Unveiling our Experiences on Paid Advertising Platforms

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Today we're gonna be discussing a highly controversial topic. We're your hosts. I'm Tara. I'm Rachel. And today we're talking about the wedding wire and the knot. How everything just seems to be bots and potential spam in our leads, and we're not alone here. So if you're a bridal hair and makeup artist or a vendor, even in the wedding industry. I'm sure you feel our pain right now. So yeah, basically, I've been doing this so many years, but it started off good. I mean, I probably close at least 90% of the leads that I got, and they were all nice real brides and then it slowly started declining. Um, I even stuck with them through Covid when we weren't allowed to do the weddings. Kept it going and then now it's. All bots or fake or scammers, and yes. I recently read an article about it and it was saying that they, some employees had actually spoken out that they were basically hired to do fake emails, like fake, like pretend to be a bride, which is crazy because we're. Wasting our time on these people, and I guess they make most of their money off of all of us vendors. So while I think it was a good tool, now I'm questioning it. Mm-hmm. And they're having a lot, like they're talking about trying to put a lawsuit together. Right. They are trying to put a class action lawsuit together. I know that there's a couple of senators trying to get involved too, because I mean, wedding wire and the knot are like. A billion dollar. Yeah. Plus a year industry and they make all their money off the vendors. So if the vendors aren't happy and they have to jump ship, um, they're gonna lose a lot of business. Yeah. And I think you were saying too, like, I mean, every year I used to be able to negotiate the price down Yes. And everything and. Or just like keep it the same, a small increase and they're doing 20% increases, which I would think is probably to try to overcompensate Yes. For a lot of the vendors that are now pulling out. So, exactly. And I know, and if they say, oh, well it's due to inflation and costs of the upkeep of the software and things like that, but. You are just scamming us at this point. Point. I think so. I think so. I mean, it's unfortunate because it was such a main place to advertise. Right? And it was affordable. You could think what, okay, I paid this in a year. If I do a couple weddings, it's like even, and now, I mean it's just gotten where you can afford it and then you're looking and I mean, I maybe would get one or two leads that were actually real. And we also both had that scammer. Yes. But yours was more. What was it saying? It was scam or spam or something? Mine was marked as potential spam. Mm-hmm. But yours wasn't. Mine wasn't. And it was the same exact lead. Yes. And you were communicating with her? Yes. And you're like, oh, all right. Where do I send the check?. All these things. And I said, wait a minute. I had the same conversation with this bride. This was pretty much copy paste messaging, and I said, mine was marked as spam and go. And you said yours wasn't? Mine wasn't. I just had a gut feeling like, this isn't right. You know? Yes. When you get a bride that's like, oh, I. I can't get in for a trial and I, I just wanna send, I'm traveling. That's what they would, yeah. I just wanna send you a check or my boss is gonna pay, but he can only pay by check. Or my father, like, it was very sketchy and I'm like, no. Bride is like, yep, okay. I don't need a trial. I'm not doing this. I just gonna send you money. very, very odd. And. We did, I looked up the venue and I was like, oh, it's a real venue, so okay, maybe a little bit more credible. And then I spoke to you 'cause I was gonna go this step further and call the venue and say, are these people even? Like, is this their date? Um, but you know, when you had said that, and I'm like, oh my God. So my intuition was right, this is fake. And in that article, um, I believe it was the New York Post or the New York. Times or the New Yorker? It was in the New Yorker. Yes. And they were saying that one, I believe he was a photographer. He had gotten a lead and he ended up again feeling like it was a little off. So he called the venue and then they had said, oh my God, they got you two. You're like the 30th photographer to call. So it's like all this time, like we shouldn't have to, we're paying monthly for this, right? We're paying a good amount. It's 400 a month. And then you're having to now verify the leads on your own. Yes. Like that. Like we don't have time to do all that. So I really, um, I, I think it's unfortunate. I mean, I know there's other things out there I feel like, that are now standing behind and they're saying No, it's all a hundred percent real leads, which I'm sure it is. But I have noticed that the flow of it. Isn't as much as what wedding wire and the knot used to be. Yes. Um, I mean, you're lucky if you even get one or two brides to respond back because Exactly. There's just so many people that would be shopping around and, you know, it's, it was a, a fight to the finish line. Whoever was gonna answer first. Yeah, essentially. And you know, you're lucky if you got a response back. But then I just started noticing this has been marked as spam. This is a bot. Mm-hmm. I'm traveling. I can't get to you until the wedding day. And it was two weeks prior to the wedding. And I'm thinking, wow, this is super last minute. Or even my person canceled on me last minute. Yes. And you're feeling, oh my God, how can I help out this bride? You feel horrible for her. And then you find out it's all fake. Mm-hmm. It's not real. I even called. Um, there's a story one time I even called the lead because she told me to call her. Yeah. And then this random guy picked up and he was screaming at me. He's like, stop calling me. Oh my God, I don't know what you want from me. So this, this number wasn't. So they incredible at this guy, guy's number and he was probably getting so many calls that he was like, I wanna change my phone number. Yes, yes. They were like, I'm not even married, I don't wanna get married. Leave me alone. He was so mad and I was like, sir, I'm, I'm calling because I got a. Paid lead through WeddingWire and I just wanna know that, I just want you to know that your information was displayed as the number to call. Yeah. And I was directed to call you. So just be careful if you are getting inundated with phone calls. Yeah, it's gonna happen for sure. I feel like, I mean for me, um, I know you had canceled yours. Yes, I am. I wanna cancel, but canceled and I have emailed and I tried to remove my card information and they were charging a card that was expired. They were charging that for. Almost a year now. And then it wouldn't let me remove that or any other cards that I had on file with them yet. They're not responding to emails, they're not responding to calls, so I don't know where to go from there. I know I did call my credit card company and they were able to put a block on it so that they can't charge. Mm-hmm. But it's, uh, and again, I receive an email that day, like, you're a day behind on your payment. And I'm like, I'm trying to cancel. And it's, I feel like it's very disheartening because I've been with them. So many years. And so I have reviews up there, pictures up there, it's again, a lot of work. You're updating your prices, you're maintaining it, and now all that's gonna go away, you know? Right. And they, they try to get you to get so many reviews on there, and then they'll offer a discount or you get a little badge or whatever. But I. Now if most of, and I think probably most vendors would direct them there to write reviews. So now those reviews, you can copy them, you can put them on your website, but they're not gonna get uploaded into Google. So I feel bad, I feel like some of the ways that maybe some vendors can, if you are still advertising on there, to just check. I would look at the phone numbers. Sometimes the numbers were really weird. I would look at their emails, sometimes even their email, you're like, Hmm, this doesn't make sense. Like, so it's hard 'cause now you don't wanna be afraid of, is this an actual real person? But I would really start, keep your guard up, essentially. Keep your guard up. You know, it's not easy to make that transition if you are getting off of it. But maybe in the in between, start getting your brides to write reviews on Google. Start really trying to promote yourself in the local areas you work with, the vendors, the. Basically anybody try to connect and make connections so that you have your own flow and your own lead and you're not relying. 'cause obviously they're not coming through. No, they're not. I mean, I still have my page up because I have a lot of reviews Yeah. And pictures and things like that. So there's my credible proof. Yeah. And I'm the same way too, I started wedding wire after the Covid room Yeah. And that's how I really grew my business mm-hmm. Was because. There were so many artists that like had to cancel 'cause they were either sick or they were double booked and they couldn't make it work. And, um, I rode that wave yeah, for a very long time. But, with WeddingWire, I had a great first couple years with it, and then after that it was downhill. I tried to negotiate. They have something called the Spotlight Vendor, so you could be on the first page to get more leads. And then. When I was negotiating, they said, well, if you downgrade, you're not gonna get a spot back on the spotlight, or it's going to be X amount more. It's gonna be even more competitive to get that spot back. So I always fell for it every single time. Yeah. Because they try to lock it in and Yes. You know, but now I'm noticing 'cause I believe it sold again, like before you would have your representative, and I know I used to get frustrated because I'm like, oh, every year it's a different person, but okay. Yes. But now it's like you don't even get that. You don't get a call back. I ended up, when it was time for my renewal, I emailed because I obviously clearly wanted to talk about the price or what was increasing, and I got a weird email and she's like, well, I'm in Ireland. Um, so it's hard time-wise to set up a call, but, and then that was it. And I'm like, okay, that's my answer. Where before, it was like, before, when it first started, you had a number to call for your account manager, of course. And now it was like, okay, you have to email, they have to call, like. Set up a thing with you, which they were doing, but now you can't even do that. So I feel like it's just on a downward spiral. I agree. I'm hoping like one of these other, advertising sites, we have steps up to the plate and hopefully can kind of jump into the shoes that it originally was. Yes. I don't know if it was just greed. I know they make a tremendous amount of money if they just lost touch or maybe, I don't know, maybe brides really aren't utilizing it like they used to. I don't know how complicated it makes it for bride. Like they have to do a login. Do they have to? I don't know. But maybe they're not using it. Maybe they are relying on more referrals. Instagram, Google searches. I know a lot of vendors that are very busy that don't use it. Mm-hmm. So, I think it's just scary initially to take that leap, but I mean, yeah. You can only just keep like you're paying for nothing at this point. I mean, we took the leap and we're off. Mm-hmm. And we're still booked and busy. Oh yeah. So we're great. I'm still getting leads and, and you know what, now it's like refreshing. 'cause they're real. Yes. It's like a real, it's a real email of a bride saying, oh, my wedding to this day, my mom, this, that, you know? And you're like, oh. Good. It's not just like a simple little generic statement, which I know they did have that, but some of them were just getting where it was like, oh, and I noticed the names. Some of the names were similar all the time, and I'm like. Okay, this is like, this is obviously not real. Um, so I mean, I don't know. Hopefully going forward there'll be something else, but you know, it's just something we're following. Hopefully if you are doing weddings or you're thinking about doing weddings, I would definitely take a look in reading up on the knot and wedding wire. Mm-hmm. And what's going on? Yes. I mean, we built up through like content shoots. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Referrals. Yeah. Referrals are the best, which are always great. Yeah. Partnering with vendors mm-hmm. And things like that. Going to the expos. Yeah. You have to kind of now, you know, jump into that if you're not already doing it. Yes. You can't just rely on mm-hmm. The leads coming to you anymore. You have to be hungry. Yeah. Go out and, and get it yourself. Exactly. So, I mean, it's unfortunate. Yes. But hopefully everybody, uh. You know, we'll get something out of this, we'll follow it along if they do put together a suit. I know plenty of people that would like to be on that. I would like to be on that. So, um, I hope they do something and if anything, it just sets the precedent that like, you can't do this to people, you know, and hopefully they're held accountable. That's true. Yeah. I agree. And the thing that was frustrating too is when you did have your yearly renewal mm-hmm. With the meeting, they'd be like, oh, well did you try following up? Of course I followed up. Exactly. I followed up eight to 10 times. Or we're showing you're getting X amount of leads, why aren't you closing them? Because they're not real. They're not real people. Because they were all marked as potential spam. And I have the screenshots. I have the receipts. Yes. Because there's the timelines and it's just, again, wasting somebody's time. And then they'll refer us, watch this video, watch this. Or you know, we have this post about, you know, how to retain a client, what to do. It's like we haven't, we didn't just start doing this like we know how to work with bride. Yeah. This isn't our first rodeo. Yeah. I can't make a fake lead into an actual wedding. I wish I could. I wish we could, but we can't. So again, it's like you just. Kind of feel like you're being lied to and misled Yes. And taken advantage of. Manipulated and manipulated. Yeah, for sure. So I would just say check it out on your own. Let us know. You can, you know, comment. Let us know your thoughts and feelings and even share your experiences that you had with WeddingWire. I think that that would be great to have, because if this does come to a ca a lawsuit, everybody's story should be important. So it's nice to know that we're not alone in this boat here, and that we do have a community of wedding vendors to rally, rally around, and we're all gonna back each other. Yeah, exactly. Because you have a bunch of vendors on there. Yes. Not just hairstyles. So we have a whole bunch of people that are feeling the same way. Mm-hmm. So hopefully they can get something done. I agree. Alright, well we look forward to hearing your feedback. Yes. And what you experienced. And thank you for tuning in. That's a wrap on this episode of The Main Event. We're all about empowering our community and supporting each other, so if you love today's conversation, share it with a fellow stylist and let's grow together. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review and connect with us on Instagram. At the Main Event Show or our YouTube both linked in our show notes below, got a topic you want us to cover, send us a dm. We'd love to hear from you. Until next time, keep creating, keep growing. And remember, you're a part of our family now.