Overview
Based in the Worcester, Massachusetts area, the client combines Montessori teaching principles with S.T.E.A.M.-based education to create a distinctive learning environment for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. The Facebook Ads campaign focused on increasing community awareness, website traffic, and enrollment across the school’s academic, summer, and distance-learning programs.
Based on our previous success promoting Montessori schools, we selected a traffic campaign as a cost-effective way to introduce local families to the school’s programs. This approach allowed the school’s well-developed website to guide interested visitors toward enrollment while making efficient use of its $400 monthly advertising budget.
Audience Information
We initially created a detailed, location-based audience designed to reach parents actively considering alternative educational options for their children. The campaign focused on college-educated adults ages 27 to 55 within higher-income households who had children ages 3 to 12 and demonstrated an interest in Montessori education. We also incorporated related interests, including art and outdoor activities, to reach families likely to connect with Montessori principles.
One week after launch, the client provided an existing customer list that allowed us to create a second audience. We then developed a 2% lookalike audience based on those customers, expanding the campaign’s reach to people with similar characteristics.
Creative Information
We developed the campaign graphics around the client’s established brand guidelines, using consistent fonts, colors, and visual styles to complement the school’s existing marketing materials. Classroom photos supplied by the client were combined with carefully selected stock imagery to create authentic, engaging visuals that reflected the energy and creativity of the school’s learning environment.
Results & Ongoing Work
During the first two months, the campaign generated 1,154 unique link clicks at an average cost of $0.80 per click.
Google Analytics showed that social media accounted for 26.2% of all website traffic during this period, with Facebook generating 99.47% of that social traffic.
As the campaign gathered more data, we adjusted the audience parameters to broaden its reach and improve performance. Because the school offers a highly specialized educational experience, the original targeting was too restrictive. Removing some targeting criteria gave Meta’s system a larger pool of potential families and helped prevent the campaign from becoming “learning limited,” which occurs when an audience is too small for the platform to deliver and optimize ads effectively.
Aug.6 – Sept. 27
As the fall enrollment season approached, we replaced the summer program ad with a middle school enrollment campaign based on the client’s priorities. We also introduced new creative across the active ads to maintain audience interest and support continued campaign performance.
Audience Information
At this stage, the Meta Pixel had collected enough data to create a retargeting audience of people who had clicked an ad or visited the website. We combined this audience with the client’s customer list and lookalike audience to expand reach while reconnecting with families who had already shown interest.
Results
During this period, the campaign generated 1,003 link clicks at an average cost of $0.80 per click. By regularly refreshing the creative and adjusting ads to reflect seasonal enrollment priorities, we maintained a consistent cost per click while keeping the campaign relevant.
Conclusion
The Facebook campaign maintained consistent reach and cost-per-click performance while successfully promoting school enrollment, summer programming, and distance-learning opportunities.
As the campaign progressed, we continued monitoring performance, refreshing seasonal messaging, and refining the strategy to further reduce the cost per click. The client was pleased with the results and continued the campaign into its sixth month.
We also began developing a lead generation campaign to support teacher recruitment. Instead of directing applicants to the website, the ads would allow interested candidates to submit their information directly through Facebook, creating a simple and efficient way to promote job openings and capture qualified applicants.
