Education has two problems few other categories share: demand concentrates in a few weeks a year, and the gap between an inquiry and an enrollment is huge.
The season rules
Spend works far better concentrated in the decision window. On a March calendar (most of South America) search peaks between late year and February; on an August calendar (Mexico and others) it is mid-year; monthly courses peak before each start. Off season, keep brand and remarketing only.
Google: capture people who already decided to study
- One campaign or ad group per program, because value per enrollment differs.
- Keywords with program and area, plus modality (“online”, “evening”).
- Negatives from day one: “free”, “pdf”, “summary”, “jobs”, “salary”, “what is”.
- A brand campaign so your own name is not won by a portal or competitor.
General setup is in Google Ads for local businesses.
Meta: create interest before people search
Show the place and the people, promote events (open days, trial classes, info sessions), and use WhatsApp as the inquiry destination with a pre-filled message per program; see click-to-WhatsApp ads and Meta Ads for small businesses.
Filter inquiries
Show the fee or a “from” price, state modality, schedule and entry requirements, and ask one or two qualifying questions: program, start date, eligibility.
Measure enrollments, not leads
Record the source of every inquiry, its status at the end of the season, and cross it with spend per channel and program. If your student system or CRM can send enrollments back to Google and Meta, next season’s campaigns optimize toward enrollments; see Google Ads lead quality. With long journeys, last click credits the final brand search and ignores what created the interest; look at first-touch source too, as in attribution models compared.
