Ask Rebecca: The Great Yelp Debate

Q: Are you paying for ads on Yelp and does it help your business? I have an estate sale business and they "filter" all my good reviews and show all the bad ones.....I have heard if you advertise with them to the tune of $300 per month, they will "fix" that......have you found it worthwhile advertising here.....as in does it bring you more clients? Customers we will always have, but wondering about clients and new sales.

Many people are finding more questions than answers when it comes to Yelp and Yelp Advertising. So much so, that you are hearing about it more often from frustrated business owners and through websites Yelp-Sucks.com

Here is what I say: 
A: There are a few things to consider: 
1) How many leads are you CURRENTLY getting from Yelp without advertising? 
2) How many reviews total do you have and how many of those are negative? 
3) If you have negative review, how negative are they? I have found that negative reviews often can help a business because  people feel challenged to "see for themselves". 
4) are you using any other ways to gain reviews? Google Places, Yahoo local, Facebook etc? 

In this case, I wouldn't worry too much about bad reviews or paying for Yelp Advertising. Chances are, for your type of work, you won't see a high enough return at $300 a month from your target market. You would be better off spending time and money on Estatesales.net, the Sacramento Bee,Penny Saver and any other local sites as well as  estate related websites which is where your target market is more likely to be spending time. 

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