Yelp on Thursday launched a set of sophisticated advertising tools to improve how local advertisers manage campaigns and improve performance. The tools are built into the revised Ads Dashboard design.
Features in the Ads Dashboard -- now in Yelp for Business -- offer ways for advertisers to choose the type of engagement they want to drive, such as phone calls, website visits, or messages. The feature, Ad Goals, also enables advertisers to choose to allow Yelp to optimize for the best return on investment.
The keyword feature, similar to Google and Microsoft Advertising, allows advertisers to block their advertisement from appearing on searches they aren’t interested in. For instance, a painter that only does interior paint can ensure their ads don’t appear in searches for an “exterior painter.”
Then there is the Audience Size Estimator, where advertisers can see how their ad settings will impact their potential audience size with the new audience-size estimator. A widget appears on the Ads Dashboard to tell advertisers how large their estimated monthly audience will be based on the custom ads settings they have selected. If an advertiser blocks too many keywords, their expected audience will be “Limited,” and they will see a warning message.
A new one-click restart feature aims to make it easier for advertisers to resume campaigns after pausing their ad spend. With One Click Restart, an advertiser's previous settings are automatically saved and are able to restart where they left off. Yelp said a pilot showed advertisers were 14% more likely to restart campaigns with a one-click process.
Yelp also provided a glimpse into future features. The company plans to give advertisers a Heat Map to show exactly where consumers have seen their ads. It will help them visualize ad impressions and provide the data to adjust geotargeting.
Business owners also will have access to leads data that comes from their ad spend and the actions consumers take from those leads. The tool, Leads Visualization, will provide data on calls, messages, CTA clicks, website visits, and directions and map views.