Benefits of Yelp Ads for Small Businesses

With so many other cost-effective marketing strategies available, you may wonder, “Are Yelp Ads worth it?” 

Consider these benefits of advertising on Yelp: 

• Increased visibility: Yelp Ads make your business more prominent on the website, increasing the chances that your target customers will see your local business listing. Greater visibility means more chances to draw in new customers.
• Audience targeting: As an online advertising platform, Yelp Ads allows you to target specific users so your ads appear in front of the customers who are most likely to be interested in your business. You can target customers based on factors like age, gender, interests, and, perhaps most importantly, location.
• Enhanced credibility: Running Yelp Ads can also make your business seem more legitimate and trustworthy to customers who are searching for local businesses online. When they’re deciding between businesses they aren’t familiar with, seeing your Yelp listing prominently featured, hopefully with strong reviews, will help sway their decision in your favor. 

So do Yelp Ads work? Definitely. These benefits of Yelp Ads highlight the importance of paid media, especially for local businesses.

Setting Up Yelp Ads

Luckily, it’s easy to start reaping the benefits of Yelp Ads. Follow these steps to get started.



Creating a Business Profile and Claiming Your Yelp Page

The first thing you need to do to use Yelp Ads is to create a business profile. Once you have your log-in information set up, you can either claim your business page on Yelp or create one if your business doesn't have a page yet. You'll just need to go through some steps to verify that you're the owner of the business. 



Selecting Advertising Options

Now, you can start setting up your ads. Your first campaign decision is what you want to achieve — the goal for your campaign. Yelp offers three choices: “Get more phone calls,” “Get more website clicks,” or “let Yelp optimize.”

Service-based businesses, like plumbers, may want their campaign goal to be generating phone calls because that's how they acquire new customers. E-commerce businesses, on the other hand, will probably select "get more website clicks," because that's how they can drive more conversions. 

You also need to select an ad photo, write engaging ad copy, and choose your keywords. These keywords ensure relevant potential customers see your ads. You can also add negative keywords, which will prevent your ad from appearing in front of customers who search for those particular terms. 

Finally, you set the location for your ad, including a radius around your business. That's how you make sure your ads show up only for local customers near you. 



Budgeting for Your Campaign

The last thing you need to do to set up your Yelp Ads campaign is establish a budget. Yelp uses a pay-per-click system, meaning you pay only when someone clicks on your ads.

Decide how much you're willing to spend per day and per month. You can always adjust your budget later if necessary. 



Managing Your Yelp Advertising Campaign

Once your campaign is live, you can monitor its performance on the Yelp dashboard. For more comprehensive insights, consider using a third-party marketing analytics system. Pay attention to important digital marketing KPIs, like your click-through and conversion rates, to gauge how well the campaign is going. 

All these steps may seem overwhelming at first, but that's where working with experienced digital marketers can help. You'll also get a better sense of what works and what doesn’t with time, and you'll be able to adjust your campaigns accordingly. 



Strategies for Optimizing Yelp Ads

Help your Yelp Ads campaign perform as well as possible by focusing on key factors like:

• Crafting compelling ad copy: The words you write need to be clear and tailored to your target audience. Think about what matters to your target customers and write an ad that speaks to those topics with strong action verbs. 
  
• Utilizing high-quality images: Make sure the images you include in your ad have a high resolution and look professional so they make the best possible impression on potential customers. 
  
• Leveraging customer reviews: Consider incorporating positive customer reviews into your ad to show new customers that your business is reliable and delivers great results. 



Improve Your Yelp Listing Through Yelp Ads 

Yelp is a valuable tool for businesses trying to attract local customers, and running Yelp Ads will boost your chances of success. And for even better results, you can turn to the experts in digital advertising. Optimize is here to help develop a comprehensive digital advertising strategy for your local business, including Yelp Ads campaigns. 

Schedule a free consultation to get started. 



FAQs About Yelp Ads