The evidence
The research behind Slad
Every claim Slad makes, and every default in our revenue calculator, is built on published research and established industry data. Here is the evidence, the sources, and exactly where we stay conservative.
Last reviewed May 2026.
How to read this page
- We tag every source by type: academic (peer-reviewed), research firm (established analysts and surveys), and industry data (trade and platform reporting, directional).
- Where a study gives a range, our calculator uses the conservative end.
- None of this is a guarantee. The calculator is directional until it is calibrated against your own numbers, and nothing here is financial advice.
Reviews and reputation move revenue
Your public rating is not vanity. For an independent practice it is a measurable driver of revenue, and the way you handle reviews changes the rating itself.
+5 to 9%
revenue for each one-star rise in rating, among independent restaurants (Harvard, Yelp data).
Luca, Harvard Business School →97%
of consumers read reviews online, and 47% won't use a business with fewer than 20 reviews.
BrightLocal 2026 →+0.12 star
average rating rise, and 12% more reviews, once a business starts replying to reviews (hotels).
Proserpio and Zervas, Marketing Science →How Slad uses it: Slad sends a thank-you after every session and a private check-in if something felt off, and replies to your reviews. The calculator's reputation line prices a rating climb at the conservative 5% per star, the low end of the Luca range.
An active Google listing wins the local search
Most clients still start on Google, and a fresh, complete profile is what earns the click, the call, and the booking.
76%
of people who search for something nearby on their phone visit a business within a day.
Think with Google, 2016 →+70% / +50%
more likely to visit, and to consider buying, when the Google Business Profile is complete (Google's own data).
Google Business Profile →How Slad uses it: Slad keeps your Google profile active on autopilot: posts on a cadence, a reply to every review, fresh photos pulled in for you, and your Instagram turned into Google posts, so the listing stays complete and alive without you touching it.
And AI is now where clients ask
A fast-growing share of clients now ask an AI assistant which practice to visit, and there is published research on how to be the answer it gives.
45%
of consumers now ask AI for local business recommendations, up from 6% a year earlier, ahead of Yelp and TripAdvisor.
BrightLocal →up to +40%
gain in visibility inside AI answers from optimizing content for generative engines, in a Princeton-led study (KDD 2024).
GEO, Princeton / KDD 2024 →-25%
forecast drop in traditional search volume by 2026 as AI chatbots and assistants become answer engines.
Gartner, Feb 2024 →How Slad uses it: Slad publishes your practice on the Slad guide, structured pages an AI assistant can read and cite, so you surface in the answers ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity give. The calculator's "found on Google and AI search" line stays a flat, conservative count of new clients, not a multiplier.
Clients choose with their eyes
People choose a practice by looking first. A clear photo sells the service, and motion (a short clip of the space, the team, the work) sells it harder. The pattern holds across service lists and social feeds.
Photos win the click
Listings and profiles that carry real photos draw more clicks and visits than those that do not.
Google Business Profile →Video beats static at every level
Across follower tiers, video stories and posts reach and engage more people than still images.
Rival IQ →How Slad uses it: Slad turns one photo into a polished video with the motion and warmth a still cannot show, and posts both your photos and videos to every channel, so your best services are the first thing a client sees.
Memberships and loyalty lift repeat sessions and spend
Regulars are worth more than their next session. A club or membership turns an occasional client into recurring, predictable revenue.
18 to 30%
more repeat sessions and spend per member.
Recurring revenue
Members return more often and spend more over time than one-time clients, turning occasional sessions into predictable revenue.
How Slad uses it: clients join memberships and clubs right from your page. The calculator models that as recurring monthly fee revenue from the regulars you set, and a modest 1.25x repeat multiplier captures the extra value of repeat sessions.
How the revenue calculator uses this
Each line in the revenue calculator maps to the research above, and where a study gives a range we take the cautious end.
| Calculator line | What it uses | Grounded in |
|---|---|---|
| Reputation lift | 5% revenue per star, the low end | Luca (5 to 9%) |
| Found on Google and AI search | a flat count of new clients, not a multiplier | Google, BrightLocal, Princeton GEO, Gartner |
| Client sharing | Stories reach, then conservative action and conversion | Rival IQ, Stackla 2019 |
| Online booking | 12% check uplift, a planning assumption | No published study; calibrate after a pilot |
| Memberships | your own adoption and price inputs | Industry loyalty data |
| Repeat and LTV | a modest 1.25x multiplier | Loyalty repeat research |
What we do not claim
- That you will get these exact numbers. The calculator is a directional planning tool until it is calibrated against your real numbers.
- That every figure is peer-reviewed. We label which sources are academic and which are industry or platform data, and we keep the industry figures conservative.
- That this is financial advice. It is evidence to help you reason about the decision, nothing more.
All sources
- Academic Michael Luca, Reviews, Reputation, and Revenue: The Case of Yelp.com, Harvard Business School. Read the paper →
- Academic Proserpio and Zervas, Online Reputation Management: Estimating the Impact of Management Responses on Consumer Reviews, Marketing Science (2017). Read the paper →
- Research firm BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026. View the survey →
- Research firm Think with Google, mobile search trends driving consumers to stores (2016). Think with Google →
- Research firm Gartner, Gartner Predicts Search Engine Volume Will Drop 25% by 2026 (Feb 2024). Read the release →
- Research firm Stackla, consumer content survey (2019), as reported by the AP. View the survey →
- Research firm Rival IQ, Instagram Stories Benchmark Report. View the report →
- Research firm Socialinsider, 2026 social media benchmarks (TikTok shares per post up 45% year over year). View the benchmarks →
- Research firm Sprout Social, Instagram algorithm and the priority of private shares ("sends per reach"). Read the analysis →
- Academic Current Psychology (Springer, 2025), information sharing on short-form video platforms (dual-systems theory). Read the paper →
- Academic Aggarwal et al., GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, KDD 2024 (Princeton). Read the paper →
- Research firm BrightLocal, AI and local business recommendations. View the study →
- Platform data Google, Business Profile completeness (70% more likely to visit, 50% more likely to consider buying). View the data →
- Platform data Google Business Profile, the effect of photos on profile clicks and visits. View the data →
- Design note NFC tap versus QR scan for opening your service list: no independent study exists, and the conversion figures are vendor-reported, so we treat them as directional. We rely on the step-count difference, not the vendor percentages.
- Industry data Loyalty program effectiveness, industry research.
- Industry data Loyalty program economics and recurring-revenue effects, industry research.
With Yann Youbi, CEO of Slad. Free.