Category Archives: PPC Advertising

For a local service-based business, finding the right customers at the right time can be a challenge. But when you achieve that, it virtually guarantees your success in your market. 

To stand out above the noise and ensure your business is seen, it’s more important than ever to target customers who are actively searching for your services. That’s where Yelp comes in. With Yelp’s Request a Quote feature and targeted Yelp Ads, local businesses can connect directly with potential customers who are ready to make a decision.

Whether it’s a plumbing emergency or a home renovation project, consumers turn to Yelp when they need a trusted professional fast. By leveraging Yelp’s powerful advertising tools, small service businesses like yours can engage with these purchase-ready customers – driving more leads and bookings than ever before.

Why Yelp for Service-Based Businesses?

As a service-based business, your success hinges on visibility and trust. Yelp is uniquely positioned to help you achieve both. Getting your name in front of potential customers is only half the battle. You want your business in front of people who are actively looking to hire someone like you. Unlike broad-reaching advertising methods that cast a wide net, Yelp’s platform is designed to help you connect directly with consumers who are ready to make a decision.

Yelp metrics make a compelling case for why local businesses should consider adopting yelp's request a quote and yelp ads into their marketing campaign. One of the key competitive advantages of Yelp Ads is that they target the right audience directly. Users who go to Yelp are typically looking for a local home service provider, whether it’s for plumbing, HVAC, electrical work, or other home services. Yelp’s search functionality is optimized to serve users who need immediate help with services. With 73 million unique visitors each month, Yelp’s audience is highly targeted. According to Yelp’s internal data, 86% of searches on Yelp are for a product or service, not a specific business. This means your business has the potential to be discovered by people actively seeking out services in your category.

What makes Yelp even more valuable for service-based businesses is that its advertising tools – including Request a Quote – are designed to help you stand out. When a user searches for a service, Yelp doesn’t just show them a list of businesses. It provides opportunities for them to engage directly with you through calls, mapped directions, or, most importantly, Request a Quote, making it easy for customers to reach out for a quote or more information. This kind of engagement drives brand visibility and actual business action – turning browsing into bookings.

Is Yelp Right for Your Business?

It’s no secret that Yelp has faced its share of criticism, particularly around negative reviews and concerns about how they are handled. Many small business owners have been wary of the platform due to these concerns, and understandably so. However, it’s important to acknowledge that Yelp has significantly improved its platform in recent years, addressing many of these issues and making strides to ensure a more balanced and fair experience for businesses.

Yelp is a number one lead source for many businesses in the u. S.While negative reviews may still surface, Yelp’s Review Filter and Verified License badges provide a level of transparency and credibility that businesses can leverage. Additionally, Yelp’s Request a Quote feature and targeted advertising tools are about much more than just managing reviews. They focus on driving tangible, actionable leads from consumers who are ready to engage and hire.

The reality is, while Yelp’s past reputation might still be a concern for some, the Request a Quote feature and Yelp Ads give businesses the ability to generate high-quality leads directly from users who are actively searching for services. Like them or not, the bottom line is that Yelp has created a great opportunity for small businesses. The platform’s ability to engage with customers who are ready to buy far outweighs concerns about past perceptions.

Why DIY is Bad for Business

You might be wondering: what’s the advantage of partnering with a Yelp Certified Ad Partner like Local Splash instead of going the DIY route with Yelp Ads? The answer lies in expertise, strategy, and results. While Yelp offers robust advertising tools, Local Splash takes it a step further by bringing years of experience in local search marketing and a deep understanding of Yelp’s advertising platform.

As a Yelp Certified Ad Partner, Local Splash has direct access to exclusive discounts, promotions, and campaign optimizations that can significantly improve the effectiveness of your Yelp Ads. Plus, we offer real-time support, ensuring that your campaigns are constantly optimized to deliver the best results possible. You’ll have an experienced team by your side to help manage and track everything – from ad spend to lead generation – while you focus on running your business.

Working with Local Splash gives you the benefit of not just creating ads, but creating ads that convert. We help you make the most out of Yelp’s Request a Quote feature – turning casual browsers into customers. Our detailed tracking and reporting tools also give you visibility into how well your campaigns are performing, making it easy to measure your success and adjust strategies as needed.

Next Step: The Must-Have Tool for Your Service-Based Business

For service-based businesses, Yelp Ads and the Request a Quote feature are a powerful combination that can drive real results. The platform is specifically designed to connect businesses with customers who are actively looking for services like yours, making it an ideal tool for driving qualified leads and bookings.

Despite its past reputation challenges, Yelp has transformed into a marketing powerhouse that offers businesses the opportunity to engage with potential customers who are ready to hire. By leveraging Yelp Ads and Request a Quote, small service businesses can dramatically increase their visibility and connect with a highly targeted, purchase-ready audience.

Working with a Yelp Certified Ad Partner like Local Splash means you’ll get the most out of Yelp’s tools – without the headaches of managing ads on your own. If you’re looking to grow your business and capture more leads, it’s time to reconsider Yelp and put these powerful tools to work for you. 

Google announced a policy change to no longer allow advertisers to publish their phone number in ads. It’s a surprising move that may have significant repercussions.

Phone number in google ad

Rip: Example Ad Unit Of Phone Number In Ads

Google has quietly published this in their Advertising Policies change log as well as notifying partners and customers through webinars.  Advertisers wanting to engage users with a direct phone number by using call extension.

According to the policy log, Google is making the change to: “foster a safer, more consistent user experience across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices” in an effort to make ads more relevant, accurate & clear to users.

At first my reaction was a bit of shock and sadness for local businesses.  For years advertisers have taken advantage of the ad unit space by inserting their phone number in the ad text.  One idea being that you can get a direct phone call, instead of being charged for a click.  A second being the importance of a phone lead to a local business. Driving a visitor to a conversion optimized landing page is great for lead generation or direct conversions, but most small business still live and die by the phone. Without the ability to get a phone call directly form an add demanding any extra clicks, they will be the ones most impacted. Particularly since PPC advertising has been a good way to get yourself noticed if you have a business in a particularly competitive vertical.

Ad with call

Call Extensions: Phone Number Linked To Google Places Listing.

This also creates a barrier for non-local advertisers (i.e. a nation wide ad), since businesses with a Google Places listing will still be able to display their phone number directly in a SERP.  It may also present a challenge for marketers that publish a call tracking phone number in their ad to measure return.  With call extensions however, it is still possible (with a little work) to use your own call tracking phone number.  Google provides its own call tracking (aka forwarding) number for an extra cost of $1 for legacy campaigns.  Nevertheless, this hurdle will probably result in many more local phone numbers and less toll-free numbers shown in Google Ads.

So it is reasonable to consider that this change is a win for local businesses and users alike.  For now, we will be busy changing ad copy for thousands of local business ads.  According to the Google, starting April, Ads will be disapproved if they contain a phone number.

According to Search Engine Land, Google now allows users to block pay-per-click (PPC) ads from certain companies from showing up in their search results. This “block sites” feature was added in November and works whether you are signed in or signed out of your Google account.

The block sites feature used to allow users to block sites from both the web search results and the PPC results. However with the release of Search Plus Your World, the ability to block sites went away and hasn’t come back. Users can still block PPC ads from certain sites from showing up in their search results, which can definitely impair their paid marketing efforts. This is just another reason why focusing on the local search results is important. Users cannot block your business information from showing up there, which means you still have the chance to put your business in front of your ideal target audience, potential customers searching for your business in your area.

Local Splash can get your business on the first page of Google, check out our services here.

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