How to manage and measure your Yelp Ads campaign

• 

You started running your Yelp ads and are ready to grow your business. Which is great. But it might also have you wondering how to get the biggest bang for your buck. Or how to even know if your ads are doing well in the first place.

There are a few things you can do to set your campaign up for success, like fully completing the information on your Yelp page. Two other things you’ll also want to do are 1) Setting up all your Enhanced Profile features and 2) Getting a handle on how to measure your ad results.

In this blog post we’ll go over all the Enhanced Profile features, how they help your business, and how to set them up. Then, we’ll take a look at how to track the success of your campaign.

Make Your Yelp Page Look Its Best

By now you’ve uploaded at least ten eye-catching photos and have filled out your ‘Meet the Owner’, ‘History’, and ‘Specialities’ sections. Now it’s time to take it to the next level with your Enhanced Profile. Your Enhanced Profile helps your page look its best and makes it easier for people to choose your businesses. Let’s take a deeper look at what the Enhanced Profile lets you do.

Decide which photos show up first: With the Slideshow feature, you can arrange the photos on your page in any order that you want, including selecting the top 3 picture (or is it 5) that will always show up first. This lets you pick your best quality photos, caption each one, and highlight your business at its best.

Keep people focused on your business: The removal of competitor ads helps keep customers on your page, focused on you, and only you.The removal of these ads is not something you need to manage. It automatically starts working when you purchase the Enhanced Profile.

Convert customers easier: Setting up a CTA lets you decide how potential customers reach out to you. Do you want them to call you? Visit your website? Make a reservation?

Once you’ve decided on your goal, you’ll want to write a short message that will be shown with your CTA. It should be catchy, to the point, and enticing. Remember, you may want to test out different CTA’s (or messages) as your goals change throughout the year.

Here are a few examples from different industries that let their CTA’s do some of the heavy lifting:

Build Trust: If you’re a local service business (plumber, contractor, mover, etc.) you can now add a “Verified License” to your Yelp page to help you stand out from the rest. Your trade license lets people know you’re an expert in your field. It’s a great way to build trust. The verified badge will link to your information, including your unique number and trade focus.

Managing Your Ads

Setting A Daily Click Budget: Your budget really depends on your goals, but you’ll want to set a daily ad-click budget that will help you get the exposure you want.

You can always adjust your spend. If you end up feeling overwhelmed with too much business, you can lower your budget. And if it’s your peak time and you’re ready to ramp up business, you can turn up the daily budget. Feel free to adjust to certain trends, goals, or desires.

Yelp Account Manager: Your Account Manager is here to help. That includes suggesting ways to improve your ads, telling you about current trends for your category, and giving you tips on how to improve your page overall. Be sure to use them as a resource to help grow your business.

Measuring Your Yelp Ad Clicks

With your Yelp page completely filled out, your Enhanced Profile features enabled, and your monthly ad click budget decided on, it’s time to look at understanding your results. Yelp has a few ways to help you track this growth.

User Views Graph: Once you start your ads, you’ll notice that the color of the bar graphs change. The light blue graphs show you what your page was doing before you signed up for ads. The yellow graphs show you what your page is doing with ads. This is how you can quickly see what kind of lift you’re getting from your ads.

Below is an example of a business that started an ads campaign in October, and the increase in user views they’ve gotten since then. When you’re comparing, be sure to look at how your business has done in the past month, year, and even two years.

Customer Leads: Are your Yelp ads converting more people into customers? Your “Customer Leads” tab is a great way to see the people looking at your page who are most likely to become a customer. In the example below, you can see leads have tripled since the advertising program began in October. Want a deeper dive into metrics? This blog post breaks down all things metrics.

Activity Feed: This shows you a more specifics, including what days and times people are looking at your page, as well as exactly what they’re doing once they get there. Your Activity Feed also tracks the exact time that someone calls you, clicks on your website, or writes a review.

On the upper right under the “About your audience”, you can also see how many times your business appeared in a Yelp search in your category. This number can change, depending on how much of your Yelp page has been filled out. Be sure to double-check that you have everything filled. This will help make sure people are able to find (and choose you). Are your photos captioned? Is your “specialties” section completed? Do you have up to three different categories selected for your business? These are very important and go hand in hand with Yelp ads. Take a look below at another example.

Experiment to See What Works Best

Your ads should be a living, breathing thing. It’s a good idea to look at your results on a weekly basis and try out different approaches to see what works best. Try different CTA’s, Check-in offers, and switch up your featured photos with pictures of special offers. If you’re stuck on ideas, don’t forget to reach out to us. Your account manager probably has a few great ideas as well. Give them a call at 855-380-9357 or email amsupport@yelp.com