>>>
>>>The tuning advisor does not run on SQL Express. I have the standard version of SQL 2012, do you think there'll be much difference if I do this in that version?
>>>
>>
>>I'd run the query as-is in SQL 2012 to get your baseline, then run the tuning advisor.
>
>Thanks. I got it to run and followed the tuning advice and the query has gone from over 30 seconds to about 6.

Excellent news.