Using and optimizing Yelp Ads for multi-location businesses

You have endless advertising options but only so much budget, so you want every dollar to go toward ads that produce the best results. Learn why Yelp Ads should be in your advertising arsenal, and get optimization tips to ensure you’re maximizing your efforts.

4 things to know about Yelp Ads

Before investing in Yelp Ads for your multi-location business, learn more about what makes them unique and how they work.

1. You can reach a purchase-ready audience

One of the main differences between Yelp and other advertising channels is that most Yelp users already know what they need, and they’re using Yelp to find the right business. In fact, 86% of searches are for a product or service, not a specific business¹. And once they find the right match, 83% of Yelp users go on to make a purchase from a business they found on the platform.

“Yelp is not a search engine; it’s a decision engine,” described Kadecia Ber, Yelp’s director of multi-location solutions.

To increase your chances of winning over these consumers, start by claiming and optimizing your Yelp Businesses Pages. Pages that include a photo, website, phone number, and business hours averaged 7.6x more page views per month than businesses without that content. You can additionally invest in Yelp Ads to reach even more customers and add on upgraded features to your Yelp Business Pages to make a great impression on each location’s page.

2. Yelp isn’t just for restaurants

While Yelp’s reputation for finding local food and nightlife options is well earned, that’s not the only type of business people are searching for and engaging with on Yelp. 2.6 billion annual page views² are for categories like home services, auto repair, retail, financial services, and more. Plus the most reviewed business category? Home and local services.

When someone’s pipes burst, Yelp’s a helpful resource for finding a reliable plumber. The same goes for consumers looking for the best nearby spa for a relaxing day, a good realtor when a move’s coming up, or an experienced accountant for help come tax time.

3. Ads get prime placement on Yelp

A key challenge in advertising is achieving visibility. For a consumer to choose your brand, you have to be easy to find when they need you. With Yelp Ads, business pages are displayed in key places on Yelp.com and the Yelp mobile app, such as above or below relevant search results in the “Sponsored Results” sections.

Yelp Ads also appear on the pages of your competition, so even if a consumer visits the page of a different business at first, you can still capture their attention while they’re in the research and consideration stage.

4. You can access different ad formats

The Yelp Ads that show up in search and on competitor pages are popular options, but they’re not the only type of ad placement Yelp offers. Here are a couple other ad types worth knowing about:

• Themed Ads: Themed Ads group multiple ads together based on a theme and are displayed as a carousel above the organic results. Some theme examples include restaurants that all offer takeout or contractors that all provide free estimates. Themed ads don’t require any additional opt-in either. By simply advertising with Yelp and selecting the attributes relevant to your business, your ads will automatically be included where relevant.
• Showcase Ads: Showcase Ads are a benefit available exclusively to multi-location businesses, making them a special opportunity to stand out from the local small business competition. This ad format offers additional text space in the ad unit to explain your unique offering and a clear CTA (call-to-action) button to drive your desired action. It also comes with an additional page for users to click through to, with even more space for a captivating photo and additional text for your offer details. Showcase Ads are a great option when you’re promoting a limited-time offer or announcing a new product or service and want to drive big results.

Curious what Yelp Ads cost?

The short answer is “it depends” on a variety of factors, including your goals, your industry, and the ad types. Get in touch with a Yelp for Brands representative at brands@yelp.com or 855-370-9357 for a better look at what a campaign would cost for your goals.

How to optimize Yelp Ads for best results

To get the most out of your Yelp Ads, check out these best practices to incorporate into your strategy.

1. Choose your ad elements intentionally

Your ads will produce the best results if you have compelling text and imagery that emphasize the things consumers care most about. A few tips to consider when creating your ad:

• Include great photos. Visuals play a big role in how effectively ads catch people’s attention and draw them in. Including attractive photos is an obvious tip for restaurants since showcasing tasty looking dishes has a clear appeal. But it’s also valuable for other business categories. Contractors can show photos of completed projects, and retail brands can showcase popular products. Even service-based businesses that don’t have an obvious visual component can use photos to show the friendly faces behind the brand.
• Connect your creative to your goals. The images and copy you include in each ad should be designed to help reach the goal of that particular ad. If an ad promotes a limited-time offer like a particular dinner special or spring cleaning discount, use text that makes the offer clear and select images that match what you’re promoting.
• Craft strong CTAs. A clear call-to-action that tells consumers what to do next is crucial. Make sure the CTA you use matches your main goals. And make that next step as easy for the customer to take as possible. If customers have to click multiple times to find the information they need to take that action, they’re less likely to complete it.

2. Invest to stand out

Over 6.3 million businesses have claimed pages on Yelp³—that’s a lot of competition. Claiming, completing, and managing the pages for all your business locations is a good start. But if you really want to stand out from all the other businesses on the platform, investing in upgraded features on your business pages can go a long way:

• Business Highlights: Choose notable details about your company to highlight on your page. Yelp provides a list of options based on your business type, such as years in service, languages you speak, whether you offer free consultations or estimates, and if you’re a vegetarian friendly restaurant. You can select up to six attributes that best match your business, and choose two of them to be displayed on your ad.
• Verified License: For service professionals like plumbers, electricians, and general contractors, a license is a clear sign of trustworthiness and professionalism. Service providers can submit their business or employee license to Yelp for verification. Once verified, the Verified License badge will show up on your page, as well as on your ads. It not only helps you stand out in Yelp search results, but it also makes consumers more likely to choose your business. 82% of users say they’re more likely to choose a business that has a Verified License badge on Yelp versus a business that does not.
• Logos: For multi-location businesses, building a consistent brand reputation across stores can be a challenge. Yelp lets you add your logo to your Yelp Pages for each location so the familiar branding you’ve worked so hard to build is visible to consumers on the platform. It provides just another impactful way for you to stand out from the crowd and demonstrate professionalism.

These features substantially add to your visibility and trustworthiness on the platform. When shown two businesses side-by-side in search, 95% of Yelp users said they’d choose the business with Upgrade Package features over the one without.

3. Set clear goals

Clarifying what you want to accomplish with your ads is essential to building campaigns that will help you achieve your KPIs (key performance indicators). Yelp offers a tool called Campaign Goals that will automatically optimize ads for the desired action you’re looking to achieve.

If you don’t have a desired action in mind and just want the most bang for your buck, Yelp for Brands can optimize for you. Any multi-location business that advertises with Yelp for Brands will gain access to a dedicated Customer Success team that helps you build campaigns and ads that align with your main KPIs.

Whether your priority is brand awareness, driving online sales, or getting customers to show up in person, Yelp for Brands offers ad features that can help you realize a range of goals and measure your progress on each.

4.  Don’t shy away from the competition

While most Yelp users come to the platform without a brand in mind, a small portion of consumers come looking for a specific business. Even if those consumers are seeking out more information on a competitor, reaching them isn’t a lost cause. Yelp for Brands offers campaigns with specific targeting capabilities called Competitor Targeting so you can capture the attention (and potentially the business) of consumers who use Yelp to find out more about a competitor. Additionally, even if someone isn’t searching for a specific business name, your ad will be shown for the queries that would normally populate your competitor.

5. Measure and improve

Yelp for Brands offers full-funnel attribution to provide a comprehensive understanding of the results your ads are driving—from high-level awareness through consideration to conversion. This doesn’t just help you measure conversion for online sales, but you can also track the connection between your ads and in-person store visits and purchases.

Yelp for Brands’ first-party measurement tools include:

• Yelp Store Visits for measuring in-person traffic
• Business Owner Account (BOA) reports for tracking standard metrics
• Pixel for measuring online visits and transactions

Beyond that, Yelp for Brands has partnerships with multiple third-party companies to provide even deeper attribution metrics, such as:

• Data on store visits via FourSquare, Cuebiq, and InMarket
• Call tracking via Telmetrics
• In-store transaction data via LiveRamp, Neustar, and APT
• Brand lift studies via UpWave, Kantar, and Dynata

Whatever goals and KPIs you set for each campaign, Yelp for Brands has the tools to help you measure them.

For even more information and insights on Yelp advertising solutions for multi-location businesses, check out the Quarterly Product Showcase: Unlocking the Value of Yelp Ads.