Wedding photography lead generation: top tips for success

When you work in wedding photography, lead generation is crucial. Here are some tips for tipping the odds in your favour.

Papping happy people in their finery. Capturing some of the most memorable moments of people’s lives. (Or helping people who’ve quaffed a little too much bubbly to remember them.) There’s so much joy in being a wedding photographer.

But there’s a lot of stress too. You require a constant stream of fresh leads simply for your business to survive, let alone thrive. The answer is pay per click advertising (PPC). Get it right and you can radically enhance the number of sales-ready leads coming your way – unlocking transformative revenue for your business.

Here are some tips for getting it right.

Skip to the bit where you’re making more money

What if we told you it was possible to use PPC to enhance lead volumes by 1,400% in as little as one month – all while driving ROI? We are PPC experts – and we specialise in driving transformative returns for our clients. Ask for a free, no obligation proposal and we will lay out a three-month plan showing how we could get big results for your business too.

“Since working with Adbetter, our digital paid media channels have grown to be one of our most consistent generators of high-quality leads. Our lead volumes from paid media channels have increased over 1,400% whilst maintaining a low cost per lead.”

– Matthew Fawl, Director, Alesco Investment Property

Why we love PPC for wedding lead generation

There are dozens of wedding lead generation strategies. But for us, pay per click advertising trumps them all.

Here’s why.

• It’s accountable. As the name suggests, with pay per click you only pay when someone clicks your ad. And why would someone click unless they were at least partially interested in your services?

• Capture demand, nurture demand. The breadth of pay per click gives you many options as a marketer. You can use Google Ads to capture leads at the precise moment they are searching for products or services that you provide. And you can use Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms to spread the word about your brand among an audience that is likely to be interested in your expertise.

• It’s easy to control your spend. Expect options to automate daily, weekly, monthly or maximum budgets per campaign. You can hit the pause button at any time. And every penny is accounted for in the performance data.

Find your next leads

All pay per click platforms put sophisticated audience targeting tools at your fingertips. But it doesn’t get much more efficient than using Facebook ads and specifying that you want your ads served only to people who are engaged to be married. Just go to Audience > Demographics > Relationship > Relationship Status > Engaged.

Quick. Easy. Effective.

Different platforms, different benefits

The great thing about pay per click is you can tweak your approach based on what you can deduce about the platform you are advertising on.

For example, by advertising on Facebook or Instagram, you can capture people who are recently engaged and perhaps haven’t started actively planning their wedding yet.

With Google it’s likely that people who are searching for wedding photography are deep in the throes of organising their big day – and your business will be scrutinised and compared with others.

Nevertheless, it’s a great way to scoop new leads – not least if you have last minute availability to fill.

Location targeting

For the meantime at least, weddings are events that very much take place in the physical realm – rather than cyberspace. And while there are obviously products associated with weddings that can be searched for and purchased online, you may not be willing to travel to shoot a wedding in Kendal if you live in Cornwall.

With pay per click, you decide the geographic regions in which your ad displays. Think about how far you are willing to travel for a wedding and set the location parameters for your ad accordingly.

Your photography has to be great

With some businesses it’s the lofi PPC ads that succeed. You cannot follow that rationale. As a wedding photographer it goes without saying that any photography used in your campaign should be exceptional. Your ad is an extension of your product. Take care.

Know your numbers

A creative eye, a commercial head. You’ll need both to succeed with pay per click advertising. Knowing your business numbers is essential. You must balance your day rate with the amount you are willing to spend on ads – factoring in the variability in demand for wedding photography across the calendar year.  

Watch your margins.

Go corporate?

Of course, you could use pay per click to subvert your regular marketing model and experiment with a new way of landing business: partnering with a wedding venue and letting them sell your services. You may have to take a hit on your day rate. But in return you could get a busy diary.

Landing page best practice

When you’re paying for every click, you’d better think carefully about where that click goes. While it’s tempting to simply drive traffic to the homepage of your website, that’s a missed opportunity.

Each of your wedding lead generation campaigns should link to a specific, unique landing page. Landing page design is a specialist subject in its own right. But here’s a brief rundown of some key considerations.

• Design and copywriting. Your landing page should feel like a continuation of the ad your visitor clicked. Same overarching message. Same look. Same feel. Your design should be optimised for mobile and feature a compelling proposition above the fold.
• Create a closed journey. Single-mindedness is a strength when it comes to landing pages. Limit navigation options and stay focused on one clear call to action.
• Gather data. The main aim of a landing page is to gather information on your lead. Create a form that allows you to start the marketing conversation.
• Remember your GDPR obligations. For your forms that means having a tick box that gets people to actively opt in to your comms. Be clear about who will be contacting your lead and how they will be contacted. You must also provide a link to your privacy policy.

Retargeting: get on the front foot

Acquiring a lead is great. But how are you going to turn them into a customer? The most important thing is to act fast. With wedding planning, there’s no time to waste. A good tip is to ask on your landing when the big day is. That way you create a pipeline of leads that you can attack in terms of proximity to their wedding day.

Let us take care of everything for you

Pay per click is our specialism. Day in, day out, we help clients drive revenue from paid media. From creating your ads and sending them to the right people to setting up comprehensive campaign tracking, we can take care of everything – giving you a detailed monthly report into how our efforts are driving revenue for your business.

Sounds good? Ask for a free proposal. We’ll work up a strategy laying out what you can expect within the first three months of working together. Let’s go.

You should also read:

>> Instagram ads for wedding photographers: tips for success
>> Wedding industry lead generation: how to grow revenue with PPC
>> Wedding lead generation: is this the most effective tactic?
>> Is TikTok good for lead generation?