Yellow Pages vs Google Pay Per Click
This post illustrates the advantages of advertising with Google V.S advertising in the printed version of the Yellow Pages.
I have never been a real fan of Yell. Their sales tactics of telling everyone that they can appear first by adding numbers or full stops before their company name made me chuckle. But to the point, for the money that you can spend with Yell – what results could you expect to achieve?
A few of our clients spend or used to spend in the excess of £10,000 per year advertising in the diet version of the once successful Yellow Pages. Some still believe that Yellow Pages will deliver, and I’m not saying it doesn’t as one of our first clients was won through Yellow Pages, but I don’t think businesses should rely on it as much as they used too.
Targeting a local audience
One of the great advantages and disadvantages of YP is that it is local to you. People looking for local businesses will find them in the YP for sure. Yet for all that money wouldn’t you expect to have the option to be seen further a field if you wanted to too? Through the recession businesses are beginning to branch out and widen their catchment areas to gain more work and keep themselves in business. Through a Google pay per click campaign you can spread your budget across the entire UK!
No contracts, no fixed fee, spend what you want too
Ok, so your YP sales rep turns up at your office and gives you the price of the advert, which runs for the year. You cannot change it, when it’s printed it’s final – if you withdraw or introduce new products the advert will not be updated. The option to pay monthly is always a bonus for businesses, but you are of course tied in to completing all the payments…
Advertising with Google however allows you to budget accordingly. You can establish a monthly budget, and you will never spend over this amount – you can increase or decrease this budget when you feel like it if you want to attract more business or not take any more work on. If at any time you wanted to cancel your campaigns, you can – and you would only be billed for what you have used.
Points scored for Google.
More than just an advert
The main difference with a PPC advert is that once you have seen the advert you can view the website of the business and learn as much as you wish and even view the details or contact them after business hours has finished. Compared to a Yellow Pages or directory advert the buyer still has work to do to get to your website.
A paid search advert has unlimited possibilities, and with the right training you can tweak your campaign, to achieve a better cost per click ratio and more of the right search visitor. Being able to tweak you campaigns whenever you want allows you to monitor which of your adverts work better – something you certainly cannot do with a physical advert.
Google scores a few more points with an upper cut and left hook.
Ensure you are first, no full stops or numbers before your name
Just like advertising in the book, every business wants to appear first. Where as in the YP you add dots and numbers to alphabetically appear first – with Google you simple pay for it. It’s that simple.
Google Pay Per Click works on a bidding system, you put in your maximum click cost, and your competitors do the same, the more your willing to pay the higher your result will appear. Yes this can get very expensive depending on what industry you are in – that’s why it is vital to understand how to get the best from your PPC campaign.
Direct targeted campaigns for the search term?
People find you looking for a product or service they know you provide. As to referring to a book to find a business by searching their criteria – users simply address their problem and Google displays a solution. People are looking for your product / services, if they are not – it doesn’t cost you anything.
One sided fight
OK, so I maybe very biased towards Google Pay Per Click, but Yellow Pages still has its place I mean non computer users still refer to the good old book, and what happens if you cannot get on the Internet? IT companies should still invest in alternate sources of advertising; how can someone find them on Google if their computer is down!?
Apart from the book I just want to point out that Yell also offer their directory listing on their website that they spend excessively on to promote and this has the link through to your website too. They have also introduced a mobile app allowing people to search for local businesses using their location – which will automatically show the business results in a certain radius of where they are. Ideal if you are looking for a break down service or something similar in a hurry.
Who wins?
Well if this were a fist fight Google would win for me hands down. One of the main reasons apart from everything I mentioned above is that they advertise themselves on Google! Why pay them to do something you can do yourself… Cheaper. But I’m going to leave it there and allow you to make your own decision on which platform you would prefer to advertise on, at impact we can assist with either – the design of your directory advert? Or your PPC management campaign, so feel free to give us a buzz or share your opinion or experience with advertising with Yell or Google Pay Per Click.
If you are interested in setting up a Google Pay Per Click campaign get in touch with myself or Martin and we can give you a £50 credit on your account to get you started.
