So, if you don’t know yet, local PPC (in some form) is the way to go. Cheaper costs, greater targeting, and better leads (and higher placement in the search engines). What could be better than that?
Local search is awesome. Our google results, with local campaigns are through the roof. Amazing search engine rankings, especially with google local and google maps. Wow! Stellar … leads are cheap, and absurdly targeted. Two Thumbs up!
So, we wanted to expand this local madness to other local websites. Perhaps CitySearch? Perhaps Yelp? Well, disappointing results on both i’m afraid. For now, Citysearch (whom we advertised with for over two years), and Yelp (for four months), simply don’t provide the quality, quantity, or targeting than even a novice internet marketer would require. In both cases – the companies simply don’t get it, but Citysearch to a less degree.
Citysearch has implemented a PPC approach, which is great, and even allowed you to bypass your page to go directly to your website. Very helpful. They can deliver SOME traffic, but can’t really fully target by keyword and guarantee placement. Crazy? Yes.
Yelp completely doesn’t get it – and have come up with some whacked monthly fees that bear NO correlation to the number of clicks you will receive (or benefit, or ROI). You simply are paying for NO TRACKING whatsoever. Except for some stats on VIEWS of your profile on THEIR site. How relevant is that? Not at all. Some will be fooled, Basement Empires owners won’t be. We took the hit so you don’t have to. Our campaign showed NO conversions, over many months. Granted, we’re not a restaurant – so your results may vary.
So, how can these services improve. Apart from being able to deliver more targeted traffic, let’s talk specifics:
Great transparency (yes, I hate that word too, but it’s relevant).
Yelp needs to go the PPC route. Their current pricing format is not ROI driven, not trackable, and therefore, potentially (and likely) wasted $$. Yelps need to give better bundles for their services, and provide far larger # of impressions if they are trying to go the CPM route. I mean, 1500 impressions for $300/mth. Really? I’m sure they have lots of advertisers – but I’m guessing those advertisers don’t track carefully. This may not apply to every niche.
Citysearch – simply the quality of traffic didn’t convert. That’s a shame! The cpc (which starts at .40 and can rapidly go higher), isn’t too bad (but not great, compared to Google/Yahoo – 10 cents). Their ability to track and customize isn’t bad. Yet, their online tools and control over your campaign is straight out of internet year, 1999. Slow, kloodgy (yes, it might be a word), and horribly innefective and out of date. Darn! I SO WANTED TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS.
Both services rely on sales teams – whom will call you relentlessly. Billing teams, whom will hassle you to no end. And little online automation that matters. Is it a law that if you are using a sales team, chances are your service is … so-so? Sure seems to be.
Money spent with … Google. Clearly the winner – hands down. Amazing results. But there has to be more! We’ll find it …
How do you do local search?
