Did your center recently begin using pay-per-click advertising on Google Ads? PPC is an incredibly effective way to reach parents looking for child care. One great thing about Google Ads campaigns is the ability to continually improve them using data from your website and ads. Challenge yourself to set aside a few hours of time to apply these Google Ads tips to your daycare advertising!
1. Increase Your Quality Score
Sometimes, your search ad will show below your competitor’s ad. It’s not necessarily because you’re not willing to pay as much money are they are. It could because their ad and landing page (the web page their ad points to) is a better fit for the search term than yours. Google measures which ads are a better fit using what’s called Quality Score.
Working to increase your Quality Score can not only put your ads on top of the search engine results page but also decrease the amount you pay Google for a click to your website. There are a few easy ways to increase your Quality Score.
- Make sure the keyword you’re targeting is in your ads and on your landing page.
- Create different landing pages on your website for the different keywords and groups of people you’re targeting. For example, someone searching for infant care should see an ad about infants and end up on your infant programs page.
- Write ads and calls to action that encourage people to click on them! The higher your click through rate (CTR), the higher your Quality Score.
2. Optimize Keywords
When you created your PPC campaigns, you probably put a lot of time into researching keywords. The way people use Google to search for what they need is constantly changing, so your keywords may need to adjust as well.
Add Negative Keywords
Sometimes the search terms your ads show up for include the keywords you’re targeting, but they probably won’t lead to business for your center. This could be something like “overnight daycare” or “free child care near me.” If you don’t offer overnight or free programs, it doesn’t make sense to pay to appear for those search terms. To avoid showing up for these terms, you can add them to your list of negative keywords.
Add Search Queries as Keywords
Parents in your area may be using search terms you never thought of to find your center. If a search query is appearing over and over again within your “Search Terms” report in Google Ads, consider adding it to the list of keywords you’re targeting. Adding in exactly what moms and dads are searching for will improve your Quality Score.
3. Experiment with Text Changes
You don’t have a lot of space to share information on your search, display and remarketing ads. However, you can optimize the space you do have! Google Ads will automatically show more people the ads in your account that perform better. Take the time to add in a few more ads and see which combinations of headlines and descriptions resonate with local families.
You can also experiment with the text on your landing pages. Perhaps adding a few more details about your programs leads to more tour signups.
4. Adjust Targeting
Google Ads offers daycares tons of ways to reach parents. You can target based on demographics, topics, locations and devices. Experiment with different types of ads for different types of people. Expand the geographic reach of your ads by a mile or two. Increase the amount of money you’re willing to spend to reach people on a mobile phone. Leave ads running late into the night, but instead of a phone number offer a contact form.
A simple change could help you reach families more likely to be looking for daycare.
5. Turn off Campaigns You Don’t Need
To make your PPC advertising more efficient, pause the campaigns you don’t need right now. Don’t delete them though! This way, reaching a targeted group of people with ads you know work will be as easy as hitting the Enable button when you need them.
Campaigns you may not need all the time include:
- Hiring Campaigns
- Summer Program Campaigns
- Enrollment Campaigns
6. Calculate Return on Investment
It’s important to know how well your PPC campaigns are working. You’ll want to know if the changes you made helped or hurt how many parents see and click on your ads. Did one or two changes help you cut PPC costs while also increasing the number of enrollments your daycare received from search and display ads? You’ll never know unless you track conversions and revenue from Google Ads!
