When you’re planning how to promote your school to prospective parents and students, it can be hard to think of ways to stand out from the crowd.
Enter Google AdWords, alternatively known as Google Ads, or pay-per-click advertising.
Google Ads is an advertising platform you can use to promote your school, on Google Search, YouTube, as well as other websites and apps.
If this is the first time you’ve heard of AdWords for schools, you might wonder if it’s right for your needs and how it will fit into your current marketing strategy. As the digital marketing and education services experts, we’ve got you covered!
Here’s our guide to the benefits of Google Ads for schools and how to use it to drive clicks and conversions to your site.
1. You can accurately target parents and students
When it comes to any type of marketing, it’s best to target people precisely. The old ‘spray and pray’ generally doesn’t yield positive results.
With Google Ads for schools, you have complete control over your campaign and who you target, meaning your ads will only be shown to parents and students that are likely to enrol at your school.
You can target people in a specific geographic area and at particular times of day, great for parents doing research on their lunch breaks. You can focus on web users with specific hobbies and interests (and who better to know about people’s hobbies and interests than Google!)
You can also use negative keywords, so your search campaigns don’t show when certain words and phrases are used.
You can even upload a list of parents’ emails into Google Ads (with their permission, of course – nobody wants to be hit with the GDPR stick.)
This means that when they are logged into their Google account, you can show them relevant ads – ideal if you want to drum up support for the upcoming school fete!
2. You can get leads directly within Google
Let’s be honest; we’re all incredibly lazy at heart. So if there’s a way of getting information and answers to questions without having to click around a website, we’ll do it.
(Don’t believe us? Ask Google what one plus one is!)
The good news is that you can get prospective leads on Google without people having to visit your website. You can set up a lead form ad that people can enter their details into, or a call asset which means people can call you, all with a push of a button.
3. It can be cost-effective compared to other advertising methods
Have you ever had to advertise your latest open day in the local free newspaper? It’s expensive, it takes ages to get sign-off, and most people will stick the paper in the recycling bin as soon as it lands in their letterbox!
While Google Ads for schools doesn’t provide the best return on investment compared to other marketing channels (hello SEO and email marketing), it can be an affordable way of targeting the right people.
You can set a budget, only pay when someone clicks on your ad, and there are no financial penalties if you want to pause your campaign.
4. You can get to the top of the search engine results quickly
Search engine optimisation is a fantastic way to make your school more prominent in the search engine results, but it can take time to see optimal results. When you need to get to the top of Google in days rather than months, Google Ads will get you there.
Let’s say you want to promote your latest open day but don’t have time to wait for SEO to take effect. You can set up a search ads campaign in Google Ads, determine how much you’re willing to pay for top placement, and set an end date.
As long as your campaign is set up correctly, you can rank in pole position for the amount of time you need.
5. You can choose an ad type to fit your specific needs
Variety is the spice of life when it comes to marketing. And with AdWords for schools, you have access to the entire spice rack.
Google Ads has a wide range of ad types you can use. There are search ads for targeting people using Google. Display ads for getting people’s attention while they’re surfing the web.
You can even show people ads while they’re playing Candy Crush waiting for their kids at the school gates.
If you want to make life even easier, you can use a Performance Max campaign to target people across all of Google’s marketing channels. Just tell Google what you want to achieve, and AdWords will do all the dirty work for you.
Speaking of which…
6. You can be as hands-on or as hands-off as you want
Chat GPT, Midjourney, Grammarly… we’re all used to using artificial intelligence and machine learning to make marketing easier.
If you want to take advantage of AdWords for schools but don’t have the time, experience, or knowledge to manage your campaigns, you can use automation.
How does it work? Google can manage the bidding process on your behalf, so it bids higher if it thinks the person it’s targeting has a strong chance of converting on your website. It can adapt ad copy and assets to show relevant messaging to your customers.
Google even recently announced that it will use generative AI in Performance Max campaigns to create high-quality ads.
On the other hand, if you prefer to have complete control over your marketing strategy, you have that option in Google Ads for schools. You can oversee the keywords you use, your budget, right down to how your ads look in the search engine results.
(If you do use Google Ads’ automation tools, we still recommend logging into your account regularly to make sure everything is running as it should!)
7. You can showcase your school and raise brand awareness
Not everyone will click on your ad, and that’s okay. The good news is that even if people aren’t clicking on your ad, you’re slowly building up brand awareness.
It takes about eight touch points before you make a sale – by a touchpoint, we mean when a prospect comes across your brand. So if people see your school name, colours, and logo multiple times, they’re slowly becoming aware of who you are.
And then, when they’re ready to use your services, they know how to get in touch.
8. You get analytics you can use to power the rest of your marketing strategy
The final benefit of AdWords for schools? The analytics you get.
Google Ads is in a league of its own when it comes to statistics and metrics. You can see how many people viewed your ads, which search terms they used, what websites your display ads were seen on. This can build a powerful picture of what your target audience likes and dislikes.
Let’s say that a search ad has a high click-through rate. This is a strong indication that the ad copy is very well-written.
As a result, you can use a similar style of writing in your title and meta descriptions to bring more organic traffic to your website.
Bubblegum Search: top of the class when it comes to Google AdWords for schools
We hope this guide has convinced you of the benefits of using Google Ads for your school. It’s a fantastic way to get to the top of the search engine results and find new customers.
The key with Google Advertising is to make sure your campaign is well-thought-out, and you’re using the optimal keywords and assets. Otherwise, you may find your budget running out sooner than anticipated!
If you want to use Google Ads right, we can help. We specialise in Google Ads for education services, so we know all the tips and tricks for making the most out of your Google Ads account.
Our team of experts will work with you to understand what you want to achieve and create a bespoke plan to ensure you get the results you deserve.
And with prices starting from £225 a month, even the smallest schools can take advantage of high-quality ad campaigns.
Contact us today to find out how you can use Google Ads to make your school stand out from the crowd.