Candice (00:30.026)

Hey there, welcome back to the Power and Purpose podcast. It's me, your host Candice, and I am so excited about our guest on today's episode of the Power and Purpose podcast. We're talking all about ads and if Facebook ads, Instagram ads, just ads in general can actually work for attracting high -end clients. This is a question that I personally have myself because I'm not sure if this works. I think in the past I felt like

running ads really isn't the way to go. But my guest on today's episode is a luxury stationery designer. She's also an educator for stationers. And she started experimenting with ads for her luxury stationery business. And the results are going to blow your mind. You're going to be like, my goodness. On this episode of the podcast, my guest for this week is Elisabeth Stuckey.

She is a wedding stationer and educator for new and growing designers. She's a self -taught stationer who went from a high school teacher to a full -time entrepreneur. feel like the wedding industry has a lot of teachers, for good reason, to a full -time entrepreneur in less than two years. And she has emerged her skills as a teacher with her creative spirit to coach and mentor other stationers and artists who are ready to grow.

Elisabeth Stuckey (01:40.349)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Yes.

Candice (01:53.08)

into the luxury market and build a sustainable business. Her stationary business guys has grown to a 300k plus in revenue annually business and get this, she does that while only working 16 to 20 hours per week on it. I need you to tell us all the things. Elisabeth, welcome to the show. It's great to have you.

Elisabeth Stuckey (02:14.761)

Thank

Elisabeth Stuckey (02:18.365)

Thank you, Candice. It is so nice to be here. I'm so excited to be a guest here and to talk about everything from my wedding business to ads. It's going to be so fun.

Candice (02:27.778)

my God, it's gonna be so fun. I cannot wait to pick your brain on this. So ads, this is something that I know a lot of wedding pros have asked me about and I'm gonna be straight up. I have poo -pooed on the ads on the show to my students. I'm like, no, you don't need to be throwing your money into the meta slot machine. It does not work. But I'm starting to change my mind and the data you provided us here that we're gonna talk about today has definitely changed my perspective on this. So I love being proved wrong. It's one of my favorite things.

Elisabeth Stuckey (02:38.125)

You

Elisabeth Stuckey (02:43.22)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (02:56.089)

Before we get into the data, I would actually just really love to hear if you also thought similarly that ads probably were great for your education business, but maybe not so much for your luxury stationary business.

Elisabeth Stuckey (03:09.127)

Yes, absolutely. So I've been running ads for the education side of my business for years and really didn't even consider ads for the client side of things. And I'm over here hustling on social media and networking and SEO and all of these other marketing avenues and not even considering ads for reaching clients. And it was my ads manager actually who had been running my ads for my education side of things who

just planted the seed and said, hey, would you consider testing this out on the other side of your business and seeing if you get results? And I was definitely open -minded. like to, so as an educator, especially now, I like to explore things and test things and just see what works and

report that data back to my students and to my mentees. And so that's kind of what I did. I was like, you know, I'm going to go ahead and try this. I'm going to set an amount of budget that I'm willing to spend on this test and see how it does. And, you know, I turned those ads on in May of this year and have not turned them off. That's how effective they have been for me.

Candice (04:18.402)

Wow, that is really inspiring and great to hear. I have to admit, I'm not very familiar with ads. I've tried to run ads in my business and I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. I probably need an Amber in my life. Amber's your ads manager and I feel like we're gonna be talking about her a lot. She's like the third guest on this episode.

Elisabeth Stuckey (04:34.437)

Yes. Yes, she is.

Candice (04:38.818)

She's our fairy ad godmother and I'm sure Elisabeth will be happy to share her information and her details too for anybody who's looking to have somebody take control of this. All right, so you were of similar mindset, but you thought let me run this experiment and see how this could possibly work for my business. So I would love to know what were some of the first ads that you launched when you decided to run your ads?

Elisabeth Stuckey (04:41.449)

Thank you.

Elisabeth Stuckey (04:45.574)

Mm -hmm.

Elisabeth Stuckey (05:02.715)

Yeah, so, you know, my ads, just to kind of give context into the types of ads that I'm running. So we are running all of our ads through Meta. And so these are Facebook and Instagram ads. And I just like to differentiate between a boosted post and an ad. So there is a difference here. We are not talking about boosted posts. We're talking about ads that are set up through the Meta ads manager.

which is a little bit more high tech. But the reason why it's the preferred option is because it allows you to really target audiences with more specificity and just go into exactly who you want to reach. And so with a boosted post, you're looking more at an engagement goal. And so you want to get likes, you want to get comments, you just want to get views on your content.

Whereas ads are more, through the ads manager, are more designed to help people click and land on your website and actually convert into a lead or a client. So that is the type of ad that we're looking at here, is Facebook and Instagram through Meta Ads Manager. And then in terms of the types of ads, so we like to test different things. And so for our first round of ads that we started,

We have all kinds of different ad creatives, which ad creative refers to the ad graphics, so the actual visual side of the ad. so videos, carousels, static photos with text overlaid on them, things like that we tested. And we found that videos that are visual of my stationery are what have performed the best. So we'll dive into that a little bit more later as well.

essentially those ads that are targeting your ideal client, which we're also going to get into. But essentially, the main type of ads we're looking at here are through Facebook and Instagram, they are ads that were basically funneling people to my website to inquire, to move forward with wedding invitations. So we're focusing on, I'm a wedding stationer, and so these ads are visuals. They have my stationery on them.

Elisabeth Stuckey (07:23.665)

and they just funnel people to my website and then hopefully to my contact form. And then I funnel them through my process from there.

Candice (07:32.568)

Okay, thank you for breaking that down. So that makes sense. What do you think works from the perspective of the, like a static post, a carousel, and a video? Is there like a variation of conversion? Have you been kind of watching and seeing which one performs the best? I'm just curious.

Elisabeth Stuckey (07:47.815)

Yeah. Yeah. So we have found over and over again that video performs best. And so one of the keys here with running ads is that you kind of have this, you know, this small opportunity to capture their attention, right? Because if they don't follow you, then you're unlikely to get on their feed again. And so

you have this opportunity to kind of stop their scroll this one time and hopefully pull them into either clicking your ad or exploring your profile. So video has tended to just be more effective in that way in the same way that it seems to be more effective with, you know, a standard feed post as well. But I actually have an ad right now that's running. That's a kind of an interesting one. It is a grid. So it's four squares and three of those squares are

static photos and then one of the squares is a video. And so it kind of has that movement, but then it also has some images that, you know, the leads can kind of just look at and see my work. And that one is performing really, really well for me right now. So one thing I'll say just in terms of ad creative and visuals is that the more you explore different things, the more effective your ads will be. And so you want to definitely try all kinds of things and

start to track the data and pay attention to what's working and what's not. And then you shut off the ones that are not working. And so that's kind of how we optimize our ad creative to identify what attracts our ideal clients the most, what gets people to stop scrolling, to click through all of that. So I would say, know,

With stationary specifically, the visuals are crucial. I would probably say that that's going to be true for most wedding professionals, that visuals are what are going to stop people scroll and really wow them. And then of course there's a nurture process from there once they inquire.

Candice (09:42.86)

Yeah, which we're going to talk a little bit about your five pillars. I think it is for effective ads and that's definitely part of it. This is so fascinating. You mentioned data and reviewing the data and then deciding what works and what doesn't. So I'd love to review the data behind why ads are working for your business. And you came with receipts, which I love when a guest can come with legitimate receipts and share some of the numbers and figures. So would you be willing to share the data behind why you believe so strongly?

Elisabeth Stuckey (10:01.553)

Okay.

Candice (10:12.826)

that adds work towards a luxury wedding clientele. We want to hear the results of like what you spent and what the return on your investment was. So let's get into it.

Elisabeth Stuckey (10:17.275)

Mm -hmm, yes.

Elisabeth Stuckey (10:24.423)

Yes, okay. So I'm gonna break this down into kind of some different categories. So we'll look at the total ad spend, the number of leads that it has generated. So a generated lead essentially means someone that's filling out my contact form and hitting my inbox. And then we'll talk about the actual number of clients that I've booked and the revenue that has been generated from those booked clients that came from an ad. So we'll start with my total ad spend. I have spent a total of,

$8 ,283 on ads. And so this is spanning over from May 6th until September 18th. And so several months of running ads every single day. Currently, I'm spending about $100 per day, but I started at $50 per day. So that's kind of been my progress with ad spend daily. And then the total cost per lead.

I have received 158 leads from that $8 ,200 of ad spend. So 158 people have landed in my inbox as a result of that ad spend. And so that brings my total cost per lead to about $52. So I'm spending about $52 for each lead that I get in my inbox. And this is averaging about 1 .2 leads per day. So definitely a lead per day. Sometimes I have days where I get more than that.

As I kind of transition into talking about the booked clients, I'll first start by saying just to give some context compared to how things were for me before running the ads. Typically, I don't close my books for a wedding year until about March or April of that year. So for example, for 2025 weddings, I'm not typically closing my books for 2025 until about March of 2025.

And my schedule is fully booked for 2025 right now as of mid September. I have 40 clients, is just, you know, honestly over what I typically book in one year. And so it has been a drastic difference. And the only explanation here would be the ads because this has been kind of what shifted, you know, the just really increase the leads that are coming into my inbox.

Elisabeth Stuckey (12:42.921)

So back to the data here in terms of total revenue collected from the clients that have been booked through the ad. So the actual amount of money that has already hit my bank account is $44 ,243. And I only collect a 50 % retainer payment. So this is the amount of money that I've already collected from those booked clients. However, the projected revenue once they pay their second payment will be $88 ,416.

So this is about a 10 times return on investment. If you look at the $8 ,200 that I spent and the projected revenue of $88 ,000 that will come through those booked clients. So just to kind of break down those clients, we're looking at 16 clients that I've booked from the ads and that the average client value being about $5 ,500. So that's about how much each of my clients are spending.

and the cost per client. So if I'm looking at that $8 ,200 ad spend and then dividing that by the 16 clients I've booked, I'm spending about $517 to acquire that client. So there is a little bit, you know, when you think of it that way, you do have to make sure your prices are designed to withstand that cost of acquisition. And you definitely want to make sure that

you can kind of take that $500 cost of getting that client. But when you look at it from a bird's eye perspective here, we're looking at spending $8 ,200 and gaining $88 ,000 in booked revenue. So the numbers are clearly showing that it is working, it is effective. And I'll also just mention while we're talking about this data, that there are some less quantifiable factors

here. Lots of people find you through an ad but may not click on the ad and inquire right away. They may follow you on Instagram and allow you to nurture them for a period of time and then inquire with you. And in that case, you may not know that they came from the ad. The other thing that I have experienced is I have built relationships with two wedding planners who found me through an ad.

Elisabeth Stuckey (15:00.453)

And those wedding planners have already brought me additional clients beyond the first client that they inquired for. So it really provides an opportunity to build those relationships and grow your business in other ways outside of just the clients who are clicking through from an ad and booking you.

Candice (15:19.17)

Yeah, that brand awareness is something that actually got me interested in ads because there were certain people running ads whose brands I was not aware of, but then suddenly now I was aware of it. And I just started to really think in my mind, how could my students similarly use ads to build brand awareness? it just really started getting me thinking a little bit differently about ads. And you're right that that brand awareness, the return on that investment can't directly be attributed in your ads manager, in your Google Analytics, but it

is helping to support and grow your business and you never know when those leads might convert into a customer.

These are really impressive results, really impressive. When you think about an $8 ,000 -ish investment, return on that investment, 10Xing, and you think about almost $90 ,000 in revenue from that investment. And I'm sure there's the ads manager investment as well, which also changes a little bit some of the numbers. But it doesn't change the fact of the profitability of running these ads. mean, your ads manager is worth every penny, because look what they've been able

Elisabeth Stuckey (16:13.341)

Mm

Elisabeth Stuckey (16:24.007)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (16:24.792)

to deliver for you in these ads, it's really remarkable.

Elisabeth Stuckey (16:27.187)

Yes. Yeah. you know, I think ultimately when it comes down to it, it's like these clients wouldn't have known I existed if not for these ads. So it's one of those things where, you know, they're supply and demand and the more you are in demand, the more you can, you know, increase your prices and or decrease the number of clients that you work with and that kind of thing. And so I think

Candice (16:36.216)

you

Elisabeth Stuckey (16:50.465)

And even though it's costing me a little bit more to acquire these clients, if I'm able to fill my schedule, I'm able to grow my business. so I think the other thing that I'll just mention, and of course, this is going to be different based on different pockets of the wedding industry. But in the stationary industry, upselling is a very big part of our process. And so we see a lot of clients book at one package and then ultimately end up adding a lot to their package throughout our process.

Candice (17:19.735)

Right?

Elisabeth Stuckey (17:19.849)

So, I'll also just mention that although my client value based on what they booked at is about 5 ,500, most of my clients end up closer to 8 ,000 10 ,000. And so there's that opportunity now to have that client in your world where you can potentially still grow that profit. So just mentioning that. And then the last thing I'll say here in terms of why to consider ads is that

Candice (17:30.402)

Mm -hmm.

Elisabeth Stuckey (17:49.031)

You know, this is obviously it's an expense, but it is marketing. It's, it's, know, an opportunity for you to feel less pressure in other areas of your marketing strategy. And that to me is valuable. And so if you're in a place where you're feeling overwhelmed by constantly having to create amazing content on social media.

or by constantly having to go to all of these events or do things for free to get your name out there. This is an opportunity for you to get your business in front of the eyes of your ideal clients and really relieve yourself of some of that marketing pressure. And so that has been a game changer for me.

where I know that my ads are working for me in the background. And if I have a day where I'm not feeling like showing up on social media because I just need an off day, my ads are still working for me and I'm still getting leads. And so that is a big benefit of considering ads as well.

Candice (18:47.19)

Yeah, it's a great way to diversify your brand reach and just your presence online for sure. And in the wedding seasons where you might not be able to show up organically as much online, your ads can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you, maintaining that relevancy. And it definitely can be worth the investment. I'm curious, do you?

Do you feel like that running ads and the success of your ads has changed anything at all with your organic marketing or are you still putting time and effort into things like SEO and also your marketing on social media? Have you switched things around?

Elisabeth Stuckey (19:22.065)

Mm

definitely still pouring into those avenues as well. I think really it depends on where your business is and how much growth you're hoping to see. But one thing that I will say that I do believe is still very important is building the like no trust factor with your leads. And so there will be people who, I know that as a consumer, I do this. If I come across a sponsored post or an ad,

often will click on that profile and go explore that person before I actually decide if I want to purchase or opt in or whatever. And so I think that, you know, being consistent on social media and still showing the person behind the business is so crucial here because people are going to be more skeptical when they learn about you through a sponsored post. And so you need to kind of work a little bit harder to show the real you and to connect with them on a personal level.

Candice (20:13.782)

Yes.

Elisabeth Stuckey (20:20.219)

in order for them to be comfortable moving forward.

Candice (20:22.848)

Yeah, I very much agree. think it's still really important to have a good organic marketing strategy. And while you may be able to pump the brakes on some really heavy marketing that you would do organically while you're running ads, you also have your organic marketing to really fall back on. Should you have a weird ad season or should costs increase or should other variables come into play that change the scope of your ads? But I love the dichotomy of the two and how they can both play off each other.

Elisabeth Stuckey (20:40.947)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Elisabeth Stuckey (20:48.232)

Yes.

Candice (20:52.714)

I think we all too have like clicked on an ad and immediately we're like no you went to the website or something You were like hell no. This is a scam. This is like a sheen website masquerading as something else like no Yeah

Elisabeth Stuckey (20:57.733)

Yeah. Yeah.

Elisabeth Stuckey (21:02.499)

Right, right. Yes, it happens. And because people have experienced that their walls are up a little bit. So we do have to do a little bit of work there. And I will say I like to think of you this this process of exploring ads, kind of as like starting a fire. And so in your business, you want to you want to start the fire first, the ads are the fuel. And so before you get to that

point of considering ads, you have to start the fire. You have to make sure that you have the foundational pieces of your business established and you have those organic marketing strategies in place. Because if you don't, then it's going to feel like a scam. It's going to feel like one of those red flags when a client gets an ad from you and then you only have two posts on your Instagram feed or you haven't posted on your Instagram feed organically in three years. It's going to feel scammy to them. They're not going to

trust you. They're not going to feel like they can click through or if they click through to your website and it doesn't align branding wise with your ad creative and there's inconsistency. Those types of things throw up the red flags and you absolutely won't have the same results with your ads if you aren't intentional about the foundation of your business and those pieces that need to be in place first.

Candice (22:27.184)

And ads can only take you so far. They can help to bring leads to you. And if you understand how they work and you understand audiences and you have everything set up well inside the back end of your ads manager, Facebook, Instagram, they want to send you the right people so that you keep running ads. They want this to be profitable for you.

But they can't convert people once they get to your website. Like that's your job. You have to make sure that when the people get there that you're converting them. And that's an interesting thing I learned many years ago where it's like, you need to make sure that you can actually sell what you're selling before you run ads. But I know that this is also that philosophy is also part of your philosophy around ads and how wedding pros can do this profitably. So I would love to talk about the five key

Elisabeth Stuckey (22:49.011)

Yes.

Elisabeth Stuckey (22:54.044)

Exactly.

Elisabeth Stuckey (23:02.313)

Mm

Candice (23:18.886)

to success for wedding pros who want to run ads. What are these five keys of success?

Elisabeth Stuckey (23:23.315)

Mm

Yes, absolutely. So let's go ahead and talk through them. So I'll start and I will mention in advance that the order of these does matter. We want to be intentional about the order here. And so, you know, the first thing I'll mention is having a strong website branding portfolio. And so you want to make sure that you are really building that, that you are finding that brand alignment, that you are, you know,

intentionally crafting your brand, that your website is consistent with that brand you've built, and that you have a portfolio to fall back on. If you're brand new and you're still building your portfolio, then it's not a good time to run ads because you want to make sure that your leads can come to your page, your social media pages or your website and see evidence of your work and see evidence that you are the...

florist, the photographer, the stationer for them. And so that portfolio being aligned and being intentional and just you having that confidence in your website, your branding and your portfolio is a crucial first step. So that would be the first one. The second one is this is something that I educate and teach very strongly to my students is the importance of a simple contact form.

And so I think this is especially true with running ads is that we want to lower the barrier to entry for anyone who comes across our page. We want them to feel like they can reach out to us and start a conversation, even if they don't know every single detail of their wedding yet. A lot of times I see contact forms that feel like, you know, it would take 45 minutes to fill them out and

Candice (25:11.298)

It's a good job application.

Elisabeth Stuckey (25:12.623)

Exactly. And I have to know every single detail down to how many guests and exactly what details I want and all of that before I can even connect with this person. And so I firmly believe in the simple contact form. I think not only does this help with conversion for organic leads, but it will especially help with conversion for ads, ad leads, because they will be able to just reach out and connect with you before they have to know every detail of their wedding.

So that would be number two. And then number three is having a really strong funnel and follow -up strategy. So this, would say, you know, the word funnel maybe isn't used very often in the wedding industry. So maybe thinking of it more as like a nurture strategy, a way that you are nurturing those leads and kind of showing them the way to becoming your client. And so when, you know, when we think about ads, there's so much that can fall through the cracks if we are not

Candice (26:03.414)

Yeah.

Elisabeth Stuckey (26:10.779)

intentional and strategic with how we connect with those leads in the beginning and how we show them our value and lower the barrier to entry to help them book with us. And so that is a crucial one. And then number four is to be clear with your audience. And so this is kind of the first step when we transition from starting that fire into pouring the fuel. So now we're in the first two steps of getting the actual ads going.

the first thing you're going to need to do is really understand your ICA and making sure that your ads are targeting that person. And hopefully you've already done this work before you've worked through your branding and all of that. But especially when you get into the ads, you need to understand your audiences. And so, you know, of course we talk about the ideal client avatar. We talk about making sure that we really deeply understand the person.

who we're trying to reach. And when we understand that person in ways that maybe we don't even think we need to, but we're actually able to target those people specifically through our ads. And so I'm talking things like, what types of clothing do they wear? Where do they travel? Where do they shop? What's their interior design style? What's their favorite flower?

How do they spend their weekends? Like, where do they live? All of these things make up our ideal client. And when we understand those things, we can actually find them through the ads manager audiences and we can target them specifically. So we can use things like interest -based audiences to reach people who are interested in similar things that we are.

Just to kind of keep us going through the five things here, we'll talk about the fifth one here, which is visual ad creative with a strong CTA. So of course, we talked about the importance of visuals with your ad creative and making sure that your images are scroll stopping. So you're going to pull out all the stops here. You're going to make sure that this is your best work that you're using in your ad creative. And you also want to make sure that it visually aligns with your ideal client.

Elisabeth Stuckey (28:25.779)

So an example of this in my business, I tend to work with a lot of coastal luxury clients. so weddings that are happening on the coast in New England, those are very much aligned with my ideal client. And so when I'm talking about visual ad creative that aligns with my ideal client, I'm talking about invitation suites that have shades of blue, that have hydrangeas, that have watercolor elements, and those visual.

cues that this is the type of client I'm trying to reach. And so that's an important part of it is trying to represent your ideal client in the work that you are showing in your ad creative. And then the strong CTA is a part of this showing them exactly what to do next. We don't want anyone to have to kind of guess. We don't want them to mistake our ad for just a feed post that they scroll past from all the wedding pros that they're following. We want to make sure it's clear that this is something that they take action on.

And so we want to call them into action. CTA stands for call to action. We want to call them into action and tell them what to do next. So we want it to be very clear that they need to click here, inquire now that, you know, dates are booking up. We want to really push them to that next step.

Candice (29:37.501)

These are great tips. it's got, I have a question for you that I think some of our listeners are probably thinking too.

Elisabeth Stuckey (29:42.12)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (29:45.906)

now that they understand some of these concepts of what they need to have in place in order for their ads to be effective, for the person who maybe has a smaller budget to get started with ads, do you think that they can try ads themselves or do you think that they should seek out an ads manager to get them started? Like which way would you point somebody or maybe?

What would you say are some good indicators that an ads manager might actually help you get your ads up and running in better, faster?

Elisabeth Stuckey (30:17.639)

Yeah, these are great questions. So I would say if you are considering ads and you don't want to spend too much money on it upfront and you want to explore the DIY route, you definitely can. There are resources out there. There are all kinds of courses that will talk you through how to build your own ad campaigns. And then Meta also has resources available for you. And so you can actually connect with the Meta specialists and they will kind of help guide you through the process.

with setting up your own ad campaigns. so, you know, several girls who are in my mastermind for stationers have explored that route and have gotten their ad campaigns set up on their own. So it's definitely something you can do even if you don't have any foundational knowledge in ads manager or any of that technology. There are resources available for you. In terms of, you know, identifying if it's a good time for you to pursue working with an ads manager.

For me, this was one of those moments of just realizing that I have to stay in my zone of genius and I didn't want to spend my time trying to learn a new tech. And so that's what ultimately made me go the route of investing in an ads manager. And I will say that there are different kind of levels of packages that you can do with ads managers.

So there are some where you can pay a one -time amount for them to set up your ads and kind of get on a Zoom call and teach you how to then manage it. And so that's an option. And then there are also ads managers who really manage everything for you. And so there are different levels that can make it accessible even if you don't want to spend an ongoing retainer for an ads manager. You can definitely get connected with someone, have them help you get set up, and then from there you kind of handle optimizing.

And I mean, of course it's different for every ad campaign, but my ad campaign has required very little management. And so it has been kind of running in the background. We shut off ads that aren't performing. And that is as easy as like flipping a switch of just on to off and just saying, I don't want this one to run anymore. And it funnels the budget into the other ones that are still on.

Elisabeth Stuckey (32:29.929)

But other than that, we haven't had to rebuild the campaign. We haven't had to really spend a lot of time on it. It's been running for months without much maintenance.

Candice (32:39.221)

Yeah, that's nice. An ads manager is definitely something I think can really help, especially if tech is not your strong suit. But there is an additional cost involved with that.

Elisabeth Stuckey (32:46.483)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (32:49.28)

and that's always something to consider, it might be worth it. And I think a lot of people who have great ads managers would tell you that they're worth their weight in goals because you could also spend a lot of money running ads, doing it incorrectly or doing it not smartly, and that money could have been spent with an ads manager running things well. So I think there's such a great space for that.

Elisabeth Stuckey (32:57.533)

Yes.

Elisabeth Stuckey (33:08.873)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. And I think, you know, it can be hard to know why it's not performing well if it's not. And so that is one of the things that is so great about having an ads manager is they are so knowledgeable about the back end of these ads and why it's not performing well. So, you know, I have one of my mentees who started running ads with Amber and the first round she wasn't getting the results that she wanted.

And so having Amber on her team, she was able to kind of go back and they were able to strategize. And now they have her ads back up again and she's getting at least a lead per day and she's booking clients already from her, from her ads. And so it's kind of one of those things of, know, if you're, if you're on your own doing it, you may be more likely to kind of throw in the towel and give up. Whereas if you have an expert on your side, you can kind of strategize and work through at, you know, work through any of those.

slower experiments and then get it going well.

Candice (34:06.806)

Yeah. Will you bring up a question that I was thinking about, which is that ads might take a little bit of time. And I think sometimes when we're putting money into that meta slot machine, we're like, how much more money am I going to put into this before I hit big on my investment? And so I'm curious, do you have any thoughts around how much time you've seen, at least for your business and some of your students running ads, how much time it takes for things to really kick off and you start to see that return?

Elisabeth Stuckey (34:16.776)

Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Elisabeth Stuckey (34:32.329)

Yeah, this is such a good question. Anyone who is, who tends to be risk averse, which I tend to be, you know, I've been to a casino a few times and it was like, I don't want to spend any money. So I am definitely in that, you know, in that zone. So, okay, a couple things I'll say here. First, I think if you want to explore ads, I would recommend budgeting to start with at least $30 a day.

Candice (34:37.29)

No.

Elisabeth Stuckey (34:54.793)

So this is advice from Amber herself. She recommends not spending less than $30 a day if you want to see results. so typically what we do is we give it a two week span of time before we start making any changes or revisiting strategy. So $30 a day for two weeks. And at that point, if you're not seeing the results that you want, then it's time to start digging a little bit into your data and figuring out where you can make a change.

And so that change may be in your audiences, looking at different audiences to try to target, or that change may be in your ad creative or copy. And so you want to be careful changing too many things at once, because if you change too many things at once, it's hard to tell what made the difference. And so typically what we will do is focus on one thing at a time. So if it's not working after two weeks, we'll look at the audiences, tweak those a little bit, then give it another week or so, and then tweak.

copy and then give it another week or so and then tweak ad visuals. so definitely kind of giving yourself that patience of seeing those waves through and being able to identify what is working and what isn't. And if you are persistent with it, you will start to see those results because ultimately what this is is, know, social media is just this sea of your ideal clients who are on there looking to be impressed, looking to find the perfect vendors for their wedding.

And when you can get your work in front of them and just have those eyes on your work and raise awareness that you exist and that you can serve them, it really just changes the game in terms of reach and possibility for your business.

Candice (36:39.426)

Yeah, great advice. I'd love to end on the note of converting and what we need to do and what we need to make sure we do so that the people who find us using these ads actually convert to clients. And I know that you have some really great tips to offer our audience on this and touching on some things that we haven't even gotten a chance to discuss yet. There's like so much to unpack with this. I feel like we need multiple episodes. No.

Elisabeth Stuckey (37:03.367)

Yes, I know we don't want to overwhelm everybody.

Candice (37:06.582)

No, we want to plant seeds. We want to get you thinking a little bit differently, especially as engagement season is on the horizon and you are maybe just trying to mix up things in your business. Like it's getting more difficult to reach the same amount of people, to even reach your followers these days. And it's just also, it's just getting difficult to be everywhere at once, especially if your business is beyond the startup phase and you're working with lots of clients and you're trying to manage lots of things. So we're just trying to give you another option. But to that,

Elisabeth Stuckey (37:12.553)

Mm

Elisabeth Stuckey (37:22.727)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Elisabeth Stuckey (37:36.567)

Mm

Candice (37:36.696)

point, what do we need to make sure, what do we need to do to make sure that the people who find our ads actually convert to clients?

Elisabeth Stuckey (37:47.303)

Yes, let's talk about conversion here. So the first thing, I'm gonna talk about this through two sides. And so we're gonna start with the ad itself and some just other little tips here for having that ad actually convert to a click. And so the first one is anywhere that you can tie in urgency, you will see results. And so...

you know, mentioning that your schedule is booking up or that it's time to book or that you're now booking 2025 weddings or something that really just creates a sense of urgency. This is something that Amber, you know, has seen as effective across all of the clients that she's working for. So just an example of this, one of my ads says 2025 dates are flying off the shelves. That's the very first line in the copy. And so it's just kind of creating this sense of urgency where

I don't want you to keep scrolling past this because you might miss your chance if you don't click now and explore this idea now. So that would be one for copy. And then when we're looking at the other side of things in terms of once they're on your website and then eventually once they inquire with you, one thing I'll recommend to try to protect your time is that you have some sort of information on your website that outlines your pricing range in some.

So, you know, we have a starting at price point as well as an average price point on our website. And the purpose there is just to kind of, you know, pre -qualify those leads and make sure that they understand what we're going to be charging for our services before they inquire and we go down that path of spending a lot of time trying to nurture them. So, you know, I would say, and Candace, I don't know if you talk much about,

pricing on a website or if you have thoughts there.

Candice (39:40.096)

I have tons. I mean, think when you're just starting out, it's nice to leave your price off because you want the ability to get as many people in your inbox. You want practice. You want to get on the phone with people. You want to get on Zoom calls with people. You want to practice your sales process. need people, even if they're not going to hire you, still need to be able to talk to people. And price can be a filter, which it's meant to do, but it's also meant to include people and make them feel welcome and like, hey, I can afford this or hey, this is what I'm thinking. These days, though, after you've

Elisabeth Stuckey (39:41.371)

Okay.

Elisabeth Stuckey (40:04.53)

Mm -hmm.

Elisabeth Stuckey (40:08.681)

you

Candice (40:09.9)

graduated that startup.

you know, phase of your business and you're booking clients, you should put at least a starting at price or a minimum price on your website. Clients expect that. And the more we learn about Gen Z, the more we learn that if you don't have a price on your website, they're leaving. They don't trust you. They think they should have access to that information because everywhere else on the internet, you don't buy something unless you know the price. So you should have pricing on your website, at least starting at. Yeah.

Elisabeth Stuckey (40:18.557)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Elisabeth Stuckey (40:28.627)

Mm -hmm.

Elisabeth Stuckey (40:36.091)

Mm hmm. Yes. And there are a lot of people I think who don't want to create an uncomfortable situation where they inquire and then find out they can't afford your work. So they would rather just not inquire and go find someone who has that clarity. So yes, so that is

Candice (40:48.984)

Absolutely. -hmm. Mm -hmm. A thousand percent.

Elisabeth Stuckey (40:54.439)

Definitely something I would recommend that you do. And then let's talk a little bit about that nurture process after you get the lead. So there are some strategies that I can share with you here because this really is a crucial part of this whole adventure of exploring ads is that you are able to nurture these leads because I can tell you right now, it is not this just, you know, check out and purchase the same day experience with ad leads. It is a process of nurturing. It's about

two weeks from when they first inquire through the ad before I actually book them on average. So it's definitely one of those things that take some time and take some intentional nurturing. But I'll walk through a few suggestions that I have, some tips that I have for you. The first one that we mentioned before, but this is showing up in your stories on social media consistently. So when someone visits your profile after seeing your ad, if they see that your little stories bubble is, you know,

pink and purple and they can click it and start learning about you, that makes them feel like they trust you, they know you, they're much more likely to then pursue working with you. The second one is that I'll just mention that over 75 % of my booked clients from ads booked a call with me first before they actually booked me as their vendor.

And so I like to offer that call, especially as a high -end wedding vendor where they're gonna be spending a decent amount of money on their package with me. Some of these clients really just need a chance to connect with you on that personal level. So if you don't already have that option for someone to schedule a call with you, I definitely recommend having it as an

And so, you know, my initial email typically prompts them to schedule a call and then it also gives them the option if they prefer not to schedule a call that they can fill out this form instead. And so I like to give both options because some people have really busy schedules or just don't like to do phone calls. But those phone calls have been really powerful in increasing my conversion rate through the ads. The next one is the next tip I would give you for, you know, that nurture strategy is to be prompt.

Elisabeth Stuckey (43:00.669)

with your replies. And so this is kind of just a general strategy of nurturing any kind of lead, whether they come from ads or not. But there is absolutely a window of piqued interest. And if you are not getting back to them as soon as possible and moving along in that process with them, they will likely go, you know, first of all, they clicked your ad. So now they're going to start getting ads for other stationers because the algorithm is like, or other florists or other planners.

Candice (43:04.754)

Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Elisabeth Stuckey (43:27.317)

the algorithm is like, this person's interested in this, so I'm going to start showing them all these other ones. And so we need to be the first one that replies back. We need to be the first one that's ready to get on a call with them or send them more information. So be as prompt as you can. And that would be an oper... Yes.

Candice (43:41.94)

In general. Yeah, this is like just in general these days, you need to be quick with the draw when you're getting back to people because Elisabeth is right, there is this short window of peak interest. And when somebody is hot, and they're ready to buy, they've got their credit card in their hand. They're like, girl, take my money. The first person who comes along and snatches it is the first person who comes along and gets it. You want to be that person? Yeah. Yeah, it is.

Elisabeth Stuckey (43:48.647)

Mm -hmm.

Elisabeth Stuckey (43:58.899)

Mm -hmm.

Elisabeth Stuckey (44:04.239)

Exactly. Exactly. Absolutely. It's crucial. Yep. Okay. And then I'll give you two more little strategies here. So the next one is create something visual to accompany your pricing. So this is something that's big for us stationers, but I think this could apply to any area of the wedding industry. We only spend about five minutes on these, but we create something called a design board for our

for our new leads. And so it essentially just has some general aesthetics inspiration, and then it has a color palette. And we send it to them alongside their pricing, their custom proposal. And it really elevates that experience for our leads. From the very beginning, they are getting something that is custom tailored to them. They don't know that it only took me five minutes to throw it together, but in their mind, I've spent some extra time interpreting their vision and creating something of value for them.

And so that visual design board that goes along with the prices has been a game changer. And I can't tell you how many times we get emails back from our leads specifically saying how much they love this design board, how much it perfectly represents what they're looking for, and then that energy and excitement to move forward and book with us. if you can, yes.

Candice (45:21.555)

yeah, they're ready. Yeah.

Elisabeth Stuckey (45:24.111)

Yep. So if you can come up with something that can go with your pricing that shows, again, I'm not saying go create a bunch of custom designs or spend hours putting something together for them before they've paid you. I don't recommend that. But I do think if you can come up with something little that's visual, that goes with your pricing and adds a little bit of value, it could be a big game changer in your conversion.

Candice (45:44.118)

Yeah, I'm assuming that in order to do that, you need to ask some leading questions that will help you understand the aesthetic, the color palette, maybe a few adjectives that describe the vibe. And then from there, you can put a quick can of a graphic together that looks really nice with some color palettes, maybe a little texture, maybe a little few images, something really simple and send it to them that I can see how that would absolutely.

Elisabeth Stuckey (45:48.957)

Yes.

Elisabeth Stuckey (45:58.44)

Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Elisabeth Stuckey (46:06.183)

Yep.

Candice (46:08.952)

put you out in front of the pack especially because wedding pros myself included I'm not excluding myself from this at all can be very secretive and nobody likes to share anything about anything until they've received any money and

Elisabeth Stuckey (46:21.021)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (46:21.898)

I totally get protecting your process and not giving the goods away for free. I don't want you to do that either, but sometimes you boundary yourself out of business and you give people no access to any information. You lock everything down and it's the people who are like, let me send a cute little color palette with a few images. Those are the folks who are booking because they're just doing one little extra thing that goes the extra mile.

Elisabeth Stuckey (46:32.743)

Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Elisabeth Stuckey (46:45.757)

Mm -hmm.

Mm hmm. And you know, it gives the leads a taste of the experience working with you. And that is so important as they get that taste of what it's like to work with you and how much you take care of them and how much you align with them and understand their vision. And that helps them, you know, feel that confidence with moving forward with you.

Candice (46:56.063)

yeah.

Candice (47:08.138)

Absolutely.

Elisabeth Stuckey (47:09.701)

I do have a Canva template of the design board that we use. So I'd be happy to share that with you if you want to include it in the show notes for this episode. Yeah, it's very simple, but it will help, yes.

Candice (47:16.136)

yes, we do. We do. Are you kidding? Absolutely. Yeah. Let us know when you have what you send me the link and we'll include it in this show notes for sure. Yeah, though. That's a great idea.

Elisabeth Stuckey (47:24.809)

Awesome. I'll send it to you. Absolutely. Perfect. And then the last one I'll end with here is following up. And this is of course something, again, most of these tips are not specific to ads, but more just for that conversion and not nurturing in general. But we want to make sure that we're following up several times. And so one thing I always recommend for my mentees and that we do in my business is that we change our subject lines for every follow -up.

and we really try to continue to add value in our follow -up emails. And so, you know, we're kind of doing away with the, just checking in follow -up emails, and we're trying to do something that's a little bit more of, you know, a connection, something that's gonna catch their attention in their inbox, and then also add a little bit of value and remind them of why they should wanna work with us in the email, so.

Candice (48:10.571)

Yes.

Candice (48:16.726)

Yeah, such a big one. We've been talking a lot about this in my mastermind and in my community for planners, just about the sales process in general and how it's become so stale. And everybody's using the same templates and everybody's using the same chat, cheapy T prompts. And so I use this visual of like, imagine you're a...

Elisabeth Stuckey (48:29.49)

Mm.

Candice (48:38.328)

couple getting married and you've inquired with like 15 different stationers and they're all emailing you back pretty much the same thing. And it's like you're standing there and there's 15 people throwing 15 volleyballs at your face and they all look the same. They're all the same size. They're all packed with information, way too much information. And it all just feels really, I don't know, uninspired. just all is just not.

exciting you. And then you have the stationer who's like, Hey, I don't have a volleyball to throw at you. I'm Candace. It's really nice to meet you. Here's some more details about my business. And also, by the way, love your style. I created this cute little board to show you what I think we could do together. Let me know if you'd be interested in getting on a call. It just feels warm and authentic and different than everyone else. That person instantly stands out and that client probably instantly feels at ease that they have somebody who's taking the time to get to know them.

Elisabeth Stuckey (49:12.37)

Thank

Elisabeth Stuckey (49:23.398)

and

Elisabeth Stuckey (49:27.486)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (49:33.23)

not treating them like a person at the deli counter grabbing their ticket, which I feel like so many sales processes feel like that right now. So to your point, yeah.

Elisabeth Stuckey (49:38.445)

Mm.

Yes. Yeah. And I think we're in a world of how much can we automate and how much can we just have running in the background. And while I think automations can have a place in our businesses to help us maximize our time, I also think when it comes to those clients facing moments and opportunities to build connection, we want to make sure it's authentic and it's personal and that we are showing them the person behind the brand.

And so that is one area of my business that I will not automate. I will not automate those initial emails with my clients. And we will have templates that we will, you know, adapt for each client, but we're always putting a personal touch on them because it is just so important and leads can absolutely see through it if you're not.

Candice (50:22.743)

always.

Candice (50:28.084)

my God, our customers are so smart and they're only getting smarter. So you can't pull the wool over their eyes. All these tricks that we've been taught in the sales process, they don't work anymore. And Gen Z hates being sold to, they don't like this aggressive sale. They don't like feeling sold to, they want to be nurtured. And they also just want you to get to the information. They want you to give them the facts so they can make educated decisions. So the quicker you can get to the point and give them what they want to know.

Elisabeth Stuckey (50:31.037)

Mm -hmm.

Elisabeth Stuckey (50:39.891)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (50:54.892)

but also make them feel seen and valued the bigger chance you have of booking those clients. It's just that simple. And it's easy to do, believe it or not, because a lot of people aren't doing it. So imagine your competition is, you know, automating to death everything in the sales process, and they feel so good about that because they get to sit back and do other things. But you never ever want to put making money on autopilot like that.

Elisabeth Stuckey (51:01.203)

Mm -hmm. Yes.

Elisabeth Stuckey (51:06.632)

Yeah.

Elisabeth Stuckey (51:21.703)

Mm -mm. Mm -mm.

Candice (51:22.56)

because you just, you leave that part of your business up to all these other variables that you've given control to. And that's just, to me, it's just not a good idea.

Elisabeth Stuckey (51:32.057)

Because ultimately, at the end of the day, what's true is that as much as we each have our talents and our styles as creators, there's pretty much, you know, there are very, I mean, I would say that any it can be it can be replicated, it can be duplicated, someone else can create a similar floral arrangement, or someone else can create a similar invitation suite that I can. And so what makes my business stand out is is me, it's my opportunity to connect.

with my audience and to make them feel... I'm sorry. I don't know if you can hear my dogs. gosh. Your sound editors will have to do a really good job on this one.

Candice (52:03.83)

That's okay. We have dogs barking. It's thundering here. I have a weed whacker outside. We'll leave the dog barking and it's fine.

Elisabeth Stuckey (52:15.561)

Yeah, so, you know, ultimately, I think what's just important is that we recognize the value that we bring to that sales process and the opportunity for connection and for authenticity. And like you said, I think that's what those Gen Z couples are really looking for. And if we want to get ahead on what's coming with the next wave of weddings and, you know, brides and grooms, we want to be really intentional about that.

Candice (52:42.552)

a thousand percent. I live for this conversation. This was so much fun to talk about ads and to talk about the sales process and ideal clients and lead generation and experimenting in your business. can't thank you enough for coming on the podcast today and sharing your journey with ads and letting us take a peek inside your business and sharing all these stats and statistics. I'm actually going to add the stats and statistics to the show notes so that you guys can see it.

Elisabeth Stuckey (53:11.699)

Mm

Candice (53:12.206)

in black and white. a visual numbers person. need to like see numbers. I can hear them. But if I see them, it starts to click. And I want you guys to see these numbers so you can understand exactly what Elisabeth did. We're also going to share who her ads manager is because Amber is the silent partner in this episode. So shout out to her. She's going to hopefully get some new inquiries and some new inquiries from you guys. But I would love for you to share where our listeners can connect with you outside the episode.

Elisabeth Stuckey (53:14.856)

Mm

Elisabeth Stuckey (53:29.169)

Yes.

Candice (53:42.246)

especially if they just have questions about the journey that you've had with ads and if they're stationers, how they can even learn more from you too.

Elisabeth Stuckey (53:44.542)

Yeah.

Elisabeth Stuckey (53:50.621)

awesome. Yeah, so my, am mostly on Instagram, that's kind of where I live most of the time. So my Instagram is Elisabeth Stuckey Design and you may just want to go find it in the show notes because my name is spelled with an S and so it's a little bit hard to type it in. But I also have an education based account called Learn with Elisabeth where I focus on

educating and of course my audience currently is mostly stationers, but I love talking business. I love talking about the wedding industry, success in the wedding industry and things that fall outside of the world of stationery. So I would love to connect with you. I absolutely welcome any of you into my DMs in my inbox. If you have questions, if you want to learn more about how, you know, we've done what we've done with our ads and we'll definitely recommend Amber for anyone who wants to actually work with an ads manager.

And then I'll also just mention that Amber has some free resources available for you as well. So if you're not quite ready for the ads manager, but you want to start dabbling and learning a little bit, you can check out those resources. And then of course, my website is ElisabethStuckey .com. And I also have a website link there for resources. So if you are a stationer and you want to explore any of those resources, you can definitely find them, all kinds of free resources.

courses and things of that nature for stationers.

Candice (55:12.44)

Yeah, amazing. And also you are still a stationer designing gorgeous high -end lux invitations and day of paper. So for all of our luxury planners out there, if you want to check out Elisabeth's work and see what she can do for your clients, maybe not in 2025, maybe in, maybe in the future. I mean, she might be able to squeeze you in for a really great.

Elisabeth Stuckey (55:16.817)

Mm -hmm.

Elisabeth Stuckey (55:20.507)

Mm

Elisabeth Stuckey (55:28.137)

Yes, unless it's like late late 2025, but definitely would love to connect with you all either way.

Candice (55:38.166)

Yeah, or you're calling about Taylor Swift's wedding, then she will make an absolute, a thousand percent. I'll link everything in the show notes so you guys can go and find all the resources that we mentioned, including that amazing Canva template that you are so very generous to share with our audience. I loved that tip. That tip is, got me thinking and ideating about how I can help my students stand out with that. So I'm excited about that.

Elisabeth Stuckey (55:42.409)

I will make that happen. 100%.

Elisabeth Stuckey (55:57.929)

Happy to.

Candice (56:06.806)

Elisabeth, thank you so much for being such a great guest and sharing your journey today.

Elisabeth Stuckey (56:11.687)

Yeah, thank you, Candice. This was so much fun, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity.

Candice (56:16.282)

my goodness, guys, thank you so much for listening to today's episode of the show. I've linked everything like I mentioned in the show notes. I'm excited to hear what you think. And if you're curious about running ads, if you see this being a strategy that you want to implement in engagement season, let me know if we should bring in an ads manager expert onto the show that can talk through some of the mechanics. Maybe we can bring Amber on and she can kind of guide us through this and help us figure this out. Let me know if that'd be of interest to you. I want to

Elisabeth Stuckey (56:40.53)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (56:46.126)

remind you that there's so much power in your purpose and I'll see you next week.