There is one superior source of leads and bookings for your wedding venue — Google. Its advertising platform allows any local business to launch a campaign utilizing several different types of advertising products.

While they all have different purposes, when combined they contribute to an effective wedding venue marketing plan. Google’s advertising platform is self-serve, meaning any business owner can create an account, optimize the budget and location settings, input keywords, write ad copy and then set it to “live.”

While it sounds simple enough, that couldn’t be any further from the truth. It requires a great deal of expertise in order to not only set up an effective initial campaign, but then also track, adjust and optimize for improvements and optimal performance and ROI.

That is where we come in — we are experts when it comes to wedding venue PPC and wedding venue advertising. It’s still important though, that you understand the different types of Google ads that are available and how they can be used to market your wedding venue.

Previously called Google AdWords, Google Ads is the platform that allows your wedding venue to run advertisements on Google’s SERPs (search results pages). These are the paid positions designated by the small “Ad” icon next to the listing.

What makes Google Ads so attractive is the positioning — with the correct bidding strategy you can place your business at the very top of the results — above all the organic positions that are the result of search engine optimization.

Google Ads allow you to drive traffic to your website right away, as long as your cost-per-click (CPC) bidding is competitive. There isn’t the waiting game you must play when it comes to SEO, allowing you to generate leads and book your wedding venue instantly. You can also use paid ads to test keywords and search queries prior to investing the time and money on the SEO side.

Let’s discuss the three main types of Google Ads that need to be a part of your overall wedding venue marketing strategy on the paid media side, as each serves a different purpose.

Google Local Service Wedding Venue PPC

Google Ads offers a traditional pay-per-click option, which is what originally debuted as its AdWords product, but Google now has an additional PPC option, which it calls Local Service Ads. This operates in the same bidding manner — you establish a daily budget along with a CPC (cost-per-click) you are comfortable paying and you are only charged for clicks (not impressions).

The difference is that this wedding venue PPC options doesn’t redirect the clicks to your website or a dedicated landing page. Instead, the potential lead is given two options — submit a lead form requesting to be contacted immediately or call your business with a single click.

Either way, you are provided with a warm lead that is interested in your wedding venue. The calls and inquiries are all accessible using Google’s Local Services app. You field phone calls directly through the app and you receive notifications when a lead submission comes through.

This wedding venue local service marketing option provides you with the highest quality lead, in terms of conversion probability. With all PPC advertising you are paying per click. Standard PPC is directing traffic to your website and that visitor needs to complete an opt-in form or pick up his or her phone to call you in order for them to convert into a lead. Regardless, you are paying for each visitor — it doesn’t matter if they leave your website or convert into a lead.

With Google Local Services PPC you are able to acquire leads at a lower price because your conversion rates are much higher due to the fact that it’s a simple decision that only requires the one click — submit a request for information or immediately be connected to your business.

Google Display Network (GDN)

Most consumers require multiple “touches” before they will convert into a lead, especially when it comes to a major one-off purchase like a wedding venue rental. Because of this, wedding venue display ads are a great second-touch to bring back potential prospects and attempt to convert them into leads.

The Google Display Network (GDN) is a network of blogs and websites it has an agreement with through its AdSense program, available to advertisers that want to run display media (banner ads).

These wedding venue Google ads can be static or dynamic, and they will typically present the visitor with an offer they will find familiar, relevant to specific pages they visited on your website or certain steps that they have progressed through in your marketing funnel.

You never want to run a GDN campaign to a new audience, as the odds of someone in the market to rent a wedding venue is slim to none. Display ads should be incorporated into your re-targeting effort, displaying only to those that have previously visited your website, engaged with your email list, etc.

Let me give you a simple example of how a re-targeting campaign would work so you understand the concept. Let’s pretend someone visits Google and types “local wedding venue” into the search bar and your website is displayed in the results and they click-through.

While on your website they view several pages, read some blog posts and then submit their email address to receive a special report you have put together titled, “10 Things You Must Know Before Renting a Wedding Venue.” These actions resulted in them being added to your re-targeting effort.

Now, when they visit blogs and websites that are part of the Google Display Network they will see your banner ad. Effective ads will present them with an offer that is hard to pass up — either a bonus or discount for reserving your wedding venue. If they click-through and your offer is attractive you stand a good chance of them converting into a lead.

You can have re-targeting ads follow previous website visitors all over the internet. A well thought-out combination of persistence and creativity is highly effective.

Wedding Venue Google Video Ads (YouTube)

Google video ads can be highly effective when it comes to generating leads — YouTube advertising for wedding venues allows you to leverage powerful visual images of your location and place them directly in front of those that have previously visited your website.

You might not be aware of this, but YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google. Using the same re-targeting strategy as we outlined above with Google’s Display Network, we are able to show wedding venue video ads to prospects as they view video content on YouTube.

Video ads give you the opportunity to deliver a longer message and leverage the power of visual content. While some prospects might not bite on a display ad, a video ad might command their attention in a way that delivers your message more effectively and results in them clicking-through and converting on your second-touch offer, giving you a new wedding venue lead for your business.

Again, this is just one component of an entire Google Ads marketing campaign, and as a standalone strategy video ads wouldn’t be as effective. But, when combined with local service ads and wedding venue display ads on the GDN, they can help you convert more leads.

Wedding Venue Advertising Experts: We Are Here to Help

Would you like to discuss how we can take your wedding venue marketing to the next level using Google Ads? Or what about search engine optimization? Or helping you get more Google reviews for your wedding venue? If so, contact us today for a complimentary strategy session. We are the wedding venue marketing experts that can help you grow your business through a variety of online marketing strategies.

See More Helpful Tips