Advertising either works or it doesn’t, there’s no middle ground. If an ad is going to work, it will work right away. To know whether an ad is working, it must be measurable. If results can’t be measured then the ad is a waste of time and money.
I’ve been using Google Adwords for just over three months and the results, so far, are:
• the ads are served up about 2,300 times per month
• click-through rate is about 1% (21 to 25 clicks per month)
• number of actual inquiries is 10% of the click-throughs (about 2 or 3 per month)
• number of paying jobs is 0
My editorial and corporate photography is only business-to-business, so I fully-expected a low number of click-throughs. If I was a wedding or portrait photographer, I would undoubtedly receive more clicks because those are the most-searched types of photography. If my ads used the magic word “Free!”, then I would probably get more clicks.
For many photographers, including myself, the average response rate for mailers and e-mail marketing is often in the 3% to 5% range. So the response rate to my Adwords campaign isn’t too far off from these others types of marketing.
As for the number of actual inquiries received, this is dependent on the quality of my web site. As most web site owners know, a site is never really ever finished. It’s always a work in progress. My site is no different and I’m planning changes to the text. While everyone likes to look at nice photos, and despite the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, it’s the text on a web site that does the actual selling.
The inquiries I’ve received have included:
• family portraits and pictures of (wannabe) rock bands. (Neither the type of photography I do);
• 10-day job for a clothing manufacturer. ($8400 quote but their budget was $3000);
• 12 business portraits. ($2,300 quote but their budget was about $500);
• individual business portraits. (Standard $460 quote but one potential customer was “hoping for something in the $75 range”).
I think many folks who respond to Adwords are shopping price first and foremost. It’s just the nature of the medium.
Except for one, all the inquiries I received started with, “How much does it cost for…”. The one exception started with, “Can I have more information on how you photograph…”.
Requests for photography that come through my web site after a general search and not through Adwords, usually start with something like, “Are you available for…” , “Are you interested in…”, “Can you photograph…”
For wedding or portrait photographers, these cheap Adwords-type of advertising might be somewhat worthwhile but it would never be a major form of marketing.
For an editorial photographer, corporate photographer, public relations photographer or other business-to-business photography service, I doubt that this is a worthwhile form of advertising. It may bring in a couple of jobs per year, and maybe that makes it worthwhile?
Does cheap advertising bring in cheap results? Or to rephrase, do you have to spend money to make money?
Tags: advertising, freelancing, marketing
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