July’s Question of the Month

Q: “Can you provide an article on the ROI expected from Yellow Pages advertising? Perhaps by industry, locale, business size, etc.”

- Stephen from Crystal Lake, IL

A: The Yellow Pages is one of the best returns on investment (ROI) most advertisers can make. While industries and regions can vary, a 2007 study by the Yellow Pages Association discovered the print Yellow Pages offers an average sales ROI of 33:1 for national advertisers and nearly 14:1 for local advertisers. That means for every dollar a local advertiser spent on advertising in the print Yellow Pages, they received almost $14 in return. For each dollar spent on advertising with the Internet Yellow Pages, the top headings had an average of $46 in sales with an ROI of 17:1.1

A proven investment. For roughly 130 years, the Yellow Pages have been the go-to source for advertisers looking to reach ready-to-buy consumers. In fact, the print Yellow Pages alone generated 12.3 billion references in 2008.2 That’s not even including references on the Internet and mobile devices. Research also shows that 86% of users will make a purchase or intend to do so.2 The Yellow Pages is the ultimate permission-based advertising medium because potential customers actually seek it out with the intention of reading the advertising. No other medium can offer all that.

The top Yellow Pages advertisers by industry. The Yellow Pages represents hundreds of markets across the country. And each market, industry and region has their own unique factors that affect business. But generally speaking, the top 10 most searched Yellow Pages headings are:

So if your business is among the most searched industries, you are more likely to have potential customers find you online and offline. As a result, your ROI could actually be higher than the local advertiser average of 14:1 when compared to other types of businesses not in the top 10.

Yellow Pages versus other mediums. Many forms of advertising are based on the familiar “cost per impression.” But impressions don’t necessarily translate into sales or results. If you really want the average value delivered per medium, you should compare the cost per customer influenced and the sales ROI. This will give you a better idea of the true cost per result, which is what all advertisers are most interested in.

So when it comes to true cost per result versus other mediums, with exception of the Internet, the Yellow Pages comes out on top. But don’t forget that the Yellow Pages can be found on the Internet and mobile devices these days, too.

But how can I tell if my ad is working? Unlike other forms of media, the Yellow Pages provides easy ways to track the results of your advertising dollar. One of the easiest ways is to simply ask all of your customers how they found you. Another way is to use a unique phone number for your Yellow Pages advertising to track the calls you receive. The calls that come in on the unique phone number clearly came from your Yellow Pages advertising. For more information on these methods or for other ideas on how to track your Yellow Pages advertising and your ROI, contact a Dex One Local Marketing Consultant at 1-877-4-DexBiz (1-877-433-9249).

1 2007 Yellow Pages Facts and Media Guide.
2 2009 Yellow Pages Association Industry Usage Study, conducted by Knowledge Networks/SRI.
3 comScore 2008.
4 “Yellow Pages Value.” CRM Associates, November 2008.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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