4 ways Yelp Audiences can help you reach your marketing goals

With the expansive landscape of online advertising, it can be difficult to make your online marketing campaign stand out from competitors. There are also various industry obstacles to overcome, such as consumer privacy concerns related to targeted ads. To help you better navigate this space, Yelp Audiences is designed to support your company through the development and growth of successful marketing campaigns, helping you achieve better audience engagement.

Yelp Audiences is Yelp’s newest off-platform advertising solution and allows brand marketers to reach consumers off of the Yelp platform based on behaviors and purchasing intent displayed on Yelp. Every month, over 74+ million people visit Yelp¹, and Yelp Audiences helps you target those people as they move on from Yelp and continue to browse elsewhere online.

Whether you’re hoping to connect with new online consumers or business owners in specific industries, Yelp Audiences is a useful tool to get your company in front of more people. Here’s how to leverage Yelp Audiences to better target consumers and build successful marketing campaigns.

Access Yelp’s large, purchase-ready audience to increase your reach

Successful digital marketing efforts involve reaching a large volume of users across the web, which can be difficult considering the number of competitors online. You also want to ensure your ads are reaching new people—not retargeting customers who have already purchased your products or customers who are outside of your target market.

Yelp Audiences can help you access a vast network of users. Yelp is visited by 74+ million users and 6.3 million business owners monthly². Yelp Audiences identifies these users based on their Yelp activity and then strategically places your ads on other platforms, such as online publications and social media sites, to help you access millions of consumers and business owners.

Not only is Yelp’s audience attractive in size, but these high-intent users are savvy shoppers. In fact, according to a recent survey, 83% of users hire or buy from a business they found on Yelp. And before they decide on a business, 90% of people on Yelp are comparing their options³. They also usually know what they need but haven’t necessarily decided what business they’ll choose yet: 8 out of 10 searches on Yelp don’t include a specific business name; instead, customers are searching for a product or service⁴.

Strategically place ads to find the correct target audience

For an online campaign to be effective, your ads have to end up in front of the right people. You want to reach the consumers who will take action on the ads they see, go to your website, and purchase your product or service.

With the variety of internet pages and listings, your ad can get lost in the shuffle or end up in front of audiences who don’t have an interest in your company. Yelp Audiences works strategically to create a custom audience, based on users’ search activity, geographic data, and behavioral data—all important metrics to find the right consumers for your business. To optimize Yelp’s targeting tools, you can add on third-party filters like household income, age, and gender.

Online ads can often feel intrusive if they reach the wrong consumers. Without specific, intentional targeting, using generic third-party data can sometimes land your ads in front of obscure audiences who are not interested in your products. Instead, Yelp Audiences is more transparent and ensures your campaign lands on the right sites by specifically targeting consumers who have searched for your company or similar offerings on Yelp.

Furthermore, this targeting approach protects consumer privacy because no personally identifiable information is changing hands to hit the right audience. And since they’ve already told us they need what you offer by what they’re searching on Yelp, the ads are helpful and impactful, keeping trust high between you and your customer.

Design effective ads to state your point clearly

With Yelp Audiences, you’re getting your campaign in front of the right people on the right sites. However, you need to ensure that your ad itself is effective in order to truly achieve your goals.

Use engaging, yet simple and uncluttered, ad designs in order to catch the eyes of online users. Play with bright colors and vibrant images to stand out on a webpage.

When writing ad copy, use phrases that are concise but descriptive and informational. Include a clear call to action and come up with a catchy slogan that will stick in people’s minds.

Creative and effective ad designs paired with the proper audience gives you the best chance at conversion.

Gain insights after campaigns to strategize for the future

The Yelp Audiences platform is equipped with powerful metrics. In addition to standard metrics like conversion and clickthrough rate, Yelp Audiences can show you where conversions are happening and what else consumers are searching for. You can then analyze these metrics and use them to inform future campaign strategy and budgeting.

By taking advantage of all the tools Yelp Audiences has to offer, you can optimize your ad spend dollars and run an efficient advertising campaign.

For more on Yelp Audiences, watch Better Marketing Starts With Better Audiences, a webinar hosted by Yelp’s Senior Manager of Enterprise Marketing, Caitlin Erickson. Or request a meeting with a Yelp for Brands expert to learn more about how Yelp Audiences could help you with your marketing goals.