236. Consistent Lead Generation: Ads in the Wedding Industry Just Got Easier

But on today's show, I am talking with ads experts, Whitney Hodges and Daniela Justus from Wedding Industry Ads, all about how you can use Google and Meta ads together to create an ecosystem of consistent traffic coming to your website and booking you becoming new leads. Every single day.

You guys, when I saw the way that they handle ads and the way that they create this ecosystem of traffic using different ad strategies, I was immediately hooked and I know that you will be too after you listen to today's episode. So sit down, grab a notebook, and settle in because this one is so juicy. Okay, ladies, welcome to the Wedding Pro CEO podcast.

I'm so excited that you're here and to dig into this topic because, I don't know if you guys feel this, but ads are kind of one of these things where it's like wedding pros are not so sure about it. I don't know. You guys tell me, , what do you feel like is the general consensus in the wedding industry about just ads in general?

And that's because these platforms are so Robust. There's so much potential there. There's a lot of nuance when it comes to setting up ads inside of these platforms. So it's easy to set up ads in these platforms, but it's also easy to set them up the wrong way. So a lot of times when we will do audits inside of Wedding Pro's ad accounts, they have some of the basics there, but there are just small tweaks that need to happen in terms of adjustments.

I think for other wedding pros, they're just intimidated by it, right? They haven't even gone the DIY route because they don't know how to get started. It can be very kind of techie and overwhelming. And so it's something that they're interested in exploring, but maybe has been turned off just by it being high barrier in terms of something for them to learn. Or having to hire an agency and on top of their ad spend, then pay really high monthly retainer fees.

And she was just like we just we we can't get the right time and I was just like every day Every day I would literally lay my head on the pillow and be like we spent a hundred dollars today And we didn't make any money back like and that was the mentality of it versus but what's so interesting to me about that the reason I bring that up is because We have no problem shelling out thousands of dollars a month for publications That we have very little control over whether we're getting

a return or not And we're not tracking the return as tightly as we're tracking the this ad spend return. But because that's the normal way to do it, that's the way the industry's always done it, it feels like, well, that's what you do, right? You just give a publication thousands of dollars. And in this, in this respect, with ads, you can actually control a lot of the return, when you know what you're doing, right?

I think a lot of business owners may be questioned the validity of that. You know, am I qualified to even set this up for myself? Am I going to be able to get results that are making it worth it to put in the time or effort to learn how to set it up properly? Um, but when you can kind of get over that, Mindset block and just commit to the platform and understand that it is a tool, the really, really powerful tool that can help you connect with the right people.

I think that they're, that's where you can really take your power back and really start to, um, leverage what's available to all of us, which is really, really powerful. If you think about advertising, even 10, 15 years ago, we're thinking about television spots or print and that's expensive advertising. I'm sure you've heard, you know, for the Super Bowl, 30 seconds is millions and millions of dollars, right? Here, we have the opportunity to get in front of very targeted, specific people.

So the right people who are going to be buyers and clients for us for as little as just a few dollars every day. It doesn't even, especially in the wedding space, it doesn't have to be a hundred dollars a day to see. Really promising results.

And so that's where we get so excited about being able to bring this knowledge and this strategy to wedding professionals who are doing it themselves, because it doesn't have to be this huge undertaking and it doesn't have to be really high risk in terms of how much money you're putting into it.

But before we get into all of that, I want everybody here that's listening, I want all of our CEOs that are listening right now to learn a little bit more about what got you guys into the wedding space because one of the things I think is unique to you as well is that you really only work in the wedding space, which is great. Um, but also to let everybody know that you guys are coming to the summit this year to the wedding pro CEO summit, brand new speakers to the summit this year.

And you're doing a whole workshop on how to run Google and meta ads, right? I cannot wait to have you guys at the summit. Yes.

And I want to start my own business. I want to be an online business owner. But what am I going to do as an online business owner? And that's where I really got into the world of digital marketing and uncovered the need for Facebook ad managers and started learning the platform and dove right in. And that's what brought me and Daniela together.

Uh, we met as we were both starting our own digital marketing Facebook ads management agencies, and we've been partnering together and working together ever since.

And so coming from that background and being able to apply all of that complexity to how can we simplify this? How can we make this more accessible? How can we make this work for local lead gen businesses, for people who are serving not these. scalable offers that are, you know, global, but really, they're, they're local communities and connecting with the right people and making sure that, that the strategy really makes sense. That's where that started.

But to go a little bit further back in my story, I have a background in fine arts, and then I had a career working at a Transactional real estate law firm for six years. So that's really out of left field seemingly, but it gave me a ton of experience in operations, business management.

I was basically running the firm without being an attorney and from there, that's when I really started to experience a lot of I had a lot of burnout, but I had also hit a ceiling with what I could do and with my ability to grow in that position.

So that's when I started really exploring these other ways of creating income for myself in ways that felt not only Less pressure and less stress, but where I was able to do it on my own terms and, and actually serve the people who I wanted to be helping and not just the ones who kind of came in through the door for this other business that I was a part of. So that, that, uh, I think a lot of entrepreneurs these days, the story's not linear.

Um, there were a lot of twists and turns and one of my first businesses was a bookkeeping business. Um, and then I've, Sort of naturally from there, a lot of my book, bookkeeping clients started asking for help with their websites, help with their Google placements. And it was really easy for me to figure that stuff out.

And so all of this to say is, you know, with advertising, I found this beautiful marriage of the creative problem solving, the visual design, the storytelling elements from, you know, the passion that I have in that, in that area. But bridging that with the, the data, the numbers, the money, the story that these data points is telling us is so powerful.

And then how can we leverage that and utilize both of those things to help our clients really reach their goals and see that big picture and how everything works together. Once I met Whitney, we really hit it off and I think we have very complementary skill sets and perspectives on life, on business, and working together has been just a treat.

I definitely believe that all ships rise with the tide, and so we've really embodied that with this business in terms of our mission being to make advertising just more accessible to the wedding industry and to people who are so passionate about what it is that they do and how they serve their couples.

And their workshop is going to be super hands on to help you understand exactly how to run ads in your wedding business. So, okay, ladies, I'm ready to get into it. One of the things that I thought was most intriguing because I talk about How necessary it is to be on social media, to have a really strong social media presence as a wedding pro. It's really not anymore something that's like, if I have time, I'll jump on, right?

And I've been in the business for a long time, so I know that I went through that stage. Now it's like, you must be on social media, and you must be consistent and present. One of the things that you talk about with ads is that by running ads, they can help you to stay present and top of mind when you're in busy season. I thought this was such an intriguing mentality shift. Can you tell us a little bit more about, about that and how that works?

Ads in this sort of context, a lot of times we're thinking about ads strictly from a lead generation perspective, but they can do so much more for you than that, and it doesn't have to be expensive. It can really be just a few dollars, a day. So think about it this way, right? You have, you are showing up on, on social media, right? You've got great pieces of content there. That's really these days what it does take to be successful in the industry.

But more than likely, you're able to show up more. You're able to post more during your downtime, during busy season. That's often one of the, the first things that falls through the cracks because you're being pulled in so many different directions. You have to serve your clients and show up for their events.

And, and sometimes, unfortunately, There isn't the time to be posting, but what we like to make sure that people know is an option is that you can take some of your best pieces of content, Instagram posts that have been posted previously. We like to refer to them as evergreen pieces of content because It's a piece of content that can live forever, right? It's not seasonal. It's something that a potential client six months from now, even a year from now, it could still resonate with them. Right.

And also think about it this way, you know, you post something one time organically after a while, it's going to get buried. In your grid, it's not going to show up in people's newsfeeds. They're not going to see it unless they're really digging for it, but we can set up ads in the meta ads manager and a way to where we are picking, you know, one of your favorite posts and we're turning it into an ad for just a dollar a day. And we are feeding it out to retargeting audiences, right?

So the Metapixel can be put on your website so that Meta understands the users that are visiting your website. And then we can retarget those people. We can set up ads so that when they open up. their Instagram account or their Facebook account, if they're on Facebook, that your ad gets fed out to them in their newsfeed, in their stories. And yeah, it is an ad so there is going to be like a little sponsored tag kind of under the post.

But other than that, it really feels like a piece of organic content and it can be delivering, you know, value in terms of Answering frequently asked questions or showing your authority, showing testimonials from previous clients or, you know, reviews that you have been getting in or just featuring your really beautiful work and, and weddings that you've done recently.

And so by setting up a few of those dollar a day posts, you can stay in the newsfeed of your potential clients and stay top of mind without feeling like You're constantly still having to show up. Now, don't get us wrong. Like we still recommend organic Instagram marketing. You need to be doing that too.

But we understand that inevitably during these busy times of the year, especially if you're, you know, still a solopreneur at this point, that there's only so much that we can, we can do as individuals. And so this can really help bridge gap. Yeah. I think it's so interesting, and I love that you said that.

Like, it's not like we're telling you to go away from organic social media, and one of the things that I've noticed is that my ads work so much better when I'm also showing up organically, because the two work in tandem. But, it does take that pressure off, and honestly, as a wedding pro, I will be honest, I've never run ads, for Blush. You guys are tempting me, for sure.

Like, I'm like, okay, like, after the summit, I have a feeling we're going to end up, because my director of events is going to be there, and she'll be like, we're running ads. Um, but, I, I really love this concept that you're talking about, because it, it really takes so much of the pressure off of showing up every single day. And, I talk about evergreen content with my students all the time.

I'm like, you have to have great evergreen content, But the thought of, yes, it gets buried in your feed or hopefully SEO is picking it up on your website too, but this is just another way to keep it living and breathing. You create one really great piece of content or two to three really great pieces of content and then let them just go out through this news feed. I think that this is brilliant. I'm obsessed with this idea.

We have found that, you know, Google has its strengths and its applications, just like Meta also has its strengths and applications. And when it comes to retargeting and staying top of mind, Meta is a really powerful platform to really connect and build relationships with the people who are in your community, like in your circle.

There are a lot of people who are still using Facebook as their primary platform, and when we're thinking about the buyers for these services, sometimes the people who find the best, or the right fit for them Service provider, it's not the couple. It might be the mother of the bride. It might be another family member who is, you know, just as invested in the event as the couple themselves.

And so having those, the ability to set up a campaign, but have the placements run on both platforms is actually to your benefit.

So stories are a great way to actually point people to take that next step, whether it's starting a conversation in the DMs or putting a link that they can then go leave the platform, land on your website, submit the inquiry form, and really lead into a sales conversation from there. Your news feed, for example, though, Functions almost like a living and breathing portfolio of the work that you do and who you are as a person and who you are as a brand.

Because nine times out of ten, when somebody sees an ad, one of the first things that they do is they click on your face and go over to your profile and check it out. See if it's a real company, see what else they're about. And so that's, you know, to your point, why ads and the organic content piece work so closely together.

And honestly, Even for myself, you know, for my coaching business, obviously the goal is to get somebody into a sale, right? But it is a much longer sales funnel. That would be the goal with, with the wedding industry as well. But I think when I've thought about ads in my wedding business, I've thought, Oh, I mean, what am I doing? Trying to get them to go to a consultation? Like it, it, Honestly, it didn't compute because the funnel wasn't very long, right?

And so now hearing you talk about it, I'm thinking more just visibility ads or getting a freebie into their hands or sending them to a really killer blog with, you know, how to create their budget or something that would be, that would get them into my stratosphere, right? So is that kind of what you're saying when you're talking about different ways? Okay. Yeah.

Type of result that you're paying for in the ad space because we're asking these leads to Click on the link in the ad then submit their information type their name type their email submit the form Maybe it's a longer application for an inquiry That's the more you're asking of people the more it's going to cost to get somebody to through to that next step But if you start with an awareness objective where really the objective is video views, for example, on a reel or a great

piece of content that you have, face to cam would be great. But even if it's b roll video, that's fine too. You're able to measure duration of, of people watching and the result is a throughplay, which is 15 seconds of somebody's attention. You're not asking them to leave the app. And so you can get that result for pennies.

And it's like, how do you, honestly, a simple visibility ad in that new market would help so much One of the things that we're battling in the new market is that our name just isn't as well known as it is here. So running a visibility ad in that new market would help so much, and that's such an inexpensive cost. Would you agree?

And you know that they're interested because they watched your 30 second video, your full five minute video. I mean, if you have a 20 minute video that they're watching the whole thing, that's a piping hot lead, even if they're not submitting an inquiry form. So it's a really powerful way to sort of layer and curate a customer experience and So you can expand the top of your funnel, uh, without focusing too much on just the bottom or just the very end of it.

is so exciting like I'm I'm You guys are totally making me think how this can be used so simply. And for a visibility ad, you were talking about even a dollar a day. Do you feel like that's actually a decent budget that, somebody that's listening could start with to get visible?

But set it up in a way to where we are ensuring that we are only getting in front of cold traffic, people who have never heard of you before. So we exclude anybody who has visited your website. We exclude anybody who has ever visited your, you know, Facebook and Instagram page or interacted with you on Facebook and Instagram for the past, year.

To really ensure that even those couple of dollars that we're spending on these types of campaigns are going as far as they absolutely can by getting you in front of targeted people who have interest indicating that they are planning a wedding, but that have never heard of you before.

And the search results show up, and the ads search results show up based on keywords that we're putting in. So there's sometimes a different level of intent when somebody's going to Google to search for a provider. Um, they are looking for, they're in like a research phase. They're looking for options and they're exploring those options and then they're clicking over to the websites and kind of digging a little bit deeper.

Chances are that they probably are not going to submit the inquiry form on the first visit to the website. So by having those back end pieces of tracking code in place, that's when you're then able to nurture that relationship by showing up in their news feeds now, on the social platforms that they're already spending time on.

So, Google is really great for capturing that initial search traffic and creating an audience of website visitors who are researching and trying to find providers that fit a really specific parameter. So they might be searching, you know, best photographer in my area or, uh, really looking for the right venue first, and building on it from there.

Meta or Facebook and Instagram platforms, on the other hand, are really great at building relationships, solidifying those relationships, establishing trust, showing your authority, showcasing your work. There are a lot more visual and storytelling elements that are capable, or that you're capable of utilizing on those platforms, whereas Google is a lot more text driven. Um, so. That's kind of how they come together is that Google serves the top of funnel.

There are some retargeting options on Google as well with display campaigns that we can get into later. But really thinking of Google as that initial point of entry and a way of building audiences based on intent. And then meta is the place where we follow up.

We continue showing up, we showcase what we do, and we then Really invite people to take that next step so it serves sort of more of the middle and the bottom of funnel where we're then getting people not just from those early research phase and, and sort of explore, exploratory phases into deeper, uh, sales driven conversations and submitting inquiry forms and then starting the process of becoming clients.

Like you search something on your phone or you're talking to a friend about it and I swear our phones listen. But then all sudden, like your Instagram or on the right side of your Facebook is exactly what you were talking about earlier that day. And it, it, you know, we talk about all the time, like somebody has to see you seven times before they're going to inquire, before they're going to reach out, right? Like you're staying top of mind. You're staying top of mind.

And I'm obsessed with this methodology of using the Google ads to be top of funnel. I think that's brilliant for the wedding

These tools are so powerful, um, and we just want everybody to be utilizing them.

And that's really what the workshop at the summit is going be geared towards is there is a way that you can quote unquote boost a post by taking an existing piece of content and existing posts and building it out as an ad, but doing it inside the meta ads manager so that you can be super intentional with what your targeting is, what your objective is, and Be able to potentially see real results in terms of people clicking through and hitting your website or becoming leads or becoming

retargeting audiences inside the meta app manager is going to be the only place where we can do that sort of retargeting based on website visitors. Or people who have interacted with you on Facebook Instagram. You can't retarget people when you're clicking the boost, right? There's not nearly as much control there.

But the difference that you're talking about and what we're going to be talking about and workshopping during the summit is more that, yes, we're, you're still getting visibility, but now we also have all the data that we can use to make that visibility super targeted, but also to then reuse it to retarget, right?

Um, so when you set up the, instead of boosting the posts, you can still kind of use the same piece of content promote it through a really simple ad campaign, but you have so much more control on the back end in terms of who sees it, making sure that you're really targeting people who either are your engaged followers that you want to retarget, or that you're being really specific about who you're showing that piece of content to, that they're actually going to potentially

become clients or be people who fit the bill, rather than just your who's still scrolling at whatever time of night when, you know, when we're trying to get that added visibility.

And so what I think is so cool about that is like you could make back the price of your summit ticket literally just from doing this one workshop at the summit and having leads come in while you're still learning how to grow your profitable business at the summit. And I'm so excited about it when I Got your speaker application. I was just like I'm in like I'm hooked.

I love the way you guys talk about ads I love how simple you make it I love that you understand the wedding industry and how different it is hearing you Daniela say, you know Coaching is like this long funnel. I swear my funnels are so long like spaghetti everywhere And that's not the same for the wedding industry at all So I love that you guys know that and I'm just obsessed with getting you in front of my audience at the summit and our attendees.

So, um, where can everybody connect with you before the summit? Where can everybody connect with you right now as they're listening to this podcast?

You'll also find on there, um, you know, some cool freebies, like if you want to Opt in for this really great presentation that we have that really gets into the specifics about how Google and Meta ads work together. You can check that out there. So

We have Such a fun lineup of speakers, and it will 100 percent be worth your investment to be there and be in that room learning how to build your profitable business. Ladies, thank you so much for pouring into our audience today. I cannot wait to see you in just a couple of months at Summit in Austin.