With an increasingly competitive market for independent school admissions, it can be difficult to accurately predict whether your school’s future admissions funnel is looking healthy enough for the next couple of academic years.
If, like many schools, advertising for new admissions happens just ahead of Open Day events, then you may be missing out on a large proportion of your potential market, according to the latest evidence from Google.
Over the past two years, the pattern of online search for private education has moved away from the traditional cyclical model and parents are now starting their research earlier. From our research, the number of searches appears to have increased and they now take place throughout the year, extending admission windows across all 12 months.
What this means in practical terms is that you need to put yourself in front of your potential market when they are active, so limiting your advertising to summer months will also limit your results. If you suspect this might be happening, there is an easy way to check.
Has web traffic to your Admissions web page increased or reduced this year?
Most school websites have the most traffic coming into the Home page, the second most popular page tends to be the Term Dates page, because no matter how many times you let the parents know, it’s never enough! Coming third in the list of web pages visited should be your Admissions page. (If it isn’t this could indicate a problem with SEO.) By analysing the amount of traffic visiting this page over the past couple of years you should start to build up a good picture of your future admissions funnel. A healthy result would see a rise in traffic, compared to the same month in previous years. In June 2022 the Independent Schools Council reported that overall pupil numbers had risen by 2% across the UK with some areas reporting rises of up to 3.6% such as the South West (read more here). If your Admissions page traffic is growing at a rate of less than 2% it could indicate that your future admissions funnel will be declining.
Happily, there are several cost-effective ways to address this drop in engagement before it becomes a problem. The rise in digital search for online information offers a more accessible way for schools to connect with information-hungry parents. Google’s knowledge of who is searching for what type of information, allows advertisers to target those specific audiences and present them with an easy route, or click, to an Admissions page. Providing year-round traffic to a well-written Admissions page with a clear call to action will put schools ahead of their competition and keep their revenue-generating admissions funnel full of relevant enquiries.
Once this year-round feed of quality enquiries is established, the more traditional, and costly, forms of advertising such as bus back campaigns, posters and billboards can be ceased. When did you last see a piece of outdoor advertising and feel compelled to act upon it? For schools that measure their enquiry source and cost per enquiry, the results and ROI can be measured quickly and the data from these digital campaigns can be utilised to hone future advertising endeavours and increase effectiveness even further.
