Generative AI tools increasingly rely on community-driven platforms—Reddit, YouTube, Wikipedia, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and more—as primary sources that feed directly into consumer-facing answers. Because AI does not distinguish between search content, social chatter, reviews, creator posts, or earned media, brand visibility now depends on cross-team coordination rather than siloed optimization. Upstream conversations matter: if forums, reviews, or public commentary lack clarity or depth, AI responses will mirror those gaps. And because users often begin with general queries—not shopping-specific ones—early influence happens long before product discovery. To stay visible, brands must unify search, social, PR, and content workflows.

This benchmark covers how ad buyers can calibrate their search ad spending and budget allocations against the market, and how publishers and solution providers can assess whether their ad revenues align with industry trends.

93% of business and tech leaders view it as a way to offer proactive support but caution that human empathy and oversight still matter.

This is the Q1 2025 installment of our quarterly “Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.​

By rolling out Review Insights and a conversational assistant, Yelp hopes to enhance usability, tackle review fatigue, and outmaneuver competitors in local search.

Young consumers’ habit of regularly checking companies’ and apps’ reviews creates a valuable opportunity to build relationships.

This is the first installment of our quarterly “Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

This is the first installment of our quarterly “Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

The ad spending winter of 2022 and early 2023 was mild and short-lived, as we predicted. And after a solid H2 2023, things are looking up across the board for 2024.

Mentions of inflationary language on Yelp increased 4% in Q3 as compared to the previous quarter and 22% year over year (YoY), according to a publication from the business review platform.

DoorDash was once again the most downloaded US food and drink app in 2021, racking up 37.0 million downloads, 5% fewer than in 2020. McDonald’s jumped to second on the list with 24.0 million downloads, 33% more than the year prior. Meanwhile, Uber Eats dropped to third place with 21.0 million downloads.

eMarketer forecasting analyst Eric Haggstrom tees up our latest ad spend estimates for Yelp, which is already seeing an impact now that ad partners are no longer locked into long-term contracts. Watch now.

The growing US search ad market is dominated by Google. But Amazon and smaller players have the ad giant in their crosshairs. According to our latest US ad spending forecast, Google’s share of search ad revenues will drop, while that of Amazon will grow over the next two years.

eMarketer principal analyst Nicole Perrin discusses Facebook’s plan to give publishers more curation control over how their articles look on the platform. She also talks about the implications of letting Yelp users personalize their homepage experience and how effective the BBC’s new voice assistant can be in a competitive digital market.

The digital economy is roughly a quarter century old, but efforts to measure it remain sketchy. In today's episode of "Behind the Numbers," we dig into government and enterprise efforts to understand the impact of digital, with featured guests Carl Bialik of Yelp and eMarketer vice president of forecasting Martin Utreras.

Food delivery, common in urban areas where population is dense and car ownership is low, is expanding to the suburbs and beyond thanks to the rise of digital services connecting users to restaurants.

Our updated US ad spending forecast shows digital ad spending outpacing expectations. Digital media will capture $111.14 billion in ad dollars in 2018 and surpass traditional media ad spending by 2019, according to our latest estimates.

Along with meal kits and instant ramen, food delivery has vastly altered the American palate for at-home dining. But despite growing competition in the digital delivery space, not everyone has embraced it.

Advertisers’ dollars continue to shift from traditional to digital channels at a fast pace, with mobile leading the charge. In 2018, mobile advertising alone is expected to surpass TV ad spending.