yell.com sponsored listing

G. Lasagne · Sep 17, 2009

I know this subject has been battered to death but would like an opinion on this.

£1590 per year nothing to pay for first 2 months then the full amount payable over 10 months.

Category: Boiler cleaning service and repair, sponsored listing covering my entire directory area and guaranteed 3rd spot every time somebody searches.

The ad will also cross over to over sections and get me coverage else where.

5 pages of optimised blabber, logos,photos images etc etc etc.

The stats they had for the guy who was in 2nd position received 95 calls in 1 month (using call counter thing).

What do you think?

I think the category is maybe not the best?
If you used yell and you wanted say a new boiler what would you type?

Kev Jaques · Sep 17, 2009

Have you used Yell before? If so in what listing, did it make any difference for you?

Obviously a better position and sponsored listing might pay off, but you gotta measure it. What's your competition like in the sponsored listings, do they have strong calls to action, is there anything you could say to be different/better than your competition in your ad?

I would take their stats with a pinch of salt tbh unless you truly do get that amount of calls, if you do then you will need someone to answer them

3 calls a day on avg, 3 possible visits, 3 possible quotes on top of doing everything else.

SFD · Sep 17, 2009

Why not contact similar tradesmen such as electricians, decorators etc who have featured listings in your area and see what they are paying and whether they would recommend it.

The 5 pages of optimised blabber sounds pretty useless - I would think people only look on yell for a number.

CKG · Sep 17, 2009

There is no way on this earth that you will be getting 95 decent leads from it even on a good month never mind on average.

You have to admit 95 extra leads a month is an absolutely epic amount of work.

And we all know life is never that easy.

scudulike · Sep 17, 2009

We have 2 sponsored litings, in different categories - 1 is position 1, and one position 3

The position 1 does get more hits than the other, but the call stats are stilted - Yell told us we were getting 40 calls a month, but if we were then they were people trying to sell us something rather than buy :|

You can see all their prices for ads & different postions / catagories at yelldirect.com

Matt1959 · Sep 17, 2009

dave, I'd query the guarenteed 3rd spot every search as thats the first times I've heard this feature. I posted a thread in tradesmans section here about a monthly rolling contract and mine starts tomorrow - should be interesting

One thing in your post thats pi$$ ed me off no end is Yell telling you how many calls your competitor gets ie they'll do the same to you which is a big downside of using trackable phone numbers I think (which yell are keen to push)

Front Man · Sep 17, 2009

Do people use Yell these days?

I know i did, and im a salesman.

80% of your calls, are going to be from sales people.

If i need something repaired i always looked in my local newspaper, or is that just me?

scudulike · Sep 17, 2009

Matt1959 said:
dave, I'd query the guarenteed 3rd spot every search as thats the first times I've heard this feature.

If you buy their sponsored Ad for an area in a category, position 1 or 3, they come up right every time. That's why they charge so much for Pos 1

patientlady · Sep 17, 2009

GasAngel said:
I know this subject has been battered to death but would like an opinion on this.

£1590 per year nothing to pay for first 2 months then the full amount payable over 10 months.

Category: Boiler cleaning service and repair, sponsored listing covering my entire directory area and guaranteed 3rd spot every time somebody searches.

The ad will also cross over to over sections and get me coverage else where.

5 pages of optimised blabber, logos,photos images etc etc etc.

The stats they had for the guy who was in 2nd position received 95 calls in 1 month (using call counter thing).

What do you think?

I think the category is maybe not the best?
If you used yell and you wanted say a new boiler what would you type?

Hi Gas Angel
1)How much work would you need to get to cover £1590 per annum
2)Have you tested yell.com and looked up how many boiler servicing company's are in your area. There might only be three anyway, co why pay for the third spot. I just checked my town and there are four, with British Gas taking number one spot.
3)If you received 95 calls per month wanting quotes could you cope ?

virtuallysorted · Sep 21, 2009

I'd use the freebie listing and perhaps the pay-per-click option Yell have. I certainly wouldn't be paying upfront for "potential" traffic... Strangely Yell only ever seem to promote the fixed listings, the pay-per-click always gets lost somewhere in the back of the website... Perhaps it's just not as profitable???

Business Spy · Sep 21, 2009

Hi

I have been involved with a client who wanted to rely almost exclusively on Yell... but to be honest, although this CAN work well, there are other ways to raise awareness and build sales. We found, for example, that writing carefully planned editorial for local newspapers (with content relating to the client obviously and a supporting ad) was far more beneficial in terms of generating word of mouth than yell or any other listing directory.

Nancy123 · Sep 22, 2009

I am also using free membership. Its great for me. Why you choosing sponsor listing just try to make your listing free.

BdTS · Sep 23, 2009

reynoldsdigital said:
I had a client the other day that contacted me to get him a good deal. He was offered a top ranking for Central Heating Enfield for £4000!!!!. I advised him against it, the salesperson was very limited in her knowledge as changed the price constantly.

Anyhow I asked her how much it would cost for a listing not top but I think 3rd tier. These still appear on the first page but rotate round top 3 pages I think. I managed to get 7 Categories in Enfield for £788!! I checked the listing and nobody bothers to put a logo up, I put a nice looking logo up and the work is coming in well now.

I saw no need to spend £4k on one listing when you would get much better coverage over 7 categories for much less, ask them about this instead.

Some good points, it all depends on the specific needs of the customer though.

The more expensive ad originally offered was probably a Heavyweight which is guaranteed to appear in the top four of the results pages more often than not, but like you say it can be a good idea just making sure all services are represented across as many headings as possible...

Gary Coles · Dec 30, 2009

Hi,

i would not touch this company,they are robbers and they just rip people of with there sales rubbish.

I had got ripped of this year,and i was up the top on the right side and i could not put the product down for the first 3 months!

When they decided to revamp there sight in April this year,and then they put me down 3rd ranking,it made a big impact on my companys phone calls after that.

But they still took the money every month,after that because you are under the terms and condictions of there companys rules!!!

So in the end i made them come a long way to prove to them that there product they offer is rubbish,and the guy could not say alot realy. When he came to the door and i had the proof that is product was no good,he could not say a thing about it.

I always say that if its good, i will not condem the product at all if it works for my company services,and gets the phone calls coming in!

But i would not invest in this company again in the future,and waist my hard earn money to just throw it away down the drain.

I think Google is the way to go in the future,but thats my thinking on Marketing my companys future!!

You have to learn by your own mistakes i think,and what does not work for one company,may work for another company.

Its all a gamble,like every thing in life and running your own show is not easy,and waisting your money on things that don't work all the time.

The trouble is you have to think of other ways of getting your services out there to people who wants your services.
Thats the hard bit,but keep positive and you will get there in the end!!!

Regards Gary

MASSEY · Dec 30, 2009

SFD said:
Why not contact similar tradesmen such as electricians, decorators etc who have featured listings in your area and see what they are paying and whether they would recommend it.

The 5 pages of optimised blabber sounds pretty useless - I would think people only look on yell for a number.

im sure they would be reluctant to disclose that or give false information.

J.D. Landscaping · Dec 30, 2009

Give it a swerve mate.

Tw Installations · Dec 30, 2009

My Advice for what its worth.

Avoid them Big time.

I had the sponsered listing No2 and tried just about everything to make it work. Logos, offers, headlines, freephone numbers, pictures, guarantees

I was absolutely convinced it would bring in the calls. I called every sponsered kitchen listing in the country to try to get feedback as to why it wasn't working for me?. Unfortuenty most people dont track there calls so the feedback you get it pretty useless.

I got two jobs from it in a year despite paying yell £2450, If I had spent that on google it would be an entirely different story.

If I was you I would call every sponsered listing for "Gas" in the country and try to get some feedback, hopefully you get someone who monitors their calls and not the usual "im not sure where the calls come from"

Dont go with yells results either as they will tell you got 30 calls last month but from experience 29 of them will be sales calls - guaranteed

Be prepared for this

Tommy

Search

Search

yell.com sponsored listing

G. Lasagne

Kev Jaques

SFD

CKG

scudulike

Matt1959

Front Man

scudulike

patientlady

virtuallysorted

Business Spy

Nancy123

BdTS

Gary Coles

MASSEY

J.D. Landscaping

Tw Installations

Similar threads

Latest Articles