Yelp is often known as a company that works with small businesses in their local presence and promotion. But local businesses also include multi-location (MULO) brands. As part of its annual summer feature release, Yelp is addressing and accommodating this segment of the local ecosystem.
Specifically, it’s extending several of its standard SMB features to multi-location brands, including Request a Quote, Yelp Guaranteed, Verified License, and Portfolio. These features will be much like their existing counterparts for SMBs, but purpose-built for MULO brands and their unique dynamics.
As part of the summer release, Yelp will also launch new and expanded ad formats and analytics tools that are likewise tailor made for MULO brands. These include enhancements to Spotlight video ads, the expansion of Yelp Audiences for audio platforms, and a conversion API to measure attribution.
“Yelp has long been committed to providing multi-location advertisers with innovative products and features that enable them to reach and engage our high-intent audience at the local level.” Yelp Chief Product Officer Craig Saldanha told Localogy, “Yelp’s Request a Quote is one of our most popular products for local services businesses, and we’re excited to expand this lead-generating product to national brands.”
Specific Itches
Going one level deeper, how exactly do these new features scratch specific itches for multi-location brands? What are their “unique dynamics” noted above, and how does Yelp’s latest set of features factor those in? Here’s a drill-down into a few of the products in this latest release.
New Features for MULO Brands
Request a Quote for Brands: Initially introduced in 2016 as a feature to help consumers request quotes from local service pros, and help local businesses more easily generate relevant leads, Request a Quote is now available for multi-location brands. National services businesses can now better reach Yelp’s high-intent consumers, and manage leads across all their locations seamlessly within their existing customer management tools through Yelp’s new Leads API – eliminating the need to manually manage leads from multiple Yelp pages.
Yelp Guaranteed: As a part of Request a Quote for Brands suite of features, Yelp is extending the Yelp Guaranteed customer satisfaction program, which offers up to $2,500 back if something goes wrong with a customer’s project. Yelp Guaranteed is now available for eligible projects with national services businesses that advertise and activate Request a Quote in popular categories.
Verified License and Portfolio: National services businesses are now eligible for Yelp’s Verified License program and Portfolio feature when they enable Request a Quote. Verified License helps consumers easily find businesses with valid trade licenses, making it simpler for them to make confident decisions when choosing a business for their project, and Portfolio allow businesses to showcase their specialties through a photo collection of projects.
New Ad Formats for MULO Brands
More Spotlight Ads placements: Yelp expanded Spotlight Ads video placements to also appear within the Yelp business page photo grid, a highly trafficked destination, helping advertisers reach even more consumers across the platform. Originally launched in 2022 on Yelp’s home feed, video and photo Spotlight Ads have been an effective ad unit for national location and non-location-based businesses to reach Yelp’s users at scale.
Yelp Audiences expands to audio and connected TV platforms: Yelp Audiences now has even more reach on connected TV (CTV) and audio platforms. Audio ads enable advertisers to reach more consumers on streaming music platforms and podcasts across Spotify, Pandora, SiriusXM, iHeart and more. The company also made its CTV offering more cost-effective for brands while maintaining its high standard of premium inventory sources, including platforms like Hulu, Disney+ and Paramount+.
New conversion API helps advertisers measure success without cookies: The new conversion API (CAPI) offers brand advertisers a more accurate way to measure the value of Yelp Ads while also future-proofing their measurement strategy. CAPI allows brands to analyze any conversion from lead to transaction, measuring what matters most for them without relying on cookie signals.
Ample Headroom
These multi-location directions make a lot of sense for Yelp. Not only is MULO a sizable and influential component of the local media & advertising worlds, but their operational dynamics are a bit nuanced. So creating a suite of features that’s purpose-built for them could represent a power play for Yelp.
All of this comes as Yelp celebrates its 20th anniversary. During that two-decade stretch, the company has become an iconic brand in local media, advertising, and commerce. But it also doesn’t seem to be slowing down, as robust feature rollouts like the above continue to happen a few times per year.
Put another way, Yelp still has ample headroom to evolve. These feature rollouts usually involve cross-site/app functionality or new tools for SMBs and users to get more out of it. Focusing on MULO brands could signal that Yelp will begin to carve out more opportunities within specific local subsegments.
“Through streamlined lead management, as well as our expanded offering of advertising solutions and measurement tools, Yelp is empowering national businesses to thrive and delivering more value to advertisers, while helping consumers make informed decisions with confidence.”
