FAQs
Below is a list of questions we get frequently. Don't see your question? Ask us your question using the form at the bottom of the page and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
A: A Yelp Partner is an officially 3rd party advertising agency certified by Yelp to support and manage Yelp Ads campaigns and business profiles for businesses of all sizes and industries. Certified Yelp partners are required to take a certification exam and meet certain requirements for product expertise and ad spend. They are not Yelp employees but rather function as intermediary between Yelp and business owners. Often Yelp partners who participate in the program are digital marketing agencies specializing in search marketing and/or social media or reputation management companies.
A: No. In fact, businesses new to Yelp advertising can often take advantage of new advertiser promotions and credits. Technically, you don’t even need a Yelp business profile to work with a Yelp Partner. Just be a small business with a storefront location and we will take care of the rest by creating, claiming, optimizing, and setting up ads for your business profile. In summary you can be:
A) new brick and mortar business without a Yelp profile
B) an existing business with a claimed or unclaimed business listing ready to start with Yelp Ads, or
C) an existing Yelp advertiser
A: Technically a business can work with a Yelp partner as long as they are running an enhanced profile. Depending on your billing structure (see below), you may be required to hit a minimum monthly advertising threshold or pay a maintenance fee. Please be sure to check our current promotions for more information and to see if your business will qualify.
A: The answer to this question really depends on the type of business you are running, but in general, businesses in competitive industries that rely on user reviews can benefit from Yelp Ads. This includes restaurants, car dealerships, realtors, home services, dentists - you name it! According to a Yelp study; on average Yelp Advertisers see a 168% lift in customer leads. These advertisers saw a 220% increase in directions and map views, a 152% increase in mobile calls and a 113% increase in clicks to their website. And according to a 2016 Nielsen Study - 92% of consumers make a purchase after visiting Yelp and 85% of consumers share the business they find on Yelp with their friends.
A: This is a common misconception. According to Yelp, nearly half of all Yelp Advertisers have fewer than 5 reviews when they sign up. In fact, advertisers with fewer reviews can jump ahead of their more established competition with Yelp ads and organically begin to generate more reviews in the process. We do recommend letting your customers know you’re on Yelp whenever possible to get the ball rolling and start generating a few reviews. We can quickly request window decals and other marketing materials to help in the process.
A: Yelp ads come in two unique flavors that work best with combined with each other. One is Cost-per-click advertising which is basically when you pay directly for the clicks users make on your ads. Another way to advertise with Yelp is what is called an “enhanced profile” which is basically an upgrade to your business listing and includes the ability to add a call-to-action (CTA), suppress competitor ads in key places and organize their photos and slideshows better as well as much more!
A: It’s perfectly feasibly for a business owner to run their own ads and enhanced profiles. In fact, Yelp ads are easy to setup and business profiles are easy to optimize. However, we think that working with a certified Yelp Partner offers several advantages:
1) Yelp Partners have access to better tools, tracking and reporting. We can separate paid from organic clicks, have a much deeper look at what your profile and ads are doing and can setup advanced tracking to measure results.
2) You work with one point of contact and do not have to deal with Yelp directly. We work on your behalf and in your best interest.
3) Aside from a small setup/optimization fee you pay they same prices for your ads as you would to Yelp directly. We pass through the savings to you via the discounted agency pricing we receive.
A: We offer two billing methods: centralized and de-centralized.
Under the centralized payment we bill you directly for your ads up front and take care of all the payments to Yelp on our end. You will be required to pay your first month’s budget up-front and each subsequent month you will be advertising. Billing is transparent and easy to understand. This is the best way to maximize your ad spend and take advantage of the best pricing.
Under the de-centralized payment method, advertisers pay Yelp directly for their ads and a monthly maintenance fee to the Yelp Partner. This is better for businesses who like to have more control over their payments or who are unable to pay for their ads upfront. Despite costing a little more, there are still a ton of benefits to the de-centralized billing and the monthly maintenance fee including profile optimization and management, advanced tracking and reporting and review strategy consultation. You also let the certified Yelp Partner handle all the communication with Yelp moving forward.
A: We require a minimum three month agreement. This allows us time to setup, optimize and fine-tune your profile, evaluate ad spend and dig into the monthly reports for a few months to make sure your campaign is running on all cylinders and at the budget that makes the most sense for driving leads and your business goals.
A: An enhanced Yelp profile is basically an upgraded business page. Among many enhanced features, an enhanced profile contains three main features:
1) A call-to-action (CTA) in which businesses can create a trackable, special button to direct visitors to, say, view current promotions, book an appointment or learn more about the business.
2) A photo slideshow in which the business can specify which photos are shown first and in which order, as well as upload a short video clip.
3) Enhanced profiles also include the removal of ads purchased by nearby businesses from your Yelp Business pages.
A: Unfortunately, no. We understand those critical one and two-star reviews can be frustrating but we are unable to remove them directly. Yelp prides themselves on offering an unbiased review platform and wants to allow consumers to share their feedback - no matter how critical or unflattering. The good news is: we’ve dealt with negative reviews for years and have a deep understanding and experience of Yelp’s terms of service (TOS). This means we can work with you to identify negative reviews that might violate Yelp’s policies, the specific policy the could potentially violate and offer you guidance on your best chance for flagging them for removal. We also understand the appeal process and have developed a detailed strategy/flowchart for addressing reviews of all ratings.
A: Typically we will ask you to send a quick, short authorization email from your company email address to Yelp authorizing us to manage your account. Your business profile and ads account will then be integrated within our dashboard and once a credit card is entered, we’re ready to start! However it should be noted that we often like to start the ads campaigns on the 1st of the month to make billing and comparing the performance metrics easy.
A: Yes! As you may know, Yelp has a large sales force and businesses often complain about receiving too many sales calls and emails or multiple points-of-contact. When you work with a certified Yelp Partner you only have one point who will only contact you when needed to report on performance or ask for business info that will help us optimize your account.
A: As we mentioned there are two types of Yelp advertising. One type is the enhanced profile which is basically an upgrade to your business listing and doesn’t resemble Google or Facebook Ads in any way. The other type of advertising through Yelp however is pay-per-click Ads which indeed similar in that they require an advertiser to pay for each user click on their ad. The actual cost-per-click is based on a complex, behind the scenes algorithm that judges ad quality, likelihood to be clicked and competitive inventory within your industry. In general terms Google Ads offer much more advanced ad targeting and analytics whereas Yelp Ads, while less flexible, have an advantage in a higher user intent.
A: For clients on centralized billing (i.e. we bill you and Yelp bills us) we are able to leverage agency discounts that Yelp provides us and pass on the savings to you. That way our clients pay exactly what they would pay Yelp directly for the same Ads with the added benefits of advanced tracking and reporting, eliminating Yelp sales calls, and having your account fully optimized and maintained. We think it’s a no-brainer if you are already advertising or plan to advertise on Yelp.
A: You will maintain full ownership of your business listing and business dashboard through biz.yelp.com. Nothing will change other than that our agency will be given access to management tools for your business within our more robust, advanced agency dashboard. You can still respond to reviews, see user interactions and control your business information as before. We won’t even need your login information!
Get Started Today
Step 1
GET YOUR PERFORMANCE FORECAST
Get a complete understanding of how joining Yelp Partners will help YOUR business.
Fill out the form below and we will send you a custom performance forecast where will analyze your Yelp Profile and lay out exactly how your Yelp profile ads will improve
Step 2
HAVE A REVIEW CALL
After we send you your custom performance forecast, we will have a review meeting with you to go over the forecast and answer any additional questions that you have.
Step 3
REAP THE BENEFITS
Once you decide you want to move forward with Yelp Partners, you will immediately get access to our advanced tools and we will get started on optimizing your Yelp Profile, so you can start getting more clients!
Get Your Performance Forecast
Fill out the form below and we will get started on your custom performance forecast!