⚠️

Documentation Disclaimer

This documentation is not exhaustive and does not guarantee system behavior. Integrators are responsible for testing against actual API responses. See Documentation Disclaimer for full details.

Reporting & Metrics Reference

This page covers how Yelp measures and reports ad performance, including metric definitions, data availability windows, and common reporting questions.

Table of Contents

• Data Availability Windows
• Metric Definitions
• Billing vs. Delivery
• Reporting via the Reporting API
• Common Questions

---

Data Availability Windows

Day boundaries: A new reporting day starts at midnight PST. Data is always reported in PST regardless of the business's local timezone.

---

Metric Definitions

Impressions

The number of times a CPC ad was displayed to a consumer. This includes:

• Paid search results
• Appearances on competitor business pages

Appearance

The number of times the business showed up in organic search. This is distinct from impressions — appearances are not paid placements.

Clicks (Billed)

Any action taken by a consumer on Yelp that is attributed to the CPC ad. Billed clicks × CPC = ad spend.

Clicks (Delivered)

The total number of clicks including over-delivery. Yelp may deliver more clicks than billed in a given period — the budget cap limits charges, not delivery.

Billed clicks is your source of truth for spend calculation, not delivered clicks.

Ad-Driven Page Views

Not tracked as an explicit metric. Billed clicks is the best available proxy, though it is not an exact match to page views.

Call to Action (CTA) Interactions

Tracks CTA clicks for businesses with Enhanced Profiles. This does not include Request a Quote (RAQ) interactions — those are captured separately in messages_to_the_business.

---

Billing vs. Delivery

Yelp operates on a budget-capped model:

• The monthly budget is the maximum charged — never exceeded
• Yelp may over-deliver impressions without charging for the overage
• Unused budget does not roll over to the next month

Budget is denominated in cents. A budget value of 5000 = $50.00.

---

Reporting via the Reporting API

Programmatic access to ad performance data is available via the Reporting API. The Reporting API is separate from the Ads API and requires its own access configuration.

Key notes:

• If a request is misformatted, it will be rejected immediately
• If dates fall outside the supported range, the request will be rejected
• If data is still processing, the response will return a "job not complete" message — retry later

---

Common Questions

Are ad-driven page views tracked?
Not explicitly. Billed clicks is the best proxy, though not an exact match.

What is the difference between billed and delivered clicks?
Yelp campaigns may over-deliver but do not charge for the overage. billed_clicks × CPC = ad spend.

Does ad-driven CTA data include RAQ (Request a Quote)?
No. CTA tracking only applies to EP locations. RAQ is captured in messages_to_the_business.

When does a new reporting day start?
Midnight PST.

How do I distinguish a bad input from data not yet available?

• Misformatted request → immediate rejection
• Dates out of supported range → immediate rejection
• Data still processing → "job not complete" message, retry later