4 business owners share what surprised and excited them about Yelp Ads
Small business owner Nikia Londy tried for years to promote her hair extensions and wig business Intriguing Hair online. Nothing worked—until she tried Yelp Ads, which Nikia said injected new life into her business and placed her Yelp Page in front of customers looking for services like hers. “I am getting significantly more traffic, and I’m 100% positive that it’s from [advertising my business on] Yelp,” Nikia said.
In fact, when Nikia launched her ad in October 2023, a client saw it and booked with her on Yelp on the very first day. “They booked everything [on Yelp], and it was just so easy,” Nikia said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so happy.’ She actually already came back for a retightening. You can meet people and just know that they’re part of your community. I feel like she’s going to be a lifelong customer.”
Below, business owners from a variety of industries—spanning beauty, marketing, and events—share what surprised and excited them most while starting Yelp Ads and Page Upgrades, as well as the products and features they’re excited to keep using.
What surprised them about Yelp Ads
It helps you get leads
Vene: “I’ve known about Yelp forever, but I always thought that it was more of a review platform—which it is—but I didn’t know [Yelp Ads] could showcase a business how it does. [My page visits] went from a flat line for the past three years to people messaging and people checking out our website simply because of the ads.”
It’s customizable and user-friendly
Chelle: “The [Yelp Ads] platform is very user-friendly and easy to quickly navigate so that I can make updates when needed. I like that it’s really customizable, with all the features you can add to tailor the audience you want to see your content or ads.”
It lets you optimize for best results
Alexis: “As someone who’s never done ads before, it was a lot easier to set up Yelp Ads [than on other platforms] because it gives suggestions on how to make the ad better. I customized a little bit of the ad text—Yelp gave me some copy, and then I added details in there.”
You can boost keywords and target locations
Chelle: “Initially, when I first [set up my ad], I threw out a bunch of keywords just to try it. I love that it was just trial and error, and I was able to go back and edit and make revisions to it. The second time around, I put in specific keywords—digital marketing, social media, marketing—to target only those people who were looking for those specific services [that I provide].”
It’s easy to improve and change your strategy
Nikia: “I’ve done ads in the past with Yelp, but I didn’t know exactly what to do—how you can increase your profile and add specific keywords and things like that. I think that [learning how to make the most of my ads] helped. It’s much different than when I did ads in the past—I felt like I was getting a lot of leads, but they weren’t specifically for what I’m doing… [Now] I am getting significantly more traffic, and I’m 100% positive that it’s from [advertising my business on] Yelp.”
Pro tip: After setting up your ad, you can continue to optimize and fine tune it over time with:
- Custom ad text and photo
- Location-based targeting
- Keyword boosting and blocking
Learn more about how to get the most out of your Yelp Ads program.
Their favorite Yelp Ads and Upgrade Package features
Yelp Ads dashboard
Alexis: It’s fun to get on it and check how much more exposure I’m getting—it shows you before and after, and I have a crazy spike in the number of people [viewing my page] and calls. I [check my metrics] once a week, and it’s just crazy to see the growth. It shows when I started this huge uptick of people seeing what I’m doing, which is really nice.”
Vene: “When I started, it was just a flat line. I don’t even think I had a line, honestly. And now when I go in there, I can see that people have visited the site and are viewing [my Yelp Page]. Maybe they’ll be like, ‘Oh, I saw this thing,’ and then they’ll tell somebody else. So that makes me feel really, really good.”
Read more about managing and measuring your Yelp Ads program.
Logo
Alexis: “I loved being able to add my logo finally. People can see my logo and know that it’s me.”
Portfolio
Nikia: “I’m doing Portfolios so people can see [my work] because most people are not really well-versed on hair extensions. I’m doing different Portfolios [for each] type of hair extension or specific type of wig. It shows the quality of how it’s going to look.
“In general, people have a lot of horror stories with hair extensions. If done incorrectly, they can cause a lot of hair loss. So the pictures are helpful because a lot of people went somewhere where a person didn’t specialize in it, and now they’re very afraid. So [Portfolio and photos are] a good visual. Having that reference point where I can just show them—but they’re usually sending it to me first, like: ‘This is what I want. I really like how this looks. It looks so natural. Can I get something similar to this?’”
Explore all the tools in the Upgrade Package.
The businesses mentioned above were awarded six months of free Yelp Ads and Page Upgrades as a part of being selected as winners for the Yelp for Business x Luminary Fellowship. They were not compensated for their opinions on Yelp products or features.