Make no mistake about it, weddings are big business. After the experience of planning my own wedding, I realised that instead of putting my energies into search engine marketing (SEM), I would have been better off owning a quaint old barn in the countryside that I could rent out against inflated rates to loved-up couples. However, whilst waiting on the rural buildings with marquee potential, I have been putting Microsoft Advertising Intelligence to work, looking for insights into this money making industry and to shed light on developing wedding trends.
The revival of marriage
Early 2008 the Office for National Statistics reported that the amount of singletons was on the rise from 40% of the population in the seventies to 47% in mid-2008 whilst the amount of widowed people stayed stable with the amount of co-habiting couples on the rise. Bad news for the wedding business you'd say.
However a couple of months into the credit crunch, and the search on wedding venues was hotting up. In May 2009 we noticed a month-over-month increase in searches for wedding venues of 337%. Perhaps uncertain times were calling for some form of certainty? Searches for venues dropped slightly later in the year, but are still at a higher level now than in 2008.
If searches for engagement rings reflect the future intent to get married than things are looking on the up as searches for them are 77% higher year-over-year.
Who is looking - your target audience
I can almost hear you mutter "Women of course!" and if you did, you are not far off.
Although the proposal is still mostly seen as something done by men, women are in the majority when searching for engagement rings (57%). Perhaps this can be explained by the fact that many couples buy a ring together, women researching the options after a proposal (or before if they are a bit obsessed). The most searches (58%) come from the age group 25-34.
Wedding venues are predominantly searched for by women (66%!) but searches are more evenly spread across the 'younger' age groups with the age brackets 50-64 and 65+ representing 10% of searches.
When it comes to honeymoons, men search a bit more than women (52% opposed to 37% with 11% being unknown).
Women may feel an uneven amount of searching rests on their shoulders as they are also in the majority when looking for an online 'quickie divorce lawyer' (51.9%).
Whether you're doing the pay-per-click marketing for a department store selling dresses & invites, a honeymoon travel specialist, a bank selling wedding insurance or you're just into PPC flirting with the idea of getting rich quick with the help of a very large barn, try Microsoft Advertising Intelligence to help find trends, keywords, your target audience and improve your wedding campaigns in adCenter!
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