Google Ads can put your centre in front of parents the moment they search for care. That is most useful when a room has vacancies, or a new centre needs to fill places.
Childcare searches also attract job seekers, students and people looking for government services. A campaign that doesn’t filter these out spends much of its budget on clicks that will never enrol.
This page covers the settings that matter most. For the wider picture, see our childcare marketing guide or our main childcare marketing page.
What to target
Focus on searches from parents looking for a place, usually with a suburb or a type of care.
- Care type and suburb: “childcare Baldivis”, “long day care Ellenbrook”, “early learning centre Joondalup”.
- Near-me searches: “childcare near me”, “daycare near me”.
- Age groups: “baby childcare”, “nursery care”, “pre-kindy”.
- Availability: “childcare vacancies”, “childcare available now”.
- Outside school hours care, if you offer it: “before and after school care” with the suburb or school name.
Build a campaign for each centre, with ad groups by care type or age group. Then you can direct spending to the centre and room that has places.
Phrase and exact match keep things under control at the start. Broad match can be tested later, once tracking is reliable and your exclusion list is strong.
What to exclude
Childcare has some of the noisiest search terms in local advertising. Add negative keywords before launch, and check the search terms report every week or two.
- Jobs and study: jobs, careers, educator, salary, “certificate III”, diploma, TAFE, traineeship, course.
- Government services: Centrelink, myGov, “CCS login”, “subsidy calculator”, “change of circumstances”.
- Other types of care you don’t offer: nanny, babysitter, au pair, family day care.
- Products: toys, furniture, cots, supplies, worksheets.
- Other centres’ brand names, unless you choose to bid on them.
Be careful with “cost” and “fees”. Parents ready to enrol often search with these words, so they usually belong in your campaign rather than your exclusions.
Location and schedule settings
Parents usually want care close to home or on the way to work. Set a radius around each centre that reflects real drop-off routes, and consider adding nearby workplaces, train stations or business areas.
Set location targeting to people in or regularly in your area. This cuts clicks from people elsewhere who are only researching.
Keep ads running in the evenings and on weekends, when many parents search together. Schedule call ads and call assets for centre hours, and let your tour form take enquiries after hours.
Ad wording
Lead with the suburb and the type of care. Then give a clear reason to book a tour, such as vacancies in a particular room, long opening hours or meals included.
Only state your National Quality Framework rating if it is current and accurate. Only mention vacancies that exist today, and update ads when rooms fill.
Keep subsidy wording accurate and simple. Avoid wording that suggests your centre is a government service, and avoid claims like “best childcare in Perth” that you cannot back up.
The landing page
Send each campaign to the page for that centre, or for the age group in the ad. The first lines should confirm the suburb, the type of care and how to book a tour.
Include a short tour booking form and a tap-to-call number. Add opening hours, real photos of the rooms and a brief note on fees after the Child Care Subsidy, with a link to Services Australia.
Use only photos of children where you hold written consent for advertising use. Our web design team can build fast centre pages that work well on a phone.
Call and form tracking
Set up conversions for tour bookings, waitlist forms, calls from ads and calls from your website. Keep these separate, because a booked tour is worth far more than a general question.
Count only real enquiries. A very short call, or a tap on a phone number, should not count as a lead.
Where you can, record which enquiries became enrolments and feed that back into Google Ads. Then the campaign learns from the families who enrol, rather than from every click.
Budget thinking
Start with the value of a filled place. A child who enrols may stay for several years, so a single enrolment is worth a lot more than one week’s fees.
From there, decide what you can sensibly spend to gain a tour and an enrolment, and judge each centre against that figure.
Spend where the gaps are. A centre with a long waitlist needs very little, while a new centre or a room with empty places needs more.
Recruitment ads should have their own campaign and budget, so job seekers don’t use up money meant for enrolments.
Common mistakes
- Running one campaign for every centre, with no way to steer spending.
- Leaving out job and study negatives, so educators click on enrolment ads.
- Advertising vacancies that have already been filled.
- Showing an out-of-date quality rating in ads or on landing pages.
- Counting every click on a phone number as a lead.
- Using photos of children without consent that covers advertising.
Ad policies and rules
Google has policies on misleading claims and on ads that imply a link to government services. Childcare ads that mention the Child Care Subsidy need clear, accurate wording for this reason.
ACECQA has guidance on how services display their quality ratings, and national guidance applies to images of children. The Australian Consumer Law covers claims about fees and availability. These rules change, so check the current versions before you launch.
If you’d like help setting up or reviewing ads for your centres, our Google Ads management team works directly with owners and directors. Get in touch for a chat about your vacancies.
