Speaker 1: hello. I’m so glad you guys are here. I’m Caitlyn Noble, the managing partner at Fat Cat Strategies. We work exclusively with home improvement and remodeling contractors on their digital marketing, so paid search, paid social, SEO, and increasingly, AI search visibility. If you’re on this call, you’re exactly who we built this for. Joining me today are my friends from Yelp, Phil and Ryan. Yelp is one of our agency’s active advertising partners, which means we manage Yelp campaigns on behalf of our clients, and we have a front row seat on what’s actually working with Yelp right now. Phil, Ryan, want to give a quick hello?

Speaker 4: Yeah. Sure. Hi, everybody. I’m Philip one of the partner… well, senior partner account executives over at Yelp and I work exclusively with Caitlyn, Arden, Sasha, and the rest of the team over Fat Cat.

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 3: And my name is Ryan Nemitz. I work in addition to Phil, with the partner team over here at Yelp and specifically with Fat Cat.

Speaker 1: Awesome. Great. They’re gonna hang tight while I talk for a minute, and then I’ve got a fun Q&A with them. So bear with me as you hear my voice. So… So, what we’re gonna cover today, you guys, first, how AI search has changed the way homeowners find and choose contractors. This is obviously the context for everything else. Then, why Yelp specifically matters in that landscape, with real screenshots from actual platforms, not hypotheticals. Then, of course, we’re gonna hear from Phil and Ryan on what’s actually happening inside Yelp right now as it relates to AI and lead generation. We’re gonna translate all of that into what it means for your business, and walk through what a managed Yelp strategy actually looks like when an agency is running it for you. And then, of course, we’re gonna close with a free offer for everyone on the call. And Yelp friends, please chime in interrupt me if you want to. We’ve got Arden, if you missed that. She’s behind the scenes, monitoring the chat. So ask away. If we do not have time for the questions, we’ll, of course, email the responses out later to everybody too. So, everybody interrupt. I’m gonna, though, keep chiming in. Arden, grab me, though, if there’s something urgent. All right, guys. Okay. So, the big shift. Let’s start with the environment that we’re all operating in right now, because it’s changed more in the last 18 months than in the previous decade. I know we’re living it, like, every single day. So, think about how a homeowner used to search for a contractor. They’d Google it, click through a few websites, maybe check a review aggregator. They were doing the research themselves, reading, comparing, evaluating. It took time, you had multiple touchpoints to make an impression. How has it changed? That process has completely collapsed. Here is the three-part shift that has changed everything. Search has become recommendations. Homeowners aren’t comparing options anymore. They are asking questions and getting one curated answer. “Who should I call for a bathroom remodel?” AI gives them a name. Not a list, a name. Websites have become trusted platforms. AI doesn’t evaluate your website the way humans do. It looks for structured, verified, high-volume data from platforms it already trusts. Your site alone is not enough signal. And then last but not least, clicking has become asking. One question, one answer. If you’re not in that answer, you’re just not gonna be considered at all. So, not to be super dramatic, but most contractors are still thinking about this as a Google problem. Get to page one, win more traffic, buy more traffic. But that’s not where the decision is getting made anymore. AI search isn’t replacing Google. It’s replacing the… the decision-making process, and platforms feeding it matter more than your website. So, why does Yelp matter in this and with AI search? So, let me be specific about something. We’re not talking about Yelp as a place where homeowners browse. We’re talking about Yelp as the platform where they’re actively evaluating businesses for services they need right now, and increasingly, as one of the primary data sources that AI tools are using to make recommendations. These are high-intent users. They’re not doing general research. They’re ready to make a decision. And when AI pulls from Yelp to answer their questions, your Yelp presence is either working for you or against you.So, what does AI need to see to make this recommendation? To understand why Yelp has become so important in AI search, you have to understand that AI is actually looking, like, what AI is actually looking for when it’s making a recommendation. So, it’s definitely looking for structured data. Clean, consistent, machine-readable business information, not just a pretty website. Organized data that AI can parse reliably. They’re also looking for, they meaning AI, they’re looking for verified sources. AI weights platforms with real verification systems over individual business websites. It trusts third parties. And then last but not least, high volume signals. The more reviews, the more confident AI is in recommending a business. Volume matters more than a, than most contractors realize. I think the secret’s starting to get out, but volume of reviews matters tremendously. Yelp provides all three at scale that individual contractor websites just simply cannot match. So, here’s some real proof and again, Phil, Ryan, chime in if you want to. So, this is an example from Bing Copilot. A live search for pest control businesses near me. In Microsoft’s Bing Copilot AI, Yelp is the number one ranked source. We ran it for HVAC businesses, Yelp on top. Plumbing, Yelp on top. This is consistent across home service categories, not a one-off. And here’s the connection that matters the most. Bing’s Copilot is a cited source for ChatGPT, which means Yelp data flows directly into ChatGPT’s recommendations. Not eventually, directly. Here’s another bit of proof, an example from ChatGPT and Perplexity. So, when we searched “pest control near me” in ChatGPT, it recommended Native Pest Management as its number one result. Same business, same ranking as Yelp’s number one. If you look at ChatGPT’s citation panel, Yelp is right there. Perplexity, same search, same outcome. Yelp surfaces as the first organic result after paid listings. And it’s not just being in ChatGPT, Google’s AI overviews, the AI-generated summaries that now appear above organic results are pulling from the same trusted data sources. Yelp reviews and ratings are surfacing directly inside those overviews for local contractor searches. Same with Google Gemini. When someone asked Gemini to help them find a remodeler, it’s drawing from platforms with verified high volume reviews. Yelp is consistently in that mix. So, if we haven’t made the pitch yet for Yelp, here it is. The businesses that win on Yelp are the businesses AI recommends. That’s not a coincidence. It’s the system working exactly as designed. So, the leverage multiplies when you factor in where else Yelp data shows up. I think this is one of the most, like, side important notes. If you’re, like, AI aside, like, if you don’t know all about Yelp, this alone should convince you that you need to be doing something with Yelp. So AI or not just AI, sorry. Yelp presence feeds Apple Maps and Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google AI overviews, obviously we talked about that. Bing Copilot, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, and then Verizon, Samsung, Uber Explore, Yahoo in-dash navigation. This is why we’re talking about Yelp as a strategic channel, not a listing to claim and forget. The reach is too broad and the stakes are just too high. Did I pitch enough, guys, for you?

Speaker 3: If you don’t

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 3: myself adding, I know you’re talking

Speaker 1: Please.

Speaker 3: you were talking a lot about AI, right? And how the, I call it, when we speak internally, the AI evolution, right? And it’s been really impactful to see how Yelp has become a top five overall citation source. And then depending on your source, it’s the number one local citation platform, right? When it powers these LLMs. So, as you’ve seen, we’re talking a lot about… Here on this last slide is our partnerships, right?

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 3: may or may not be powered by AI.

Speaker 1: You’re right.

Speaker 3: But when you talk about Perplexity, when you talk about ChatGPT I don’t know the exact numbers, but on ChatGPT, it took Google 10 years to achieve the search volume that ChatGPT earned in one year. So, it just

Speaker 1: Wow.

Speaker 3: how consumers are changing the way they find local businesses. And what we’ve seen from our partners and their clients, specifically contractors in the home service space, is that you’ve, you, you add all that and then you talk about the intent on Yelp, because nobody’s going to Yelp

Speaker 1: Exactly.

Speaker 3: Nobody’s on there on, on, on or Facebook to see what the crazy neighbor is saying down their or politics or whatever. People are on Yelp to make a purchasing decision, so think higher intent, lower-funnel consumers. The other cool thing is, when people do get to Yelp, 86% of the searches on Yelp are for a service, unbranded.

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 3: Which means I need a kitchen remodeler. I don’t know who I want to go with. I know I need that, I know I want to get it done soon, but I’m not exactly sure who I’m, I’m going with. Which is a little bit different than other advertising platforms where you’re throwing competitive bids

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 3: competitors that may be dominating the market. And then the last thing I just want to talk about when we’re talking about these consumers and how they get to Yelp.

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 3: Think about this too with the, who the consumer is. 83% of users hire or buy from a business they found on Yelp, and over half of those users purchased within a day.

Speaker 1: Mm.

Speaker 3: So I know in the home service space it might not be a purchase, but it would be a free booking, a free estimate, right? Booking a consultation. So that resonates with a lot of businesses who, in the home service space who are really looking for lead generation, and maybe looking to diversify the platforms that they’re on. Looking to expand their digital footprint on platforms like Yelp. So I think it all correlates to, at the end of the day, what’s your overall marketing strategy How do we drive business for you

Speaker 1: That’s a perfect transition. I mean, literally, what I was about to say is, like, I need you to tell our contractors right now to try to figure out how Yelp is gonna fix into their lead generation strategy, so you nailed it. I think we’re gonna get into more specifics, if you guys will hang with us. This is kind of now that Q&A moment, where I have some fun questions for you. have at it. And we’re making good time, so everybody, this is, this is fun. How is Yelp evolving as a platform right now, specifically with AI search in mind? What’s changing inside Yelp that contractors should know about?

Speaker 3: Yeah. That’s exciting for us, ’cause also to take it a step back, our partnership, just to give you a background. Agency partners are certified, they’re experts on the platform. They know how to do all these things, right? And 85% of our ad spend is in-home services. A lot of people come to us and be like, “Man, Yelp is for restaurants.”

Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: It’s like, yeah, maybe five, 10 years ago.

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 3: That’s how we were founded and how we started, but we made a very strategic pivot into the home service space. So with AI search in mind, now that as we’re talking about it, I challenge everybody, if they’re watching this now or in a recording, to go on Google, go on Gemini, go on ChatGPT and do a hyperlocal search to say, “Who are the best contractors? Who are the best kitchen remodelers?” And what you’ll see a lot of times is, Yelp is the 10 best contractors insert area, right? You’ll not only see that in Gemini, you’ll see that in Google AI overview, but we still dominate the organic rankings as well.

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 3: So we’re still part of that Google play as well organically separate from AI. So that’s off, off-platform, right? How do we get more consumers to Yelp as a trusted platform due to the directory approach, to the review approach? Then you talk about the on-platform initiatives, right? So just in our fall release and winter release, there was 27 on-platform AI initiatives.

Speaker 1: Wow.

Speaker 3: What does that mean? Helping better match consumers with information they’re trying to find for local businesses. Keyword searches for photos that consumers purchase, for your search on, for a consumer’s search on Yelp, right? The other thing too is requesting quotes and making it easier for consumers to ask for a business they’re by, to come out and give a bid, give a… Because it is a pretty… I know most people aren’t just gonna call and

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 3: the job right on the phone initially for the home service jobs, depending on the, the price range. But it makes it easier to convert folks and consumers who are on the platform into getting that information over to you all, so that you could then do the take over the lead intake process and book from an estimate to a job, to a happy customer, right? That hopefully leaves a review. So both on and off-platform, it’s been very exciting from our perspective to help local businesses.

Speaker 1: That’s awesome. No, that’s fantastic. And so, I mean, kind of a follow-up question. So let’s say, you know, a contractor who’s been on Yelp for years, like, they have a profile but they haven’t been actively managing it. Is there anything, like Is that still okay? What Should they start managing it now, obviously?

Speaker 3: I would say it’s I think I, I talked earlier about digital footprint, right?

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 3: With Yelp, if, if Yelp is appearing everywhere on the internet, right, and consumer… We have 73 million monthly users on the

Speaker 1: Wow.

Speaker 3: right? So people are, are finding your business whether, on Yelp, whether you want them to or not.

Speaker 1: Exactly.

Speaker 3: So if you want if I’m a local business and I have a, a holistic marketing approach, I would say, there needs to be some sort of management and leveraging of your Yelp profile, right?

Speaker 1: Mm.

Speaker 3: From a basic listing and having organic content up to date, to hours of operation up to date.

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 3: Having the right NAP information, name, address, phone

Speaker 1: That’s

Speaker 3: All that’s the basics, right? As people find your listing, that they can get in touch with you. I think the second piece is also to leverage things like advertising and CPC campaigns. Why? Because that is where you’re gonna see lead generation of those high-intent customers, and this is where Fat Cat comes

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 3: where they can, and her team and their team. It’s funny saying Fat Cat.

Speaker 1: It’s Trust me.

Speaker 3: I don’t know. There’s a good Disney movie I watch my little girls that had a big fat cat.

Speaker 1: I didn’t name the company, I know, I know.

Speaker 3: I love it. I used love it.

Speaker 1: I know.

Speaker 3: Every Disney movie

Speaker 1: I have two fat dogs, but still.

Speaker 3: It’s good. But yeah, so that’s where Fat Cat and their team comes in, to optimize your campaign so you’re

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 3: very focused on campaign.

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 3: I know a lot of folks too who are home service businesses that will say, “Hey, we tried Yelp in the past, it just didn’t work.”

Speaker 1: Yep.

Speaker 3: And my challenge has always been to agencies is like, “Hey, you were hired because you are the expert. You know how to do this. You have different resources that are unavailable to a home service business that may not have the time, may not have the resources, may not have the energy to do that.”Um, and that’s where we all come in to kinda leverage Yelp and your Yelp

Speaker 1: Exactly.

Speaker 3: most effectively.

Speaker 1: No, that’s fantastic. Thank you. Yeah, 100%. I mean, you nailed the NAP side of things too. I mean, whether it… Absolutely Yelp, but regardless, you need to make sure for AI that your name, address and phone number is the same across all listings. So hours, that’s also important. Okay, second question. Yelp users, we’ve said this several times today already are often described as high intent, actively ready to hire. So how does that intent show up in the data and how does it compare to what contractors typically see from a Google search?

Speaker 3: I would first preface this by saying, digital advertising and

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 3: sort of advertising on the internet, you’re always gonna see varied results depending on a variety of factors, right?

Speaker 1: Yep.

Speaker 3: But what we consistently hear is, if you saw the numbers, we might not have the search demand and users as a Google or ChatGPT, but people are coming to us from there. But when people run campaigns for lead generation and revenue generation, what we

Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: I would say 9 times out of 10, is that although you might not have the quantity of leads, the quality always converts at a

Speaker 1: Yes.

Speaker 3: clip and conversion rate, compared to that of Google Ads or Google LSA, right? I’m not guaranteeing that. There’s variants across all digital advertising, but just due to the nature of our high intent consumers and how they get to Yelp and why it’s such a purpose-driven search, we always see that when speaking to our… Like, return on ad spend is what we track a lot with our partners.

Speaker 1: Definitely.

Speaker 3: We always see a higher return on ad spend and a higher conversion rate towards that back end of the tracking and attribution with our partners for their clients.

Speaker 1: Okay. That’s awesome. That’s, that’s fantastic.

Speaker 3: I would also

Speaker 1: Yeah, please.

Speaker 3: if we’re comparing it to Google, right?

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 3: And, and let’s go, just say you’re doing Google Ads. Let’s say you’re doing Meta Ads. It’s never of, “Hey, should I reallocate all my budget to Yelp now?”

Speaker 1: No.

Speaker 3: like, no. It should be part of diversifying your paid media

Speaker 1: Yep.

Speaker 3: and finding what’s the perfect kind of balance for each business to say, “Hey, Google LSA is doing really well for us, so let’s reallocate 80% of our funds there, maybe 10% to Yelp and 10% to Meta.” But we also hear feedback where, “Hey, LSA costs are getting really high.”

Speaker 1: Correct.

Speaker 3: “And it’s… Now it’s not being as profitable for us. Maybe we reallocate 20% of that budget to other platforms where we-“

Speaker 1: Exactly.

Speaker 3: a better return on ad spend and it makes more sense for you as a company be, company to be sustainable and more profitable from a digital advertising perspective.”

Speaker 1: I completely agree. And I mean, again, working with an agency partner, you know, that’s what we should be doing. We should be coming to you guys and saying, “This is where you should allocate your budget. This is how you should split it. This is how we’re seeing the return on our end.” And yeah, you guys have obviously made that easy to show as well. So okay, this… I, I, I’m… We’re… We love data and research here at Fat Cat. So how much you can share, but how is Yelp data flowing into AI platforms like ChatGPT, Bing Copilot, Google and Gemini? And is Yelp doing anything proactively to strengthen that relationship?

Speaker 3: Yeah, great question. So right now, everything’s happening organically, if you will.

Speaker 1: Okay.

Speaker 3: In like, you think the AI evolution and you’re like… It’s the same thing as when SEO came out, right?

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 3: It’s like why am… Why is my page showing up on page one and… Or why is it not, right?

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 3: It’s same thing as AI evolves. I think you hit the nail on the head earlier, Kalen about, A, it’s a trusted platform. It has anchors and citations

Speaker 1: Yes.

Speaker 3: make it a trusted resource. And then the other piece that you see read a lot of times will be cited in, in LLMs is because of the human centered content, right? So that all is happening kind of somewhat organically, if you will. That might be the wrong terminology to use. But as this evolves, Yelp has naturally become… And it’s not due to licensing and, and agreements with these LLMs.

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 3: It’s just natural, right? I do know, not specifically, that we’re working on different licensing with these

Speaker 1: Okay.

Speaker 3: as they evolve as well, to be more in the mix with how they kind of evolve themselves as platforms and how consumers use it. And I know Yelp is really taking initiative to be on the forefront of

Speaker 1: Okay.

Speaker 3: as we already are, as it comes to AI.

Speaker 1: Good.

Speaker 4: Yeah. And just to chime in here, I think in our last town hall meeting, we kind of shared with some of the developments happening with the partnerships with Google and, and Gemini and ChatGBT and OpenAI. Soon it’ll be not just recommendations from Yelp. Well, they’re it’ll actually be showing Yelp’s live content in that user or the AI search query. So not only will it just be, you know, recommendations, but you’ll actually be able to interact with Yelp’s live content in these LLMs.

Speaker 1: Wow. What… Real quick, what’s town hall. Can anybody join that it

Speaker 3: it’s only for the, you have to come to us for all the details.

Speaker 1: Cool.

Speaker 3: You know?

Speaker 1: Cool, cool, cool. Cool. I know, I was like, “Wait, what is this?”

Speaker 3: It’s an internal town

Speaker 1: That’s awesome though.

Speaker 3: where discuss specifically about the initiatives that Yelp is doing and AI is liter-… was the number one, two and three topics of

Speaker 1: Of course.

Speaker 3: just because it’s evolving at a rapid pace.

Speaker 1: Of course.

Speaker 3: And if you’re not being prepared for it, I I don’t know if you could be prepared a-… because it changes, I feel like, by the second. But just being, A, at a minimum, aware of how it works, and B just being part of that

Speaker 1: Correct.

Speaker 3: I is really important.

Speaker 1: Correct. No, that’s fantastic. And again, you know, you guys have cracked that nut already, so let’s continue to stay on top of it. We’ve teased this just a minute ago, but I wanna talk about it just a little bit more. So for contractors who are already running Google Ads and Meta

Speaker 3: Yeah.

Speaker 1: how does Yelp advertising fit into that mix? I mean, I, I know we kinda talked about that, but and then what’s the case for adding Yelp as a paid channel?

Speaker 3: Yeah. So we hit off that a little bit.

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 3: How does it fit into the mix? I think it’s really dependent on let me walk you through how we work with, and Fat Cat works with, with clients, right?

Speaker 1: Perfect.

Speaker 3: The first thing is do an audit, right? Let’s identify for Yelp, A, is it a viable fit, right? How are the reviews on your profile? How much search demand and inventory is there in your local market?

Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: And how… What are the competitors doing? Are they just jacking up the CPC price by putting unlimited budgets amount where it’s gonna be hard to compete? And then what we do from there is kinda identify, hey, is this a good opportunity? How do we stack up on CPLs, on Google, on Meta, knowing that our in-… audience might be more high intent and, and convert at a higher rate? If that all aligns, then it would be a viable solution to offer to the end client, right?

Speaker 1: Yep.

Speaker 3: Meaning, the businesses. If it’s not, we would never recommend it, because it’s not a fit for the agency to recommend for you all.

Speaker 1: Correct.

Speaker 3: It’s not a fit for you all to be successful, right? And that is the end goal for all of us, to make sure it’s a successful, valuable, ROI positive platform.

Speaker 1: Exactly.

Speaker 3: So that’s kinda how we work, and then I think just going back to what I said earlier, it’s like, if you’re investing in paid media for lead generation, it’s really taking a look at your backend attribution, seeing where your estimates are booked, where your leads are generated from, and where revenue is coming from. And then based on that and working backwards, it’s like, hey, if Yelp is performing better than other platforms, is there an opportunity to increase ad spend?

Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: Am I spending the right amount? Am I spending a little bit Should I go… Should I scale back a little bit to get optimal results, right? And then I always say, “Don’t r-… put your eggs all in one basket, because as you know, Google LSA will change-“

Speaker 1: Yep.

Speaker 3: pretty well, right? Meta may have inconsistent results. So you never wanna put all your money in one platform. God forbid anything were to

Speaker 1: Yes.

Speaker 3: from getting locked out, your GMB getting locked out, right?

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 3: Or all of a sudden an advertiser comes into the market and,

Speaker 1: Uh-huh.

Speaker 3: increases cost, and I’m sure, Kalyn, you’ve experienced

Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3: with your

Speaker 1: Got some emails yesterday.

Speaker 3: Yes. So that’s where we come in. We try to take a holistic approach, where it fits into your strategy. We’re not here to just say, “Yeah, do it, and do it as, as much as you can.” We try to take a more consultative approach with our partner

Speaker 1: Yeah. I’ll, and I’ll echo, I mean, that I’ve seen that data that you guys are… that you’re talking about in terms of, you know, reach users, et cetera per market, per client, like, in profile. I’ve seen that spreadsheet, you know, presented to us as an agency to share with our clients, and it’s, it’s great. It’s f-… it’s very informative, so I know exactly what you’re talking about.

Speaker 4: 100%, I also would like to add, like, the data is the biggest thing that we kind of lean on for

Speaker 1: Yes.

Speaker 4: attributions. And, you know, kinda like Ryan mentioned before, lo-… smaller businesses have tried advertising Yelp in the past and didn’t really see

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 4: weren’t really sure how to track, you know, what they were getting from Yelp. And again, just one of the benefits of working with an agency partner like Fat Cat is they get access to tools and, and things that the… that the local business owners don’t get on the self-service side of things.

Speaker 1: Yes.

Speaker 4: So another layer of just beneficial… benefits of working with that partner is just having access to those advanced tracking and reporting tools to really measure that ROI.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Definitely.

Speaker 3: And for anybody who’s like, “Hey, I could try this on my own and, and run ads all on my own,” what we’ve seen a lot of times is attribution’s not connected. You don’t have the ability, as Phil said, to connect APIs. You don’t have a more granular view on where the leads are converting at and the quality of those leads.

Speaker 1: Correct.

Speaker 3: And then, just the creative and, like, that overall, like, the NAP information, like, minor things that you don’t even think are important, that’s what we support Kalyn and her team on. That sometimes you don’t get full access

Speaker 1: No.

Speaker 3: doing it on your own.

Speaker 1: No. Completely agree. I, I know, like, I, like I said, we… I mean, that’s one area that you… we’ve connected really tightly about is that data, and I… and we’re data nerds, like I said, and we love it. We love seeing this. And I can take that to a client and say, “Look, you guys have 1,000 people going to your profile or going to your competitor’s profile a month. What do we wanna do about that?” So just for example. And more to come with that at the end if you hang tight. Last question. Okay, so where do you see Yelp’s role in local search and AI-driven discovery evolving over the next two to three years? If you have a magic ball, and I know these, these secret town hall meetings that Phil speaks of.

Speaker 3: I think it’s doing more of the same of being… two things, on-platform and off-platform, right?

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 3: Off-platform meaning, yes, we have people who come to Yelp because we’re a trusted platform and people rely on us to find local businesses, right? That’s our, our job, job as Yelp and their mission is to connect…… local customers with great local businesses, right? But as search evolves to different platforms and not just relying on Google, I think continuing what Yelp has already done in terms of being at the forefront of being a top citation source for these LLMs. And then, as Phil mentioned, seeing that information within the LLMs where you might not even have to get to Yelp, and you could book through Yelp on those platforms, if that comes up soon. It just makes the consumer journey

Speaker 1: Yes.

Speaker 3: clunky, if you will, and easier for them to navigate to get to where they need to, which is to book an estimate or book a job with you all. So that’s really exciting. And then, like, unofficially, as I mentioned, we, we don’t oversee this, but, like, the licensing and more direct integrations with these LLMs will just open up the doors to access more consumers in your local market to book with you all through AI.

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 3: And then, sorry, I, I… The on platform, right? I, I didn’t hit on the on platform.

Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. You’re good.

Speaker 3: I it’s continuing to refine our tools to provide them what they’re looking for when they get onto Yelp, right? High intent search, people are on there. They’re looking for something more granular. Maybe it’s a specific type of kitchen remodeling with specific countertops or

Speaker 1: Yep.

Speaker 3: cabinetry, for example. Or, or one of those cool islands that when the water goes in, it all funnels to, like, one side. That I saw, like, one of the famous people have. Who knows what you’re searching for? But being able to connect those and using LLMs with on

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 3: to better connect the consumer with what you provide? I think that’s gonna continue to be really important for

Speaker 1: Critical.

Speaker 3: to mess with local businesses.

Speaker 4: Yeah. 100%, Ryan. And like you mentioned, you know, our goal at Yelp is to connect consumers with, with great local businesses. And, you know, we’re already investing a ton of resources into our AI platform Excuse me, AI tools on platform. So like our Yelp assistant we have… Our, our search model on, on Yelp has completely changed. No longer are people going to search, you know, plumber near me or near me. You can actually search similar to what you would do on a ChatGPT or Gemini and ask a real question about a specific tool that you’re looking for. Maybe you’re looking for that island that has the swoop on it that

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 4: everything to one side, like Ryan mentioned.

Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.

Speaker 4: And we’ll use that content that you’re entering in to pull up the most relevant you know, provider or contractor in you or near you. So, it’s really important of how, you know, search and just some of the tools that we’re investing is, is completely changing the way business or consumers find businesses with AI Yelp.

Speaker 1: Absolutely. Guys, that was awesome. I, I’m… I know you’re gonna speak a little bit in a minute about more of the agency partnership side of things. But thank you, ’cause like that’s a view that our clients and I’m sure people who’ve tuned in today don’t usually get. So, just to hear from Yelp themselves, that means a lot. So, thank you. Okay, so now let me take everything we’ve covered and translate it into what it means for your business specifically. So… Oh, I’m gonna make you guys smaller so everybody can see this. Okay. So, four things every contractor needs to know. So, I’m gonna be direct here, and I know Phil and Ryan already said this, Yelp is not going to replace Google. It doesn’t. It… And it just, it doesn’t. So it’s not gonna replace your website either. It’s not gonna replace your Google Ads. We’ve, we’ve all said that. Even the Yelp guys have said this. It doesn’t replace your reputation management. All of those things still matter. But what I am gonna tell you is that Yelp has become a channel that you cannot afford to leave unmanaged, if you haven’t already picked up on that. Because now it’s touching every other channel that you’re investing in. When Yelp is working, it amplifies everything else. When it’s not, it creates a gap that’s invisible until you’re wondering why your leads have dried up. Four things that I do wanna make sure you guys walk away with from this call. One, Yelp is a lead generation channel, not a listing. The contractors getting real ROI from Yelp aren’t just claiming their profile. They have active campaigns, managed review generation, and a presence that’s been built deliberately the same way you’d think about Google Ads and your agency partner would do that for you. Two, your Yelp presence is now your AI presence. We just showed you that, like, all of that proof. I… And there’s more proof out there too. When AI recommends a local contractor, it’s drawing heavily from Yelp data. If your profile is incomplete, outdated, or inactive, you’re invisible in a growing share of how homeowners are searching. Three, reviews are lead generation assets, not social proof, not reputation management. Assets. The volume, recency, and quality of your Yelp reviews directly affects where you show up in AI recommendations, which directly affects your lead flow. And then four, this channel rewards active management. Yelp is not a set it and forget it, just like Google. Responding to reviews, updating business info, running targeted campaigns, monitoring performance, these are ongoing tasks that compound over time. Which brings me to the most important question for contractors on this call. Let’s see. Are you running Yelp like a real channel, or is it just a profile that exists somewhere? Okay. So here’s why you can partner with Fat Cat for Yelp. And if you already have an agency that you’re working with, ask them if they’re an agency partner with Yelp. I know these guys. Also, we have their information at the end of the call that you can connect with them as well, and they might be able to help you out, of course, if you don’t wanna work with Fat Cat on this Okay. So, Fat Cat Strategies, like we’ve said, is a certified Yelp advertising partner. It’s not just a badge. It changes what’s actually available to your business when we manage Yelp on your behalf versus you doing it on your own. That is the truth. So, here’s what this partnership means in practice. Phil, Ryan, I’m gonna let you kind of speak to this in more detail.

Speaker 3: Yeah. I think the biggest thing here is, especially if you’ve ran an advertising program in your in, in the past, is that when you work with a Yelp agency partner, number one is you have a team behind you in addition to your agency that supports you, right? So a

Speaker 1: Yep.

Speaker 3: team to assist with things like as simple as adding users to get access to, to the ability to respond to reviews, or lead in to respond to our leads, right? That’s just the basics, right? But it’s always great, especially when you have reps on other platforms that you can never get in touch with, or it’s an automated call center that is unhelpful, right? I think that’s the biggest value that we provide.

Speaker 1: Definitely.

Speaker 3: But more importantly, what Fat Cat and their team does is they set up professionally professionally managed campaigns. So what does that mean? So that’s anything from, what is the budget we should be spending?

Speaker 1: Yep.

Speaker 3: Take an analytical approach, where sometimes you’re flying blind without it, right? And you’re just kinda guessing, “What should be my optimal budget for this platform?” Looking at benchmark data. “Hey, what should we assume or anticipate to receive in terms of a CPC, CPL, and more importantly, return on ad spend,” right? And then more granular things on the campaign setup, from geo-targeting to setting up your service area, to keywords, to being in the right categories and services. All of those things are simple in, in, in you go into them like, “Oh, this is simple.” But there’s a lot of nuances that they have been trained and are certified for. Different discounts and promos, especially now as the home season service is in full swing, already here in April. Leveraging additional free ad dollars during the home season so you can take advantage of that. And also, shoulder season promos, where, hey, it’s tougher now, where we do get more aggressive in the shoulder season to keep our guys employed, to keep our trucks running, to keep them

Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: until we get back into that home home services prime season. And then I think the last two things that I would just wanna hit on is advanced attribution and tracking to help with identifying, is Yelp working? If not, what do we need to refine? And setting up API integrations, to whether it’s your CRM or an autoresponder to field lead intake. All of those things, Fat Cat and their team are, are here to help with. And then the last thing is just data-driven tracking and reporting.

Speaker 1: So

Speaker 3: we can look on-platform, as well as off-platform. What’s working? What’s not working? What do we need to adjust as we go through this campaign to make it as efficient as possible?

Speaker 1: Yeah. So, so, that’s the beginning and end of what we do. If we can’t prove that what we’re doing is working, then what’s the point? So.

Speaker 3: Sure.

Speaker 1: And you guys do the same, which makes it easy for us to partner with you guys and recommend you. Okay. So this is a little repetitive, but I mean, Phil too, you might be able to chime in a little bit if you want. Like, when we’re managing Yelp for a contractor, you know, here’s what’s actually happening on an ongoing basis. Like us as an agency, what we’re doing behind the scenes, yes, we have Phil and Ryan, which they are amazing and so responsive and, you know, willing, you know, so available, which you don’t hear of a lot. But what else? In, in addition to everything else that, you know, Ryan just mentioned?

Speaker 4: Yeah. I mean, I’d like to echo that the biggest value that we provide is, is really just kind of like Caitlyn said, being available and

Speaker 1: Yes.

Speaker 4: to help set you up for success. It’s not our goal to get you to spend all your money on Yelp. Our goal to make it so that Yelp actually works for you, and that the money that you are spending on it, it, you’re getting some return from it. You know, so whatever that entails, we’re willing to do. Like we work very closely with Caitlyn and the rest of her team to review campaigns, you know, sometimes weekly and even biweekly to make sure that

Speaker 1: Yes.

Speaker 4: there are things that need to be tweaked, and we’re, you know, taking advantage of them, and we’re getting, taking the initiative so that you don’t look up at the end of the month and you say, “Hey, my Yelp campaign is not performing.” Know that on the, on the back end, or even on the front end, we’re doing everything that we can to make sure that your campaigns are being successful and that you’re booking jobs from it.

Speaker 3: And I would

Speaker 1: Yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 3: sorry, Cait.

Speaker 1: No, no, no, please, that’s spot on. I agree. Go ahead.

Speaker 3: I was just gonna say, the last thing to kind of close it up is just making sure it’s just not another platform that’s out in the ecosystem.

Speaker 1: Correct.

Speaker 3: It’s just, hey, you did get 100 views last week and, or for the last, in the last 30 days, and, “Oh, I didn’t even know we had a Yelp page.”

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 3: It’s like you’re missing out on the opportunity to control your brand, to generate leads, and to provide with the most accurate information, to put your best foot forward in your local, local area, right? For your, for your, services and categories that you provide. The one thing, too, is just with the review response management and leave request, what we call request to

Speaker 1: Yes.

Speaker 3: once customers fill that out, that signals to Yelp that, hey, they’re responding. And, and that’s one of our best practices. Respond to reviews, whether it’s a positive or negative

Speaker 1: You to.

Speaker 3: What we’ve seen through the data is that a review is only half the battle, right? Meaning, there’s context around that review, whether we’ve all gotten a bad review and I own a business separate, and you get a bad review, you take it personally, right?

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 3: It’s your, it’s your baby. But it’s kind of the game we’re playing right now. So when a consumer goes and sees your review, and maybe it’s a subpar review, right? The more important thing is that they see an active business engaging with that review to maybe explain the situation, to maybe provide more context. You know what that signals to the consumer? Hey, maybe it was a one-off. Maybe this person is leaving a because they were feeling a certain type of way about how something was handled, but the business came in and took the time to respond in a professional in a professional way to explain the situation, and it provides further context. And it… In me at least on a subjective opinion, that shows me the business cares, right?

Speaker 1: Correct.

Speaker 3: They, they care about their reputation. They care about their customers, even though something may not have gone as perfectly as… ‘Cause we all know it doesn’t every time in business. And, and then the the request to quote flow, it has signals about whether or not you’re an engaged business. So if you have a lead coming through… Let’s just say you weren’t… For the last few years, you didn’t even know you had a Yelp page, and a lead comes through. Now you don’t have a response time because you never responded, and your response rate is 0%.

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 3: That signals to our system that you’re a non-engaged business. So what does that mean? To make the consumer journey, Yelp wants to connect consumers with local businesses. So if you’re signaling that you don’t want to engage with that lead and communicate with that lead, it’s saying, “Hey, maybe we shouldn’t send that to the business,” because they aren’t providing a really good level of care and service for this lead who’s raising their hand to hire a home service pro.

Speaker 1: Correct.

Speaker 3: So those are the, some of the smaller things that signal as an active campaign. And an active listing on Yelp, that can help your business as well.

Speaker 1: Yeah. That’s fantastic. Thank you so much for speaking to that. And, and yes. You know, when you partner with somebody like us or another agency, preferred Yelp, you know, partner, they should be. They should be setting up your campaign and tracking the targeting. They should be responding to your reviews if you’re okay with that. Obviously monitoring your AI visibility, looking at that review strategy, making sure your profile is accurate, and of course reporting regularly to you on it. The contractors who we see that are, like, getting the best results from Yelp aren’t the ones that… You guys already said this. Aren’t spending the most. They’re the ones who are just managing it consistently. Whether it’s an agency or they have somebody else doing it, that consistency is what builds the compounding advantage over time. Your Yelp profile isn’t just for customers anymore. It’s for algorithms, and both deserve a real strategy behind them. So, bum ba-da-dum. This is from, from both Fat Cat and Yelp is going to provide this as well. we’re offering a free Yelp hyper-local audit and AI visibility audit. So, two audits for every attendee. We’re gonna look at exactly how your business is showing up or not showing up across AI-driven search. Yelp, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Bing Copilot, Google AI overviews. We’re gonna identify the gaps, and we’ll let, we’ll tell you specifically what you can do about it. So, Yelp’s gonna bring that hyper-local audit. We’re gonna bring the AI visibility audit. And then after seeing your results and you wanna talk about having Fat Cat manage this for you, of course we’re gonna include running Yelp campaigns as your certified partner in that conversation if you need it. But, but that conversation is just the easy start. So we work with contractors like you guys, and we already know how to make this channel perform. So you can scan that QR code. You can also… We’re gonna send an follow-up email, but it’s fatcatstrategies, so easy to .com/ai, and that’s gonna take you right to the place to request your audit. But again, if you’ve attended, we’re gonna go ahead and give that to you anyways, and we’ll send that to you in an email in a couple business days. So Phil, Ryan, thank you genuinely. The visibility that you gave our audience into how Yelp is thinking about this is not something that they’re going to just get from a blog post. So I wanna say this. If Yelp is somewhere homeowners are actively deciding who to hire, it’s now one of the primary inputs into how AI makes recommendations. The question isn’t whether you should be there. It’s whether you’re there in a way that’s actually working. So, that’s what we’re here to help with. Grab that audit link and we’ll talk soon.

Meredith (1): And that is the webinar. All right, Caitlyn, what is one thing that you want contractors to do now after they have heard that?

Caitlyn (1): Go check how you’re showing up. We’re offering a free AI visibility audit to anyone listening. We’ll look at how your business surfaces across Yelp, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Bing Copilot, and Google AI Overviews, and tell you exactly where the gaps are. It’s at fatcatstrategies.com/AI.

Meredith (1): Exactly. And that link is gonna be in the show notes, so you can go there to find it. And as always, thank you so much for tuning in to Digital Marketing for Contractors. We will see you next episode.

Caitlyn (1): Thanks.