Yelp launches new platform: Yelp Audiences

Yelp, the popular local business discovery platform has launched Yelp Audiences to connect national and regional advertisers with consumers based on Yelp search activity. This creates the opportunity to target high intent Yelp users outside the Yelp platform and at any stage in the purchase cycle.

By working directly with advertisers, Yelp reduces the need for them to purchase consumer data from third-parties. Yelp Audiences also protects user privacy by not sharing personally identifying information with advertisers. Yelp partners with DSPs to target ads based on Yelp searches. 

Ads are delivered across channels, including websites, mobile apps, and video streaming through CTV.

KitchenAid previously partnered with Yelp by using Yelp Audiences to promote women-owned restaurants. A study by Kantar, a third-party measurement company, found that respondents who saw KitchenAid’s Yelp Audiences ads showed a 12 point lift in the perception that “KitchenAid is made for people who love to cook,” a 5X higher lift compared to the industry benchmark for brand attributes.

Why we care. Yelp has long served local businesses. This is part of its ongoing pivot to serve national and regional businesses at the local level. And of course, Yelp is yet another company that happily finds itself sitting on an awful lot of logged-in first-party data, not unlike, say, Facebook.