Advertising in Eilat: Where to Advertise Your Business and What Each Channel Is Worth
Advertising in Eilat splits first of all by audience. You reach residents through the local papers, the Facebook and WhatsApp groups and the resident card. You reach tourists through Google, Waze, the hotels and the city guides. Tourism workers are a third audience with channels of their own. Most businesses in the city need one local channel, one digital channel with measurement and a clean listing in the directories. In this article we mapped all the channels, with the audience, the format and the price of each one.
Two audiences and two kinds of channels
Eilat has two different audiences and each one has its own channels. The first audience is the residents. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), about 57 thousand people live in the city. They read the local papers, they are members of the city Facebook groups and they know business owners by name. The second audience is the visitors. According to the CBS, Eilat hotels recorded 4.7 million overnight stays between January and August 2025, which is about a third of all hotel overnight stays in Israel. We collected the rest of the numbers in the article on Eilat tourism in numbers.
The tourist does not read Erev Erev and is not in the Shachmon residents group. He arrives with his phone. He searches on Google, navigates with Waze and asks at the hotel front desk. The resident does not type restaurants in Eilat. He decides based on what he saw in a group or in the local paper, or heard from a friend. A business that advertises in the wrong audience's channel pays for people who will never come.
There is also a third audience people forget. Tourism workers. According to a State Comptroller report from 2021, about 90 percent of the jobs in Eilat are tied to tourism. Many of them are young people who live in the city for a period and have channels of their own. If you sell food, nightlife or an everyday service, you should think about them too.
And there is one more variable that affects every channel. The season. The same budget works differently in Passover and in November. We covered that in the seasonality and budget calendar for a business in Eilat and here we will focus on the channels themselves.
Local papers and local news sites
The local papers are the most direct channel to residents and to the tourism workers who live in the city. Eilat has a few of them and each one has its own character.
Erev Erev is Eilat's veteran local paper and comes out in print once a week. The exioma site lists a figure of about 10,000 copies a week. We did not check that number ourselves, so it is worth asking about circulation when you request a quote. The format is a printed ad in different sizes and sometimes a sponsored article. Pricing is by quote and depends on the size, the placement in the paper and the number of runs.
Yom Yom BeEilat (yomyom.net) is a local news site that updates every day and also publishes announcements from businesses and public bodies. Eilat Echo is another local news site, and alongside them operate Red Sea Eilat, Eilat News and Iton HaIr. On news sites the format is a banner, a sponsored article or a short news item. The big advantage of a site over a printed paper is that the article stays online with your business name and a link to you.
Jibotim magazine targets the city's tourism workers. If your product is lunch, a night out after a shift or a service for young people who live here, this channel goes straight to them.
Who is the local paper right for. A one time event, a deal for residents, a new business opening and home services. Eilat Comedy, who we work with, sell tickets to shows and their audience is mostly local. That is the kind of business the local paper works for. For an attraction that targets only tourists it is a weaker fit, because the tourist simply is not there.
WhatsApp and Facebook groups
Eilat's Facebook groups are the strongest free channel to residents, but they demand an ongoing presence and not a one time ad.
The city has large resident groups, groups by neighborhood and topic, and a dedicated group named Pirsum Asakim Eilat, which means business advertising Eilat, built exactly for this. Every group has its own rules. Some allow a business post once a week and some require admin approval. Whoever breaks the rules gets blocked, and in a small city that is damage that is hard to repair.
What actually brings inquiries in the groups. Not the promotional post but the recommendation. In Eilat people ask the group who is recommended for air conditioner repair and where to celebrate a birthday, and the answers come from other residents. A business whose customers recommend it there gets inquiries without paying a shekel.
WhatsApp groups work differently. An updates group that customers join by choice is an excellent retention channel for deals and opening hours updates. Sending messages to neighborhood groups without permission is spam, and the Communications Law in Israel restricts sending marketing messages without consent in advance. WhatsApp is a channel for people who asked to hear from you, not for cold advertising.
The downside of all the groups is clear. The post disappears within a day and has no value on Google, because the groups are closed and do not get crawled. This is a channel for selling now, not for presence over time.
- Before you post: read the group rules and check which day and how often a business is allowed to post
- The post itself: a real photo from the business. A clear price. One way to reach you that works from a phone, like a WhatsApp button
- After posting: answer every question in the comments within the hour, because the post lives for only one day
- Over time: ask happy customers to recommend you when someone asks in the group. That is worth more than any post of yours
Directories and listings: Eilat Plus, b144 and Dapei Zahav
A listing in the local and national directories usually does not bring many direct customers, but it is the base that Google and the artificial intelligence (AI) engines build their picture of your business on.
Eilat Plus (eilat.city) is an online guide to the city with guides for tourists and business listings in several languages, and it has a form for adding a business. When your business appears there, the tourist reading the guide sees it and the search engines see one more source confirming your name, address and phone number. What the basic listing includes and what costs money you check on the site itself.
b144 and Dapei Zahav, the Israeli yellow pages, are the national directories that take over Google's results page for tradesperson searches. When we checked the results page for the search carpentry shop in Eilat, we saw almost only directories and a single business website. A professional who is not listed there barely exists in search. They offer a basic listing and paid promotion plans priced by quote. The important rule is that the name, address and phone number are identical in every listing and in your Google Business Profile.
The Google Business Profile is the most important listing of all. It is the only one on this list that the tourist who is in the city right now sees on the map on their phone, and it is free. If you have not set it up yet with the right categories, current hours and photos, that comes before any paid ad.
One more listing that reaches residents is the municipality's resident card. If your business can offer residents a benefit, it is worth checking with the municipality how to join the benefits list and reach residents through a city channel they trust.
Tourist channels: hotels, concierge, flyers and Waze
You reach the tourist where the tourist is. In the hotel, in the car and on the phone. These channels run on personal relationships no less than on money.
The hotels. Every hotel has a front desk or a concierge that guests ask where to eat and what to do. Many hotels display business flyers, keep a list of recommended places and some have a screen in the lobby. The way in is a conversation with the front desk manager or the hotel's marketing manager, and sometimes an arrangement with a benefit for guests. It takes going door to door, but in a city with 51 hotels according to the CBS, that is a list you can work through.
Flyers and printed maps. There are tourist flyers distributed in the hotels and the shopping centers. The format is an ad in the flyer or your business marked on a map, priced by quote. The advantage is that the tourist holds it in their hand at the moment of decision. The downside is that you cannot measure how many people came because of it, unless you print a coupon or a code in the flyer.
Waze. Many Israelis drive to Eilat, and whoever drives the city streets navigates with Waze. Waze offers ads for local businesses that appear as a pin on the map and in the search inside the app for people in a defined area. It fits a business with a physical door that wants people to stop by on the way. A restaurant at the entrance to the city, a shop or an attraction people drive to. You set the budget in the Waze platform, so you can start small and see in the report how many navigations to the business came in.
And one more tourist channel that costs nothing. Partnerships between businesses. A water sports beach that recommends a restaurant, and the restaurant that keeps the beach's flyer.
Digital: Google and Meta and when to use each one
Google catches people who are already searching. Meta, meaning Facebook and Instagram, catches people who are not searching yet. That is the difference that decides when to use each one.
Advertising on Google fits when demand already exists. Someone types diving in Eilat or kosher restaurant in Eilat and you want to show up at that exact moment. You can limit the ad to people who are physically in Eilat, and you can advertise to someone sitting in the Tel Aviv area planning a vacation. Those are two different campaigns. You pay per click and you set the budget yourself. How to build a campaign like that without burning the budget is covered in our guide to Google Ads for a small business.
Advertising on Meta fits when you need to create demand or remind people. A new show, a holiday deal, a place opening. You can target Eilat residents by home location or people who are in the city, and filter by age and interests. The format is a photo or a video, so this is a channel for businesses that have something to show. A beach, food, an event.
What actually happens at many small businesses in the city. They spread a small budget across both with no tracking and then conclude that neither one works. Better one channel with measurement. A separate phone number for the ads or a WhatsApp button with tracking, and a landing page that loads fast on a phone. That is how we work in Google Ads management, and that is how you know at the end of the month what brought the inquiries and how to move budget between seasons.
A comparison table of advertising channels in Eilat
The table sums up the channels by the audience they reach, the format, the price and whether they leave anything behind online. A price appears only where we have a source, so most rows say by quote.
| Channel | Audience | Format | Price | Leaves a mention or link online |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Erev Erev | Residents and tourism workers | Printed ad or sponsored article | By quote | Mostly no. Print advertising |
| Yom Yom BeEilat, Eilat Echo and the other news sites | Residents and tourism workers | Banner, sponsored article or news item | By quote | Yes, if the article goes up on the site with the business name and a link |
| Jibotim magazine | Tourism workers | Magazine ad | By quote | No |
| Facebook groups, including Pirsum Asakim Eilat | Residents | Photo post per the group rules | Free | No. The groups are closed to Google |
| WhatsApp groups | Existing customers who joined | Message to an updates group | Free | No |
| Eilat Plus eilat.city | Tourists and residents | Business listing in the guide | Per the plan on the site | Yes. Name, address, phone and a link |
| b144 and Dapei Zahav | Residents looking for a professional | Listing and promotion plans | Basic listing, plus plans by quote | Yes. A mention with the business details |
| Google Business Profile | Tourists in the city and residents | Map, photos, reviews and posts | Free | Yes. This is the main source |
| Hotels, concierge and flyers | Tourists | A desk recommendation, a flyer or a lobby screen | Per the arrangement with the hotel | Not directly. Sometimes a mention on the hotel site |
| Waze | Drivers in the city and on the way to it | Pin on the map and an ad in search | Budget you set in the platform | No |
| Google Ads | People searching now in the city or planning a vacation | Search ad with a call or WhatsApp | Pay per click | Not directly. Brings traffic to the site and the profile |
| Meta | Residents or visitors by location and interests | Photo or video in the feed and stories | Budget you set in the platform | No. Ads do not get crawled |
| Resident card | Residents | A benefit on the card's benefits list | Per the municipality's terms | Yes, if the business appears on the list on the site |
What leaves both a mention and a link, and why that is worth more
The channels worth the most over time are the ones that leave a page online with your business name on it. A printed ad ends the day the paper gets thrown out. An article on a local news site or a listing in a directory stays, and gets read by Google and by AI engines.
According to Whitespark's local ranking factors survey for 2026, three of the top five factors for a local business's visibility in AI answers are mentions. At the top of the list is appearing in best business lists on industry sites and local sites. Reviews get about 18 to 20 percent of the weight in that same survey. According to Semrush's visibility index for 2026, ChatGPT cites on average about 15 sources per answer. In other words, for visibility on Google and in AI engines, an article on Yom Yom BeEilat about your business or a spot on the recommended list on Eilat Plus is worth more than any printed ad.
What do you do with that in practice. When you advertise on a news site, ask that the article include your full business name, your address and a link to your site. When a hotel is willing to recommend you, ask that the recommendation also appear on its website. And ask customers for Google reviews, because they are part of the same picture. How to work on this in an organized way for AI engines is explained on our page on GEO for a local business.
So where do you start. A clean listing in all the directories and in your Google profile. One local channel for residents, based on your type of business. One digital channel with measurement. Only after those are working do you add the rest.
Sources and verification
Every figure in this article was checked against two independent sources before publication. The numbers appear as they were published at the source and their date is noted next to them. Anything we could not verify twice is not written here as fact.
- Eilat's local media sites. Erev Erev, Yom Yom BeEilat, Eilat Echo and Eilat Plus
- Whitespark. The 2026 local ranking factors survey
- The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Resident and tourism figures
This is exactly what we do at Google Ads management. If you want us to go over it together for your business, write to us.
Frequently asked questions
You contact the paper's ads department directly, by phone or email, listed in the paper itself. Ask for a price list by ad size, placement and number of runs, and ask about circulation and about the option of a sponsored article. It is worth asking for a quote for several consecutive weeks rather than a single ad.
Yes, for businesses that target residents, and especially for tradespeople, home services and local entertainment. The inquiries come mostly from recommendations by other residents, not from promotional posts. For a business that targets only tourists the groups are barely relevant.
The eilat.city site has a form for adding a business. You fill in name, address, phone, category and a description and attach photos. It is important that the details match the details in your Google Business Profile exactly. After approval, check that the page is up and that the link to your site works.
Worth it for a business with a physical address that wants drivers to stop by. A restaurant on the way, a shop or an attraction people drive to. Less worth it for a service people book ahead by phone. Start with a small budget and check in the Waze report how many navigations to the business came in.
First everything that costs nothing. A clean Google profile, a listing on Eilat Plus and on b144, and a post in the relevant group. The money goes into one channel only. For a business that targets tourists that is Google Ads focused on Eilat. For a business that targets residents that is Meta focused on the city, or an ad in the local paper. Do not split the amount across three channels, because then none of them gets measured.
Ask every new customer how they found you and write it down. Give every printed channel its own phone number or coupon code. In digital ads, set up call and conversion tracking. After two months you have a clear picture of what works.
Want us to look at this for your business?
Just write to us on WhatsApp. The first conversation comes with no commitment. 050-294-0127
Write to us on WhatsApp