/them.

If you want masses of people to see your listing, yelp is generally not the place(google is). Yelp people read reviews, the do research and so on. That's what is good about the site. They also like/will to give reviews. We have the free listing w/some good reviews(not lots) and get maybe 5-7 clicks(to our site) a week from yelp.

ruff · Feb 10, 2014

Travis,
Normal depends on your location as some places Yelp is very strong and in others it isn't.
Your success depends on that and on how many reviews you have and how good they are. It also depends on what stage your business is at.
Newer businesses with fewer reviews are more likely to offer discounts.

Here in the Bay area Yelp is quite strong. I am not sure how strong it is in your community which is going to make a huge difference. Also you may look at it as a long term investment (which is tough if money is tight). If you establish yourself early and have lots of good reviews it will help you get more clients and more reviews in the future.

billyeadon · Feb 10, 2014

Hoody said:
There are talks that Yelp and Yahoo have teamed up where reviews are concerned. Yahoo did this with Bing, and at times you'll see Bing reviews on Yahoo local searches. Yahoo has been very interested in purchasing Yelp for a while now, but so has Google. Google offered 500 million for the company, while Yahoo offered 750 million - however Yelp has not accepted either offer yet.

The reason I mention this is because they have been pushing really hard to increase revenue for what I am going to assume is to make their company more attractive financially with the current deals on the table.

For anyone deciding if Yelp(paid advertising) is a good move for them I would recommend searching for common things on Yelp such as restaurants and hotels and see if people in your area are leaving reviews, and then look at service based businesses, plumbers, hvac, contractors, other carpet cleaners to see if people are leaving reviews. If many people frequently leave reviews then it could be a great move and decision, if they are not - I would steer away from doing it. The point of reviews are so prospects will see them and want to call based on them.

Yes there was an article in Wall Street Journal confirming Yelp and Yahoo have partnered up in reviews.

Mikey P · Feb 10, 2014

IMO if you are not in the top five of your category, don't bother advertising.

I get my bill cut in half if they don't delver the 600 views.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304680904579371263386333816

Mikey P · Feb 11, 2014

is this you?

http://www.yelp.com/biz/integrity-carpet-cleaning-tempe

Ask for your money back if so.

tmiklethun · Feb 11, 2014

Mikey P said:
is this you?

http://www.yelp.com/biz/integrity-carpet-cleaning-tempe

Ask for your money back if so.

Nope another company using my name. This is my profile.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/integrity-cleaning-systems-peoria

tmiklethun · Feb 11, 2014

jcooper said:
Travis,

Sense your now on the hook for 2k over the next six months the first thing you need to do is get some reviews. Call your mom, aunt, sister, anyone! You won't get much from yelp(or any) without good revi

IMO - I would have suggested you get the reviews first, then think about signing up w/them.

If you want masses of people to see your listing, yelp is generally not the place(google is). Yelp people read reviews, the do research and so on. That's what is good about the site. They also like/will to give reviews. We have the free listing w/some good reviews(not lots) and get maybe 5-7 clicks(to our site) a week from yelp.

ews.

My plan was to put the listing out to my email list in the monthly newsletter and ask for review. The original sales guy said that would not be a problem. Now my account manager said she doesn't recommend it, because Yelp has suggested (i think) review and non suggested. If they are not already a Yelp member their reviews don't count as high.

I told her this concerns me because even if I am listed in the #1 spot, but with no review and the guy in the number 2 spot has many reviews they are going to call him anyway. She said that it will impact "a little" in the short term, but not to worry about it.

tmiklethun · Feb 11, 2014

Mikey P said:
IMO if you are not in the top five of your category, don't bother advertising.

I get my bill cut in half if they don't delver the 600 views.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304680904579371263386333816

Do they just adjust the bill automatically, or do you have to call and complain? Thanks for that info

Ron K · Feb 12, 2014

Why are there "competitors" on your own Yelp page? And Preferred on the bottom.

Hoody · Feb 12, 2014

Ron K said:
Why are there "competitors" on your own Yelp page? And Preferred on the bottom.

Simply put - $$$

billyeadon · Feb 12, 2014

Just a reminder that we will have a social media session on Saturday morning at 9 am at Mikey Fest. Should be quite interesting.

Desk Jockey · Feb 12, 2014

9AM? I'm not sure if I will have gone to sleep by then. Maybe I should just stay up? :winky:

Ron K · Feb 13, 2014

Hoody said:
Simply put - $$$

Steven so you're paying for your competitors "impressions" too. At least the yellow pages let you buy your own ad without helping the competition.
.

Hoody · Feb 13, 2014

Ron K said:
Steven so you're paying for your competitors "impressions" too. At least the yellow pages let you buy your own ad without helping the competition.
.

With the free profile, yes that is what happens. When you sign up for a PPC campaign/advertising you get an "Enhanced Profile" from Yelp which will "remove your competitor's ads" from your page. The reason that is in quotes is because it is not entirely true. There are some other options you get with an enhanced profile too, such as a special offer and people can filter companies by who are offering a coupon or special offer - possibly attractive to the coupon type carpet cleaner, but really seems very Groupon-ish IMO.

What I was saying was - They're trying to generate ad revenue(as most sites are), and entice people to advertise and get the enhanced profile. The enhanced profile does deliver some removal of competitors ads, but not all. The catch is people do not read the fine print on the term and then are disappointed or confused.

Ron K · Feb 13, 2014

Hoody said:
With the free profile, yes that is what happens. When you sign up for a PPC campaign/advertising you get an "Enhanced Profile" from Yelp which will "remove your competitor's ads" from your page. The reason that is in quotes is because it is not entirely true. There are some other options you get with an enhanced profile too, such as a special offer and people can filter companies by who are offering a coupon or special offer - possibly attractive to the coupon type carpet cleaner, but really seems very Groupon-ish IMO.

What I was saying was - They're trying to generate ad revenue(as most sites are), and entice people to advertise and get the enhanced profile. The enhanced profile does deliver some removal of competitors ads, but not all. The catch is people do not read the fine print on the term and then are disappointed or confused.

If you go to Mickey's Page on Yelp "Conisuer" On the side of HIS page "People also viewed" and on the bottom "Best of Yelp Santa Cruz"
That's telling people about your competitors right on your Yelp Page...I think thats kind of __________ please fill in the blank.
I don't know but if you do pay per click does the same thing happen?

Hoody · Feb 13, 2014

Ron K said:
If you go to Mickey's Page on Yelp "Conisuer" On the side of HIS page "People also viewed" and on the bottom "Best of Yelp Santa Cruz"
That's telling people about your competitors right on your Yelp Page...I think thats kind of __________ please fill in the blank.
I don't know but if you do pay per click does the same thing happen?

Yeah, all profiles enhanced or not have the people also viewed, and best of yelp on each listing - I agree that is __________ and they should remove all mention of any other company on your listing.

The difference is, there is no yelp ads above the Recommended Reviews section on Mike's yelp page(hence the "removed competitor's ads"), but the ads are on many of his competition. I did a test and after clicking on 5 of his competitors his ad showed up on 2/5 of his competitor's pages. When I refreshed all of the competitor listings that didn't have his ad, the total went to 3/5 that had his ad on their listing. I do not know how their algorithm works on how often an ad shows, but I imagine a high budget would mean more exposure since they want you to use your budget.

The only way to really test it(the ads, or CPC) is to do some serious tracking. You could have the call to action(enhanced page feature) take them to a landing/squeeze page, track it with Google analytics(Yelp also has their own tracking that can give you demographic type of information, age, gender, and city of who viewed your listing), and track call conversion with a specific phone number, and compare the data.

Most people just buy the advertising from the rep without any real good method of tracking to see what their ROI is. I'm not a big fan on depending on their numbers alone.

tmiklethun · Feb 15, 2014

Booked my first job from the program about two weeks in. $300. No a break even point yet, but a start. Also set up my call to action.

Vivers · Feb 15, 2014

Love the bad reviews from people you haven't even cleaned for. Absurd!

Lars · Feb 21, 2014

We do ok on yelp.

i would suggest ppc vs. "exposure" ads

http://www.yelp.com/biz/jcs-carpet-cleaning-and-restoration-manhattan-beach

Ron K · Feb 21, 2014

Lars said:
We do ok on yelp.

i would suggest ppc vs. "exposure" ads

http://www.yelp.com/biz/jcs-carpet-cleaning-and-restoration-manhattan-beach

Google ppc????

idreadnought · Feb 23, 2014

Your paying that much money on a review site when you have 0 reviews? I could of showed you how to make a ton more money from yelp for much less investment.

Next, yelp is a horrible place for you to spend money just because you have no reviews and most customers going there are looking for social proof "reviews from people" to find a good company, so why not use adwords or something else until you have some social proof?

Moser Brothers · Feb 26, 2014

I got a lot of business for free, when I was listed on Best of Yelp. Showed up on the first Google page. I have about 25 reviews which isn't too bad for an owner/operator. I paid $500 a month for 1,500 impressions and got less business than I got for free! Got out of the contract and over to their pay per click and still little business. Organically is the only way to go, call up your rep and get some pictures up and ask how to get on Best of Yelp.

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