Case study · 90-day engagement

From 14 weddings/year to 64 in 12 months.

A Vegas wedding DJ with 11 years of experience was averaging 14 weddings a year at $2,400 each. Most inquiries came from price-shoppers who had already collected 4 quotes. He was discounting to win, and the calendar still was not full. The unlock was upstream: stop competing on price, start being chosen earlier in the planning cycle.

The challenge

"By the time they call me they have already collected 4 quotes."

The DJ came in through a referral from a Vegas wedding planner. He wanted "more leads." The bot scored his website at 56 and flagged the bigger problem: by the time leads got to his website, he was the 5th DJ they had quoted that day.

We pulled his Knot + WeddingWire data, plus his Google Ads:

  • The Knot profile had 4 photos, no video, and 3 reviews. Vegas DJ category had 47 profiles. He was sitting on page 4.
  • WeddingWire was set up but never claimed. Reviews from old gigs were on a duplicate listing he could not edit.
  • Google Ads bid on "Vegas wedding DJ" head term at $11 CPC. By the time someone searched that, they were 80% through their planning, comparing prices.
  • No retargeting on people visiting Vegas venue websites. Couples visit a venue's site 6-12 times before booking. Nobody was reminding them to book a DJ during that window.

The fix was to be the first DJ they saw, not the fifth. That meant earlier-funnel placements + a chosen-not-quoted positioning.

The plan

Four priorities for upstream wedding-DJ booking.

Priority 1: Knot + WeddingWire profile rebuild (week 1-2)

Pulled 80 photos and 12 video clips from his last 3 years of weddings. Edited the videos into a 60-second highlight reel. Uploaded everything to The Knot + WeddingWire. Rewrote the bio to lead with "11 years, 200+ Vegas weddings, average rating 4.9." Recovered the duplicate WeddingWire listing through their merge process and consolidated 38 reviews into the active profile. By week 4 he ranked top-10 in both directories.

Priority 2: Venue-retargeting on Meta (week 2-4)

Built a custom audience targeting people who had visited the websites of the top 20 Vegas wedding venues in the last 90 days (using Meta's lookalike + interest stack). Ran two creative angles: "Booking your venue? Lock in your DJ now — best dates go fast" and "The Vegas DJ chosen by [Venue Name] couples 11 years running." CTR was 2.4%. Most leads came from venues he had already played at.

Priority 3: Wedding-package builder (week 3)

Built /package-builder where couples could pick their venue (dropdown of 28 Vegas venues), wedding size, music style, and add-ons (uplighting, photo booth, MC service, ceremony coverage). The page generated a personalized quote and locked the date with a $500 deposit. Take rate on the deposit was 31% — way above industry standard.

Priority 4: Vendor-referral loop with planners

Built a partner page at /for-wedding-planners with referral commissions, fast-quote turnaround, and a vendor portal. Reached out to 12 Vegas planners. 7 added him to their preferred-vendor list within 30 days. Planner-driven bookings became 35% of his book by month 3.

AI tools we used

The internal stack that did the heavy lifting.

We do not pretend the work happens by hand. Three of our internal tools are the reason this engagement moved as fast as it did. Each of them replaces what used to be days of human time.

Tool 01Internal search-term scoring

Custom AI we built that grades every search term on commercial intent, urgency, and local match in under a second. Replaces a half-day human audit.

Tool 02Negative keyword expander

Takes one bad search term and proposes the related variants we should also negate before they show up. Found 87 negatives nobody had thought of.

Tool 03Conversion tracking validator

Crawls the site and fires every conversion event in a sandbox so you can see what is actually being recorded vs what should be. Caught the duplicate form fire in 4 minutes.

The execution

Week-by-week timeline.

WeekWhat we shippedWhat moved
Week 1Knot + WeddingWire profiles rebuilt, 80 photos + highlight reel uploadedFirst Knot inquiry day 6
Week 3WeddingWire merge resolved, 38 old reviews consolidatedProfile ranking jumps from page 4 to page 1
Week 4Venue-retargeting Meta ads live, /package-builder shippedFirst $500 deposit locked day 9 of week 4
Week 6Vendor partner page live, planner outreach starts3 planners on preferred-vendor list by week 8
Week 922 weddings booked through 2026, 14 deposits collected through package-builderAverage ticket up to $3,400
Week 12Final reviewCalendar booked 11 months out, retainer continues

The numbers

What changed in the data.

4.6×
Bookings per year
+58%
Average wedding ticket
11 mo
Booked-ahead window

The mix that produced the new run rate:

64 weddings × $3,800 average ticket = $243,200/yr in revenue, up from $33,600. The retainer cost $7,188 over the year. The DJ now turns down 1 in 3 inquiries because the calendar is full.

I was the 5th DJ they called every time. After 90 days I am the only DJ they call. The same skills, the same prices originally, but everyone now finds me before they find anyone else. I had no idea how big the gap was between "good DJ" and "first DJ they see."

Wedding DJ·Las Vegas, NV · 11 years, solo operator

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