Yelp Advertising

What do you like best?

Yelp Advertising is a wonderful way to get your brand out there in a way that seems authentic and natural to your target demographic. By advertising on Yelp you are using untraditional marketing strategies that your competitors might not be aware of. You are more likely to get a lot out of your advertising with Yelp if you have spent some time and money on getting good reviews from your customers, and also if you are not a food establishment or "typical" retail location. By this, I mean that if you are a wedding dress store, which is a kind of service where most do not have any experience or a relationship with. Then, being placed first on Yelp can help you tremendously. On the other hand, if you are a typical cafГ© in a small neighborhood, you are not going to see the same results because many people already have a chosen favorite cafГ© and they won't be swayed by just seeing your business name and reviews. They need more advertising to be convinced. For us, being in the wedding industry, Yelp Advertising has been extremely helpful.

What do you dislike?

There have been some times where we have not had the revenue and profits we were hoping and there are certain times of year where we have to limit our ad budget. During these times, Yelp will call and call and call. They want us "back", even when we explain that we cannot afford it. They keep calling and asking, and they say things like: "you will make the money back in no time". And yes, that has been true during summer months for example, but the amount of people getting married in November is low compared to June. And so, their pressure to buy is uncomfortable.

What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Most Yelp users do not realize that the first listings they see on Yelp are promoted and that their placement has little to do with their Yelp ranking and more to do with how much more than the competitor they were willing to pay.