Should I Advertise on Yelp? | Marketing Q&A

If you’re hoping Yelp ads will be the magic bullet for your marketing? Spoiler: None of my clients have been happy with them.

Here’s why:

Yelp’s ad system is pay-to-play… twice.

To unlock the full set of ad tools, you’ll first need to upgrade your Yelp business page—which runs around $200/month. Yelp hides the exact cost until you’re in the upgrade flow, which should tell you something. 

While you aren’t required to do this upgrade to run ads, there are several of the ad tools that you will definitely want and need to use that are only available with this upgrade. Your ads simply won’t be as effective without it, and I never recommend investing in something less effective.

That doesn’t even include your ad spend.

Most businesses don’t start seeing any traction from Yelp ads until they’re spending at least $12–15 per day—about $350/month, minimum. Anything less is completely wasted money.

So you’re looking at $550/month or more just to test it out with access to full features.

And the ROI? Underwhelming at best.

There are times when Yelp returns as the first option in search results on Google search in some industries, and in those cases it might be worth considering, since Yelp is already dominating search for that industry.

Yet even in cases where Yelp ranks #1 organically in search for your industry, it still might not be worth it. You’re essentially renting visibility—and Yelp’s users aren’t always your best-fit buyers.

What I recommend instead:

Google pay-per-click ads still tend to outperform Yelp ads in almost every case.

Vicky