Yodle announced today that it had officially become a Google reseller partner. That gives it a few privileges that companies without that status don’t enjoy. Yodle, which recently received a $12 million round, for a total to date of about $15 million, has quickly moved up into what might be called the “top tier” of independent local SEM firms. Others would be ReachLocal and WebVisbile, both of which are older and have more customers.
(I wouldn’t count Marchex or firms like Leads.com or LocalLaunch in this category because they’re public or part of larger entities.)
I’m curious to know what people think — if they’ve had experience with these firms (and others) — about their services.
April 22, 2008 at 3:49 pm
I highly recommend using Yodle for your internet marketing. They are very easy to work with and produce great results. We tried other internet marketing companies in the past and we did not receive nearly as many calls.
One of the things that I like most about using Yodle, besides the calls that we receive, is the fact that they log every call. You can go into your account and listen to every call that comes into your office, and not only can you listen to them, but you can rate them and put the revenue generated as well as any notes you might want to make.
The account page on Yodle is invaluable if you want to keep track of your calls. There is also a map that shows you where your calls are coming from, which you can use for targeting the distribution of your direct mail.
In the market today we cannot afford not to have a presence on the search engine results, and Yodle has made that happen for us.
April 22, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Thanks for your feedback. Had you tried any of the other services?
April 23, 2008 at 3:30 am
I’m a huge fan of ReachLocal. I first found out about them after reading an article in the L.A. Times about their $56 million in VC funding in October of last year.
After doing some additional research, I was especially impressed with the pedigree of the founders and the fact that Rupert Murdock’s News Corp owns 50% of the company in Australia and New Zealand.
Within a week of signing up Reach Local was proving to be not only the most transparent spend in advertising we do, but also the most cost effective. Like Yodle you can listen to the calls. I can’t speak for Yodle’s technology but with Reach Local, they do something called “conversion based optimization”. This allows their system to make dynamic adjustments to the bidding on keywords so you aren’t simply chasing clicks but actually spending money to get phone calls- the life blood of my bussines.
I would expect to see other companies enter the space as 2nd tier VC’s look to ride the wave created by Reach Local’s massive funding. With Idearc Media’s stock price down over 90% since they bought the Verizon YP biz, these types of companies will take the lead in the future of directional advertising.
April 23, 2008 at 4:24 am
I hired yodle for a month. They happily spent my hundreds of dollars at nearly $5 per click, and didn’t generate a single phone call for my business. I canceled after a month. It would be one thing to hire them to do something I couldn’t do myself, but I got 20% of the clicks I got on my own when I did it myself and no additional special results.
April 23, 2008 at 8:48 am
Thanks. Very different experience than Jennifer above.
April 23, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Steve above. Might you be an employee of ReachLocal by any chance? You sound perhaps overly sophisticated for a typical local advertiser.
April 25, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Yes, Jennifer and Steve - can you please tell us more? I would like to know how many new customers Yodle and ReachLocal drove into your business and the quality of service you received from these upcoming players in the local search industry. Thanks!
Scott - I’m sorry you didn’t gain any value from your experiences. I hope you kept all the data - all the phone call message & recordings, all the emails, and the actual site you purchased for your company. It is good material to review & they did essentially provide a template of an online lead generating tool for you. Good luck!
April 26, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Apparently Steve is a bona fide local advertiser I’ve discovered.
April 30, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Jennifer?? That is funny, I have been talking to an account rep named Jennifer from Yodle today.
Apparently, the difference between the two companies is that Yodle provides multiple ads on the web? Does anyone know how important this is?
Also. Yodle charges a setup fee and ReachLocal does not.
Anyone with other results with either company?