How an online school understood what parents wanted and increased the conversion from lead to sale by 9 times, receiving 1000+ requests
How to attract leads with a 47% conversion to sales? What happens when the sales department does not understand the pain of its audience and how to fix it? Should you reduce your budget in the off-season following your competitors or, on the contrary, push and scale up sales? We’ll tell you how we solved all these problems using the example of a Moscow private school.
Hello! In this case, we will tell you how an in-depth understanding of the target audience and a non-standard approach to Yandex Direct tools influence advertising results.
The goal is to attract 1,000 applications to a private school per year
Our client is a private school in Moscow. Training takes place offline and online, there is a kindergarten and clubs. Professional experience in education – more than 10 years. Previously, they were promoted through word of mouth.
We had enough good reviews from parents; there was no problem in attracting people from outside who did not know the school. We have an interview system, a competition for places, and parents themselves want their children to study at our school.
There is a strong teaching staff that works in full-time and part-time formats. Let me explain: with correspondence education, children study at school, are officially enrolled in it, but do not physically go there. All work is carried out on the online platform. We began to develop this direction after Covid.
Not right away, but we came to the understanding that in the online environment you need to invest serious money in promotion. At first we tried to work in VK with small budgets, but without success. We collaborated with a partner who has his own students and an online education platform. But it didn’t work out either. Someone else's system did not allow us to improve the quality of education, but this is important for us.
We realized that we need to rely only on ourselves. Together with teachers, we created our own platform and decided to advertise it. The head of the correspondence department recommended MAKO, knowing the agency from working in another company. We immediately appreciated your thoughtful approach, realized that there was no task to create a large budget and approved the proposal.
School Marketing Director.
Our client asked that the name of the school and his name not be included in the case.
The client saw the growth of applications as the main task. I wanted to get 1000 hits in a year. And in June 2023 we launched advertising.
We are faced with a problem – parents do not have a single request for online education, each has their own situation and problem
First we studied the target audience. First of all, these were parents aimed at quality education and a high level of academic performance for their children.
When launching the project, we offered to connect call tracking and the client agreed. Therefore, there was an opportunity to listen to calls in order to better understand the target audience. We also read the comments on the forums. It was important to understand how people search for an online school for their children. What problems are they trying to solve? What fears and objections prevent them from making a decision?
It turned out that people have problems with the wording of their requests. There are many terms in the education market: home-based, correspondence, inclusive, online, family-based. But the target audience does not have a common understanding of what they mean. The meaning of the key phrases that people type into the search bar was also in chaos.
Our task was this: to form the semantic core and texts of advertisements so that they best meet the needs of parents and reflect their pain and needs. Even if the parents themselves could not clearly formulate them.
We found 4 semantic groups in 4238 keywords and definitely hit the parents’ pain point – CTR in YAN reached 3.3% instead of the usual 0.5%
We analyzed the most popular key phrases for the field of online education (4238 pieces) and sorted them out according to the meanings that the target audience put into their queries. And this is what happened:
“Home schooling” recruited by parents whose children are behind in their studies for various reasons. This was not our target audience, because children with a high level of academic performance get into the school after first passing a competition;
“Online learning” – a popular, but too broad concept, which leads to a lot of “garbage” that is not related to children's schooling: cooking courses, dancing, psychology, etc.;
“Inclusive Education” parents are looking for when their children are “tired” of going to school or have suffered from bullying and want to study from home (although the term itself actually means something else – teaching children with different abilities in mainstream schools);
“Family Education” – a substitute concept for parents who mean correspondence or part-time education. By the way, this particular key request suited us perfectly and is still one of the most effective.
After semantic analysis, we took 475 queries as close as possible to our target audience into the semantic core. Then they started advertising. To make the texts convincing, the following arguments were used:
advantages schools – live lessons, groups of up to 10 people, their own platform, tariff from 0 rub. and so on;
trust factors — state certificate, license, state accreditation, participation in the Forbes-education rating.
I also wanted to convey the message about the high quality of teaching and the sincere attitude towards students. But such statements need to be argued and proven. Therefore, they have no place in the text format of a short advertisement. But non-verbal methods – creative ones – are just suitable for these purposes.
The CTR (click-through rate) of ads in YAN was 1-3.3%, while the usual figure was 0.5%
They found that ads with teachers' faces were 8 times more effective than competitors' ads with children.
At the very beginning of our work, the client wanted to see creatives depicting children in advertisements. This was not surprising because most of the competitors used this approach.
Banner blindness had to be broken. In addition, we were sure that parents would be more impressed by the faces of real school teachers – passionate, nice and friendly professionals. Not photos of other people's children from shutterstock.
The client had some doubts about this hypothesis. Therefore, we launched 2 types of announcements into rotation: with children and with teachers.
The ads with teachers' faces worked best. For example, a creative with a teenager (on the left in the illustration) brought 4 hits, and an ad with a teacher (on the right in the illustration) brought 31 hits and was 2.3 times cheaper
We found an important sales trigger – step-by-step instructions for parents on transferring their children to an online format – and added it to the site
As we moved deeper into the funnel, we discovered a negative sales trigger related to parental concerns. The forums were shouting about him, and the school received many information requests. The fact is that parents had absolutely no idea how to practically transfer their child to online education at a private school. What actions and documents are required, and in what order?
To relieve this stress and help parents get closer to their goal as quickly as possible, we have added step-by-step instructions to the website. It could be downloaded by filling out the form. The result is a useful lead magnet:
The instructions said that you first need to get tested and receive an invitation from the new school, then pick up your personal file from the old school and the child’s vaccination form from the clinic. Prepare a number of documents and submit the entire package to the new school. Users eagerly downloaded this simple brochure, and the sales department received fewer and fewer questions about the admission procedure. The appeals became more heated.
The advertisement generated a stream of requests from parents, but only 5% of them were converted into an agreement for online learning
In the first month of work, we listened to calls to study the target audience and realized that there were serious problems in the communication of the sales department with parents. The manager did not know the advantages of the school, could not explain the service clearly, and only formally answered incoming questions. She did not delve into the customer’s situation and did not try to advise on it. The problem of converting the application into a contract was brewing. That's why we conducted an audit of the sales funnel.
The analysis showed that with 63 applications, only 5% could reach the sale, and all the rest were missed for various reasons:
27% of parents went to “think” because the dialogues ended with the pleasantries “it was nice to talk,” without motivation to make a decision (sometimes even with assurances that “everything can be resolved in August”); the necessary information was not provided (instead of answering the request “I’m interested in distance learning within 7000”, a long story about all formats and tariffs), lacked further “heating» client (continuation of negotiations, reminders, etc.);
10% refused due to lack of work with objections (“expensive”, “it’s a long way to go for testing”, “I don’t want to go to Moscow for textbooks”) and lack of immersion in the client’s problem – parents were confused in the wording, they could ask “do you have homeschooling”, and they were given a negative answer, without specifying what they mean and what their task is;
4% missed call – since the manager usually called only once;
43% not in CRM – 2% responded to the request another employee; 14% of requests remained in chats29% not identified and 3% with doubled goals.
Helped optimize processes in the sales department – suggested methods for solving problems
Despite all these problems, our client was not ready for radical changes in the sales department. It was decided to develop scripts for an existing employee, based on our recommendations from the audit.
Here's what we proposed:
introduce time-limited discounts and promotions, for example, a gift for an annual tariff, a free month or item when paying in July, etc.;
end the conversation with questions: “What do you think about the options we discussed?” “Would it be convenient if I called you back on such and such a day?” etc.
study your product well, be able to talk about the advantages and USP in a timely manner, for example, about the license, thanks to which the school itself certifies students, which is not typical for most online schools;
use reasoning in response to concerns: if a client complains about high prices, explain what quality of education the school offers, how many students successfully passed the Unified State Exam and entered prestigious universities; tell about other advantages, etc.
to dive into the client's problem – listen to the client: often parents at the very beginning try to talk about their situation and why they need this service, it is important to understand the depth of the request and only after that offer solutions, types of training and tariffs, and communicate in a win-win format;
to provide requested information – answer specific questions: when parents ask something, it is important first of all to clearly and concisely provide the required information, pause and, if no new questions follow, ask your own;
to combat missed call: call at least 3 times; if you can’t get through by phone, start communicating in messenger; leave voice messages on the answering machine/assistant;
communicate with the client through the channel that is convenient for him: if the application specifies a request to contact via messenger, then it is important to do just that;
work out the application path in CRM, enter all requests into the system and detailed comments based on the results of negotiations into a card – analysis of the results will help to adjust the work and identify new points of growth;
set up end-to-end analytics in CRM and pull up all the data on the work of advertising campaigns – which will help analyze communication channels and avoid double calls.
Sales department conversion increased from 5% to 47%
The quality of the sales department's work has improved, they began to conclude more contracts – the conversion rate increased in July to 17%. But listening to the calls, we realized that the growth potential was much higher. The manager's competencies were more suitable for cold sales – in a pleasant conversation, talk about what the school has to offer. And the parents who left applications were the hottest audience for whom it was necessary to apply the appropriate techniques (described above).
At regular meetings, we discussed the results of advertising with the client and drew attention to the fact that there could be more contracts if we strengthened the sales department with a stronger professional.
We used to have a strategy not to “stick” too much to clients, that is, in terms of the level of aggressiveness we were in 2nd place out of 5. We gave information and said: “Well, just think about it, but people cooled down and left.” There were also many questions about how we process requests. The CRM system at that time was crude and needed to be improved. We realized that the existing employee communicates well with people, tries hard, but cannot cope with tasks. That's why we got Svetlana (new sales person). Now we are developing CRM marketing and have begun to actively manage clients.”
A new manager with good sales experience in the education sector has joined the staff. She studied her new product in detail, began to skillfully negotiate with parents (understand their pain, hear, delve into it) and move clients along the sales funnel to concluding an agreement. Conversion from application to sale increased to 47%.
School Marketing Director
Our client asked that the name of the school and his name not be included in the case.
We solved the problem with sales and scaled up – doubled the flow of requests by using a non-standard tool for Ecom – Product Campaign
So, we have deeply studied the target audience and set up contextual advertising correctly. We chose the automatic maximum conversions strategy. From the very first weeks, the number of leads began to grow. Therefore, we did not have to spend a long time and painfully training algorithms or inventing any tricky methods.
At the end of June, we decided to scale up and launched a non-standard tool for EdTech (the field of digital learning), an Ecom (electronic commerce) tool – an automatic product campaign.
Why non-standard? The Product Campaign uses a feed – a file that contains information about the seller’s products. It automatically collects this information from the online store’s website, and, if necessary, we manually modify the feed parameters to perfection (we talked about case). And then Yandex uses this information to automatically generate advertisements.
But there were no products on the school website. There are 3 services available: full-time, part-time and part-time education. How should the feed work? We made it by hand. We used the method of artificial reproduction of goods. Our same 3 services were added as new products, but they were just called differently, using semantics: “family”, “correspondence”, “for 0 rubles.” and so on.
And our Product Campaign took off. The number of requests for 1 month (in July) increased: for this campaign by 4 times (from 9 to 36), and for all in general – by 2 times from 63 to 120. At the same time, the cost of applications (CPA) decreased by 11%.
In August, we found another point of growth in the commodity market of the Republic of Kazakhstan – circulation increased by 22%, and their value fell by 25%.
In August, they began to look for new growth points to get ahead of competitors in the high season. We switched the Product campaign to semi-automatic. Specify previously verified keywords in the settings. We checked the statistics in Ya.Metrica for campaigns on Search and YAN. We looked for which settings they worked best in order to correct them, but we did not find any serious differences. But we saw that in the Product campaign there was a noticeable difference in the results by gender and age of the target audience. For example, the category “women 35-54” showed the most growth. Based on the data from TC, bids on Search and YAN were adjusted. After that, companies began to generate 22% more leads and 25% cheaper. Although during the high season, CPA usually increases. And even after the end of the high season, the Product Campaign continued to gain momentum and began to generate 50% of applications.
In September, during the low season, they did not cut the budget and increased requests by another 28%, reducing their cost by 18%.
In September, it was necessary to maintain the indicators, despite the seasonal drop in demand. We suggested that the client not reduce the budget and expand the geography of promotion. If earlier we advertised only in Moscow and the region, now we began to launch campaigns in major cities of the Russian Federation. This helped increase the volume of requests by 28%, and reduce their cost by 18%.
In the fall (low season) we received almost the same number of applications as in the summer (high season). Although there was a decline in the market at that time.
As a result, in 9 months we received 1078 requests with a 47% conversion into a contract – all thanks to our deep knowledge of our target audience; a thoughtful approach to the semantics and content of advertisements; searching for new solutions in contextual advertising and improving the work of the sales department.
Customer review
The results were dramatic. We are very lucky with our product manager. She was very inspired by our common cause, you can immediately feel it. The initiative is at its best. We discuss the results weekly and decide what to do next. I like your comprehensive approach and the fact that you care. We listen to what you say. We have taken a big step forward in online sales and are very excited. There was a return, we began to conclude contracts. We ourselves began to understand more about contextual advertising.
It’s great that you have a team, that you really try to do everything very well, and you succeed. It’s nice that there is an emotional contact and immersion in the product. Not just displays, appeals and some kind of mathematics, but there is a desire to help. We really value these relationships and would like to develop them further.
School Marketing Director
Our client asked that the name of the school and his name not be included in the case.
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