Yelp Thursday introduced a redesigned ads dashboard that brings with it several new features and updates to the Yelp for Business experience.
The business directory and crowdsourced review forum said the revamped ads dashboard is aimed at giving business owners the ability to better manage their campaigns through reviewing key reporting and tracking information.
Director of product management Alon Shiran wrote in a blog post Thursday, “For years, business owners have been asking for additional control over their ads on Yelp and, in turn, we’re constantly looking for new ways to meet those requests with new and innovative products. Today, we’re announcing new features and improvements to the Yelp for Business experience that help business owners develop more effective campaigns. These new features enable advertisers to make more educated decisions about who they are reaching and where and when their ads are being shown, based on the new additional control features and insights we are providing.”
Yelp’s new Ad Goals feature allows advertisers to choose the type of engagement they wish to drive, such as phone calls, website visits or messages, and they can let Yelp optimize those campaigns for the best return on investment.
Advertisers can use the platform’s new keywords feature to block their ads from appearing in searches they are not interested in, with Yelp providing the example of a painter who only does interior work ensuring that its ads don’t show up in searches for “exterior painter.”
A new audience size estimator from Yelp gives brands a look into how their ad settings will impact their potential audiences. Yelp said a widget will appear on the ads dashboard with information on the size of their audience and warnings of limited audiences if they perform actions such as blocking too many keywords.
Finally, the new One Click Restart feature automatically saves advertisers’ previous settings so that they can resume campaigns in just one step without having to re-enter information.
Yelp also detailed some features that have not yet been released but are in the pipeline.
An ad impression heat map will make ad impressions more tangible and relevant by showing advertisers where people who have seen their ads are concentrated, enabling them to adjust their geotargeting accordingly.
And Leads Visualization will give business owners access to data on leads that come from their ad spend on the platform and actions users are taking due to those ads, including calls, messages, call-to-action clicks, website visits, directions and map views.
Shiran wrote, “With its sleek modernized design, innovative products and advanced features, Yelp for Business is a place where business owners can go to up-level their presence on Yelp and better understand and control who they are reaching with ads. And, similar to our announcement in May, the work does not stop here. We’ll continue to listen to our business owner community to find new ways to help local businesses succeed, especially in the midst of the pandemic, when businesses need our support the most.”
