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How many residential general contractors (renovation, new home construction) pay for yellow pages listings in the USA?
Hello and thank you for your request to research how many residential general contractors pay for Yellow Pages listings in the U.S. In short, there are approximately 240,000 contractors that buy print Yellow Pages ads and approximately 280,000 contractors that buy online Yellow Pages ads. 7 5% of Yellow Pages advertisers are service companies or "installed-product" companies. Below you'll find a deep dive of our findings and methodology.
ASSUMPTIONS AND CALCULATIONS
We conducted an extensive, time-intensive search through industry sites like The Associated General Contractors of America, company websites and reports from AT&T and YP LLC, and news articles. We found that there is no publicly available existing data that specifically addresses your question because Yellow Pages companies do not typically share the breakdown of their customer segments.
However, we were able to learn the percentage of general contractors who use Yellow Pages advertising, which we could then apply to the number of construction companies in the U.S. (which according to the U.S . Census Bureau is 639,906 people). We subtracted the heavy and civil engineering construction firms. But unfortunately, these methodologies did not prove fruitful. Since we could not find a direct answer to your question, we set about looking for related information. We also put together a case study investigating how many general contractors use online Yellow Pages advertising in a sample market.
We located a survey that included information close to what you are looking for. This survey from BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor (2016) involved small businesses in the "Home and Trade" market which includes the construction/contracting, plumbers, HVAC, etc. Obviously some general contractors are not considered small businesses, and the market is not specifically what you're looking for. However, these survey results are still insightful. They found that these small "Home and Trade" businesses still have a preference for using traditional media for advertising. The most popular channels employed by the Home and Trade vertical are direct advertising to homes (50%), newspapers (38%) and print Yellow Pages ads (38%). This market is also adopting digital, using Internet Yellow Pages (44%) and Facebook (37%) most often.
Since we are dealing with a related market, we used the percentages above to come up with some estimations for you:
KEY FINDING: There are approximately 240,000 contractors that buy print Yellow Pages ads and approximately 280,000 contractors that buy online Yellow Pages ads.
OTHER HELPFUL FINDINGS
-- Print Yellow Pages
7 5% of Yellow Pages advertisers are service companies or "installed-product" companies. Yellow Pages directories are definitely more valuable to those in the service industry, especially for those companies who have larger, more infrequent sales. For example, a new home construction or renovation customer is typically out of the market for many years after they make a purchase. Ads are also more valuable if building trust is critical for the business, as it is for those in home building and home improvement.
According to a study, 68% of Americans still have a Yellow Pages directory in their home, and Yellow Pages companies remain profitable thanks to these 68%. In rural areas, where the transition to digital has been slow for various reasons, use of the directory is still common. The Yellow Pages directories are also used by low-income consumers and seniors for the same reason. However, many seniors do have disposable income, and they often have needs for home repair services.
-- Online Yellow Pages
A study by Thrive Analytics found that only 27% of consumers go to the online Yellow Pages when they are looking for local business information. By contrast, 62% cited search engines were their first choice. This was followed by "review sites" (2 2%) and "daily deals sites" (17%).
However, according to the company, YP.com has 60 million visitors to their site and the YPapp each month, and more than 20 million businesses are listed. They also claim that their online site and app deliver customers that are 20% more likely to purchase.
CASE STUDY: Online Yellow Pages advertising for Home Builders
Charlotte, NC
We picked a random market to study in order to find out how many general contractors use online Yellow Pages and here is what we found:
- There are over 1,000 contractors listed on Yellowpages.com in Charlotte, NC under the search terms, "Home Builders".
- Only 4 are "YP Preferred" , meaning they are preferred customers and they are listed first. Top spots go to paying customers.
- In reviewing the list of Home Builders in Charlotte, many of the listings have a link to the company's website (free), and a small number of listings have a link to "Services", "More Info", "Video", "More Info" (includes BBB rating, hours, brands they carry, reviews, etc.), their print YP ad, and even online coupons.
- The majority of the top 30 listed have a link to something in addition to their website, so we can conclude, at least in Charlotte, that at least 3% (30 out of the 1,000 total) of home builders are paying for their online Yellow Pages listing.
- We also looked at the companies further down on the list, specifically numbers 100-150. About 60% (30 out of 50) of these companies link their website on their online listing, but since this is typically free, we also looked at other data points for paid services. Only four out of these 50 had other links on their listing (all four of them added "Services"). So we can conclude that only 8% of non-YP Preferred customers actually paid something for their online ad.
This case study shows us that a low percentage of home builders are paying for their online Yellow Pages listing, at least in this market.
Lastly, the BIA/Kelsey’s report referenced above is available for $495 if you are interested in a deeper dive of this vertical. It includes detailed information on the advertising and marketing behaviors of the small business home and trade market, and future trends.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, we could not find information that was publicly available on the number of general contractors paying for Yellow Pages listings. However, we were able to uncover some findings for a similar market. We would also be glad to research the any related information in the above response in more detail if it would be helpful.
Thanks again for asking Wonder! We hope to work with you again soon.