Google Ads for childcare and preschools: fill the enrolment pipeline with parents who book a tour
Parents search for childcare with a specific age, a specific area and a specific start date in mind, and they decide after a tour. Ads for a centre are about getting the right parent to book that tour — in the months families are actually choosing, for the age groups you have openings in, landing on a page that shows the real rooms and takes the booking.
Openings by age group, decisions by tour
Childcare is unusual in that supply is the constraint: a centre may have infant openings and a toddler waitlist, and advertising the full programme to everyone wastes budget on families you cannot take. The account is built around age groups and programmes with openings, switched on and off as rooms fill. The second feature is the tour: almost no parent enrols without one, so the conversion the ads are bought for is a booked tour, and the landing page exists to make booking it easy and to reassure — licensing, ratios, curriculum, real photos of the rooms and staff.
Timing matters too: enrolment searches peak before the school year and in January, with a steady flow from families relocating.
The searches worth paying for — and the ones that waste budget
Keywords are grouped by age group and programme so the ad names the room with openings and the page shows it.
- By age: “infant daycare Puyallup”, “toddler care near me”, “preschool for 3 year olds Tacoma”, “pre-K program”
- By programme: “Montessori preschool”, “full day kindergarten”, “before and after school care”, “summer camp for kids”
- Situational: “daycare with openings”, “daycare near [employer/area]”, “bilingual preschool”
- Trust terms: “licensed daycare”, “accredited preschool near me”
Negative keywords we add on day one
Childcare searches include jobs, subsidies, home-daycare licensing and franchise research that will never become a tour.
jobs · hiring · salary · how to start a daycare · licence application · franchise · free daycare · subsidy · DSHS · nanny · babysitter · course
| Search type | Example | What the searcher wants | Our response |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age group | “infant daycare Puyallup” | An opening for their child | Programme page with tour form |
| Programme | “Montessori preschool near me” | A specific approach | Curriculum page, tour form |
| Situational | “daycare with openings” | Availability now | “Openings now” ad and page |
| Jobs / licensing | “daycare jobs” | Not a parent | Excluded |
How we build a childcare account
One campaign per programme with openings — typically Infant & toddler, Preschool & pre-K, and School-age / camps — each landing on its own programme page with a tour-booking form. Campaigns are paused as rooms fill and resumed as openings appear, which is the main lever in the account. A brand campaign protects your centre’s name from competitors. Tour bookings, forms and calls are tracked per campaign so the report shows tours by programme.
Enrolment seasons and a tight radius
Parents search in evenings and at weekends as well as office hours, so ads run wider hours with the tour-booking form doing the work after the office closes. Budgets rise in the spring and summer run-up to the school year and again in January; a smaller always-on budget catches relocating families. Geography is tight — a centre draws from a short drive or a commute route — and can include the area around large employers if parents commute past you.
- Wider hours; tour form converts after the office closes
- Seasonal budgets for the school-year run-up and January
- Tight radius around the centre and along commute routes
- Campaigns paused as rooms fill, resumed as openings appear
- Brand campaign to protect the centre’s name
What the page behind the ad has to do
Book a tour above the fold
A short form or calendar link with the age group and preferred date; phone number beside it.
Real rooms, real staff
Photos of your classrooms, play areas and teachers with the children — not stock. It is the whole decision.
Openings and ages
Which rooms have openings now and the age ranges, updated as they change.
Licensing and ratios
Licence status, staff ratios, curriculum and daily schedule in plain language.
Fees
Tuition ranges or a “from” figure. Parents are comparing, and silence reads as expensive.
Answers to the first questions
Hours, meals, potty training, sick policy, what to bring — the FAQ parents ask on the phone.
We build or fix landing pages under web design & development; a campaign is only as good as the page it lands on.
From search to enrolment
Spend where you have openings, when families are choosing
Budgets in childcare follow openings: money goes to the programmes with rooms to fill and stops when they fill. The account is judged on cost per booked tour and, when you share it, on tours that became enrolments and their monthly value — which makes even a modest cost per tour easy to justify. Spring, summer and January carry most of the budget; the rest of the year runs light.
Illustrative budget weighting through the year
Illustrative — not client dataRelative emphasis only — a real plan follows your openings.
A hypothetical first 90 days
Scenario: a licensed preschool in Bonney Lake with openings in the 3-year-old room, a waitlist for infants, a website with stock photos, and no ads.
install tour-form and call tracking, shoot or gather real photos of the rooms, launch the Preschool campaign on a tight radius, and build a programme page with openings and a tour form.
add the school-age/camp campaign ahead of summer; add negatives from the first month; test an “openings now” headline against a curriculum headline.
review tours by campaign and by week, pause programmes that filled, and plan the school-year run-up budget.
Every number in a real plan comes from your own account data; we do not publish or promise results.
What we report every month
Google Ads questions from childcare centres and preschools
Is Google Ads appropriate for a childcare centre?
Yes, when you have openings — it puts your programme in front of parents actively choosing. When you are full, the campaigns pause.
What about waitlists?
A waitlist campaign can run at a low budget for rooms that fill fast, landing on a page that sets expectations honestly.
Do we need professional photos?
Real photos of your rooms and staff matter more in childcare than in any other category. They do not need to be expensive; they need to be real.
How do you track tours?
The booking form, calendar link and calls each get a goal, so the report shows tours, not clicks.
Do you charge a percentage of spend?
No. Flat fee; you own the account.
Get a free Google Ads review for your centre
Send us your centre name and which rooms have openings. We will tell you what a programme-based setup would look like and what the landing page needs first.