paid advertisment, what worked for you and what didn't?
- Thread starter Rami
- Start date
If there is ANYTHING that is worth your while it’ll be instagram ads. Everything else from a DJ perspective will yield poor quality results
appreciate the input, as always, I am looking more into instagram ads actually (was considering Google as as well, but that seems to get expensive real fast) anything in particular about the instagram ads? highlights of events? setups? the whole nine?
there's two ways to do it. Bombardment, lots of posting (like the stuff you said which are highlights, setups, behind the scenes, photos, etc) and boosting all of them for short periods of times (say about a week). Promo reel. A professionally made short video that's like an advertisement practically that is both captivating and creates the desire to want to learn more about you. This is usually boosted for 30 days and part of a more aggressive and expensive campaign to get people to see it multiple times.
What else to note:
- The quality of the content should be representative of your target market.
- Don't forget the video is just to grab the attention. It's useless if you don't have good corresponding info such as an active and vibrant instagram portfolio, a good website where they'll eventually go to learn more, and reviews.
- If you're looking for quick bookings make sure to have price or a deal. Usually those are more effective at getting bookings than general promo content aimed at higher quality events as those events take multiple touches, time to nurture, as well as educate before they come to you.
If you've never done this before, you might actually be better off hiring a marketing company who can come and create content for you as well as strategize on what to post and how often based on your budget. You shouldn't be using iphone quality stuff for this.
great stuff thanks...mind expanding on the quick bookings point? package deals you mean? like for a limited time or early bookings, a wedding package of DJ/MC, Intelligent Lights, dancing on clouds, etc... for a cheaper price type of deal??
correct, i'll often see DJ and Lighting $1495 or dj and photobooth for one low price. Something to get instant attention. Great if you're just starting out, but you're not gonna get the best quality clients.
Lightbulb on moment. I often will do iphone vids that go to FB but nothing that gets posted to my website. What a wasted opportunity. I'm going to start using my goPros to start producing event vids on my weddings. DOH!
The thing is you’re a wedding venue. As mentioned in the other thread, as a venue people expect to see a completely different perspective than that of a DJ. They don’t want to see your lighting unless you’re setting a certain mood. They want to see the food, the centerpieces, the seating charts, the linens, the room layouts, the best photo spots.
Also your primary source of INITIAL traffic is NOT often your site… it’s your instagram
Okay, you've got me to thinking, again. Do you pay someone to post IG content or do you do it yourself? I'm thinking (for me) perhaps use our photo galleries to create a highlight reel with music? That would let me cover ceremony and reception.
I do everything that you see online myself. For me I've been doing this for years, so it's kind of routine what I do. If this is out of your comfort zone, hire a content creator. You don't wanna do something that ends up appearing as low quality and more of a negative than a positive. Not all content is good content.
The best paid ads I ever did were Yellow Pages back in the early 2000s alas that ship has sailed some time ago
Facebook has been kind to me for the DJ stuff all free ads. For events I took out a few paid and had pretty good ROI
Taso mentioned Instagram I would think if you have a decent budget you might want to spend maybe on Snap and TikTok also
Facebook has been kind to me for the DJ stuff all free ads. For events I took out a few paid and had pretty good ROI
Taso mentioned Instagram I would think if you have a decent budget you might want to spend maybe on Snap and TikTok also
Tik tok isn’t the best for ads. It’s best for going viral. You need to be posting constantly on there in short form video that is either captivating or informative. Very different than instagram.
All of this has to do with who you’re targeting as well. Instagram has your biggest audience, but also most competitive space, Facebook your oldest, Tik tok is your wedding clients but you need to make the algorithm work, and Snapchat are your teenagers which to me has no value
Don't do google ad words. I don't recommend.
I do not recommend Facebook paid advertising.
No to wedding wire or The Knot.
Zola is affordable. It isn't going to yield a ton of booking, but. I haven't spent that much, and have booked a few on there. All great clients too!
I do not recommend Facebook paid advertising.
No to wedding wire or The Knot.
Zola is affordable. It isn't going to yield a ton of booking, but. I haven't spent that much, and have booked a few on there. All great clients too!
I see what you mean with TikTok I think I might give it a small percentage just for coverage. Snap I disagree with you on. Gaging by demographics 18-24 are the largest group followed by 25-34. Those two groups make up about 70 percent of Snapchat users
How big is snapchats base or daily users vs instagram or Tik tok. It’s 70% of not a whole lot
From what I can find 443 Million daily users worldwide, Insta is about 500 Million, TikTok about 50 Million. Quite likely a high percentage of the same users on all 3
there are 165M daily USA users on Instagram vs about 106m for snapchat. On instagram, a siginifcant number of users are in the coveted Wedding age bracket (early 20's to mid 30's). Whereas on Snapchat, nearly 60% of users are under 24 and just geared towards high school and college kids so you can see where your friends are on a map. The numbers though themselves are not the point, especially because so many lie about their age when registering, especially teens to get around privacy settings.
Snapchat is technically a messaging app. Instagram is a photo and video sharing app. It's better designed as a source of inspiration. People aren't on snapchat researching... they do research on instagram. In addition, couples that are very on trend are using tiktok albeit a smaller overall share of the overall market, but in my opinion has a larger influence on wedding trends than instagram. During my meetings I hear more of "i saw on tiktok" vs "i saw on instagram".
That's why I said If you're advertising, instagram and tiktok is where brides are going to find inspiration and ideas. Each works differently though. Tik tok is based on the algorithm. You gotta put out a lot of content to hope something sticks or gets seen by your potential clients. Instagram you gotta make things work for you. That includes tagging venues and couples so they share your work. Include the location of your event so when brides search their venue they can find your photos. Hashtags also help. Instagram you really wanna build your follower base. Tiktok is not so much follower based, but creating viral content that gets in front of people repeatedly even if they don't technically follow you. I follow no one on instagram, but the algorithm knows how to show me stuff from the same people when they post something new.
You seem almost dismissive of referrals, while everything else you've suggested is online advertising. A DJ business is local - even to the extent that one might live in a rural area and want to target a city some driving distance away.
We should have some kind of online presence because the web is the new Yellow Pages. [Note for millennial readers: Yellow Pages: A large book published for a given area that contains and categorizes local businesses and their contact information; distributed free of charge to all households and businesses in the covered phone exchange.]
The best advertising however, is going to be the one that finds your prospect not simply 'where they are' (which is what Instagram exemplifies) but most importantly 'when they need us.' Additionally, we want our advertising to breed 'familiarity.' To that end, if there are local wedding magazines or home magazines your ad should be in them. Especially every time there's a wedding or event issue.
Instagram is going to exploit your prior customers to make connections to similar prospective customers wanting a like-minded result. Off-line advertising connects you with NEW business with it's own unique verticals, and expands our business range in ways that social media does not.
We need both so that we're not operating in a subway (tunnel vision) and forgetting that there's still a whole wide world on the streets above us with possibilities we've not even conceived. You can probably think of few examples right now of service providers in your own local area that you have never used or sought out, but should you need that service - are already top of mind. That's the result of local advertising.
Word of mouth works the same way, but many people mistakenly assume word of mouth only to be referrals from past clients. That's not the whole picture. There are many events I do where I'm called out and recognized within people's "thank you" speeches. Individually this would have little impact, but overtime within a given community I become "that guy" whose at all the events. To be seen and recognized is important at every gig we do, and we should try to concentrate our business whenever possible in areas where repetition and recognition can accumulate. People may not remember my name - but they start asking around with the intent to find me.
Another dimension of this is Presence. I collaborate and support a lot of other vendors which means I'm onsite and seen working events even when I'm not the person directly hired. Frequent expressions I hear from people are: "You're everywhere . . ." or "I saw you at . . ." and these are important because presence and recognition are necessary to reinforce both expertise and word of mouth.
Even people who have previously hired us can't refer us if they can't remember who we are and where we can be found. Top of mind may be a goal too expensive to achieve with a DJ's ad budget. But local prospects don't have to remember who we are if they already know where we can be found. "I got your number from. . . " is a phrase that indicates when these more subtle methods are working.
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I thought we were talking paid advertising? If so algorithms are irrelevant you would be targeting an audience. Organically is much harder
I agree Insta and TikTok would be better choices but I am still stuck with the old way of any flat surface. If I had $100 to spend I would go with Instagram likely to have a better chance on ROI. If I had $1000 I would devote the majority to Insta and TikTok but give a little to Snapchat and build Facebook organically. The more places you are seen the better