Four Alternatives to Facebook Ads
Show Timeline
00:40 Get Your Open Event Ad Reviewed – email me your ad: hello@robertsdigital.com.au
01:50 The importance of variety in advertising
02:10 Google Display Ads
03:15 CPC is not your only measure of success
03:30 Instagram
04:50 YouTube
05:40 Taboola.
Click here to join our Facebook group for school marketing professionals.
Show Transcript
As a school’s marketer I am noticing is that it’s officially the school’s open morning season! I was scrolling down my Facebook newsfeed, I saw so many ads for open mornings coming up. It’s great to see and all you marketers have been really busy.
If you have any questions regarding marketing your open morning, feel free to chat in the Facebook group. It’s Marketing Mastery for Schools, and ask your questions and if you have an open morning ad that maybe is not getting the reach that you would like, maybe send me a private message or an email and I’ll give you a little bit of feedback on your Facebook ad.
Facebook is a fantastic medium, I’m all for it. I love Facebook ads, and that’s what I do every day. But it’s important that we have variety when we’re advertising our open mornings. It’s important that we have several ways of getting inquiries in instead of just relying on one medium. So while I’m seeing that you’re on Facebook, today’s discussion is going to talk about four alternatives to Facebook advertising that you should look at for advertising your open morning.
Google Display Ads
Okay. So the first alternative is Google Display. So this is a massive medium. Google display, all those visual ads that you get to see on something called partner websites. So all the websites that have joined in with Google to say, “Yes, you can show your ads on our websites.”
Google actually collects a whole bunch of information on people, from the emails, to the search history, to the clicking habits, all of that, and that actually goes into a big bucket of audiences and segments that you can target. So you can target people based on their interests and demographics, and even what they are in the market to buy. Well we want to target people that are in the market for schools. And that’s possible on the Google Display network. So that’s a great alternative to Facebook advertising. And you can also retarget people that have visited your website before, so it’s a great medium. It tends to be a little bit more pricey, but the bottom line of success is not going to be a cost-per-click. The bottom line of success is the quality of the audience, and Google is really good for attracting a quality audience that’s likely to, at the end of the day, result in an enrolment. Okay? So don’t focus on the cost-per-click.
Instagram Ads
The next medium I’d like to talk about is Instagram. And yes, I know, Instagram is owned by Facebook, but it’s a completely different organism of its own. Instagram is completely different to Facebook advertising, and it enables you to reach a very devoted audience. People that are on Instagram are very devoted to their medium that they’ve chosen to spend their time on, and it’s a great way to visually engage prospective enrolments. So when you’re doing Instagram ads, you do that … You target Instagram ads in Facebook ads manager.
But don’t just tick the box and say, “Okay, show my ad both on Facebook and Instagram.” Actually create a separate campaign with specific targeting and specific ad creative for Instagram, and you’ll find that your results … you’ll get dramatically increased results. Just because you’re targeting specific ads for the medium. Okay? So remember to do that. Don’t just tick the box and include it in all your other advertising. It’s so important that you’re able to measure separately how your Instagram ads are doing compared to your facebook ads.
Youtube ads
The next medium that I’m going to talk about, and this is no surprise because I did an in detail video on this medium last week, but it’s YouTube. YouTube advertising has massive potential of schools and you can also target people based on their search history, their interests, their clicks, all of that. All the data that’s available to you at google is available in YouTube, and you can target those people with video ads. Okay? So video advertising, YouTube, I did an in detail video on it last week, if you want to know a little bit more about the different mediums and targeting options available there. But it’s a really good medium for you to use as a school, and it can be really effective in terms of brand building and getting people through to an enrollment inquiry.
Taboola
The next medium I’m like to talk about is Taboola. So if your school does any sort of content marketing, which I highly recommend, then I recommend using something like Taboola, or there’s lots of other tools out there that you can use to actually boost the advertising of that content. Okay? So Taboola advertising can be a little bit tricky in terms of the audience that you can target. You need to know a little bit about the platform before you can get into a successful campaign. But it’s definitely something worth testing out if you have a piece of content that you feel potential parents would click on, then definitely give Taboola a try. It’s relatively cost-effective, and it’s a way of spreading out the news about your school, and pushing the content that you have. Okay?
So those are four different alternatives for you to look at for advertising your open morning. Good luck for all the open mornings coming up. I hope that you get lots of registrations. Remember, if you have people that are registering for your open mornings, send them reminders just before the event is starting, just as a reminder for them to actually attend the event. It’s very important that you focus on getting them there on the day and then getting an application or inquiry in.
Feel free to share your questions in the Facebook group, Marketing Mastery for Schools, we’d love to have you in the group and actively participating and asking your questions.
