21 Daycare Advertising Ideas That Actually Work in 2024

Kids playing outside at a daycare

Whether you’re looking to start your daycare advertising journey or ramp up your child care marketing activities, this is the guide for you.   

Smartcare, a comprehensive child care management solution, has worked with providers across the country and has cultivated tried-and-true marketing strategies for daycare centers that are both low-cost and effective.   

This is a definitive guide on child care marketing ideas and daycare advertising, but your child care program doesn’t need to start with or end up using every advertising channel we mention. If one channel seems out of reach at the moment due to budget or time constraints (some channels require learning while others don’t), skip ahead to the next section to find the right daycare advertising channels for your program. Use the links in the Table of Contents below to navigate the guide.  

Table of Contents 

Why Daycare Advertising Helps  

Free Daycare Marketing Ideas  

Daycare Advertising Ideas for Immediate Rewards  

Traditional Daycare Advertising Channels  

Daycare Advertising Through Events  

21) Paying Someone to Manage Daycare Advertising  

Bonus Tip: How to Free Up More Time for Daycare Advertising  

Why Daycare Advertising Helps 

If you’re wondering how to attract parents to your daycare, the answer is advertising. And because your daycare has a limited budget, we’ll start with the methods that are easier to set up and either free or inexpensive. 

Free Daycare Marketing Ideas 

Believe it or not, there are ways to promote your daycare business for free or on the cheap, and we’ll explain how.

Most of these efforts take one to three months to boost results, but because their cost is low and you want to build a daycare marketing program that will provide sustained results, they are among the first activities you should try.  

1. Daycare Website 

Although a website isn’t free, there is such a digital component to child care marketing that you’ll need to have a website for most daycare advertising ideas to work. If you already have a website, skip ahead, but if you don’t or you want to consider related options, this section gives you an overview of low-cost, easy-to-use options.  

A Free Website 

You can create a free one-page website through Google. Building it takes less than an hour, and most of the work is filling in your unique copy in the template.   

As with anything that’s free, there are drawbacks. You won’t be able to choose your domain (unless you pay for it), and the domain Google gives you won’t be clear and easy to remember. There is an option that allows you to buy a domain and connect it to Google, but if you’re paying for a domain, consider using Wix or Squarespace, which provide hosting and a domain while offering a better website for a slightly higher cost. 

About Paid Websites 

You can easily find someone to build a website to power your childcare marketing. However, doing so can be costly, and it’s not necessary. Here are a few providers that make it easy to build your own website in a few hours, and won’t set you back too much.  

Squarespace  

Squarespace is a great tool fordaycare marketing because it is easy to use, requiring no web development experience. It involves selecting a template, dragging and dropping sections into the template and filling in the spaces with your own unique copy and images.   

It can take an hour or two to create if you stick to the basic templates, but if you want to build your own unique masterpiece, you can still design a website that would have cost you hundreds or thousands to have someone develop, in just a day. To learn more about using this platform and how to become a master at it, here’s a tutorial that will help.   

Wix 

Wix is pretty much the same thing as Squarespace. The concept involves selecting a template, dragging and dropping modules into the template to create your own unique experience and entering your copy and images. Like Squarespace, the process of building a website is fast and easy. With Wix, you can make a day of the project by getting into the specifics of the software.   

One of the great things about Wix and Squarespace is that they also set you up with a domain name and connect it to a server, which they own. This eliminates the complicated technical work that would typically require a developer or IT expert.   

Because Wix and Squarespace are both one-stop shops for all things websites, they’ve become very popular for many looking to set up child care marketing programs.   

The cost of both Wix and Squarespace is low. There are no up-front fees, only a monthly charge, and much of that monthly charge is for hosting, domain ownership and other costs. These are expenses you would have with any website. The plans used by those interested in child care marketing cost anywhere between $12 and $25 per month, depending on when you sign up and the features offered. Many child care programs can get by with the cheapest options, which are under $15 per month for a total expense of about $180 each year.  

WordPress 

We included WordPress because it is relatively easy to use, but much more difficult than Wix and Squarespace. Still, a beginner could easily build a website with some effort. One of the reasons you might want to consider using a WordPress website is that almost a third of all websites in the U.S. use it.

This means there are countless videos online that explain the setup process and help you troubleshoot issues. It also gives you access to free plug-ins that make many daycare advertising activities easier.   

2. Basic Website SEO 

Once you have a website, you can begin to benefit from the free and low-cost child care marketing activities that will propel your program to success. The first one we’ll cover is SEO, or search engine optimization. SEO involves getting the most free traffic from Google, Bing and other search engines that you can.   

Although SEO is a professional industry that can require a specialist to navigate the trickier portions of the work, there are a lot of simple things anyone can do to improve their SEO. Here are just a few. 

Title Tag 

The title tag is what you name an individual page. It matters because that is how you let search engines, like Google, know what your page is about. It is also what appears as the title in the search engine results.   

Daycare Advertising Blog Screenshot - Title Tag in SERPS

For example, the title tag for Smartcare’s home page is “Smartcare: Child Care Center Software | Child Care Administration.” Having a title tag that compels individuals to click on your result in Google or Bing search will encourage these search engines to give you a higher rank. One way to do this is to be clear about what you offer in fewer than 65 characters. If you go over 65 characters, your title tag will likely be truncated. This isn’t a solid rule, but as you can see in our example above, although Smartcare’s site uses fewer than 65 characters, Google truncated it on this screen. The reason is that Google restricts the space for titles by pixel. Some letters use more pixels than others. That is why you want to be succinct. 

For a daycare like yours, that means you should include what you do, where you do it and who you are. For example, “Best Daycare in Minneapolis, MN Metro | YOUR NAME Child Care.”  

Creating a title like that will help your child care marketing program a lot, as it is clear to both the humans who see the results and the robots that categorize the results.  

URL 

The next most important aspect to focus on is the URL. Your website will allow you to name the URL for each page. For example, we decided to give the following blog this URL:  https://www.vancopayments.com/child-care/blog/how-do-i-make-my-daycare-stand-out.   

For each page, carefully consider the URL. For example, let’s say one of your daycare’s specialties is infant care and you happen to be located in Minneapolis. You would then want to name your URL www.yourname.com/infant-care-minneapolis-mn.    

The main purpose of doing this is for Google’s robots. Google’s robots crawl each of your pages to determine what each page is about. Once the robots see descriptive text in your URL, they know to serve your result to searchers in your area that are looking for those terms. 

Headers 

After the title tag and URL, focus on your headers. Headers and subheaders appear throughout your pages, breaking up your copy. They are important for readers and the robots that Google and Bing use to crawl your website.   

Readers like them because it makes the content easier to skim. It breaks up large chunks of content. Imagine if we didn’t break up this resource with headers. The thousands of words on this page would be painful to read.  

The robots like subheaders because they indicate what is important in the copy on each webpage. The assumption is that if you created a header for a section of a page, you, the writer, must have believed it important. Placing a few keywords, such as your location and what you do (child care, infant care, preschool, daycare, etc.) in these headers will help you rank. The key is to not overdo it. Stuffing words into headers won’t help. Readers won’t like it and the robots tune out websites engaging in such practices.   

Just make your headers sound natural. Using key terms a few times is all that’s really needed.   

Copy 

The last thing you can impact is the copy you use. Like the headers, clearly describing what you do and where you do it will help improve your ranking.

Again, don’t stuff keyword terms. If the copy doesn’t sound natural, it will turn off prospective families.   

3. Digital Maps 

When it comes to daycare marketing, location matters. That’s why you should be on the maps that parents interested in daycare for their children look at. This means you will want to get a pin on digital maps. Because digital maps, such as Google Maps, appear at or near the top of the search engine results page, they are a powerful daycare advertising tool. Getting a pin on these online maps for each of your locations also allows Google to give directions to your facility.   

The process of listing your daycare organization on digital maps isn’t hard, and it’s free. However, each digital map has its own submission process. If you’re interested in appearing on digital maps as part of your child care advertising program, follow the guidance of map provider.   

The processes vary and can take a couple of weeks for each platform, especially if they require you to wait for a postcard that they mail you with an authorization PIN. The digital maps usually have a requirement like this. Sometimes they only require you to pick up the phone and verify your location by entering a code they provide.   

Click these links to set up shop on the top four map listings.   

Adding a map listing will also help your search rankings, as it is a reference from a trusted source (Google, Bing, Apple and Yelp) that your program exists at the specified address. Search engines want to be certain they are directing searchers to facilities that are open. If digital map apps never did quality checks to ensure businesses exist at specified addresses, searchers would likely grow frustrated and stop using them.

That’s why search engines like Google have incorporated mentions from reputable places like Yelp, Bing, Apple and Google into their rankings.   

4. Citations for SEO 

As we mentioned with the local map listings, search engines like Google want to be certain that there is a business or organization located at the address they display on their results pages. To do this, they rely on internal sources, the map listings you create on Google and external sources known as citations.   

These citations are websites like Yellowpages.com that mention a few key aspects of your child care program, including your address, phone number, name and website. Each website that confirms this information makes it easier for search engines like Google to trust your daycare exists at the specified location. The result is an improvement in the search results and more free web traffic for you!  

You want to have as many websites confirming your name, address, phone number and website as possible. According to BrightLocal (a local marketing service that studies citations), the average local business ranking on the first page has 81 citations mentioning their name, phone number and address.  

That’s why generating these citations can be so important for your daycare advertising program. And fortunately for you, a lot of them can be done for free or a small, one-time expense. For child care programs just starting out or adding new locations, this process is key for the long-term success of those locations.   

Aside from adding a few extra citations to improve the credibility of your location information across the web, it’s important for daycares with established locations to make sure their information is consistent. If there’s inconsistency in the name, address and phone number, it will hurt your rankings. This can easily happen if you moved facilities in the past because these citations aren’t updated quickly, and in some cases, a citation website might simply create another listing with the new address while leaving the old one out there. When this happens, it creates confusion for the search engine and hurts results. That’s why it is important to correct outdated or incorrect information.   

Using Data Aggregators 

One of the first places you should start with citations is with the source of the information. Most citation websites and their counterparts get their information from one of three companies: Foursquare, Infogroup (now Data Axle) and Localeze.   

For those setting up a new location, go to the links provided below and enter your new listing. The data aggregator will pass your information to websites that will list your name, address, phone number and website. It is a free and easy way to build citations.   

For those with established locations, it is still a valuable exercise as it is an easy way to correct inaccurate information about one of your locations. By correcting the information from the data aggregator, you can ensure incorrect information won’t be disseminated across the web and create confusion for search engines, resulting in lost traffic.   

Only two of the three data aggregators give you access to update your daycare’s listing, Infogroup (Data Axle) and Foursquare. Use the links below to quickly add or update your information for each. The process for each is pretty simple and only takes a little time.  

Getting New Citations 

One of the first citations you want to create is Facebook. Facebook.com is a particularly important citation that will help your social media and its references to your name, address, phone number and website give a little more weight than most sites. It might have something to do with being the third most visited website in America.  

Setting up a Facebook page doesn’t take long. Here are the quick and easy steps. Don’t outsource this project. Even if you could, you wouldn’t want to waste your precious daycare advertising dollars setting it up. The setup process is just too easy.  

After you set up your Facebook Business page and your map locations, you should continue to get more citations. As we mentioned, you want dozens of citations confirming your daycare’s information.   

There are two ways to get citations that list your name, address, phone number and website.   

The Harder, But Free Way 

The first is to manually submit your information to each citation. This involves going to a particular website and completing the submission process. To follow this process, here’s a list of the top 50 websites that will include the name, address, phone number and sometimes website of your child care location. Most of the websites in the list allow you to create your own listing in the website. There are only a few that don’t let individual users create a listing. The list is ordered by website authority. The more authoritative websites are at the top. Try starting from the top and working your way down to the bottom.   

The Easier, But Paid Approach  

You can simply hire a service to generate new listings for you. There are several organizations that do this, but be careful to choose the right one. Some use a software that sends information to websites, but the moment you stop paying them, your citations could go away. 

That’s why a service like Whitespark is both inexpensive and ideal. They will create listings on a number of partner websites for a one-time fee. At the end of the process, they’ll also send you a spreadsheet with the account information in case you move facilities and locations later on. This makes it super easy to update. They can also help you skip the manual process of sending information to data aggregators because they have partnerships with them that simplify the process. If you’re interested in this service, they list their plans here. Although it is great to have several dozen citations for your location, their basic plan will make an impact.

The sources included in the basic plan send their information to other websites, which in turn create additional citations without you having to do anything. The only drawback to the cheaper plans is the process of compounding citations can take a year or two.   

5. Reviews 

Reviews play a role in SEO and an even bigger role in the decision-making process for parents choosing a daycare for their child. This makes reviews a powerful child care marketing tool you shouldn’t ignore. Most daycares should focus on getting reviews from the platforms people use the most. As the first and third most popular websites in the U.S., Google and Facebook are where you should focus your attention. By getting quality reviews on these websites, you’ll  improve your ranking and ensure your daycare shows positively each time somebody searches for you. Ratings from these sources appear prominently in search results for your daycare’s brand.   

How to Get Reviews 

Although it might feel uncomfortable, the best way to get reviews is to simply ask parents in person. You can also reach out by email and include appropriate links. You can get the review link for your local Google listing by following these steps. You can get the review link for your Facebook page by following these steps. These links help your reviewers leave reviews without searching for your Google and Facebook pages.  

How to Manage Reviews 

Nobody wants a negative review, but if you get one, it is important to respond on Facebook or Google and try to make it right. If you can satisfy the parent, they’ll usually remove the negative review. Fortunately, parents usually let daycares know if there is something about their services they don’t like. This gives you time to take corrective measures before parents pull their children from your daycare or leave a negative review.  

You can also limit negative reviews while running a review campaign through email by syphoning off parents who may not be happy with your daycare. To do this, simply give the parents two options to answer a question in the email: “Would you recommend [Daycare Name] to other parents if they asked you where they should seek daycare?”  

Give them only two options: yes or no. Hyperlink the yes reply to a webpage that asks them to leave a review and provides the links to your Facebook and Google pages.

Hyperlink the no response to a contact form that asks them why they would not recommend you and what you could do differently. This method helps you to address any problems before parents become vocal about them.  

6. Social media 

Social media has become a must for nearly every daycare business to help generate new clients. Parents want to make sure they’re leaving their children with someone trustworthy. Curating a strong online presence helps give prospective parents an idea of what services your daycare offers and a behind-the-scenes look at what happens when they drop off their kids at your daycare center. A good Facebook page gives you a chance to interact with parents by posting fun and engaging content. The posts don’t have to be complex. Here are a few ideas: 

  • Ask parents to comment with suggested future daycare activities 
  • Promote a future event like an open house 
  • Provide a photo of the arts and crafts project their children made that day 
  • Reshare a helpful parenting article 
  • Update parents with daycare announcements 

If you’re posting anything with the children in the photos, make sure that you have permission from the parents to do so. 

7. Networking 

If you thought your networking days were over now that you spend the majority of your day with toddlers, you were wrong. Be sure to make connections with parents in your neighborhood, other nearby child care professionals and your local community center — you never know who is looking for your services. 

Local Facebook groups are a great resource for finding prospective families and staying up-to-date on the news and issues that are important to your community. Sharing relevant and helpful information with parents will help cement you as someone they can trust, and therefore trust with their children. Be careful not to be overly promotional because many groups will kick you out if you’re only there to advertise your business. 

You should also consider creating a business card you can hand to people during spur-of-the-moment networking opportunities. 

8. Track Your Child Care Marketing Campaigns for Free 

Chances are you have limited funds to promote your daycare marketing ideas through advertising. That’s why you want to make sure every dollar you spend on daycare advertising pulls its weight. One way to do that is through tracking.   

With Google Analytics, you can enjoy free tracking by simply placing a bit of code on your website. You don’t need to be a developer to do this. In fact, if you have a WordPress, Wix or Squarespace website, you can set it up in a few minutes. Here are the instructions for each.  

Once you set up the account, Google Analytics will collect detailed data on the traffic coming to your website, noting the marketing channels and campaigns that drive traffic and conversions. Google Analytics provides a lot of reports you could browse through and amazing things you can build, but chances are you won’t have time for all of them. And they’re not all necessary. 

Discover what reports you need to focus on and how to get information about key conversion actions like contact form completions or requests for a tour of your facility by watching this short tutorial. After watching the tutorial, you’ll know how to access key reports and instruct Google Analytics to track each conversion.

Knowing this data will help you understand which sources are driving enrollments and which ones are falling short.  You can then devote more resources to channels and campaigns driving enrollments and pull your daycare advertising dollars away from activities that aren’t producing results.  

Daycare Advertising Ideas for Immediate Rewards 

Online Advertising card with colorful background with defocused lightsNow that you know how to promote your daycare for free or on the cheap, you’ll have a solid foundation to get started with your child care marketing ideas. But, if you are looking for more immediate success, and if you have the budget, consider at least one of the marketing channels in the following sections, that analyze where to advertise your daycare by tapping a little deeper into your budget.   

Some of these channels take a little bit of education to use. You don’t need to be an expert or a professional to run them, but it will take some time to set them up and get comfortable managing them. For those intimidated by technical learning, it may be best to consider hiring a contractor or an agency to help. If you’re looking into this route, consider these best practices before you make a decision as there are pitfalls you’ll need to avoid when hiring someone to do this type of work for you.   

If you’re wondering where to advertise your daycare for immediate results and have the ambition to do it, these channels have a faster impact than many of the easier to set up and low-cost or no-cost options we listed.   

When starting out with most of these daycare advertising tools, it is best to take it slow. After all, you want to make sure each daycare advertising dollar you spend helps improve your program’s bottom line. Taking baby steps will help conserve your budget as you get your daycare advertising program up to speed. 

9) Google Search Ads 

Each year, individuals across the globe conduct 1.2 trillion searches on Google (First Site Guide). That’s why Google Ads offers the best option for many child care centers, and why we’ve devoted a lot of space to this advertising platform.   

Google Ads has a robust platform that allows several different types of ads, but for child care marketing, which is typically local, we recommend using their search ads, like the ones shown below.  

Daycare Advertising Blog Screenshot- Google Search Results Page

When we search for “child care centers,” Google returns a result with three search results marked with the word “Ad” in bold in front of them. These appear at the top and have very high click-through rates. Most industry experts agree that the first three results are of singular value. One study found that the click-through rates for the first three positions were 43.32% for position one, 37.36% for position two and 29.90% for position three. There’s a pretty steep drop off after the third position. The fourth position only gets a 19.38% click-through rate, and the fifth falls to 10%.   

Google Search ads allow daycares, even those just starting out or opening new locations, to show up front and center. And if a searcher decides to scroll past the first three results, advertisers could still receive a click from the searcher. By looking at the image above, you’ll see that there’s a map under the results. Advertisers can pay to have their local listings appear ahead of others on the map as well. All they have to do is follow a few simple steps when setting up their search campaigns on Google.  

The ins and outs of setting up a Google Ads account is a little outside the scope of this article, but don’t worry. We won’t leave you hanging on one of the most important child care marketing tools available. You don’t have to hire an agency to run a Google Ads account, especially for daycare advertising, where your individual account isn’t as complex as a multimillion-dollar business.   

How To Get Started 

Setting up a daycare advertising campaign on Google Search ads can seem pretty intimidating, but thankfully there’s a lot of guidance out there that makes the process easier. Get help from easy-to-follow video tutorials like this 27-minute video, which guides you through the optimal setup including the adjustment of many key default settings. You can create your own campaign by following along.   

Best Practices for Google Ads 

Once you create your own campaign, make sure you avoid the common pitfalls many stumble into. Google Ads is an amazing tool, which we have seen produce spectacular results, but those marketing their child care need to exercise caution. Google’s artificial intelligence tries and often succeeds in matching your program up with the right people. However, Google can also just end up eating away at your advertising dollars with no results. By avoiding the most common mistakes, you can ensure your Google Search ads get results, rather than wasting money.  

Select the Correct Mode 

To avoid many of the pitfalls, make sure you’re using the right mode to access all of Google’s settings. In the 27-minute setup video we referenced, one of the first things the advertising professional mentions is using “Expert Mode.” “Expert Mode” might sound a bit scary, but it is necessary to use. The basic mode, known as the Smart Campaign setting, generally isn’t very efficient for daycare advertising. It almost always leads to a lot of click waste. If you don’t have the capacity or time, we suggest skipping Google Ads for now and coming back to it once you set up the easier options.  

Location Targeting 

You don’t want to pay for ads to go to parents who live 50 miles away, nor would you want to pay for ads to appear to searchers in Azerbaijan or Ecuador. If you’re not careful, that is exactly what could happen. Getting your location right is one of the most fruitful activities you can do for your daycare advertising campaign in Google Ads.  

Thankfully, it shouldn’t take you long. If you watch the 27-minute video above on Google Search Ad setup, you will see it takes only a few seconds to adjust Google’s settings to avoid the worst of the click waste, but in case you missed it, simply follow these critical steps below.   

1) Click into your campaign and go to Settings. 

Daycare Advertising Blog Screenshot- Google Ads Interface Settings

2) Select Locations.” 

Daycare Advertising Blog Screenshot- Google Ads Country Setting

3) Select Location options, select the settings shown here and click Save.  

Daycare Advertising Blog Screenshot- Location Preference Google Ads

The reason you want to select these two settings is because the Presence or Interest category will generate a lot of wasted clicks  from different countries or states.   

Aside from adjusting the location settings, you’ll want to adjust your ads so they show in the correct municipality or region. The fastest setup is to simply use radius targeting. For example, you could target parents who live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area for your Minneapolis location, as many individuals live in the suburbs but work in the anchor city of Minneapolis.   

To set up radius targeting, select the Enter another location option. The default setting is usually the U.S. Then click the Advanced search link in blue.  

Daycare Advertising Blog Screenshot- Location Entry Google Ads

Next, select the Radius option, then enter the location at the center of the radius and the distance from the center of your radius. Then select Save.  

Daycare Advertising Blog Screenshot- Radius Targeting Google Ads

You can also select each area individually, which can help you do more advanced techniques like bidding up or down certain cities within your radius, but for many, radius targeting is sufficient.  

Set Up Conversion Tracking 

Google Ads doesn’t work well if you don’t have conversion tracking set up. The reason for this is that you’re the whole purpose of daycare advertising is to generate interest from parents looking to sign their children up for your child care program. If you don’t have this set up, you’ll won’t be aware if your ads are leading to success, and Google’s artificial intelligence won’t either. This means that instead of optimizing bids to favor parents searching to sign up for a free consultation, Google will maximize for clicks, which makes them money, but doesn’t help you.  

How to Set Up Conversion Tracking 

First, you’ll need to set up Google Analytics tracking. Here’s how.   

Then you’ll need to set up conversion tracking. Follow these steps to build your setup.   

After that, you’ll need to connect your Google Analytics account with your Google Ads account. The setup process is really easy. Here’s how.   

Last, you’ll need to import your Google Analytics goals into your account. This video covers the process. Each of these instructions explains how to use the Universal Analytics (UA) version of Google Analytics.   

The last video mentions a G4 property, but Google is still rolling out the new version of its software, which is why we focused on UA. If you are setting up conversion tracking through G4, the process is very similar to UA when setting up the account, linking Google Analytics to Google Ads and importing the conversions from Google Analytics to Google Ads. The main difference is the conversion setup process. This video gives a quick breakdown. The process of conversion tracking through G4 is a bit more in-depth, which is why it is better to use UA for now.  

Optimize for Conversions 

Google lets child care marketers choose how they want to bid on their keywords (the search terms you want your ads to appear for). There are a variety of options, but there are a few you want to be careful of. These include Manual CPC and Maximize clicks. Manual CPC is often used by paid marketing experts before they switch to another strategy, and Maximize clicks mostly ends up costing daycare advertisers money with few results to show for it. Using one of these two bid strategies will most likely lead to poor outcomes for those engaging in child care marketing through Google Ads.  

Daycare Advertising Blog Screenshot- Bidding Google Ads

If you’re starting out, choose Maximize conversions, as this strategy will force Google’s artificial intelligence to use your budget to get you the most conversions it can.   

You could also consider Target CPA, Target ROAS and Maximize conversion value as your familiarity with Google Ads grows. Each of these strategies generally help daycare advertisers earn the most value for their ads; however, they require more of an account history to use.  

Using the Free Keyword Planner Tool 

Google offers a free tool to help you choose the best terms to bid on. Spending a handful of hours up-front doing the research on what words individuals in your area use when searching for services related to daycare will save you lots of money. It will also help your campaign get off to a better start. If you want to do this vital research, check out this video to learn how the free Google Ads Keyword Planner tool works.  

Understand Keyword Match Types 

Before you activate your campaign, it’s critical to pause and make sure you understand the match types for keywords in Google. The match types restrict what search results can show for the keyword you specify. There are three types of matches: broad, phrase and exact.   

Each one of these match types signals to Google the range of related searches your ad can show for. Broad match is the least restrictive and can often lead to the most erroneous results that cause you to waste your money. When conducting daycare advertising in Google, you shouldn’t necessarily shun this match type, but be mindful of its use. You’ll want to monitor the Search Terms Report (we’ll cover that next) to ensure Google is not pairing your ads with searchers who will never become clients.  

The exact match option restricts the searches that trigger your ad to only those that are using the term exactly as you specify or close variants. And finally, the phrase match option matches close phrases of the keyword you specify. Generally, phrase match and exact match are the best options to use as they lead to less click waste. In fact, most Google Ads professionals only use broad match sparingly if at all. 

To better understand keyword matching, it’s best to consult Google’s guide. It tells you how to enter your keywords in Google to use exact, phrase or broad match, and gives examples of what types of searches can be returned for each match type.   

The article is short and easy to understand, and it’s definitely worth the read if you intend to use Google Ads.    

Monitor the Search Terms Report  

The Search Terms Report is one of the most important features Google offers. It’s how those doing daycare advertising refine their Google campaigns to reduce waste and increase conversions. You can find the report in your Google Ads account by accessing your campaign and clicking the Keywords drop-down. Then select Search terms.  

Daycare Advertising Blog Screenshot- Search Terms Report Google Ads

Once you’re there, you’ll see a report of the terms searchers used to find your ads and either click them or view them. You’ll quickly find that there are several terms that make no sense for your ads to appear on. When you see these terms, create negative keywords to ensure they never appear again.  

An example of a negative keyword your daycare might want to use is “training.” Chances are you don’t provide training, but it’s possible your ads could appear for phrases like “child care training” or “child care training classes” if you don’t add “training” as a negative keyword. 

Adding negative keywords is easy and vital to the success of your campaign. This short video shows you how to do it. By adding negative keyword terms, you’ll continue to push Google to only show your ads to people who will be interested in becoming clients.  

Use Google’s Free Support 

Few are aware of the free support Google Ads offers. Google Ads offers recommendations for each of your campaigns. These recommendations often have good suggestions you should consider for your child care marketing efforts on Google. To access these recommendations, select one of your campaigns in Google Ads then click Recommendations. 

Daycare Advertising Blog Screenshot- Recommendations Google Ads

Once you access the recommendations for your campaign, you’ll see an optimization score, which gives an indication of how well your campaign is optimized according to Google. It will also give you recommendations and allow you to immediately apply each one. Before accepting any recommendation, read the details carefully. Oftentimes, the recommendation is sound, but only parts of it. If that’s the case, make the updates yourself within the account. 

Free Phone Support 

Aside from getting personalized recommendations on how to optimize each of your campaigns, you can also enjoy free support over the phone. To access the free support, you’ll need to call 1-866-246-6453 and then enter your 10digit account number, which appears at the top right of the Google Ads interface. 

After you enter your number, you can connect with a Google employee who will help you with your inquiries. This is very helpful if you have specific questions about your account. They will even give you advice regarding best practices.

10) Bing Search Ads 

If you’re wondering where to advertise daycare, Bing is often one of the most overlooked child care marketing tools. Bing might only get about 20% of the searches in the U.S., but it can be a lot cheaper than Google.   

For programs already running daycare advertising campaigns in Google Ads, it’s generally worth kicking Bing’s tires. The reason is that Bing allows you to import your Google Ads account into their platform. The process is easy, and you’ll only be required to make a few adjustments after the import to get your campaign running. The most significant adjustment is setting up conversion tracking in Bing.   

Monitoring your Bing Ads account and making changes is pretty much the same process as it is for a Google Ads account. Once you create an account, you will notice how similar the two platforms are.  

11) Remarketing on Google Display Ads 

As a daycare advertising tool, Google Search ads have a greater potential to get your child care program the enrollment leads you need. However, if you have additional budget, consider remarketing with Google Display Ads.   

Before embarking on your Google Display Ad journey, make sure your website gets at least 200 visitors each month. If you receive less than that, it won’t be worth the hassle of setting up a campaign.   

The reason for skipping it if you have less than 200 visitors is that Google requires at least 100 active users each month, but such a small audience doesn’t really work for child care marketing on the platform. You could get a few results with such a limited audience, but they probably won’t be worth the effort you put into the campaign.   

But if you have an established daycare that gets more than 200 web visitors a month, you should consider this powerful daycare advertising tool.  

And if you already set up conversion tracking (which you should before engaging in this channel), it’s easy to create a campaign that allows you to enjoy this amazing child care marketing tool without breaking a sweat.   

What Is Remarketing?  

Have you ever been browsing the news online or reading an article about one of your hobbies or interests and seen an advertisement for a website you visited recently? Chances are you have.   

If you’ve ever wondered how that ad follows you across unrelated websites, the answer is Google’s Display network, which lets advertisers target users on millions of different websites. In the case of remarketing, all you need to do to reach interested users is get them to visit your website. Once they visit, Google marks them and you can display ads to them across the internet.  

Why It’s Effective 

There are several reasons Google Display ads work well for those implementing daycare advertising ideas. Users who have visited your website generally are more interested than those who have never heard of you. And if those users didn’t convert, sign up for child care or fill out a contact form, you want to give them an extra reminder.  

How To Do It  

If you’re interested in creating a remarketing campaign, the process is simple if you follow a guide that demonstrates the setup. There are plenty of videos that demonstrate the setup process, such as this one.   

Best Practices 

When setting up your remarketing campaign in Google Ads, there are two best practices to follow.   

The first is targeting. You’ll need to create two audiences, one targeting either all users or new users and another focusing on all converters. You need both audiences to properly target web visitors who visited your website but didn’t convert. The audience focusing on all users or new users will be the one you target. The audiences focusing on converters will allow you to exclude those people from seeing your ads. You don’t want to spend money to persuade parents to do something they already did.  

The second practice to consider is offering a special promotion to those you’re retargeting. Can you offer a free week for getting started or some other incentive to sign up?

If not, it might be best to skip display ads for now. Without added incentive for people to sign up for child care, remarketing won’t work as well as other daycare advertising tools.   

12) Facebook Ads 

If you’re wondering how to advertise child care on Facebook, you’re not alone. Behind Google and YouTube, Facebook is the third most visited website in the U.S. Although its ads generally don’t  perform as well as Google Search ads, it is a great child care marketing tool. If you have the time and budget, you should consider it for your daycare advertising portfolio. It will usually outperform Google Display ads, which makes it a good daycare advertising tool to try after you set up Google Search ads.  

What You Need Before You Begin 

To get started with daycare advertising on Facebook, you need a Facebook page. At this point, you should already have one, especially for the local search optimization we covered in the previous section. Here are the instructions for creating a Facebook page in case you missed it.   

Once you create a page, you need to create a business account. The process involves four simple steps. Here are the instructions.   

Finally, you need an ad account. To get an ad account, follow these steps.  

1) After setting up your business account, go to Business Settings.  

2) In the left menu, click Accounts, then click Ad Accounts. 

3) Click the blue add drop-down menu.  

4) Choose Create a new ad account or if you have an ad account, select the option to add an account 

5) Follow the simple prompts to complete the account setup.   

It is possible to run advertisements by boosting posts through Facebook, but if you’re investing money to get leads, it’s not the best approach to maximize the value of your ad dollars. Setting up all the necessary accounts lets you and your childcare team collaborate, simplifies the process of sharing the account with contractors you might hire and grants access to all the tools available on Facebook. 

How to Set Up a Campaign (Ad Account Setup) 

Setting up a Facebook campaign is a bit cumbersome, but you don’t have to be an expert to do it or get results. With some time and effort, you can manage your campaigns successfully. For those just getting started, get help from a guide. There are plenty of good ones detailing thorough instructions for ad account setup, but we’ve found this one covers the basics, while explaining a few best practices and considerations.   

How To Advertise on Facebook (Best Practices) 

Choose the Right Goal 

When creating an account, Facebook’s artificial intelligence will use your budget to reach people depending on what goal you choose. If you want to build brand awareness, it will find a way to show your ad to as many people as possible, while staying within you budget.   

If you want to push traffic to your website, it will attempt to learn the characteristics of those most likely to click through your ad and go to your website.   

If you set up a conversion campaign, it will determine the characteristics of those most likely to perform a certain action on your website, such as completing a contact form.  

In most cases, child care programs that are just starting out or looking to bring attention to a new location or service might consider the Reach or Traffic objective. The reason is that you want to generate broad awareness in year area as cheaply as you can. Because you’re focusing on a wider group of Facebook users, your cost per 1,000 impressions will be cheaper. Facebook charges for every 1,000 impressions. What you pay for those impressions also depends on your Relevance Score and other factors. The biggest factor in price per 1,000 impressions is the size of the audience. Generally, the smaller the total audience, the more you pay to target them.    

Established child care programs looking to generate signups from parents should consider the Conversion objective in Facebook. Although the conversion works great for any child care center, those that are more established will have more success.   

The first reason is that the Conversion objective is more advanced than the others, requiring additional setup that can be more of a time commitment. If you’re just starting out, you and your team probably won’t have time to spend on this daycare marketing idea.   

The second reason is that it is usually more expensive than the Traffic or Reach options because the audience you’re focusing on is usually smaller. For most child care programs, the expense is worth it because it leads to more parents filling out contact forms.   

Tracking 

If you’re going to invest in any daycare advertising channel, you want to know the value it returns. That’s why tracking is important. There are a few things you can do to simplify data collection. The first involves creating and using tagged links.   

An Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) tagged link identifies the channel and even campaign name your ad came from in your Google Analytics account. By simply adjusting the URL in each advertisement, you can know for certain if your Facebook ads generated any desired actions. Follow these steps to create the tracking link. 

1) Visit this page.   

2) Enter the webpage you want to direct users from the ad to.  

3) In the Campaign Source section, enter Facebook.   

4) In the Medium section, enter Paid.  

5) Under the Campaign Name, enter the name of the campaign. 

6) Copy the URL the generator creates and paste it in the destination URL field for your Facebook ad.  

Doing this will ensure anyone who visits your page from Facebook will be marked as a user from your Facebook ads, and it’ll even note the campaign. You’ll also know for certain if any parents filled out a contact form as a result of your Facebook ads. You can access and analyze the campaign data with your Google Analytics account. If you complete these steps and have few or no form fills, you might want to reevaluate your campaign settings or pause your Facebook ads.  

Aside from updating the links in Facebook to track links, you can also use Facebook tracking. If your campaign objective is Conversion, you should use this feature. To set this up, you need a conversion pixel. The conversion pixel is a piece of JavaScript that you place on your website that captures users’ unique cookie data.  

This might sound intimidating, but you don’t need to know anything about JavaScript to do it. Simply copy the code Facebook gives you and paste it onto your website. Here are easy instructions to generate the pixel.   

After generating the pixel, follow this video guide to set up your individual conversions actions, such as contact form completions.  

Take a Shortcut with an Integration  

If you’re using a popular website creator like Squarespace, Wix or WordPress, there are integrations with Facebook that make the Facebook conversion tracking setup process easier. Here are handy guides for each.  

Geolocation 

Child care marketing is extremely local. That’s why it’s important to set the right targeting settings in Facebook. Otherwise you could be advertising to individuals living and working in areas that don’t make sense for your location. Facebook makes targeting locations easy. Most programs advertising daycares on the platform simply enter the cities where their locations are and then select an option to extend the radius by a set number of miles.  

Daycare Advertising Blog Screenshot- Facebook Location Targeting

The image above demonstrates what this looks like. In this case, we’re telling Facebook to focus on the 25-mile area surrounding Minneapolis. For a metropolitan area like Minneapolis, this makes sense as many individuals live in the suburbs but work in the city. For a non-metropolitan area, you may want to tighten up the radius.  

There is one more important feature we haven’t mentioned yet. Above the locations you select, you’ll see this drop-down: 

Daycare Advertising Blog Screenshot- Facebook Location Preferences

For daycare advertising on Facebook, select People living in this location. People living in this location is more restrictive and will save you money by focusing on people within your radius. This makes it the better option for most.   

Monitor Frequency 

Have you ever had an ad follow you around the internet or a website ceaselessly? It’s frustrating, and it will turn off parents who might otherwise be positively affected by your daycare advertisements.   

That’s why you want to monitor the frequency of your ads. Although there isn’t a set rule for how many times a parent should see your daycare advertisement, you should keep it within reason. If individuals are seeing your ad more than five times a week, they might get fatigued.   

To monitor frequency, go to your reports and find the frequency column. It is usually one of the preselected columns. If you can’t find it, go to customize columns, type “frequency” in the search and select the check box next to frequency.  

If the ads are showing too often to the same people, consider pausing your ads, growing your audience or reducing your budget.  

Zeroing in on Your Audience 

Facebook allows you to target a variety of different characteristics, such as interests like family and parenting, and demographics such as parents. Mixing and matching audiences will be the key to your daycare advertising success. However, it is important to understand the difference between expanding and narrowing your available audience. Each action is done a little differently. For example, let’s say a daycare located in Minneapolis wanted to target all parents living within a 25–mile radius of their location.Daycare Advertising Blog Screenshot- Facebook Radius Targeting

If you look at the gauge on the top right, you will see that ourdaycare advertisement would reach is 150,000 people. Let’s say we don’t think this number is big enough, so we add the Interests category of family, which brings that number to 780,000 people. That number is too big for most of those engaging in child care marketing, so it would be best to narrow that down by selecting the Narrow Audience button.

This would allow a daycare using on Facebook Ads to say that the ad must show to people who are interested in either family or are parents and are interested in daycare. This targeting brings the audience down significantly to 58,000, a more appropriate number to target for most child care programs.  

Retargeting 

The last child care marketing idea you should know is that retargeting can be a powerful tool. Facebook allows you to set up a retargeting audience. You can either upload a list of prospect emails or target website visitors. 

However, most engaging in daycare advertising will want to target website visitors first as it is easier to gather members from that audience. If you’re wondering how to do it, this short guide explains how.   

Traditional Daycare Advertising Channels 

Business man pointing to transparent board with text Advertising

With all the digital advertising methods available to your child care marketing program, it’s easy to forget about traditional channels, such as newspapers, signage, direct mail and radio. But these daycare advertising channels can have a huge impact on your program’s enrollment numbers.   

13) Newspaper Ads 

If you want to include newspapers in your daycare advertising program, consider a few things that can easily be overlooked.   

Location in the Paper 

There are plenty of places to put an ad in a local or regional newspaper. A large front-page ad will attract a lot of attention, but you might not have the budget for such a daycare advertising expense. That’s why running an ad in the service directory, if there is one, is your best bet. Parents scanning this section will be most motivated to act, as they are looking for a service, such as child care.  

Tracking 

As with any daycare advertising you engage in, it’s important to track the results. If you’re like most, your budget is limited, which is why you want to stop activities that aren’t generating enrollments for your daycare.   

Unfortunately, tracking the results of daycare advertising in a newspaper isn’t as straightforward as it is with a Facebook ad, for example. That’s why running a unique promotion specifically for the newspaper ad can help you attribute success or failure to the expense. For example, if you run a promo that allows parents to get a free week if they call to sign up and mention the promo, each time someone claims the offer, you’ll know it came as a result of the newspaper ad.  

Free Assistance with Advertisements 

Your budget for daycare advertising is likely to be tight. That’s why you should take advantage of whatever free help you can get. Thankfully, many newspapers offer free design or some degree of assistance with creative support simply for placing an ad.   

Whether you take this assistance or not is up to you. The benefit of accepting the newspaper’s help is pretty clear — free services. However, there is a drawback. Most newspapers don’t offer very robust graphic design services. This means whatever ad they help you create won’t stick out. That’s why some programs engaging in daycare advertising might elect to outsource design to a freelancer.

If you’re interested in going that route for a newspaper ad, signage or a direct mail campaign, we explain how and where to get affordable graphic design assistance here.   

14) Signage 

What if you could pay someone to advertise your program 24/7 for a low, one-time cost? With signage you can, and it’s cheap. Let people know about key messages or display your brand at your location by creating a banner or sign.  

There are several companies in your area that can help. For example, FedEx offers these services across the country. An outdoor banner to display outside your location runs about $100. As for signs, there are a variety to choose from for under $50 each.  

15) Direct Mail Promotions 

Aside from being easy, sending mailers through the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) works for many in daycare advertising, especially if you’re opening a new location or just starting out. Sending postcards or mailers is a cheap way to let those in your community know about your new child care program.   

The process for sending mail through the USPS is easy — the Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) service is just for local businesses like your daycare. The service allows you to take your printed materials to the nearest USPS location to be mailed.

Their EDDM website explains the program, offers guides for imagery and lists the price per piece. Their tool also allows you to save money on print costs by targeting certain demographics.   

16) Graphic Design Help 

The thought of hiring or acquiring graphic design help might sound expensive, but it isn’t. In fact, online freelancers have made the process inexpensive.   

Canva 

You can do the DIY route for cheap and with little effort using Canva. Canva has tons of templates that make creating a promotional flyer or postcard for your direct mail campaign as easy as dragging and dropping items on a screen and typing your unique information. The cost of a Canva plan is low and can even be free.   

Although it can take only a few minutes to create whatever piece of media you want, Canva might not be the best approach if you’re not comfortable making slight adjustments such as cropping an image to fit the size for your mailers. The other downside is that it might not stand out as much as work done by a freelancer.   

Enhance Your Materials 

If you’re designing your own materials, you can dress them up using free stock images and graphics from sources like Unsplash, Pixabay and Pexels. 

Hire a Freelancer 

But if you don’t have the time, expertise or interest in designing your own materials, you might want to hire a freelancer. Both Fiverr and UpWork are great sources for getting graphic design at a low cost.

In fact, if you hire an agency to run your child care marketing, they’ll probably subcontract at least some of the work through these websites. You can save a lot of money by eliminating the middleman and hiring a graphic designer through these websites.   

17) Radio Ads   

We won’t go too deep into this daycare marketing idea, but radio ads can lead to increased enrollment for your program. However, the cost of running ads can be high. It can also be harder to determine the results radio advertising has on your program’s enrollment success. 

Daycare Advertising Through Events 

vanco-events-parent-flyer_thumbnail

If you’re wondering how to promote your daycare business through events, there are a lot of different avenues you can take. Here are just a few to consider. 

18) Host an Open House 

A great way to promote your daycare, especially if you’re new or opening up a new location, is to host an open house. If you want to host your own open house, Constant Contact created a handy guide that offers some great tips and ideas for getting started.  

19) Host a Class 

Potential customers give great weight to perceived authority from providers in their communities. Parents, especially young parents, are always looking for advice including how to handle tantrums, feeding, nutrition, care and more. That’s why hosting a free class can help you draw young parents in, while demonstrating your expertise.  

You can easily promote classes for new or expecting parents through free services like Meetup, which connects interested people with groups in the community.

If you’re wondering how to post your new class or group on Meetup, the process is simple. Follow these easy instructions to get started.   to get started.   

20) Create a Referral Program 

Referral programs are an amazing way to promote your daycare and encourage new enrollments. According to Forbes, “60% of marketers say that referral programs generate a high volume of leads.” Those interested in using a referral program for their child care marketing can easily offer incentives like a free week or a credit to parents who suggest their daycare to friends or family.  

Event Ticketing Software 

If you’re planning an event and need help promoting the event and creating, selling and collecting tickets, we can help. Check out this guide to event management to find out how.  

21) Paying Someone to Manage Daycare Advertising   

Child Care Invoice Graphic - Envelope & Hand with MoneyAs you can see, some aspects of daycare advertising can be tricky. That’s why it can be a good idea to hire someone to help with child care marketing work. If you’re thinking about outsourcing some or all of this work, there are a few best practices and drawbacks to consider.   

Drawbacks of Agencies   

Not every program looking to run daycare advertising can afford an agency or contractor. The fees can often run in the thousands of dollars for comprehensive service. That’s why many who engage in child care marketing will manage some of these activities themselves and hire others to handle specific tasks.  

When working with marketing agencies or contractors, the expression, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” is very true. These agencies and contractors gather as many clients as they can, and their time often goes to a combination of who is paying them the most and who is raising their hands and asking questions.   

What Not To Do 

Knowledge is power, and unfortunately, agencies can abuse that power, whether they set out to or not. As gatekeepers of the technical know-how, it is too tempting to gloss over activities that aren’t going well and highlight those that are. This leads to poorer results for your daycare advertising program.   

Don’t let agencies or contractors hypnotize you with technical speak and charts that look good but don’t actually reflect your main goal, getting more parents to sign their kids up for your daycare. Your child care marketing dollars are limited, and you should be asking the right questions. 

What To Do 

You should handle all the child care marketing activities you can do by yourself. Save the easier work to do internally. Then contract out the more difficult and time-consuming components of your marketing program. 

This means contracting out tasks like Google and Facebook advertising. These take more expertise and time to manage than most other daycare marketing activities.  

A few child care marketing activities are easier for your business to do than it is for a contractor. An example is the verification of local map listings on Google, Bing and Apple. Because all calls and postcard verifications go to your location, the contractor has to go through extra steps to complete this work.   

Ask Questions 

The best defense is to educate yourself to ask the right questions. Reading this guide and watching the videos mentioned will arm you with the information you need to either build your marketing program on your own or to ask the right questions to help you evaluate anyone you hire to do the work.  

How To Free Up More Time To Promote Your Daycare 

Daycare advertising isn’t easy. You need every tool you can get to save time. Smartcare streamlines time-consuming child care management activities like billing, parent communications, digital check-ins and checkouts and much more, saving you countless hours and plenty of stress. Get a demo to see how much time you can save with Smartcare’s child care management software.  

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