TL;DR
Yelp Ads are pay-per-click with no published rate card. Yelp's own page says you can spend "as little as $5 a day on average," there are no term contracts for self-serve advertisers, and you can cancel anytime. The price per click floats with competition in your category and city, so Yelp will not quote one; observed 2025 and 2026 clicks run roughly $4 to $12 for auto, $5 to $15 for HVAC and plumbing, $8 to $20 for med spas and $10 to $25 for law firms, with cost per lead landing at $50 to $150 for home services once you divide by the share of clicks that call. Whether that is worth it depends on one thing Yelp cannot change: whether homeowners in your city open Yelp to find a contractor. In coastal metros they do. In most of the Midwest and South they open Google, and the same $300 a month buys exclusive leads on Local Services Ads instead. Start at $300 to $500 a month for 60 days, track calls per dollar, and stop if cost per booked job passes 15 percent of your average ticket.
Disclosure: Skill Mammoth manages Google Local Services Ads and Google Ads for contractors and does not resell Yelp. Several of our clients run Yelp Ads alongside us, some profitably, so the numbers below are the ones we use with them rather than a reason to switch.
How Yelp Ads are priced
Yelp sells one core ad product for local businesses: a sponsored placement above and below search results and on competitors' pages, billed per click. Yelp's business site on October 5, 2026 makes four commitments. You can "spend as little as $5 a day on average." You can adjust the budget "to any maximum amount, when you want and as often as you want." There are "no term contracts with self-serve advertisers," and you can edit or cancel anytime. Yelp also says businesses that buy ads get "4x more leads," a median figure from its own data for January to September 2024, so treat it as a ceiling rather than a forecast.
The price per click is where it gets slippery, and Yelp's own help center is candid about it. Each click is charged at your CPC price, and "you pay a different price per click depending on the supply and demand of that moment," which depends on how many similar businesses are competing, available ad inventory and consumer interest. The CPC can change through the month with seasonality, search volume and advertiser count. The ad is not paced evenly ("you could spend $5 one day and $7 another day"), and Yelp states it will never charge more than the monthly budget you set and that you should "plan to have 100% of your budget fulfilled." That last line is the important one: the budget is a spend target, not a cap you will come in under.
What a Yelp click and a Yelp lead actually cost
Because the rate floats, every number here is observed. The CPC ranges are from a 2025 industry benchmark that cites Yelp's own business resources; the cost-per-lead math applies the share of clicks that turn into a call, message or quote request, which in our clients' Yelp dashboards runs 8 to 20 percent depending on how complete the profile is.
| Category | Observed cost per click | Clicks that become a lead | Cost per lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auto repair and detailing | $4 to $12 | 10 to 20% | $40 to $120 |
| HVAC and plumbing | $5 to $15 | 10 to 15% | $50 to $150 |
| Movers and cleaners | $4 to $10 | 12 to 20% | $30 to $80 |
| Med spa and dental | $8 to $20 | 8 to 12% | $80 to $200 |
| Law firms | $10 to $25 | 8 to 10% | $100 to $300 |
| Verdict | A $300 month at a $9 click buys about 33 clicks and three to five leads. If one of those books at a normal ticket, Yelp paid for itself. If none do for two months running, your market is a Google market and the budget belongs on Local Services Ads. | ||
One documented small-business case shows the range in a single account. A marketing consultancy that published its full Yelp Ads invoice reported a three-month program priced at $970.40 that delivered 95 clicks, for a cost per click of $8.68 after Yelp's promotional bonus spend and $20.03 without it. Of 95 clicks, 23 took a profile action and 2 were leads the owner considered worth having, which is $485 per real lead. One of the two became a client and covered the entire bill. That is what a Yelp test looks like when it is marginal: not a disaster, not a channel.
What else Yelp will sell you
Yelp Ads are the click budget. Everything else on the business dashboard is a profile upgrade, sold separately and priced in your account rather than on a public page: the enhanced profile bundle that removes competitor ads from your page, adds a call-to-action button, a photo slideshow and business highlights, plus a Verified License badge for licensed trades. None of these generate traffic. They raise the share of visitors who call, which is why Yelp's own material claims enhanced profiles convert 38 percent more often. Buy them after the ads are producing clicks, not before, and ask for each line item's price in writing.
Yelp Guaranteed is the exception. It costs nothing to participate, covers projects booked through Request a Quote or Yelp Assistant up to a lifetime maximum of $2,500 per customer, and is available to businesses in select service categories that have Request a Quote enabled and are running Yelp Ads. If you qualify, take it; the badge sits next to your name in search results and costs you only the obligation to respond to refund claims within Yelp's process.
Not sure whether your city is a Yelp city?
We can tell from your Google Business Profile and Search Console in about ten minutes. Bring both to a free call and we will say where the next $300 should go.
Is Yelp advertising worth it? The honest test
Yelp's audience is real: 74 million monthly visitors by Comscore's 2025 average and over half a million advertisers. The question is whether those visitors are your homeowners. Yelp's usage is heavily concentrated in California, the Pacific Northwest, the Northeast corridor and a handful of large metros, and it skews toward restaurants, auto, beauty and a few home service categories (movers, plumbers, HVAC, cleaners, contractors) in those markets. Outside them, the typical homeowner who needs a plumber opens Google Maps, and a Yelp ad is buying a seat in an empty room.
Three checks before you spend a dollar, in order.
- Search your own trade on Yelp in your city. Count the businesses with more than 50 reviews. Fewer than ten means your competitors have not found an audience there either.
- Check your Google Business Profile insights for the last 90 days. If Google is already sending 200-plus calls a quarter, Yelp is a supplement. If it is sending 20, your money goes further fixing that first; how to get contractor leads ranks every channel by cost per booked job.
- Price the same $300 against Local Services Ads. LSAs charge per lead, not per click, the lead is exclusive, and most home service trades pay $20 to $80 with close rates of 25 to 45 percent. The trade-by-trade table is in Local Services Ads cost.
| Your situation | Yelp Ads | Better first move |
|---|---|---|
| Coastal metro, 30-plus Yelp reviews, phones answered live | Worth a 60-day test at $300 to $500 | Run it alongside LSAs and compare cost per booked job |
| Midwest or Southern market, under 10 Yelp reviews | Skip | Google Business Profile reviews, then LSAs |
| Movers, cleaners, auto in any big city | Usually works | Keep the profile complete and respond to every quote request within the hour |
| Roofing, remodeling, large-ticket installs | Rarely pencils | LSAs and your own site; Yelp shoppers in these trades collect five bids |
| Any business with a 3-star Yelp profile | Do not advertise a bad page | Fix the review response pattern first; see how to respond to negative reviews |
| Verdict | Yelp is a conversion channel for businesses that already have a Yelp audience. It is not a way to create one. | |
Three Yelp offers to skip
The rep-sold program with a term. Yelp's page says there are no term contracts for self-serve advertisers. Read the clause again: self-serve. If a Yelp rep calls with an ad credit, a bonus budget or a bundled profile package, ask in writing whether the program carries a term and what the early cancellation terms are. Set the budget yourself in the dashboard if you can.
The profile upgrade before the ads work. Removing competitor ads from a page nobody visits buys nothing. Prove the clicks come first, then raise the conversion rate with the upgrade.
Ads on a profile with under ten reviews. A sponsored result next to competitors with 200 reviews gets the click and loses the call. Thirty reviews is the floor where Yelp Ads begin to convert at the rates in the table above. Thumbtack has the same dynamic and the same fix, which we work through in is Thumbtack worth it.
How to run the 60-day test
- Complete the free profile first: every service, hours, 20-plus photos, license number, and a response to every existing review.
- Set $10 to $17 a day ($300 to $500 a month) in the dashboard yourself. Turn on Request a Quote and route the notifications to a phone that is answered.
- Use a tracking number on the Yelp profile only, so Yelp calls are separable from Google calls in your CRM. The attribution setup is in marketing attribution for home service contractors.
- At day 30 and day 60, divide spend by booked jobs. Under 10 percent of average ticket: raise the budget. Over 15 percent: pause and move the money to LSAs.
Want the $300 to go where your customers are?
We run Local Services Ads for a flat $300 a month or 15 percent of spend, with every lead disputed and every call tracked. A fifteen-minute call tells you whether Yelp belongs in the mix.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Yelp Ads cost per month?
Yelp's minimum is about $5 a day, or roughly $150 a month, and there is no maximum. A realistic first test for a home service business is $300 to $500 a month for 60 days. Yelp will spend the full monthly budget you set, so treat the number as a target rather than a cap.
How much is a click on Yelp?
Yelp does not publish a rate and the price changes with competition, season and inventory. Observed 2025 and 2026 ranges run $4 to $12 for auto, $5 to $15 for HVAC and plumbing, $8 to $20 for med spas and $10 to $25 for law firms. Your dashboard shows your actual average after the first week.
Do Yelp Ads require a contract?
Not if you set them up yourself. Yelp states there are no term contracts for self-serve advertisers and you can cancel anytime. Programs sold by a Yelp representative, often bundled with ad credits or profile upgrades, can carry a term, so ask for it in writing before agreeing to anything on a call.
Is Yelp advertising worth it for small businesses?
In markets where homeowners search Yelp for your trade (coastal metros, movers, cleaners, auto, plumbing and HVAC in big cities), a $300 to $500 monthly test usually produces three to five leads a month and pays for itself with one booked job. In most Midwest and Southern markets the same budget produces more on Google Local Services Ads, which charge per exclusive lead instead of per click.
What is Yelp Guaranteed and does it cost anything?
Nothing. Yelp Guaranteed reimburses a customer up to a lifetime maximum of $2,500 if a project booked through Request a Quote or Yelp Assistant goes wrong, and it is available to businesses in select service categories that have Request a Quote enabled and are running Yelp Ads. The badge appears in search results next to your name.
Yelp Ads or Google Local Services Ads?
Local Services Ads for most contractors: you pay per lead rather than per click, the lead is exclusive, and typical costs are $20 to $80 a lead at 25 to 45 percent close rates. Yelp Ads make sense as a second channel once Google is producing, and as a first channel only in cities where Yelp is where people look for your trade.