Short answer: Yelp Ads are pay-per-click ads on Yelp. Your business can show as a “Sponsored Result” above and below search results, on competitors’ pages and on other websites through the Yelp Ad Network. You set a budget, an automated auction sets the price of each click, and Yelp never charges more than your monthly budget. On November 10, 2026, Yelp’s pricing page listed Yelp Ads from $150.00 a month.
How Yelp ads work
To advertise on Yelp, a business first claims its page. Yelp says claiming is free and doesn’t make a business an advertiser. Our guide to Yelp for business shows how to claim the page and handle its reviews.
The Yelp Ads system is based on an auction. It automatically uses your budget to bid against competitors, and Yelp can show your ad when people search for relevant keywords or categories.
Yelp assigns each search to a category and delivers ads relevant to that category. Your ads run in categories that match your business and in similar ones its system finds relevant.
You can choose the photo and text of your ad, or let Yelp’s algorithms optimize them. The button in the ad can ask people to call or message you, visit your website or open a map for directions.
Where Yelp ads appear
Yelp names these among the places where it shows ads:
- As a “Sponsored Result” at the top and bottom of search result pages.
- On competitors’ business pages, when those competitors aren’t buying page upgrades.
- In carousels, as themed ads that usually relate to a category need.
- In the map card, when people search for directions.
- On other websites, through the Yelp Ad Network.
Yelp says it’s always testing new places for its ads. Wherever an ad shows, you pay per click, however many impressions it takes to bring people to your Yelp page.
The Yelp Ad Network can show your ads to Yelp users on third-party sites, such as Business Insider and The Washington Post. Yelp builds those ads from your Yelp page content, and a click takes people to your Yelp page.
Yelp splits your budget between Yelp and the network on its own, and you don’t have to do anything to use it. Ads off Yelp typically get more impressions and a lower click-through rate, Yelp says.
Once you get clicks through the network, your Ads dashboard can show on-Yelp ads only, Ad Network ads only, or both combined.
What Yelp ads cost
On November 10, 2026, Yelp’s local business pricing page listed Yelp Ads from $150.00 a month. The Upgrade Package was $180.00 a month, and ads with the package started at $270.00 a month.
The page adds that minimum budgets are subject to change. Yelp’s ads page says you can spend as little as $5.00 a day on average, with minimums that can change with business size.
At $5.00 a day, 30 days come to $150.00, the entry figure on the pricing page.
Each click is charged at your cost per click, which an automated auction sets. The price depends on factors such as how many businesses like yours compete for the same clicks, the available ad inventory and consumer interest.
Your cost per click can change during the month with market factors such as seasonality, the number of Yelp searches or the number of advertisers in your area. The cost-per-click estimate you get at sign-up may be higher or lower than your actual cost per click.
Yelp says it uses industry-standard measures to detect and prevent invalid traffic and click fraud. It doesn’t bill clicks that come in rapid succession from the same user.
In our view, treat the sign-up estimate as a rough guide to what you’ll pay.
How the monthly budget works
Yelp sets your monthly maximum by multiplying your average daily budget by 30 days. Spend can go above the average on a given day, but the month’s total never exceeds that maximum.
Because the price per click varies, Yelp doesn’t pace your budget evenly across the month. It says to plan on spending all of it.
Unused budget doesn’t roll over. In Yelp’s example, if your maximum is $300.00 and Yelp only fulfills $200.00, your next month doesn’t get the other $100.00 unless you set a new budget yourself.
If you start after the first of the month, Yelp prorates that month’s ad budget. If you cancel before the month ends, Yelp may already have delivered your whole budget in clicks.
Changing the budget in the middle of a month resets the pacing, and you will likely be charged more or less than the new budget. You pay for the clicks you got under both budgets.
In our view, choose a budget you can leave alone for a full month, then judge it.
Keywords and distance
You can block keywords for goods and services you don’t offer, or that you don’t want your budget to target. You can also boost the keywords that matter most to your business.
Yelp gives priority to searches as close to your business as possible. The radius isn’t a set distance and can vary by business or category. In Yelp’s example, a coffee shop gets a smaller radius than a contractor.
Distance targeting shows your ads in the regions you specify, depending on your business category.
Businesses in housing, credit or employment categories can’t use some Yelp Ads features. They include negative keyword targeting, keyword boosting, and ZIP code or city targeting. Radius targeting is available to all advertisers.
On Google, our guide to Google Ads location targeting explains how to show your ads only where you work.
In our view, if your category allows it, block the services you don’t offer before your ad goes live.
Page upgrades and cancelling
The Upgrade Package is separate from ads. Yelp’s pricing page lists eye-catching visuals, seasonal and special offers, and no competitor ads on your page.
Page upgrades come with a fixed fee, the same each month, and some are only for eligible categories. Yelp says most free Yelp pages show competitor ads in the center of the page.
Self-serve advertisers have no term contracts and can cancel at any time. If you’re on a contract, Yelp asks you to call its “Customer Success” team to cancel.
On a full-service program, budget changes also go through Customer Success.
Yelp says advertisers get no preferential treatment other than the ads themselves.
How to measure Yelp ads
One way to measure them, Yelp says, is to review the “User Views” and “Customer Leads” tabs in Yelp for Business. Yelp lists the leads to track, such as calls, messages, clicks to your website, and directions and map views.
Once a customer logs off, Yelp says it can’t follow their actions. Its link tracking, which ties actions on your website to your ads, is for advertisers with 10 or more locations.
In our view, ask each new customer how they found you, and write down every answer that names Yelp.
Yelp ads or Google ads
Our guide to Google Local Services Ads explains Google’s local ads where you pay for each valid lead instead of each click.
For your Google Business Profile, our checklist to rank higher on Google Maps has the steps.
In our view, put your first budget where your customers search before they call: on Yelp if they check Yelp, on Google if they start with Google.
Before you start Yelp ads
- Your Yelp business page is claimed, with current details.
- If your category allows it, you’ve blocked keywords for the services you don’t offer.
- You know your monthly maximum: your average daily budget times 30.
- You know a start after the first of the month gets a prorated budget.
- You know whether you advertise self-serve or on a contract, and how each one cancels.
- You have a way to count the calls, messages and website clicks that come from Yelp.
RememberYelp Ads charge per click at an auction price, within a monthly maximum of your average daily budget times 30. Unused budget doesn’t roll over, and self-serve advertisers have no term contracts.
We focus on Google Ads and Meta Ads. Our Google Ads service builds and runs your Google Search campaigns in English and Spanish, and every week it reads the exact words people typed before they clicked.
Questions about Yelp ads
How much do Yelp ads cost?
On November 10, 2026, Yelp’s pricing page listed Yelp Ads from $150.00 a month. Its ads page said you can spend as little as $5.00 a day on average. Each click’s price comes from an automated auction, and minimum budgets are subject to change.
Do I pay for impressions on Yelp?
No. Yelp says you’re always charged per click, wherever your ad is delivered and however many impressions it takes. Your total for the month never goes over the monthly maximum you set.
Can I cancel Yelp ads at any time?
If you advertise self-serve, yes: Yelp says there are no term contracts for self-serve advertisers. On a contract, you call Yelp’s Customer Success team. If you cancel mid-month, Yelp may already have delivered your whole monthly budget in clicks.
Does unused Yelp ad budget roll over?
No. Yelp says that if it fulfills only part of your monthly maximum, it won’t add the rest to next month’s budget. Your budget only goes up if you set a new one yourself.
Do Yelp ads show outside Yelp?
Yes, through the Yelp Ad Network. Yelp can show your ads to Yelp users on third-party sites, such as Business Insider and The Washington Post, and builds them from your Yelp page. You only pay when someone clicks.
Sources
Read on November 10, 2026. From Yelp for Business: Yelp Ads and Yelp Local Business Pricing. From the Yelp Business Help Center, on the page and placements: What is a claimed business?, Where do Yelp Ads deliver? and What is the Yelp Ad Network? On cost: How does Yelp's Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising program work? and How is the cost-per-click for Yelp Ads determined? On the budget: Why did I go over my average daily budget? and Does unused ad budget rollover to the next month? On billing changes: How will I be charged for partial months? and How do I change my Yelp advertising program or ad budget? On clicks: How do I know my competitors are not driving up my traffic and clicking on my Yelp ads? On targeting: How can I select, block and boost keywords to help target my Yelp Ads? and What is the ad delivery radius for my business? On restricted categories: Ad Targeting for Housing, Credit, and Employment Related Ads. On upgrades and cancelling: What are Page Upgrades?, How do I cancel my Yelp advertising program? and Does Yelp treat advertisers any differently than non-advertisers? On measurement: How do I measure the success of my Yelp advertising? and How can I track what traffic comes to my website from clicks on my Yelp Ads?