Recently in my group, a question came up about when you should start to run Google ads. If you need a few extra leads, should you turn on a Google ad? When is the right time to do it so that you ensure you have enough leads? And so many more questions all surrounding when and how to turn on paid ads. I am a massive fan of paid advertising here for this brand, for Wedding Pro CEO. We do paid advertising every single month. We've been doing it for almost two years now.
And honestly, I don't know that I can ever see myself turning that off, but as I've shared before on the podcast, and you'll hear me say in this episode, I still have not yet pulled the trigger and running paid advertising for Blush. I'm incredibly excited to do so. And I know that it's coming this year in 2024, and I'm actually really excited to hopefully be able to document that process for you. from someone who's never run ads so you can see exactly what the process looks like.
But in today's episode, Mark Chapman from the I Do Society and I are chatting all about the reasons that you should run ads and the things that you should do before you start ads. And we're also talking about when ads may not be a great strategy for you at this time in your business. Because there's no reason for you to just waste money in paying for ads that aren't good. Aren't going to actually work.
So we're giving you lots of tips about exactly when to run ads, how to run ads, and how to know if you are a great candidate for it. So you guys, I know so many of you have dm'd me and said, Brandee, I'm so close. I'm so close on the ads train. So this is gonna be such a fun episode for you. Hey, there's CEOs. This is the Wedding Pro CEO podcast, and I'm your host. I'm a wedding pro just like you who's built one of the largest planning firms in Orlando, Florida.
But it wasn't that long ago when that success came with long days, sleepless nights, and little to no pay. Fast forward to today, and I have the business that I've always dreamed of. Steady profit, a killer team, and weekends with my family. Over the past three years, I've taught more than a thousand wedding pros how to do the same. My mission is to create a movement of wedding pros who are building a profitable wedding business that they have always dreamed of.
Mark, I am so excited to have you back on the podcast. I always love chatting with you about all things ads. And so welcome back to the show.
Thank you. It's so good to be here and you do so much for the, for your audience and your circle of influence. It's great to be here and just be a little part of that. You do amazing things. So thanks for having me.
Well, you're so sweet. I just could talk ads with you all day. And so we're gonna, Mark and I were talking before the show, we were like, okay, we're going to try to stay on track here. We're going to like really make sure that we're answering all of your ads questions. And if you want to know a little bit more about Mark and Google ads specifically, go back and listen to episode 164, because Mark and I talked All about Google ads. That's one of our most popular episodes. We love that episode.
But today we're going to talk a lot more in depth about things that work, things that don't work with ads, and just some different things that you can think about when you're starting to think about running Google ads, Instagram ads, meta ads, TikTok, all the things Yeah. So Mark, are you ready to get into it?
I'm ready. Let's dive in. This is going to be such good information for wedding pros.
Yes. Yes. I definitely think that at least from what I've seen, more wedding pros are open to running ads, but I think that there's a lot of maybe misconceptions. I don't want to say mistakes, but maybe misconceptions about how ads work. So can you, Kind of just give a brief overview of like, when is the best time to run ads or like, who should even be thinking about running ads?
Yeah. I mean, your question is like, should I run ads or should I not run ads? That's in the mind of a, of a wedding pro. Cause they want more business. Maybe they only want a certain amount more business, but they want more business and advertising is a viable way to get more business. And you know, that's the really long answer to that, but I'll give you as quick of an answer so we can dive into it deeper as possible is that you should run ads if you have.
No more time to nurture your warm leads. If you're out of time for doing all the things to get warm leads to come into your business, from your referral partners, from your venues, if you're a planner or things like that. And it kind of comes back to my story, actually, Brandee, where I was a wedding photographer and I was working seven days a week and I was doing all of that. All the things, and I was tired and I actually started figuring out advertising because I wanted to buy my time back.
And so there is a significant difference in the leads you get from advertising versus those warm leads who come into your business from other places. And so if you have more time and more investment of yourself to do with warm leads, go for it and do that there. If you want to grow beyond that, then it's, it's time to start thinking about advertising. Does that make sense? I feel like it's not always perfectly clear, but
yeah, no, it really does. And as you know, I run ads for my coaching business, but anybody listening to this episode that's heard me say this multiple times, I still don't run ads for blush yet. Um, we're getting there. Okay. We're getting there. But, um, I do, I, I found that to be true in my coaching business is the bigger we spend in ads, the less I have to go out and And really, like, generate those leads face to face, if that makes sense.
And it's, it's so helpful, because I'm like, I really love connecting with people in my DMs. I love it. Um, and so, it's just been so great to have people, like, find me in an ad. Come watch my Instagram for a little bit, then show him my DMS. And I'm like, yes, this is working. I love it so much. So that's a great point that you're saying there.
And one of the things I know that you are constantly on your soapbox is sharing with your audience about is like having a balance between work and not being overwhelmed. And there comes a point in every wedding pros business where like they reach that point of overwhelm, but they still could do more business.
And so that's a really good time to consider like, okay, uh, I don't have more brain space, even if you have the time, but you don't have the brain space, because you want to spend time with your kids, your family, or whatever. Taking that step to do advertising correctly can be one of those ways that you continue to grow your business, and yet have the time to do the other things that make you, you, and that you enjoy doing, and you're not a slave to your business, because you shouldn't be.
Yes. Okay, so one of the things you just said there, Mark, was correctly.
Yeah.
Yes. So let's, let's talk about that for a little bit. What, what would you say correctly means? Give us some touch points on that.
Yeah. I'm going to start with a really high level statement about doing it correctly is that couples today do not click an ad and book a meeting with you without some way of starting to know, like, and trust you. So when I say correctly, we have to consider the end person who's going to see these ads and consider the way they shop. They don't just click ads and convert. They, they're going to find out all about you.
They may click on your ad and visit your website and they're in that discovery mode on Google finding out what are the venues that exist near me. So they click on the ads, click on the organic results, figure out all the venues, but they didn't book a tour right then because that's not the mode that they're in. So making sure that you show up in multiple places, multiple times, and in multiple formats is what I mean by correctly.
So if you run ads, you can't just do Google ads and be like, Oh, I'm going to get a bunch of leads by turning a Google ad campaign on. You should be prepared to run ads on Google as well as a second platform like Meta, which is Facebook and Instagram, or a second platform like TikTok, which is super awesome short form video so that that couple sees you in multiple places, multiple times.
I know it's very high level statement, but it's really important to connect these two statements of like, am I ready to do ads? Am I ready to do ads correctly? You have to be willing to put in the time and money to make sure that couples see you again and again and again, so you can earn their trust. Because they're a super cold audience. They're not your warm leads. Is it possible to use ads to turn those cold audience people into warm leads? Yes. Multiple places, multiple times. Yeah.
Yeah. It's interesting to be able to track back someone's journey that came from an ad. You know, you're a hundred percent right. People are not clicking the ad and being like, time to work with you. And it's so funny that you said that, because I think this will resonate with some of our listeners. A lot of our listeners know I hired a CEO to run Blush, my planning company this year. And I told her, I think we're going to start running ads.
It's something I've been wanting to do, and now that we have the capacity, the team, I want to turn them on. I want to do this. And she was like, she's young, right? So she was like, yeah, my generation would literally never click an ad. And, and, and buy a wedding planner or, or any wedding pro. And I said, yeah, but that's the thing. And I think that's a misconception is that you think an ad means a lot. What we used to think of ads, right?
Which is like the banner at the top of Google or like, Hey, buy from me. But ads well done. And I'd love for you to touch on this. One, don't look like an ad. They say sponsored, obviously, but they're not just like, buy from me like 200 off. If you book your wedding with us today. Right. Can you touch a little bit on that? Cause I think that's a misconception for a lot of our listeners is like, yeah, I'm never going to buy from an ad. So why would my people?
So the ad must be helpful. It must be relevant. And then those are two really big subjective words that like, don't mean anything in terms of ad copy or imagery, but, but here's, um, an example of something that's working really well. Uh, we run a lot of TikTok ads. TikTok is amazing. I know people have feelings. Both good and bad about it. But the truth is, is that TikTok ads at the moment is incredible.
And something we're doing with a lot of our bridal stores who work with us is that we are doing sort of educational TikTok videos, that's an ad, like how to prepare for your bridal appointment so that it is helpful, it's relevant. It gives them information that builds no like and trust so that they're like, Ooh, you know what, I, I think this is a, no one else has done this for me. And now I feel more confident about going into that experience. That's very personal and it's an ad.
Bam. You know what? It wasn't spammy. It wasn't buy from us. It was let's help you and educate you. And then that bride, she might hate ads because we're all over advertised to, let's be honest. And that's okay. But she's like, this is different. Yeah.
Yeah. I think one of the things that's interesting about that too, and I don't know if you can do this on Tik Tok, but how does retargeting work on Tik Tok? Is that something that you can use or can you use? I guess the views on TikTok for other platforms or how does that all work together?
You can actually use TikTok for retargeting as of 20, the end of 2023. It's very exciting. They just rolled it out. Yeah. And, and, you know, with retargeting and we'll kind of define what that is really quickly. It's like someone maybe visited your website and you want to show them an ad to follow up with them. So retargeting is really powerful and helpful, especially if, You need to build that know, like, and trust this cold audience.
And so you can set up a retargeting campaign on TikTok where people have either interacted with your organic TikTok account, or maybe they visited your website and you want to nurture that relationship and eventually get them to book the appointment. It's really powerful for that.
That's so good. I love that you just touched on organic content because I would love to know your thoughts. on, you know, can ads take the place of organic content? Like, can you start running ads and just be like, I'm all done. I don't need to show up organically on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok.
I wish that were the case, but those mostly young women who are doing the research to plan their wedding, those young couples are really scoping you out. They see your business and within five minutes on their, on their smartphone, they're like, They are literally like, they know everything about you. They've read the reviews. They visited your website. They visited your Instagram. So unfortunately it doesn't give you an out to being present organically.
And wouldn't that be nice if it did, but I also think that maybe there's an sense of like, you can scale back a little bit organically because if you're making a big effort with advertising and that is one of your primary lead generation functions and sources. Maybe you don't have to post every single day. Maybe you don't have to worry too much about it. Like be present, be alive there, but don't necessarily like, you can find a balance.
Yeah, I agree. I definitely think you can pull way back on organic content because honestly the point of making so much organic content is to get the algorithm to learn you and start pushing out your content, right? Well, if your ads are doing that for you and they're already coming to your profile, it's really just a matter of like, It's now nurturing in your organic content, right?
Yep. That's exactly it.
Yes. I love this. Okay. So I We were talking a little bit before the show inside my group. There was quite a conversation Last week with a wedding pro who was like I I need more leads so I think i'm gonna run a google ad and the conversation sort of started to take a turn of like It almost seemed like the conversation was, yes, turn on the Google ads when you want more leads, and then just turn it off. Almost like a faucet. Can you touch on that a little bit?
Cause I feel like that's a, a strategy that might not work super well. In
2009, when I started Google ads for my photography studio, that worked. That was the case.
Okay.
Instagram didn't exist, TikTok didn't exist, Facebook pages didn't exist because that was the one place that people went to is like the new yellow pages where it was like you're all of a sudden showing up in the yellow pages and some people listening aren't even going to know what the yellow pages are but it did it worked then but it absolutely does not work now.
You cannot expect couples who are planning their wedding and searching and looking for vendors and venues and resources to see you once. Decide that they love you and like you and book an appointment with you. And for that reason, it is a long game.
It is a long game that absolutely works, but you need to understand what the couple is doing online, and that means that they're shopping you, they're looking at you, they're looking at your competitors and running an ad campaign for a week and then turning it off is going to waste your money and you're going to be frustrated. Like, ah, advertising doesn't work. It absolutely does work, but it doesn't work like that.
Do you feel like advertising with ads? This is a long game, and let me describe what I think is a long game. So I'll give, I'll kind of give the timeline of what I think is a long game. So I would say Instagram and TikTok, of social, of social, would be the fastest, in my opinion. And um, and SEO being the longest. Where do ads fall on that time frame, or do you think that TikTok and Instagram isn't the fastest? You can tell me that too, but.
Oh. I don't know. Let me think about this. Well, I mean, like SEO is really awesome and important, but it is a long game.
I feel like it's the longest, right? Like SEO is a long game and it can pay off for a really long time
Absolutely.
Well, but you can't start SEO today and you're, you're looking at results. I personally think what I've seen really work is like six months. You need to be really at it to start seeing a return on that. So do you feel like ads? Also, feel at home, because to me, Instagram, if I did consistent Instagram for 30 days, I would start seeing leads.
Yeah, well, here's maybe like the surprising answer to this with ads and the way we do ads at the I do society, which may be, which may be surprising to some people. So when we work with a company, we make sure that they're willing to do ads on Google and ads on meta or Tik TOK. So that like, That couple does immediately start seeing you in multiple places, multiple times.
And because we do remarketing, we start with that Google ads campaign because that they're searching for a bridal store, they're searching for a wedding planner, they intend to find one and we track them on the website. And then we remarket to those folks on Instagram and, or TikTok. And so, um, it is a lot shorter of a game when done correctly and then you're paying for it. And now it comes at a cost. You need about. 20 a day to make that work, which is about 600 a month.
And, um, so it, it actually shortens the game when you do immediately pay to show up for that couple on their device, on every app that they're using. And so it shortens the game a lot and, but you're paying for it. And there's a strategy behind it.
That's interesting. And I'm actually so glad that you touched on. The dollar amount, because I don't know that I've been able to get anybody to say a realistic dollar amount live. Like, I feel like we always talk about it behind the scenes. So talk to us a little bit more about that, because I know that, you know, I think a soundbite that's out there, which is true. One of my previous guests has had, has said this, and I think it's true, but I'd love for you to kind of clarify this a little bit.
Is that you can run ads for a dollar a day.
Yeah.
So then why do you need 20 a day? Like, can you help everybody to understand maybe like how it all kind of comes together and why 20 a day feels like.
Yeah, definitely. So here's the deal with the reality with advertising budget on Meta, you can create a campaign and you can say, Hey, I wanted to target engaged women in this geographic area, whether it's a list of zip codes or it's a radius around your bridal store or your business or wherever. And that is going to tell you how many, How many estimated number of engaged women are in that area?
What we have found over the last 15 years of doing this, ever since Facebook ads began, is that you have about an audience of 10, 000, 10, 000 brides in that area, and you need about 20 a day to make sure that you reach them on Facebook, on Instagram, in Messenger, in Reels, in Stories, so that they see you multiple times on that platform. And so the dollar a day conversation, uh, Will not get a business results that they want to see from advertising in a fast timeframe.
It may help you promote some of your content to help people feel, see that content a little bit more, but yeah, for like a little bit of visibility. But if you want to run an ad campaign where a couple of see you in multiple times, which they need to see you multiple times because they're a cold audience in order to trust you, you need to spend about 20 a day on one platform.
Okay, and that's helpful to know too on one platform and Meta is considered one platform with Facebook and Instagram or would that be considered two platforms?
No, it's one platform because what you do is you create a campaign in your Meta ads account and it distributes the ads depending on where your ideal audience is. Like you tell Meta who you want to reach and Meta's like, okay, if she's still on Facebook and she's one of those brides, we're going to show her ads on Facebook. If she's an Instagram bride, we're going to show ads there and it just, and it does the work for you to show the ads.
Where, um, that ideal audience is because Metta wants you to succeed. They want people to have relevant, helpful experiences. And so they do the work for you. And Metta is one platform covering both Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger as sort of almost a third platform in there.
Got it. Okay. And so then TikTok would be another platform and then Google would be another platform, right? Technically, would it be three possible platforms?
Yep. And like a really ideal scenario, and this isn't for everyone, that's okay. An ideal scenario is that you have 20 a day on three platforms and then you are experiencing like market saturation with those 10, 000 brides. It's really cool to see happen. It's a stretch for a lot of folks and it's totally okay if you don't have that money in the beginning. Um, our recommendation always is like, do Google ads for sure. Um, okay. Plus one other platform.
Whether you're more comfortable on Instagram, that's fine. If you're getting into TikTok and that's a really powerful platform, do Google and TikTok because they need to see you at least in two places. Um, otherwise your money will not produce an ROI.
So one of the things that I've been talking about with Sophia, my CEO, is that we really want to make sure that when those leads come in, That we are able to convert them, right? So can you touch on that, Mark? Cause you know, we've been really looking at our inquiries through organic because I want to know, okay, if we're already converting 40 percent of our inquiries, what is our capacity? If we start running ads and we triple our inquiries, does that mean we're going to triple our conversion?
Hopefully, right. But do we have the capacity to do that? So can you touch on that a little bit of like what? What should somebody be prepared for, I guess, before they start running ads?
In terms of, like, what the lead experience is like when they convert? Yeah. Is that what you mean? I mean,
I guess I would say, like, your team is most concerned about getting them the leads, right? Right. And then how they convert them is really on you. Right. Like your team is to get them the leads. Yeah. And then they have to convert them. Um, one of the things that my ads manager for my coaching business talked a lot about before she would even take me on as a client was she was like, I need to see your conversion rate for three months.
Yeah. And I, I don't think everybody necessarily does that or has to do that, but I guess one of my questions is like, is that something you encourage your students to do or can you touch on that a little bit that like
Absolutely. Yeah. Your job
isn't to make them sales. Your job is to get them leads. Right.
Definitely, definitely not sales, but the conversion of those, like, of the traffic from the website into leads and what to do with those leads is super important and something we talk about all day. And even though, you know, we, I kind of stay in my lane with advertising and creating those great ad campaigns to turn those people into leads. The lead follow up is essential because if you don't have a lead follow up process or you're, uh, You're not willing to text couples these days.
Like you're not going to be able to convert them into a warm lead who knows, likes you and trusts you. And so it is a really, really a big part of what I do.
And to speak on that on a high level, um, that's actually maybe started to sound like a naysayer, but another reason, another thing, like you shouldn't run ads if you don't feel a hundred percent confident in your ability to nurture leads into appointments of whatever type that needs to be, or the next step, whatever that needs to be for your business, because you're going to get those leads if you do the advertising campaigns, right? But then you're not going to convert them.
And you're gonna be like, well, these ad campaigns are terrible and they don't work, or it's not the right audience. When actually a lot of times, to be honest, Brandee. Some of us older folks, maybe like myself in the wedding industry are a little bit tired and we don't want to adapt our communication styles to do the things we need to do like texting and do it more conversational and not text them a five page email. You know, um, I just planted a lot of seeds there.
I know there's a lot of different directions we could go.
I know. Okay. So I, I'm going to take this tangent with you, Mark, because I have been watching your TikToks and I am so. Passionate about this. I swear, it's something any one of my students would tell you. Like, Brandee drills this into us every single day. Because I, and you're so passionate about it on TikTok, which I love.
Yep.
You have to adapt your communication style because I'm a huge fan of automations. Huge fan of automations. But, I think, I think what people need to understand, especially when it comes to ad traffic, is Mark has mentioned this multiple times. You are pulling cold traffic in.
So, even though the cold traffic is coming in and you're nurturing them and things like that, they're still a colder lead than somebody that literally was referred to you by their favorite photographer who, you know, You know, they've, they're like in love with. So when you just let an automation run in email, you're not creating the connection that has to be created.
And by using texting, whether you get a dummy phone, so they don't have your phone number, whatever you want to do, use a Google voice number. Texting is an essential part of all lead process, but especially once you start running ads. Right. And feel free to jump on the soapbox, Mark, cause I've seen your TikToks
about it. 100%. Absolutely. And I always use this example. I have actually a good friend who, uh, she, her profession is dog walking and she actually has her own business, dog walking. And like, that's the life she wants. She loves her life. She spends a ton of time outside. She loves dogs. She doesn't have a laptop. And she recently got. And she does not want to use a computer to plan her wedding. And there are people who are texting her these five page emails about this, that, this and that.
And like, she's like, I don't even know what to do with this. Like I can't, my brain can't process this. And she's, she may not make a ton of money dog walking, but her parents sure still have a lot of money, sure still have a lot of money. And so, um, I mean, the money isn't the issue. It's like, she is a person who's a super great bride for a lot of businesses, but these businesses are just not adapting to the way that she wants to communicate.
And therefore they're losing a huge opportunity to have, she wants to buy a 10, 000 wedding dress. And some of these stores are like, Uh, there's just, yeah, anyway, you get the idea. They're not
working around the communication, right? And I think what's interesting to me, yeah, they're not doing it. And we are 100 percent going to create another episode on this about exactly how to run through this process. Because I think it's so important and I think you hit the nail on the head. I was obsessed with this TikTok that you created where it was like, So everybody's saying, okay, fine, I'll start texting. But they're just taking their email and putting it into a text.
Yeah. It's like it was like 10 pages long and you had to scroll probably 50 times to get to the end of it to whatever The answer of the question was that you asked or the person asked from the text message. What's your pricing?
Yeah, that does not work. So there is a texting strategy and honestly at the end of the day, it's as simple as Get in the process, like get in the process with them. Let your automation run, but treat every lead like they're your best friend who just got engaged and you're so excited. And so you shoot a text. It's like, you know, I'm so excited.
This episode is definitely about ads, but I think this is such a massive piece of running ads is really understanding how different the traffic is and how different you need to treat those leads. Um, so I'm glad that we got to touch on that. Cause. Yeah,
and I'm really glad you brought it back up too, because I mean, we can't, I can't say enough, like, as we're having this conversation, how advertising reaches a cold audience, and that is not a bad thing. It is a bad thing when you treat your cold audience the same as your warm audience, and you expect the same thing from them. And the whole conversation here about texting is that it's a way to make that cold audience conversational and to warm them up.
Oh, so good. So good. Okay, so one thing that I, we, we talked a little bit about, like, Lead conversion, knowing your lead conversion. And one of the things I do want to encourage our listeners, if you're like, okay, Brandee, like, you know, you're starting to really get me with these ads. Like I think it's something that we're definitely going to do this year. I really want to encourage all of our listeners to go back. You know, we're, we're not even halfway through the year yet.
I want you to go back through the beginning of the year and track every single lead that you've gotten so far and really understand your conversion rate now so that you can, you can make an informed decision and say, okay, If Mark is able to help me get two times the leads I already get, do we have the capacity to take on this many more clients, right? Because you want to be smart about how many leads you're actually getting in. Um, and whether you have the capacity to do that or not.
So if you, if you don't already track your leads, you can grab the lead tracker that I have. I think that that would be really, really smart. We'll put the link in the show notes, but I want to make sure that all those leads Mark is getting you, that you're able to convert them. I think this is so important. Okay. So, Mark, can you touch on, you touched on it a little bit, but like, who should not run ads? Cause I know some people are listening and they're like, I don't know if I should run ads.
Like, is there, is there, are there certain things that you should maybe, you know, You might not be a great candidate to run ads.
You should not run ads if you don't want to deal with people asking you simple questions like, what's your pricing right away? Or I don't know. That's not the best answer, but I just feel like it goes back to that cold audiences. Like if you don't want to deal with that, like, like keep doing your warm leads. Um, Also, if you have a really limited capacity, like a lot of planners, right? I have a goal of 20 weddings a year, and it's probably not a good fit for you.
If you, if you have a very limited capacity, because the goal of ads is quantity and quality, and there's going to be a lot of money spent then on people who are looking for a date that you don't have available and that it's just not, it's just going to waste, it's going to spend a lot of money and you're going to feel like it's wasted and the person who reaches out, she's going to be frustrated. Yeah,
I agree with that. I think, uh, you, you really touched on a hot point. I think that a lot of wedding pros Have, which is, don't ask me the pricing question right away. This was actually a Threads conversation the other day. Mm-Hmm. That got quite heated and I was part of . Um, but where people were saying, you know, I hate it when somebody asks me that, I don't even wanna respond. And I'm like, well, I mean, that's a buying question. Why would you not want them to ask you that?
Like, I think it's a valid question. Sure. So, yeah, I mean, how, how do you feel about that? Like, I think that that is a question that people would get a lot once they start running ads, right?
You know, remember the person we were talking about, uh, who's like, I don't, my, someone in my generation would never click on an ad. Um, so that same person. Isn't going to book a meeting with you if they don't know if they don't have any ballpark idea of how much your services cost.
Um, transitioning from working with just warm leads to a cold audience requires that you be transparent at some point in that journey before they reach out to you about your pricing, or they're not going to reach out because they don't want to have the conversation. They don't want to book a meeting with you, book an hour of their valuable time with you to find out they can't afford you. It just doesn't work like that.
So maybe, um, another thing, don't do ads if you're not willing to put your pricing somewhere. In that journey, so folks can see it. And I know that's a really controversial topic in the wedding industry and it has been for years. But what I know about advertising today is that couples are not going to book a meeting with you if they don't have any idea of what you cost.
So good. So good. And so true. Okay. So Mark, I have one more question that might be in two parts, but, um, so, So, you know, listening to, okay, we really want to have 600 a month per platform, ideally as an ad spend, you know, that's not hard and fast, but like that's an ideal budget. And then obviously plus the fee of your ads, um, company that's managing your ads for you.
So it's, it's not a small cost, right, but how would it compare to maybe listing sites That people are already on, but like, how does it compare in price? But like, how does it compare maybe in the ROI? Cause a lot of wedding pros have no problem going straight to listing site and being like, yep, here you go. But they're afraid to run adds. Those
big listing sites have their place, Like everyone knows what we're talking about. Wedding wire and the knot, right? They have their place in many businesses journey and many businesses success. But one of the things that I absolutely love about advertising on Google and meta and Tik TOK is you choose the demographics, you choose who sees your ad and that therefore your money is oftentimes much better spent than allowing anyone and everyone to see your ad.
Or to see your profile and sorting through a massive amount of low quality leads. And I don't mean low quality people. I just mean people who aren't the right fit for your business. So like. Google and Meta and TikTok, you choose the age range, you choose their interests. Are they a dog person? Are they a cat person? Do they live in certain zip codes?
If you have a past clientele and you know what zip codes they came from, you can put those specific zip codes into Google ads and exclude the rest of them. And so I, you could probably hear the passion in my voice all day long. I talk with business owners who are like, I'm on these listing sites and it did a lot of good for me for a really long time, but I just don't feel like it's the same these days. And how do I do different? How do I do this differently?
And that demographic targeting and these platforms is a game changer and a life changer for a lot of business owners. Not to be overdramatic, but it was for me. So, yeah,
no, I don't think that's overdramatic at all. I mean, I really do. Sometimes when I try to put it in perspective for some of our clients, I'm like, what would, you know, 20 additional weddings a year due for you. Most wedding pros are charging two, 3, 000 for their base level package. That's not a small amount of money. Um, and so it's really, it is possible when you're doing the right advertising to really double that revenue. And so I think, I don't think you're overstating it at all.
And I love that. Okay. Is there anything else that our listeners should know about running ads You're just like, no Brandee, before we close this episode, like, I have to let them know this.
Yeah. You know, actually there was one thing we're talking about, about putting your pricing on your website that I actually had a thought afterward and started to circle back on it. But like those warm leads who like got referred by their friend or their sister or whatever, like they already know your pricing. And so like when you're like, I'm not putting my pricing on my website because I want there to be a conversation. All those warm leads talk to someone about it and so they already know.
And so not putting your pricing out there literally just didn't. It's just doing you a disservice and I think that, you know, that may be not everyone's cup of tea, but that's sort of my soapbox or the hill I'll die on today as it goes. Uh, cause it's so important to convert all that traffic that you're paying really good money for. Um, and that's going to be the key to converting them.
Oh, I, I agree with you, Mark. I, you know, anybody who's listened to the podcast for a long time knows there was a time in the history of this podcast that I was Switzerland on the pricing issue. I didn't care. I was like, I don't care if you put it on your website or not, but I have firmly planted my feet in the side of yes, you need to. And I think that comes with this generation who's coming up. They are savvy buyers. They're smart. They do their research and it's important.
They're not going to spend their time with you. If they don't, if they don't have an idea of what your pricing is, um. Yeah.
And a business owner I met with the other day actually asked this, he's like, well, what if they're in that super top of the funnel research phase where they don't even know how much, like they do live music for weddings. They don't even know that live music for weddings costs 10, 000. And I just spent my money on Google ads to educate them that it costs 10, 000. And I was like, well, that's okay.
Because if we're doing our job and they're seeing you in multiple places, multiple times, and we're remarketing to them, they learned about you. And they weren't ready for it, but they see you over the next 90 days on Instagram and the videos on TikTok, and they're like, shoot, like, okay, now I understand how much it costs and now I really want it. And I think that's a great example of how advertising can work really well.
And it isn't perfect at every journey of the stage, every stage of the journey, but it does work incredibly well when it's done correctly. And hopefully, you know, we did, we talked about today a little bit of, uh, what done correctly means and gave people a taste of that.
Yeah, I think that's a really good point, Mark, because to that exact scenario, if a lead came in where you weren't running ads and they came in, heard the 10, 000 price tag, freaked out because they were still in that top of funnel stage.
They'd never see you again.
They'd never see you again. They're gonna 10, 000 band because you taught them. Yes. They never heard from you again and someone else did. So then they were like, Oh, now I know it costs 10, 000 versus if you're running ads. You're staying top of mind consistently and you win the business. And I think that's a big difference is that people need to understand, yeah, you might be the one to educate them, but you're also the one staying top of mind.
So, um, I think that's a great example of why ads are so important to be running.
It's subconsciously that person's like, Oh, that was my first kiss. You know, like that was the first person I learned about. And they remember that stuff. They may not think they remember it, but they really do. They remember the first experience they had to learn about something that was really important to them. And so that is a great example of how like it comes around, but you got to be consistent.
Yes. Oh my gosh. It was so good. Okay. Mark, tell everybody where they can connect with you because I know some of our listeners are listening and they're like, okay, I'm in, where do I go?
Theidoesociety. com is our website, and you can learn all about our team and our services and book a meeting, um, to speak with me personally about advertising for your wedding business and figure out how much it's going to cost for you and what we should do and all the details. Happy to help with that.
I love it. I love it. Okay. And then go check out Mark's TikTok too. I'm going to just give a little plug for that because he does a lot of education over there with advertising, but also like conversion and traffic and all that kind of fun stuff. So go check that out as well.
Of
course, Mark, thank you so much for being here. This was awesome.
Always.