Yelp Ads vs Google Ads for restaurants

Late January is the quiet stretch for most dining rooms. The holiday parties are done, plenty of regulars are trying to eat lighter and spend less, and the next busy nights, the big game weekend and Valentine’s Day, are close enough to plan for. It is also when restaurant owners look at the ad budget and wonder whether it would do more on Yelp or on Google.

Both are sensible places to spend. They reach diners at different moments, and they are run in very different ways.

Who is choosing, and what decides it

Most owners asking this run one or two locations, have tried one platform already and want to know whether to move money. Three things usually settle it.

• Where your diners look first. In some neighborhoods and cuisines, people open Yelp before anything else. In others, most discovery starts in Google Search and Maps.
• How much control you want. One platform handles most of the targeting for you. The other hands you the levers and expects you to use them.
• What you are selling that night. Filling tables, driving takeout orders and booking private events are three different jobs.

Yelp Ads, in plain words

Yelp Ads place your restaurant in Yelp search results and on the pages of other businesses nearby, and you pay when someone clicks. You set a budget and Yelp manages most of the targeting and placement. Yelp also sells upgrades to the page itself, such as a call to action button, and what comes with an ad program versus what is sold separately can vary.

The strength is the audience. People browsing Yelp are usually deciding where to eat, often close to the moment of choosing, and they arrive already reading reviews, menus and photos. For cuisines and neighborhoods where Yelp is the habit, an ad there sits right beside the decision.

Two things to know. Yelp’s own guidelines discourage businesses from asking customers for reviews, so your Yelp page grows on its own terms. And because Yelp manages targeting, you have less say over exactly which searches bring your ad up. Ask your Yelp contact to show you, in writing, what reporting you will get and what each upgrade includes.

Google Ads, in plain words

Google Ads lets a restaurant bid on searches, such as a cuisine plus the neighborhood, private dining or its own name, and show ads in Search, on Maps and, through Performance Max, across Google’s other placements. You pay per click, and you control the keywords, locations, hours, message and the page the click lands on.

The strength is reach and control. Google Search and Maps are where a great many diners start, whether they want a birthday dinner or late-night takeout, and a well-built account can separate those needs and send each one to the right page. Google has also begun rolling out campaign-level negative keywords for Performance Max this month, which makes it easier to keep a broad campaign away from searches that will never become a table.

The catch is that control comes with work. Without weekly attention, a restaurant account can end up paying for searches about recipes, jobs or a chain with a similar name.

Yelp and Google side by side

	Yelp Ads	Google Ads
Where the ad shows	Yelp search results and nearby business pages	Google Search, Maps and other Google placements
Suits	Restaurants whose diners already use Yelp heavily	Restaurants that want control and reach across Google
How it is run	You set a budget and Yelp manages most targeting	You or your agency set keywords, areas and schedules
Reviews beside the ad	Yelp reviews, which grow without being asked for	Google reviews on your Business Profile, which you may request
Data you keep	Yelp reporting inside your Yelp account	Your own Google Ads account, tracking and landing pages
Ask before starting	What reporting and upgrades are included	Who owns the account, and how calls and orders are tracked

The good and the less good

Yelp Ads

Pros:

• Reaches diners who are already choosing where to eat
• Simple to run, with little day-to-day management
• Your menu, photos and reviews appear right next to the ad
• Strong in neighborhoods and cuisines where Yelp is the default

Cons:

• Less control over targeting and placement
• Results lean on reviews you cannot actively ask for
• Reporting stays inside Yelp
• Ads will not make up for a thin or outdated page

Google Ads

Pros:

• Reaches diners across Search and Maps at many stages of choosing
• Detailed control over searches, times, areas and landing pages
• Works hand in hand with your Google Business Profile
• Conversion data stays in an account you own

Cons:

• Needs regular management to avoid wasted clicks
• Easy to overspend on broad or irrelevant searches
• Depends on a clear page for the menu, ordering and reservations
• Connecting a click to a seated table takes some setup

Five restaurants, five answers

A busy brunch spot in a city neighborhood where diners live on Yelp. Yelp Ads make sense alongside a well-kept Yelp page, especially for weekend traffic.

A family restaurant in a suburb where Maps is how people find dinner. Google Ads on Search and Maps, backed by a complete Google Business Profile, will usually reach more hungry people.

A kitchen pushing online ordering or catering trays. Google Ads, where you control the landing page and can track the order, tends to fit better.

An owner with no time to manage a campaign. Yelp’s simpler setup is easier to live with, as long as someone reads the reports every month.

A prix fixe menu for Valentine’s Day. Either can work. On Google, a short search campaign built around the occasion and the neighborhood, running into the week of the fourteenth. On Yelp, make sure the page shows the special and that reserving is easy.

Why we tend not to pick one

Beyaoshy has worked with local businesses since 2015, restaurants among them, and for most dining rooms we do not choose a side. We manage Google Ads and Yelp Ads together, keep the Google Business Profile and the Yelp page aligned on hours, menus and photos, and reply to reviews on both. The website carries the menu and the ordering link, and the monthly report counts reservations, orders and calls instead of stopping at clicks.

Every account stays in the restaurant’s name from day one, so nothing is lost if you ever take the work elsewhere. We plan it around an independent restaurant’s budget, and because one team handles every piece, nobody has to referee between an ads vendor and a website vendor.

Owners can see how we approach restaurants, with more detail on each platform on our Yelp ads and Google Ads pages.