Google Ads is a dynamic platform constantly updated with new features and improvements. However, when you start to think about each campaign, ad group, and ad as an experiment, you will begin to uncover techniques that work well, and others that don’t.
For most private/independent schools, this experimentation can be overwhelming and could come at a high cost to their advertising budget. Additionally, it’s an investment in time management and resources.
Read on to see how we’ve taken what works and created this tell-all guide to help you become an expert on Google Search ads!
Ad Copy
Making meaningful ad copy is at the heart of every digital Search advertising campaign. For some families, it is the first time they will see your school name, for others it will be a re-engagement point when they are further down the enrollment funnel.
Even if you are only running one Search campaign, ensure that your school’s message, brand, and tone speak to the user and keep them engaged throughout their journey. Pepperland's senior paid media specialist, Eric Bakken, shares more:
“Google Ads allows advertisers to create Responsive Search Ads. These ads allow advertisers to include 15 headline options and 4 description options. Of these options, 3 headlines and 2 descriptions will be selected and shown on the live ads.
We recommend crafting ad copy that will include your school’s name, location, call to action, and offer information in prominent places. Experiment with pinning headlines and descriptions to certain placements to determine what works best.”
Below, you'll find a breakdown of the essential elements of strong ad copy.
Headlines
Headlines are a make-or-break component of your ads. They should be strongly influenced by your choice of targeted keywords for the campaign.
There are three positions where you can put a headline in, but what we’ve seen is that ads with unpinned headlines often have the highest conversion and click-through rates and can serve in any position.
If you haven’t noticed already, Google Ads loves automation. Whether it be ad copy or bidding strategies. We wouldn’t go as far as enabling automatically created assets, but having unpinned headlines allows us to still play ball in Google’s court.
Automatically created assets is a campaign level setting where new headlines and descriptions are generated for you alongside those you have manually inputted.Descriptions
Use descriptions to highlight everything great about your school in 90 characters. You are allowed 4 different descriptions, which can be pinned in first or second positions.
Just like headlines, Google prefers if you leave these unpinned, but to maximize your storytelling capabilities, having pinned descriptions isn’t a bad idea.
Make sure to incorporate actionable phrases in all of your descriptions though!
For example:
- Learn More….
- Request Information…
- Download our [offer name]...
Here’s a great example of exemplary ad copy:
Sitelinks
Sitelinks are ad extensions that serve beneath the headlines and descriptions. They guide the user to a different URL than the destination set in the main ad copy and should be used to provide separate information or context to the ad.
Apple is a great example of how you should use sitelinks in your ads. Look at how their sitelinks may already answer future questions about what the searcher is thinking at the moment.
“Any sitelink extension you can add will increase click-through rate by providing an additional path for the searcher. Schools need to be strategic and only include sitelinks that provide clear conversion paths.”
- Eric B.
Senior Paid Media Specialist, Pepperland Marketing
Display Path
Display Paths are another powerful contextual clue that often gets overlooked. Searchers want to know where an advertisement will take them on your website, and if they only remember your domain name with no subdirectories then navigating to the same page may become a challenge.
You have the option to customize the display path in each version of your ad and we encourage you to experiment with it!
Here are some examples of high-performing display paths for many different offers:
- www.schoolname.com/elementary/more-info
- www.schoolname.com/programs/download
- www.schoolname.com/preschool/inquire
The Benefits of Advertiser Verification
Advertiser Verification is a short questionnaire that is required to buy ad space on Google. The process involves providing Google with your school’s name and identity while also creating a more transparent environment on Google.
Even though Advertiser Verification is required for everyone, there are some included benefits that you may not have known about.
Business Name
Advertiser Verification allows for the use of a business name, in this case, your school name. Without manually turning this on, only the URL to the destination will show up in the ad when it is served.
Logo
Alongside your school name, you are also now eligible to showcase your school’s logo as well. The recommended size for a logo is 1:1 and 1200x1200, however anything above 128x128 works as well.
Examples
Here are two examples of two ads (serving next to each other) that only have 1 of the 2 benefits of advertiser verification enabled.
As you can see, CSU Global has the business name implemented, but not the logo, while Fullsail is doing the opposite - it has a logo added, but where the business name should display we only see a URL.
Keywords
Choosing the right keywords is a foundational step for any campaign. Start with specific keywords that reflect the unique attributes and offerings of your school, such as "private school in [City]" or "top-rated private school near me."
Additionally, consider incorporating negative keywords to filter out irrelevant traffic, ensuring your ads reach the most qualified leads. Remember, the more precise and relevant your keywords, the higher the likelihood of attracting prospective students and their parents. We’ll talk more about negative keywords below.
Keyword Planner
This tool native to Google Ads helps you discover new keywords related to your school, understand how often certain words are searched, and gauge how those searches have changed over time.
Start by entering terms that best describe your school and its unique offerings. Keyword Planner will then provide a list of relevant keywords, along with important metrics like search volume, competition level, and suggested bid estimates. This information allows you to make informed decisions about which keywords to target in your campaigns.
Additionally, by identifying high-performing keywords, you can refine your ad copy and landing pages to better meet the needs and expectations of your audience, ultimately driving more qualified traffic to your website.
Competitor Research
Begin by identifying your main competitors in the area—other private schools that parents might consider. Use tools like Google Ads Auction Insights to see which competitors are appearing alongside your ads.
Additionally, perform manual searches using your targeted keywords to observe which schools consistently show up in the results. Analyze their ad copy, landing pages, and offers to understand their strategies and identify gaps or opportunities. Pay attention to the keywords they are bidding on, the messaging they use, and their unique selling points.
This research can inform your own ad strategy, helping you craft more compelling ads, better offers, and more effective keywords to stand out in the competitive landscape. Understanding your competition allows you to position your school uniquely, highlighting your strengths and what sets you apart from others.
Take a look at the differences between Apple’s ads versus Samsung.
Apple’s strategy is more centered towards their iPhone, while Samsung’s ads emphasize their Galaxy Z and their official website. Apple’s ads only say “official website” once in the description and nowhere else in the ad copy.
Apple also only uses one headline position, while Samsung utilizes two positions.
Both ads have action phrases within their sitelink descriptions, but Samsung utilizes price/monetary value more, while Apple only states a price once.
Bidding Strategies
Google Ads offer several bidding strategies, each suited for different campaign goals. A bidding strategy is an approach that determines how much an advertiser is willing to pay for an ad placement.
For driving traffic to your website, consider using a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) bidding strategy, where you set a maximum amount you're willing to pay for each click.
If you're focused on conversions, Target CPA (Cost-Per-Acquisition) or Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) might be more appropriate, as these strategies leverage Google's machine learning to optimize bids for your desired outcomes.
By aligning your bidding strategy with your campaign objectives, you can efficiently reach and engage potential students and their parents.
Below are two bidding strategies you should consider using when focusing on capturing prospective families.
Maximize Clicks
This automated strategy focuses on getting the most clicks within your specified budget, making it ideal for increasing visibility and attracting prospective students and parents to learn more about your school. By setting a maximum cost-per-click limit, you maintain control over your ad spend while allowing Google's algorithms to optimize bids for maximum click volume.
This approach is particularly useful when you're launching a new campaign or aiming to quickly boost site visits. However, it's important to monitor the quality of the traffic and ensure that the increased clicks are from users genuinely interested in your school.
“As a general rule, when starting a new campaign advertisers should start broad and fine-tune their targeting based on performance. An automated bidding strategy such as Maximize Clicks pairs well with a broad targeting strategy to accomplish this.”
- Eric B.
Senior Paid Media Specialist, Pepperland Marketing
Maximize Conversions
This automated strategy uses Google's machine learning to optimize your bids, aiming to generate the highest number of conversions within your budget. It's ideal for private schools that want to ensure their ad spend results in meaningful actions, such as form submissions, brochure downloads, or tour bookings.
To get the most out of this strategy, ensure your conversion tracking is set up correctly in Google Ads, capturing all key actions that signify a conversion.
This data-driven approach allows for continuous optimization, helping you refine your targeting and messaging to better attract prospective students and parents.
Audiences
Understanding and targeting the right audiences is crucial for the success of digital search advertising for independent schools. Google Ads offers several audience targeting options that can help you reach prospective students and their parents effectively.
Types of Audiences
In-Market Audiences: These are users who are actively researching or comparing private schools. Targeting in-market audiences allows you to reach people who are more likely to be considering enrolling their children in a private school soon.
Custom Intent Audiences: With custom intent audiences, you can create a group of users based on specific keywords and websites they’ve visited. This allows you to tailor your ads to people who have shown interest in terms like "best private schools," "private school curriculum," or "private school admissions."
Remarketing Audiences: These are users who have previously visited your website or interacted with your ads. Remarketing helps you stay top-of-mind and encourages potential applicants to return to your site to complete a form or schedule a visit.
Affinity Audiences: These audiences are based on long-term interests and habits. For example, you can target parents interested in education, family activities, or youth services.
Demographic Targeting: You can refine your audience based on demographics such as age, gender, parental status, and household income. This is particularly useful for reaching parents within specific income brackets who are likely to consider private schooling.
Negative Keywords
Negative keywords prevent your ads from showing up in searches that are not relevant to your school, ensuring that your ad spend is directed towards more qualified leads.
Start by identifying terms that are similar to your targeted keywords but do not align with your objectives. For instance, if you are targeting "private school education," you might want to add "jobs," "free," or "public school" as negative keywords to filter out irrelevant traffic. This helps avoid clicks from users looking for employment opportunities, public school information, or free educational resources, which are not your target audience.
Developing a Series of Lists
We highly recommend developing a series of negative keyword lists to help keep your Google Ads account organized. This will also streamline any negative keyword audits you may take on in the future.
Here are 4 negative keyword lists that will cover all of your bases:
- General Account Exclusions
- Cities and States
- Competing Schools
- School Types
“Schools can create negative keyword lists containing terms that they don’t want their ads to show for. Some lists schools may want to create include lists excluding searches containing:
- Other school names
- Locations outside of commuting distance
- Terms that aren’t related to offer (ex. Exclude baseball to prevent ads from serving when admitted parent is searching for baseball schedule.)”
- Eric B.
Senior Paid Media Specialist, Pepperland Marketing
Performance Metrics
Monitoring performance metrics is essential for evaluating and optimizing your local search ads. Key performance metrics provide insights into how well your ads are performing and where improvements can be made.
This data can be viewed at every level from accounts to ads.
Knowing which metrics you should focus on varies with your school’s objectives and should be referenced with your overall marketing strategy.
Here is a list of definitions that will help you interpret the data in Google Ads!
ROI
Return on Investment (ROI) is a metric used to evaluate the efficiency and profitability of an investment, in this case, your local Search ads. ROI measures the gain or loss generated relative to the amount of money invested in the ads. It helps determine whether your advertising efforts are yielding positive financial returns.
A positive ROI indicates that your campaign is profitable, generating more revenue than the cost of the ads. Conversely, a negative ROI suggests that the campaign costs outweigh the financial benefits.
Cost per Enrollment
Cost Per Enrollment (CPE) is a specific metric used to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of your advertising campaigns in terms of generating actual student enrollments. It calculates the average amount of money spent on ads to acquire each new student.
For example, if you spent $5,000 on a Google Ads campaign and it resulted in 10 new student enrollments, your CPE would be: $500.
A lower CPE indicates a more cost-effective campaign, as you're spending less money to enroll each student.
Conversion Rate
Conversion rate is a metric that measures the percentage of users who take a desired action after clicking on your ad. For private schools, this action could be filling out a contact form, scheduling a tour, downloading a brochure, or completing an enrollment application.
A higher conversion rate indicates that your ad and landing page are effectively persuading users to take the desired action.
Cost per Contact
Cost Per Contact is a metric used to measure the average cost of acquiring each potential lead or inquiry through your advertising campaigns.
For private schools, a "contact" typically refers to a prospective parent who fills out an inquiry form, requests information, or engages in some way that allows you to follow up with them.
A lower cost per contact indicates a more cost-effective campaign, meaning you are spending less money to acquire each contact.
Click-through Rate
Click-Through Rate (CTR) is a metric that measures the effectiveness of your ad in attracting users to click on it. It represents the percentage of people who click on your ad after seeing it.
A higher CTR indicates that your ad is relevant and engaging to your target audience, prompting them to click through to your website or landing page.
Ad Position
Ad position refers to the order in which your ad appears on the search engine results page (SERP) relative to other ads. It indicates how prominently your ad is displayed when users search for relevant keywords. Ad position is determined by factors such as your bid amount, the quality of your ad, and the competitiveness of the keywords.
Ad positions are typically numbered, with position 1 being the highest and most prominent spot on the SERP. Here’s how ad positions generally work:
Top Positions (1-3): These ads appear at the very top of the SERP, above the organic search results. Ads in these positions usually receive the highest visibility and click-through rates.
Bottom Positions (4+): These ads appear at the bottom of the SERP, below the organic search results. While they still receive visibility, they generally have lower click-through rates compared to top-position ads.
Passing the Torch
We understand that understanding the fundamentals of Google Ads can get confusing, frustrating, and overwhelming. That’s why we created this blog to help private schools like yours navigate the platform with a higher degree of confidence than before.
Now it’s your turn to create a great campaign with the tips we provided you! Download our Ad Copy Generator to enhance your search ads and boost your class size.
