As others have said, unless the market you are aiming for is hang and bang installations, it’s a complete waste of time and money.
Exactly. Although I have a colleague of mine here in LA that periodically turns his Yelp ads on and he does maintain some good work flow. But every Yelper is looking for the lowest bidder and most have them purchased their own TVs, mounts, and HDMIs that are never long enough...
"Was it for this my life I sought? Maybe so, Maybe not...
In case everyone has forgotten already. Yelp was the company setting up donations for businesses at the beginning of the lockdowns... and not informing the businesses that they were doing it!
Yelp has a lot of problems with it, as do all of these types of companies, Home Advisor, Angies List, Thumbtack, NextDoor, etc.
Here's my problem with it. These companies capitalize on your inability to run Google Ads (because that's all they're doing, then directing those leads to someone on their customer list)
So...instead of growing their business, why don't you (not directed at you personally) start growing your own business. Run your own Google Ads.
They're literally building digital empires on your back. Here's how HomeAdvisor works....
1. Potential customer fills out form on Home Advisor. 2. That lead costs Home Advisor $20 directly to Google. (example cost) 3. Now, Home Advisor charges you $20. However they send it out to 2 additional companies. So, for every $20 they spend they're bringing in $40.
That's how it works.
What's the problem with this? Nobody knows, remembers, cares who you are. They only remember the Home Advisor name. In fact, they can't even contact you directly or get your actual phone number on your Home Advisor page. When you quit them, you're right back to where you started.
My contention is to run Google Ads for your business, grow your business, not Home Advisor's or Yelp.
Here's your next problem, Google Ads aren't easy to run, they take knowledge to do right, and if you do it wrong, you're going to spend a lot of money, not get a ROI and throw up your hands and say Google Ads don't work.
Google Ads work. If they didn't Google wouldn't have a Trillion $ market cap.
I've already been burned by Houzz and Home Advisor and figured Yelp would be pretty much the same thing.
Home Advisor kept calling me after we stopped using them and promising me they were different. I don't know how many times I had to tell them to stop calling me.
Thanks for all your feedback, I really appreciate it.
I've already been burned by Houzz and Home Advisor and figured Yelp would be pretty much the same thing.
Home Advisor kept calling me after we stopped using them and promising me they were different. I don't know how many times I had to tell them to stop calling me.
Thanks for all your feedback, I really appreciate it.
They call me at least once a quarter. The last time i cut to the case and said if they want money up front they can hang up.
I've already been burned by Houzz and Home Advisor and figured Yelp would be pretty much the same thing.
Home Advisor kept calling me after we stopped using them and promising me they were different. I don't know how many times I had to tell them to stop calling me.
Thanks for all your feedback, I really appreciate it.
Ryan-
I will give you more details next time I see you but I actually had great success with Yelp (with many caveats). For probably 5 years. A number of 35-50k projects. And all around my area. That said, I had to get really good at gently telling the kid "no" that wants an HDMI cable for his xbox delivered to his house for $10 or like others have said, gently turning away the hang n bang.
Problem is they are Mafia like with their sales tactics. When we canceled a year or two ago, the next day a negative review popped up from someone Ive never met or talked to and on digging through his account, he was connected to Yelp.
Even bigger problem is their algorithm. The kid that reviews every game stop in the US, his review that you "apparently dont need the work" sticks but your legit client that doesnt have time to write reviews, theirs is filtered and doesnt count.
Yelp has been accused of extortion by many businesses. Once I did some research on the subject, I deleted the app and spread the word to all friends and family recommending they do the same:
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