Q: Advertising and Leads
We are a small independent Quaker school with a limited advertising budget. We need to grow. We have been prioritizing digital marketing with paid social advertising. We've struggled with showing PPE in photos. (Some like it, some don't.) Regardless, we are not seeing the leads and inquiries coming in. Should we pivot and focus on a direct mail strategy? Advertising in newspapers, magazines, etc? Or is this just a sign of the times? Are leads down across the board? From Anonymous
A: WADDINGTON
From our 38 school partners across the US, we see, as a whole, increased website traffic, average engagement rates but decreased action (form fills, formal inquiries, applications). Truth Tree, via DCschoolHUB and NYmetroSchools (our two affiliate private school search sites), conducted semi-formal interviews with 62 parent sets actively looking for an independent school in the DC and NYC markets since October 1. Both are considered hyper-competitive markets with hard application deadlines, yet parents are waiting until they know they have to move forward. The reasoning is parents have more on their plates now and know they can wait. Plus, 37% of the parents interviewed did not feel comfortable going through the admission process without experiencing the school's ethos as it is in "normal" times.
My strong suggestion is to lean more into Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising. Remember, parents don't go to Facebook looking for an independent school. They go to their favorite search engine and type in "private school ____________". That's where you need to focus your attention.
A: CAYLOR
I would suggest you have an audit performed on your campaigns. Here is what I would look for:
What type of advertising are you doing? Facebook boosts? Other?
What networks are you advertising on? Facebook, LinkedIn? Pinterest?
Are you using the Facebook Pixel to limit your audience and spend?
Are you using PPC campaigns with Google and its networks (You Tube) which can often be quite affordable
Are you limiting the geographic targets to only the areas that would be relevant to your audience?
Even in your own town, are you limiting to the ZIP codes that could afford your school and would be a fit?
How do your paid campaigns fit with your organic campaigns?
What is the call to action on these ads?
Do you have clear landing pages?
Do you have gated content on those landing pages?
Are you adjusting your bids?
Are you leveraging animation (Bannersnack.com is a great way to boost the visual impression and attention of your ads)
I hope that helps.
A: SIMMONS
Let me start by saying that’s a great question. I believe many school leaders and admissions heads are feeling the same pressure.
In our experience with clients and the school community, engagement numbers are fine and up in some regards, it's applications that are down. It seems the general feeling is one of apprehension in pulling the trigger, committing fees, etc. Understandably it's a tough time for all, but continued marketing will prove useful when we're on the other side of this.
My recommendation is to stick to Google Ads as it's a better use of budget to use "pull marketing" vs. "push marketing" at this time. While social ads are very effective during normal times, today's realities require a shift. I don't recommend direct mail marketing as it can be pricey and not as targeted as you'd like. A combination of Google Ads to capture interest, and promoted social posts to maintain awareness, are probably a good strategy for a limited budget at this time.
Glad to discuss offline.
A: MAJOR
Wow — what a great question. Let's dive into the important details here.
The ad copy: It sounds like you're playing around with some different options here already and that's great! I encourage you to take a look at your image and content and ask yourself: if a parent was mindlessly scrolling through social media in their FEW minutes of free time, would it prompt them to stop? Is it thumb-stopping good? If the answer to that is "no" think about what you can change. Sometimes just putting a few photos to music and creating a video slideshow can help because people like to see videos, and it's an easy thing to change.
The ad audience: If you're targeting NEW families who have never heard of your school with an ad for an inquiry, that would explain the lack of conversions. Families who have never heard of your school aren't going to convert on an ad like that. Using the Facebook pixel, you can retarget individuals who have visited your website already — and those individuals you could hit with an inquiry ad. However, an inquiry still is a pretty hard push for social media in general. A content offer or virtual event might lead to better conversions even for a retargeting ad.
Some considerations based on audience:
New Families: They need to see a "light" ad -- something that introduces your school and the quaker values. If you have a blog post, or page on "why quaker education" this would be good here.
Retargeted Families: These families know about your school, but you want their information. Virtual events and content offers will yield higher conversions than an inquiry.
Lookalike audiences: Facebook can build audiences that "look like" your website visitors. These individuals are great to hit with the same ad you're hitting new families with.
The ad landing page: The landing page should be specifically crafted for social media, meaning it is built to be mobile-first. Content is light and logically structured. There are great visuals and smart information architecture to drive the visitor to key points about your school. The landing page should always have a form.
The form: And speaking of forms! If you're linking to a form that has more than 5-7 fields from a social media ad, that could be your biggest downfall. Because social media advertising in particular is reaching individuals in a passive state, rather than an active search state, they are less likely to invest the time into filling out your typical inquiry form. We've encouraged many schools to limit the number of form fields on their inquiry and event forms, and they saw immediate increases in conversions.
Keep in mind, most of these strategies are applicable to social and PPC. If you decide to incorporate traditional advertising methods, be sure to again, create a unique landing page so you can track your ROI.
To help with your strategy, I'm going to link to two free on-demand recordings our team did on this topic.
12 Things to Stop, Start and Keep Doing With Your Schools Digital Ads to Get Your Best ROI
You may also find this blog post helpful: What Makes a Good Social Media Ad?
I could go on and on for days about this topic. So feel free to email me directly.
Good luck!
A: NELSON-ISAACS
Great question, and amazing advice from the gurus!
A few thoughts:
My clients are generally seeing lower inquiries but higher application numbers than usual for this time of year (in other words, less people "window shopping" but they are more serious about buying.) I'd encourage you to look at the quality of the leads you DO have, rather than just quantity, and seeing how you can convert quality leads most effectively.
In terms of generating more leads, I agree with all of the great advice here, but would encourage you not to discount direct mail out the gate. While it's true that direct mail can be pricey and not targeted enough, with extremely strategic about list-buying and very specific messaging, I have seen great success with direct mail. In fact, I just published the first of several blog posts I'm going to write about this very topic! You can check it out here if you're interested. The bottom line is that direct mail is appealing, especially to millennials.
The keys are:
A very targeted list (did you know you can buy a list with psychographic segments as a delineator?!)
A very specific message that will appeal to that particular list, which could be different depending on psychographic qualities of the list
A very clear call-to-action
Repeated outreach. It can't be a one-and-done kind of thing
Happy to talk more if you'd like! Feel free to reach out directly.
A: CLAEYS
Lots of great ideas and information here! I will add a suggestion to review your online presence, including your Google My Business, Yelp, Great Schools and other directory listings. Make sure they are up to date and fleshed out with photos and other information, as well as reviews from current families.
Local print and online magazines also offer Education/Private School issues, where they offer ad space and even sometimes editorial content.
No matter how people find you, they will inevitably see and seek out some social proof and validation from trusted sources before applying. Some listings are free, so it is worth taking the time to look for opportunities to get links to your website and brand name mentions and reviews in these places
Good luck!
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