Yellow page ad

Does it pay to place a big ad in the local directory?

You May think I'm nutz but I just signed a contract for an ad that should cost me about $500 a month in the local yellow pages. It should put me at the top, and be the Biggest Company in the area. I have pretty good response from Previous smaller ads but I really wanted a boost in Bussiness this year! I fugure that more Commerical property Owners will probably call a bigger ad over a smaller ad and the Home owner would choose a smaller ad to get a better price. does this make sense? I also choose 2 areas and foward the local Phone #'s to a central office. So it will look like Its a bigger company that is in many areas. I'm serious about bussiness! and I have doubled my bussinees every year for the past 5 years
Just hope I made the right choice and was Interested if anyone has been down this road before?


Thanks Tom

Tom,

I have stayed with column ads, about one and a quarter inch high...........no display ads. I chose to spend the money on being in more books, under more headings (using remote call forwarding phone numbers) instead of spending the big bucks for display ads. I personally don't feel its necessary in our business, but, you shall find out for yourself!! It might work great!! Be sure to let us know.

Tom,
Good luck in attaining more business with your new add. I advertise in my local papers and I have a line in the yellow pages which I plan on adding a few more lines in other parts of the yellow papers for this year.

Let us know how it worked out for you and if it was worth it. I like your thinking. Once again good luck!!

Tom,
When you sat down with the rep did he or she give you some solid information about the readership? Some books do better than others.

Wish you all the best! Let us know how it goes.
Beth

The Rep told me that in this area the people use this book 90% for the service industry. He also stated that the ad will generate
an overwhelming response. and that I should be prepared!

I guess will see.. thanks for your replies.... ans I'll keep you posted!
Tom

Yellow pages

I just purchase a Display add for the yellow pages in our area also. My add runs about $1200 a month, its a quarter page full color. Its also in the main phone book, not the off brands. During the slow time the 1200 a month is hard to choke down, but they realize that so you can pay whatever then when you pick up you can make it up. I hope to do alot of businss this year. If it doesnt produce the results that i expect i will probably move to smaller adds in more sections.

Mark Poole

www.waterworksnw.com

Hey Mark,
Thanks for the reply, I think That you have the right idea about your ad. I didnt know that I can make up the payments, That's something I'll have to ask about. I did go with the main directory for the area that sould help too. I hope you and I do great this season. I think is is definatly woth the risk or chance just to see what happens with our ads.

best of luck,
Tom

Good luck to you guys

In the 5 phonebooks I am now in display ads last one year in deck cleaning and waterproofing,which tells me that they do not work.
In building cleaning exterior and pressure washing The same companies have display ads year after year,which tells me that they do work.
So with that in mind you should accomplish exactly what you said, but every area is different.The best way to find out is look at old phonebooks and see if the same companies are in there. If they are, the ads work!
I learned my lesson about listening to reps.
I went in the sprint yellow pages instead of Verizon in a county I wanted to start working in.I paid $600 up front for a small column ad and haven't gotten a single call off of it.That is a COUNTYWIDE BOOK!
I have the same ad in a book 1/3 the size in another county and has generated 4 calls already and this is still winter.

I wouldn't exactly believe everything the rep tells you, remember their commission is based upon what they sell you so of course 90% of the services in any area is going to be bought through the yellow pages. My rep started calling me again last week since the deadline for Verizon YP's is in April this year. We are probably adding two or three directories this year, but our total bill for the numerous headings, column listings and bold listings in different area directories will run us under $500 a month for ads in most of the places anybody would think of looking. That would bring our total YP ad bugets under $6,000 a year, which is suitable for a market our size. If your YP advertising is costing you more than 2-3% of your annual sales you should make sure it's bringing in the business you think it is. Our company keeps YP advertising costs at a smaller percentage of our total advertising budget because we do so many other kinds of advertising. Not everybody looks in the yellow pages to find a contractor.

Also, keep in mind that people who use the YP's generally call two or three other companies that are listed along side you. So if you have the largest ad, there's still a very big chance that they are calling two or three of the smaller listings also so that they can get competitive bids on their job. So why pay more for the same leads the smaller ads are getting? Plus, if you are only listed under one heading there's a good chance somebody is going to miss you entirely by looking under another heading and miss your display ad entirely. I'd rather be in every directory under every heading so at least our name is in front of the people than to blow my wad on one huge display ad.

Let me add here that I'm not being critical of Mark for spending $1,200 a month on YP advertising by saying this since I don't know what his market is like. I'm simply pointing out that it wouldn't be prudent in a market like mine here in Pittsburgh to be spending such a large amount on one ad.

Good luck! I hope all the advertising works incredibly well for everybody this year!

My experence is that people will go to the REAL YELLOW PAGES first and then the area wide books. Last year the one small add in the real yellow pages ( Bell South) generated 98% of the calls at a fraction of what I had been spending in the area wide yellow pages. There is just one place to look in the BellSouth book compared with about six in the other. We had several adds in that book to cover everything and we dropped it back to one for this year. We keep one listing just to cover the outline areas of town.

Yellow pages

I did advertise with Verizon, and the add does cost me 1200 a month which is damn hard to choke down right now. But what i wanted to accomplish was an experiment. I also do direct mail which works really well. But i wanted to see if a big add like that was going to generate alot of leads for me in the spring and summer. It was alot to spend, and normally i wouldnt have done that. But, i wanted to take a chance. my wife is having a baby in 3 weeks and this year i wanted to see how busy i can get. Atleast i will have a huge write off for this year. hehe. I do have 2 other headings in gutters and pressure washing but they are just big bold letters. I have gotten some calls already from the add but its very rainy right now and i dont expect much until april/may. My main heading is under Window Cleaning.

That's a balsy experiment there Mark. Hope it works well for you. I'm not sure I'd be able to stomach taking as big a bite as that, but you'll have to let us know if your idea works out like you expect.

Am I understanding this correct that you put this big display ad under "Window Cleaning"? Or did you put it in the pressure washing area?

display add

I put the display add under window cleaning. I do alot of that. And since window cleaning is about 60% of my business that what i put it under. I figure that way i will have alot more customers. And those window customers that have decks and gutters need someone to do them. And since hey i am already there and they know me. Well you see my point. I hope it works too.

$1200???????

I bought a display "leader" ad in the SouthWestern Bell phone book today. For those of you who may not know (I didn't before today), a leader ad is 1 col wide and 1/2 page long, or 4.25" x 2", and can have multi color fonts and graphics.

Suddenly, 4.25 x 2" seems like a whole bunch of real estate.

Paul