Yell Advertising Services: Are They Worth it in 2025?

Hundreds of small business owners across the UK claim to have been locked into Yell advertising services that generate no new customers or results for their business.

In our previous article, we talked about Yell’s website design services and highlighted the problems with Yell’s website design But today, we will compare Yell’s advertising offerings to other web agency services. And highlight the problems that result in small businesses spending hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds on Yell advertising services.

What is Yell?

The Yellow Pages dominated the 80s and 90s and were a big part of any business marketing plan. Businesses used to spend thousands of pounds each year to appear in the Yellow Pages in order to gain nationwide exposure.

This all changed when the growth of the internet and the Yellow Pages were getting smaller and smaller, as companies were using more of their marketing budget online. In 2013 it was announced that Yello Pages were £2.3 billion in debt and they will stop printing the books but will offer digital marketing services.

Is Yell Good for Advertising?

Yell is one of the most well-known business directories in the UK, and they offer advertising solutions like premium listings, PPC campaigns, and website services. They’re popular for helping businesses increase visibility and attract local customers.

Is it worth the investment though? Well, for some businesses, Yell provides a steady flow of leads, especially for industries where customers still use directories to find services. However, others find better results through SEO, Google Ads, or social media marketing.

One major drawback is cost. Yell’s advertising packages can be expensive, often requiring long-term contracts. Read below to know more about cost.

Another common concern is customer support and sales tactics. Some businesses report aggressive upselling and difficulties cancelling services. Additionally, while Yell offers Google Ads management, you might achieve better results by managing campaigns directly.

How Much is Yell Advertising?

There’s no specific answer to that, as the cost of Yell advertising depends on the service you choose. A basic business listing is free, but for better visibility, you often pay for premium listings, PPC management, or SEO services.

• Premium Listings: Starting at £30 to £100+ per month, these provide higher placement in Yell’s search results.
• PPC & Google Ads Management: Costs vary, often £200+ per month, plus the ad spend itself. Some businesses report spending £1,000+ per year.
• SEO & Website Services: Custom pricing, often requiring long-term contracts with fees in the hundreds to thousands per year.

Before investing in Yell advertising, request a detailed cost breakdown and compare it with alternatives like Google Ads, social media ads, or direct SEO investments to ensure you’re getting the best value for your budget.

At Web Design Southampton, we strongly believe in organic traffic from Google Search and Google Ads. Contact us to learn more and improve your online visibility.

What are the Yell Advertising Services?

Here are different Yell advertising services the company offers: Google Ads, free and promoted listing on Yell.com, Facebook advertising and smart performance.

Google Advertising

Google advertising is a service by Google for businesses that want to display ads on Google search results and allows businesses to gain visibility across Google’s properties.

Our clients who used to advertise with Yell have told us that the company adds a 40% management fee to the cost of every click as charged by Google. This means, if you are paying 40% to Yell for a management fee, you are paying more for each click than your competitors. This means your competitors if they don’t use Yell, can afford to bid more than you because their click will cost 40% less. So let’s say you have a healthy budget of £500 for google ads. This means your ads will stop showing when your click charges have reached only £300.

Another con for their Google Ad services is that your ad campaigns are not managed by humans, but by automated software. This means your budget could be spent on completely irrelevant keywords and the software will not test your ads, nor will it find any new opportunities to utilise.

If your website was built and is managed by Yell, then you won’t have access to your Google Analytics account. This means you will not be able to monitor how your campaigns are working, your bounce rate, and how are the customers engaging on your site. Instead, Yell will send you a basic monthly report with money spent and how many people have seen and clicked on your ads.

Free and Paid listings on Yell.com

You can register your business for free on the Yell.com directory. Let’s say you are a plumber, and when someone searches for “Plumbers in Southampton” your business will then appear somewhere in the results. Be careful though, as soon as you sign your business up, Yell’s high-pressure sales rep will call you offering a “special discount” and if you don’t sign up with them on the call you will forever lose this discount.

Our clients have said that as soon as they signed up with Yell, they were locked into a 12-month contract without a cooling-off period or any way to cancel.

Yell advertising Paid listing is a promoted listing, so your company will be shown on top of the Yell results. So, for example, if someone searched for “Plumbers in Southampton” your business would be the first one on the directory to come up. While the Yell directory is within the top 1000 visited sites in the UK, appearing on top of that listing will not give your website any SEO benefits and if your website is not optimised your business will not appear anywhere near Google’s search top results.

Smart Performance

Yell states that Smart Performance will display ads on Facebook, Instagram, Bing, Google, and third-party websites. They claim that the ads will be based on where they are most likely to generate results for your business.

Smart performance ads are not charged based on clicks, but by a flat monthly fee, even if the ad campaign doesn’t deliver any conversions.

Yell SEO

Yell claims that its websites adhere to Google’s guidelines and that they use content-driven practices to acquire natural backlinks. Richman SEO Training looked into this, and he found out that most of the backlinks Yell generate were from blogs with little to no relevance to the industry of the client.

Yell denies prying for links but admits to paying bloggers to publish posts with links to their client’s websites. This is a clear break of Google’s guidelines and can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results.

Yell Advertising VS Google Ads VS SEO: Our Comparison

To help you understand the difference between Yell Advertising and other tools, we created a full comparison table to make it clear for you.

Choosing the right advertising strategy is crucial for growing your business. Yell Advertising, Google Ads, SEO, and Social Media Ads all have their pros and cons. This table compares their cost, control, targeting, and long-term benefits. We’re confident it will help you understand which option works best for your budget and marketing goals.

Each marketing channel serves a different purpose. Yell Advertising offers convenience but at a cost, while Google Ads provides flexibility. SEO builds long-term traffic, and social media ads help with engagement.

Consider your business goals and budget before committing to any platform to get the best return on investment.

Conclusion

There are still many small businesses locked in a Yell advertising contract that does not bring any results. And many reviews on Trustpilot warning people not to sign up.

If you are looking for advertising services for your small business, contact Web Design Southampton today. We will offer you a free quote and help you get your business notices.