Yelp promotions

[mccannable]

Just got a promo for $250 yelp advertising credit and no contract. When we first set up our account on yelp I got a hard sale for a $450/m min with a 12 month contract. The $250 guarantees local (15 mile) clicks on your ad for people searching for your keywords. Anyone have any luck? its free for the first month so I am running with it.

[mspecperformance]

I don't like how Yelp pressure sells you on their advertisement packages and then don't properly explain their review algorithms. There are websites dedicated to explaining how much of a scamming racket Yelp is. If you don't pay them mysteriously your reviews get filtered. BS.

[mccannable]

I have read that as well. It's a month free and if drives sales I don't mind continuing.

[Jeff]

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[mccannable]

Ha. It's free in hopes I don't cancel and they start billing. I'm on top of it though. Hopefully the return is worth the cost. I doubt there is enough usage in the area but if I get one to two sales a month it will pay for itself.

[Joe Marconi]

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[mccannable]

Free trial is over. Only used about $100 of the budget with confirms my question the amount of use of yelp on my area.

 

Both of my legitimate reviews have fallen off over the past two weeks. I was going to continue the advertising but seeing this they won't get a dollar from me and I, on a personal, level will be discontinuing use of yelp.

 

None of the 50 "leads" generated even a call.

[xrac]

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[Joe Marconi]

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[RyanGMW]

I here this over and over again, that Yelp is not a useful source of gaining customers. It amazing to me how these online company survive!

 

Is there anyone that had a positive experience from Yelp? I mean a "sustained" positive experience?

We get quite a few customers from our yelp page. We have 23, 5 star reviews that are all real and legitimate. My competitors struggle to break 3 stars because they don't care about their customers the way we do. People who search the internet to find a shop use yelp to gain some trust before they come in for the first time. The more positive feedback you have, the better chance you have to win these types of customers from your competition. it's not worth paying for, but it is worth caring about.

Search "German auto repair in Auburn, CA" or "BMW repair Auburn, CA" and see the difference for yourself.

[mccannable]

We send cards to all our customers asking them to share the experiences like hotels do. But yelp keeps removing their reviews.. We have 15 5 star reviews on facebook and that seems to be where everyone congregates.

[ATLAuto]

In metro areas, Yelp (and other online review sites) has come to replace word-of-mouth as the main go to. Ask anyone under 30 to go to dinner with you, and their first question is, "have you Yelped the restaurant?" A lot of weight is put on these reviews.

 

With that said, paying to advertise on Yelp seems a bit pointless if your reviews are solid. A solid Yelp page is free and advertises itself.