Photography bookings, made a year before the date.
Wedding photography is booked further in advance than almost anything else people buy, and the booking rush is concentrated into the weeks after Christmas and New Year when most engagements happen.
That means a photographer advertising in June for a June wedding is a year and a half too late. The calendar, not the creative, is what most photography campaigns get wrong.
Everything, from the ad to the booked call.
Engagement-season campaigns
Budget concentrated into January and February, when the year's engagements convert into enquiries.
Package-led creative
Real weddings at recognisable Irish venues, which is how couples actually shortlist.
Venue-catchment targeting
Aimed at the venues you already shoot at and want more of, rather than at a county.
Family and commercial campaigns
Separate, counter-seasonal work that fills the months weddings do not. Run as its own campaign.
Social media, fully run
Posted and monitored, because the feed is the portfolio and a stale one loses bookings.
The form asks first, so your phone rings second.
Every campaign sends the click to a lead form that asks the qualifying questions before the enquiry reaches you. For photographers, that means:
- 01What is the date, and is the venue booked?
- 02Wedding, family, or commercial?
- 03Which venue, or which area?
- 04What is your budget range?
- 05How did you hear about us?
Then one number every Friday: spend, leads, cost per lead and what we are changing next week.
leads at €2.75 each on €57.78 of spend for a home-improvement client
qualified leads per month for a Dublin trades business
Every figure comes from a client we can put you in touch with. We do not name clients in ads or on this page. See more on the results page.
The calendar decides the campaign
Engagements cluster around Christmas, New Year and Valentine's Day, and enquiries follow within weeks. A photographer who is not visible in January has missed a disproportionate share of the year's bookings.
Budget should be heavily weighted into that window and lighter through the summer, when you are shooting rather than selling and when every competitor is advertising into the same feed.
Venues are the best targeting signal available
Couples choose a venue before a photographer, almost without exception. That makes the venue the single most useful piece of information about a couple.
Campaigns built around the venues you want to shoot at — with real images from those venues — outperform county-wide advertising substantially, and they build the relationship with the venue at the same time.
Counter-seasonal work is what makes the year survivable
Weddings concentrate into a short season and leave long gaps either side, and photographers who rely on them alone have a difficult winter.
Family sessions, communions, and commercial and property work fill exactly those gaps, and they need their own campaigns rather than a mention on the wedding page.
Weddings
Booked 12-18 months ahead, highest value, concentrated season. Won in January.
Family and portrait
Short lead time, autumn and Christmas heavy, repeatable year after year.
Commercial and property
Year-round, invoice-based, unglamorous and steady. The most under-advertised of the three.
€1,500 a month. Everything included.
Meta advertising fully managed, lead forms that qualify, social media fully run, all creative every month and the Friday report. Google Ads managed on top: €2,000 a month. No setup fee, no contract, month to month. Advertising spend is paid directly to the platforms and stays in your control.
Every county in Ireland.
Campaigns are built around the towns you actually cover, not a county name. Counties where we see the most demand for photographers:
Straight answers.
When should we advertise hardest?
January and February. Engagements cluster around Christmas and New Year and the enquiries follow immediately.
Should we advertise during the summer?
Lightly. You are shooting rather than selling, and everybody else is bidding into the same feed at the same time.
Is venue targeting really better than county targeting?
Considerably. The venue is chosen first, so it is the strongest signal about a couple that exists, and the imagery becomes far more relevant.
Should we publish prices?
A starting price at minimum. Couples filter hard on budget and hiding it generates enquiries from people who were never going to book.
What about family and commercial work?
Run them as separate campaigns. They fill the months weddings do not, and commercial is the most under-advertised of the three.
What does it cost?
€1,500 a month with everything included, month to month.
Find out what you're missing.
A free growth audit of your Google map results, reviews, website and the ads running in your county. Sent as a PDF within 24 hours. No call needed.