POLL: ADs Where would you invest your money?

If you had some extra cash for Advertising, what would you do:

1. Perfect Wedding Guide
2. The KNOT
3. Google ADwords
4. Other Wedding Planning Sites
4. Local Magazines

If you dont do google adwords already that would be my suggestion or if you already do adwords then maybe a non internet based ad, say a wedding magazine, local area publication of some kind. Alternatively if your not appearing on the first page of a gogle search "photographer YOUR AREA NAME" or "wedding photographers YOUR AREA NAME" I would spend the money on SEO to get you up there and you will see enquiries as a result fo that.

When we started up earlier last year we paid out for a picture listing in a popular wedding index site and also for a listing in a local info site ...... both of which have brought very little traffic and zero bookings ... uptil this weekend SEO and Adwords accounted for all our enquiries and bookings.

Edit After a quick squif at your site (lovely images btw) The other thing that I also think has increased our enquiries is having a contavt form on there. Originally I didnt put one on there (for a few reasons) I just had a email link like what you have, but since putting one on our site we now get all our enquiries via that even though we still have the email link, I guess people doing web searches find it easier to complete a form than compose an email .... or maybe its just the time of year coincidence .... anyway its maybe worth a shot.

What's the ads for?
Is it for yourself? A product?

Don't think I'd go with The Knot. Knotties seem to be more concerned with price vs. quality. I have an ad on Yahoo and am preparing to invest in Google adwords. Much of my business is, however, from word of mouth which stems from maintaining a community presence. I try to drive traffic to my website whenever possible.

penyuijo wrote in post #2545157
What's the ads for?
Is it for yourself? A product?

Of course wedding photography business.

liza wrote in post #2545753
Don't think I'd go with The Knot. Knotties seem to be more concerned with price vs. quality. I have an ad on Yahoo and am preparing to invest in Google adwords. Much of my business is, however, from word of mouth which stems from maintaining a community presence. I try to drive traffic to my website whenever possible.

Thanks Liza, Why you think there is tons of photographers at THE KNOT?. I also want to try Google ADwords but still want to know about others options. It seems to me that here in florida Perfect Wedding Guide is very popularamong the brides.

I asked a similar question recently, and heard back with many recommending GoogleAds. They said that 50% of their business came from that , provided you get under 10th position on the page.

The trick is to use very targeted and specific keywords, and to limit your geographic areas precisely.

See my thread here: https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=262390

Assuming that wasn't a rhetorical question, there are "tons" of photographers on The Knot because it's cheap and people don't know any better. That's where a lot of amateurs seem to go. Craiglist is similar. I do have a friend who's had some success with WeDJ.com. I have a WedPlan ad, but haven't gotten any return on my investment there. Perhaps you should consider bridal shows and also leaving sample flushmount albums and your cards at bridal shops and florists.

I would have to say I would advertise locally. We just had two new magazines that started up here and I am working on ads for both of them!

Then I would go for local magazine.

To be honest, I'm not sure an ad in a magazine is the best invested money. I'd probably spend the money on a killer website, and someone helping you optimize the site so that search engines finds it when they search for wedding photographers in your area.

CyberPet wrote in post #2546116
To be honest, I'm not sure an ad in a magazine is the best invested money. I'd probably spend the money on a killer website, and someone helping you optimize the site so that search engines finds it when they search for wedding photographers in your area.

Absolutely! I would definitly love to upgrade my website! I change my mind, except I am still advertising locally I got lucky and the editors of both mags are friends

totally agree Petra!

liza wrote in post #2545846
Assuming that wasn't a rhetorical question, there are "tons" of photographers on The Knot because it's cheap and people don't know any better. That's where a lot of amateurs seem to go. Craiglist is similar. I do have a friend who's had some success with WeDJ.com. I have a WedPlan ad, but haven't gotten any return on my investment there. Perhaps you should consider bridal shows and also leaving sample flushmount albums and your cards at bridal shops and florists.

Sorry Liza, it is not rethorical question . Just wondering why I see lot of photographers there mostly big companies that use to work with free lance guys. Also not sure how cheap it is since I they already sent me a quote for several hundreds monthly.
Still want to look for the best advice here. Thanks you all of you guys.

LuisE

Tim Wee wrote in post #2545836
The trick is to use very targeted and specific keywords, and to limit your geographic areas precisely.

See my thread here: https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=262390

I specifically DONT do this. Far too many brides searching from within corporate networks that have gateways in a location other than where the search is originating from and also brides that are searching from their current location for photographers in the location where there wedding will be ... certainly in the uk its quite common to go back to where you grew up or where your parents still live to get married. Ive got brides that have booked me from search results that originated in Hong Kong, Denmark and the USA.

Trust your keywords and that your brides know what to search for rather than trying to get all technical with your filtering.... imo anyway.

Banbert wrote in post #2546534
I specifically DONT do this. Far too many brides searching from within corporate networks that have gateways in a location other than where the search is originating from and also brides that are searching from their current location for photographers in the location where there wedding will be ... certainly in the uk its quite common to go back to where you grew up or where your parents still live to get married. Ive got brides that have booked me from search results that originated in Hong Kong, Denmark and the USA.

Trust your keywords and that your brides know what to search for rather than trying to get all technical with your filtering.... imo anyway.

I agree with this as well, with only one exception. If you live on the Central Coast and you want this as a keyword (e.g. Central Coast Wedding Photographer)... is it Central Coast of your state, country or province. There is likely to be several Central Coasts up your local coastline. The same can be said for North Coast, South Coast, Northern Beaches, etc.. Towns are normally ok, but there are some duplicates too. Maybe add your state to the keywords.

Definately target specific keywords... better to miss a couple of opportunities because you are too specific, rather than blow your budget on less specific ones. Doing this will also decrease your advertising cost per conversion (booking or contact).

Nathan