Project Description

Using Meta PPC Ads To Drive Record Open Day Registrations

Sir John Deane’s Sixth Form College

Using Meta PPC Ads to drive record open day registrations

Sir John Deane’s Sixth Form College

Open day advertising; sign-ups at an all-time high using a PPC funnel campaign

School marketing

Open days

Digital marketing

Sir John Deane’s Sixth Form College wanted help with their open day advertising, to attract more visitors from a wider area. So, Ambleglow created a high-converting social media funnel campaign, which contributed to a record number of open day visitors.

The challenge

Sir John Deane’s Sixth Form College is a popular and successful further education college in Cheshire. They have a strong reputation in their local area, however they wanted to attract new students from slightly further afield to their October open day.  

As part of their open day marketing plan, new content was being launched across their social media channels. But the school recognised that organic reach wasn’t enough, and they wanted to reach a wider audience through targeted PPC advertising. Data was important too, so the team could prove the ROI of the open day advertising strategy. For instance, they needed to know how much each open day sign-up cost, as well as which audiences and creative generated the best results. 

Results from a Facebook open day advertising funnel campaign

The solution

Our recommendation was a geo-targeted Facebook funnel campaign, to drive and track sign-ups for the upcoming open day. The open day advertising campaign would first build brand awareness with a ‘Page likes’ campaign. This would be followed by a conversion campaign encouraging audience re-engagement. 

Firstly, as the team at Sir John Deane’s were fairly new to using Facebook PPC for their open day marketing, we carried out a full health digital check. We checked that their Google Analytics and Facebook accounts were set up and operating correctly, including Facebook Business Suite. In addition, we recommended a new edit of their video to make it more appealing for Year 10/11 school pupils and therefore optimise engagement in open day advertisements. 

To encourage prospects to move through the sales funnel, we designed and built a stand-alone campaign landing page. The page gave prospective parents and pupils all the information they needed to sign up, for example, videos and student testimonials. The landing page included a registration form with Facebook Pixel embedded, in order to accurately record conversions from the campaign.  

We used a small portion of the budget for rapid-fire testing, so that only the best performing audiences and advertisements were used in the later stages of the campaign. Retargeting advertisements ensured the open day message reached families that had previously engaged with the college’s website or Facebook page. 

The results

The results exceeded the college’s expectations. So much so in fact, that they decided to close registrations early. Over 2,000 parents and pupils were due on site, an all-time high for the sixth form open day. In short, a very successful campaign.

Campaign results included:

  • 103 ‘Likes’, on the initial ‘top of the funnel’ post
  • 1,637 link clicks, in the conversion campaign
  • 118 conversions, with an average cost per conversion of £7.63.

So that the college’s team could track performance, we provided top-line campaign statistics each week. In addition, we delivered a full end of campaign report so the college could see the final results achieved and the actions we took to optimise results. The report also included our advice and recommendations for future campaigns.

The future

Sir John Deane’s now have a highly effective PPC campaign approach for open day marketing. Ultimately, their offer is now reaching and engaging with their target market and attracting visitors through the doors, so they can experience everything the college has to offer. We’re delighted with the results and will be on hand to help the team achieve their marketing goals in the future.

It’s been an incredibly successful campaign!
Thank you so much for all your work on this!

Sir John Deane’s Sixth Form College

Share this

Want to see more?

View more projects

Let's start with you

If your digital marketing campaign to educational institutions needs a boost, why not find out how Ambleglow can help?

Schedule a Discovery Call

Book a free 30 minute discovery call to discuss your education marketing project with us. Once your request is received, we'll just ask you a few questions to get us up to speed and then we'll follow straight up with a date for a video call.

Book Now

Subscribe to our e-mailers

If you're a school marketer or a business working with the education sector, sign up for our e-mailers and stay up-to-date with the latest education marketing insights. No spam, just great content to make your job easier.

Subscribe