What Are Yelp Ads and How Do They Work?

Your Guide to Yelp Ads for Home Service Companies

“Isn’t Yelp only for restaurants and reviews? How can Yelp Ads benefit my business? Is Yelp advertising a worthwhile investment?”

If any of these thoughts have ever crossed your mind, you’re not alone. The truth is there’s a surprising amount you may not know about Yelp and the massive lead-driving opportunity that advertising on this platform offers.

As a certified Yelp Advertising Partner, we’re here to show you how the Blue Corona data-driven method, combined with exclusive partner benefits and an extremely high-intent, low-funnel audience, can take your digital marketing to the next level.

Yelp Facts No Business Owner Should Ignore

You probably know by now that Yelp is one of the most popular review websites on the internet. But did you know that Yelp is one of the leading places affluent homeowners turn to in order to find home service contractors?

1. More than 84 million unique people visit Yelp every month in the United States.
2. There are 32 million+ Yelp searches per month looking specifically for home service companies.
3. 96% of all home service searches are non-branded, meaning Yelp users don’t have a specific company in mind when searching for an HVAC and/or plumbing contractor.
4. 99% of all HVAC and plumbing searches are non-branded.
5. 70% of Yelp users are over 35 years old, indicating a higher likelihood of being a homeowner.
6. 65% of Yelp users own at least one home.
7. 57% of Yelp users have a household income of more than $100,000, indicating a higher willingness and freedom to invest in their home.
8. Over 60,000 new requests for quotes, consultations, or other messages are sent to businesses on Yelp every day.
9. 97% of Yelp users visit the platform to make a purchase, 51% conduct a transaction within a day, and 90% conduct a transaction within a week.
10. Home and Local Services is the number one most-reviewed business category on Yelp, above restaurants and retail.

Simply put, Yelp offers a qualified audience for your business to tap into. Its users trust the platform, know exactly what service they’re looking for, and are ready to hire you for the job immediately.

How Do Yelp Ads Work?

Yelp Ads use a PPC model, meaning impressions are free and you only pay for clicks on your ad or requests for a quote. Your ads will show up in several places:

• At the top of Yelp search engine results pages (SERPs).
• At the top of Yelp business categories such as HVAC, Plumbers, Landscapers, Roofers, Electricians, Contractors, etc.
• On your competitors’ free organic Yelp listings.

Yelp users can search for any home service in a particular location when trying to find a contractor. Adverting businesses use detailed service area targeting and keyword filtering to appear in search results. These searches provide Yelp users with a similar experience they are used to on other advertising platforms and include:

1. An estimate request form where users can request quotes from local contractors. This is a unique and convenient lead-generation tool that only Yelp offers.
2. 10 paid sponsor profiles for advertisers at the top of the page (versus Google, which has three to four paid results at the top of its page).
3. 10 free (organic) business listings at the bottom of the page.

Furthermore, paid upgrades like the “Verified License,” “Business Highlights,” and “Portfolios” greatly enhance ads and profiles, increasing ad real estate and enabling you to stand out from other local businesses. These upgrades are available at a discount when you partner with Blue Corona for your Yelp Ads.

The Consumers Behind Yelp Searches Have a High Purchase Intent

Consumers who search Yelp have extremely high intent to buy from local businesses.

Yelp users search the platform specifically to find contractors, not for DIY projects or troubleshooting advice as many do on Google. As an advertiser, you get the most desirable page position among the top search results, giving you the competitive edge at that crucial moment when customers are choosing a service provider.

Advertise on Your Competitors’ Yelp Profiles

Your Yelp Ads can also appear on competitors’ profiles. This is a convenient feature for users, as it provides multiple service provider options and also gives advertisers the opportunity to capture additional market share. As a Yelp advertiser through Blue Corona, however, you can upgrade to a free Enhanced Profile to remove competitor ads from your profile!

Request a Quote Feature

Yelp users also have the option to ask for estimates from local contractors. As an advertiser, you can opt into receiving these quote requests automatically via direct message, where you can respond and engage further with the customer.

These leads are pre-qualified, as the customer must answer several questions detailing their exact service needs, location, time frame, and contact info, complete with a reCaptcha to filter out potential spam.

Just make sure to respond quickly so that you can engage with these customers first for jobs that need to be completed in a timely manner!

How Much Does It Cost To Advertise on Yelp?

Another huge perk of Yelp Ads is its relatively low cost of entry. You don’t need a sky-high budget to see great results. The average Cost-per-Contact on Yelp often falls in the range of $20 to $30, and Blue Corona qualifies and calculates leads versus cost from there in precise, detailed reporting.

• Blue Corona strongly recommends a minimum monthly budget of $1,500 to leverage paid upgrades and get the best results from Yelp Ads.
• A monthly budget of $2,400+ unlocks every available upgrade to fully optimize your ads and profile.
• When you partner with Blue Corona for Yelp Ads, you also receive a scaling boost of up to $300 monthly for the first six months you run Yelp Ads.
• The demand in your market will affect how many ad clicks you will get within your budget.

Whether your budget is large or small, Yelp Ads offer incredible ROAS and scalable lead generation for your business.

Are Yelp Ads Worth It?

Based on years of cumulative data from Blue Corona clients in various home service verticals, we can say with confidence that not only are Yelp Ads absolutely a worthwhile investment, but to the surprise of many business owners, they often produce leads at a lower cost-per-qualified-lead than other PPC channels.

In a recent Blue Corona case study spanning the course of five months, one major plumbing contractor in Austin, TX, saw exponentially positive results from Yelp Advertising.

When comparing non-branded leads from Yelp Ads versus Google Ads head to head, the business saw a 53% increase in paid contacts, a 991% decrease in cost-per-contact, and a 154% decrease in cost-per-qualified-lead out of Yelp Ads. Incredible results!

In another Blue Corona case study over the same five months, a well-established HVAC contractor near Salt Lake City, UT, saw a 44% increase in paid contacts, a 1,213% decrease in cost-per-contact, and a 253% decrease in cost-per-qualified lead out of Yelp Ads when compared against non-branded Google Ads results.

This outstanding performance from Yelp Ads amounted to double the contacts for 12 times less the cost, with Yelp verified leads coming in at 70% cheaper! These are just two documented examples of the incredible lift Yelp Ads can provide to local businesses.

Yelp Ads vs. Google Ads

While both Yelp and Google PPC offer a ton of value, it’s no secret that Google is the most known and most used search platform in existence.

This can sometimes lead to a familiarity bias in which business owners only invest in advertising on digital mediums they know well or are heavily trafficked. This is not an incorrect approach, but it does leave extremely valuable alternatives on the table, such as Yelp Ads, which we’ve seen can produce incredible ROI for local businesses.

With this in mind, here are a few differentiators between Google and Yelp PPC:

Yelp offers 2 to 3 times the ad real estate at top-of-SERPs, includes 100% exclusively business profiles and has nearly 100% search intent because users are going to Yelp specifically to find a company to perform a job.

This means that with Yelp, your ads will show up more frequently to a high-intent audience. Remember, out of 32 million+ monthly searches for home service companies, 96% to 99% are non-branded, 90% of users will hire a company within a week, and 51% of users will hire a business within a day. Those are some favorable odds.

Quantify Yelp Ad Performance

When you run Yelp Ads in-house, it can be extremely difficult to accurately track which contacts are turning into verified leads, report KPIs, and compare analytics across channels.

At Blue Corona, we specialize in precise tracking, reporting, and analytics by leveraging a variety of agency resources and partnerships. Our foundational goal is to help business owners and marketing executives use technology and the internet to measurably improve their marketing performance and ROI. Expect quantitative results when you run Yelp Ads with Blue Corona!

Why Have Your Ads Managed by Blue Corona?

When you partner with a Yelp Advertising Partner like Blue Corona, you not only get the decades of expertise and advanced resources of a specialized digital marketing house at your service, you also get exclusive partner benefits that businesses who run Yelp Ads in-house do not get. These perks include:

• Professionally trained by Yelp and experienced Yelp profile setup, ad creation, and optimization, including customized portfolios and calls to action.
• Ongoing account maintenance, including search query mining for negative keyword additions, profile and ad updates, and testing ad delivery optimization.
• Exclusive partner reports that provide intel on competitors and seasonality charts for local searches.
• Discounts on paid upgrades such as Enhanced Profile + Business Highlights, Portfolios, Verified License, Logo, and Yelp Connect.
• Exceptional service, expert recommendations, and access to the Yelp Advertising team for priority management and oversight of your account.

Yelp Ad Management From Blue Corona

If you’re looking into running Yelp Ads but not sure where to start (or if you’re currently running Yelp Ads for your business but not sure what return you’re getting from that marketing investment), you’ve come to the right place.

At Blue Corona, we’re experts in all things digital marketing for contractors, including online search engines like Yelp. We can navigate you through the paid side of Yelp, get the most out of your Yelp Ads, and help you achieve incredible growth in new customers for your business.