Core Essentials Program
The Core Essentials Program is a managed school marketing program for schools that want the fundamentals run for them: search, display and social advertising, directory management and reporting, plus up to 5 hours of discretionary services every month, all for one fixed monthly fee and with no long-term contract.
- Search, display and social advertising
- Directory management and review monitoring
- Real-time reporting, available 24/7
- 5 discretionary hours every month
A managed school marketing package for one fixed fee
The Core Essentials program is our foundational package. It covers the essential parts of a school marketing plan, with up to 5 hours of discretionary services each month as a safety net.
Schools are our specialty, and these are the strategies we build everything else on. For most schools, this package, sometimes with extra discretionary time, is all they need.
It’s the core of our Managed Services Program, and we work within your parameters, whether you want us to take over completely or just handle the heavy lifting. See how our pricing works, or compare it with our school marketing consulting services if your team runs its marketing in house.
What our Core Essentials Program includes
The goal is simple: build brand awareness through search and social, then turn that traffic into enrollment inquiries, with discretionary hours to cover whatever else comes up.
Search, social and directory management, component by component
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Component 01
Search advertising (Google)
We’ve run Google Ads campaigns since 2004, for schools since 2011, and it’s one of our most successful strategies. Campaigns run on our own bid management platform rather than your Google account, so one budget covers Google and Microsoft Advertising (Bing and Yahoo) at the same time, and spend shifts toward the keywords that produce real leads, not just visits.
- Smart technology: we track which keywords produce calls, emails and form submissions, and move budget toward the phrases that generate real leads.
- Creative ad design: multiple ad groups built with Responsive Search Ads, optimized through automated testing.
- Transparent reporting: see spend and daily results 24/7. Calls can be recorded, you get each caller’s phone number, and we may review recordings to improve your campaigns.
- Budget analysis: before you commit a budget, we statistically estimate how many visits to expect.
Live demo: ask for a tour of a live Google Ads campaign we run for a current school client. Request a live demo
For a closer look at how we plan and run campaigns, see paid advertising management for schools.
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Component 02
Display advertising and retargeting
Visitors to your website, from any source, can be tagged so that the other websites they visit over the following hours, days or weeks show them your school’s message and encourage them to come back.
We typically design about 25 ads (five variations in five sizes) and launch them alongside your pay-per-click campaign.
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Component 03
Social media advertising
A set of social advertising strategies that work together to build awareness and generate leads to follow up on. We recommend the mix that fits your school. A dedicated success manager creates custom ads, manages your social funnel, tracks results and reviews audience insights with you in scheduled meetings. For organic posting and community building, see social media management for schools.
Strategies
- Remarketing
- In-network lead forms
- Downloadable PDFs or eBooks (optional)
- Event responses
- Landing pages (optional)
- Direct messaging
The program includes
- Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn paid ads, created and managed
- A dedicated success manager
- Monthly personal consultations
- Social media optimization
- Persona development
- Tracking and remarketing
- Audience insights and reports
- Phone and email support
- Messenger automation, created and managed
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Component 04
Social media publishing (optional)
Consistent publishing keeps your school top of mind and grows followers and engagement. Our creative team produces and publishes custom content. You can contribute, or simply give us direction.
Facebook · Instagram · Google Business Profile · LinkedIn · X (Twitter)
- A dedicated success manager
- Monthly personal consultations
- Social media optimization
- Custom content creation
- Monthly content calendar
- Industry post subscriptions
- General interest post subscriptions
- Monthly holiday posts
- Audience insights and reports
- Draft post collaboration
- Phone and email support
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Component 05
Directory management
Directories matter for local organizations like schools: they bring links, traffic and trust, and both search engines and families rely on them. We create and maintain your profiles on more than 30 major aggregators, search engines, directories and apps, give you direct access to monitor progress, and keep an eye on your reviews on every platform, on an ongoing basis. Read why in local listings for local schools.
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Component 06
Reporting and analysis
Reporting focuses on inquiries, tours, applications and enrolled students rather than clicks. Your reports are available 24/7 and update in real time. We send a monthly reminder to check them, and you can book a review with a senior strategist right from the report.
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Component 07
Discretionary services
Up to 5 hours each month to cover needs beyond generating traffic, which may include:
- Website health monitoring and technical fixes
- Content management
- Graphic design
- Email campaigns and email marketing
- Strategic planning
- Coordination with third parties
- Copywriting
- Consulting on recruitment or any other marketing
Benefits of a done-for-you school marketing program
Maximum flexibility to account for virtually anything.
Priority support whenever you need us.
Locked-in discount rates for projects and overages.
A “fudge factor” time allowance: borrow time from past or future months.
Supplemental packages at our priority discounted rates.
Consistent, well-managed campaigns add up over a school year. Albert Einstein Academies generated more than 1,000 qualified leads in 12 months while cutting cost per lead by nearly half: read the Albert Einstein Academies case study (PDF).
Jordan and the Kreative Web Works have been SO great to work with! They manage our Ads, Website and SEO. … I am always kept in the loop on our Ad performance with monthly reports and recommendations made based on performance. I would highly recommend this team!
Get started with the Core Essentials Program
Tell us about your school and your enrollment goals, and we’ll show you how the program would work for you. Planning a budget first? Our guide to digital marketing costs for schools covers what to plan for.
Questions schools ask about Core Essentials
Something else on your mind? Call us at (949) 276-6063.
What is a managed school marketing program?
A managed school marketing program is a done-for-you package where an agency runs your core marketing every month. In our Core Essentials Program, that means search, display and social advertising, directory management and real-time reporting, plus up to 5 hours of discretionary services for needs such as website fixes, email campaigns, graphic design or copywriting.
How much does Kreative Webworks charge for the Core Essentials Program?
Core Essentials is delivered for one fixed monthly fee, and your ad budget is planned with you before you commit: we estimate how many visits to expect so you can decide what to invest. Because every school’s goals and competition are different, we tailor the program and quote in a free consultation, and you can see how our pricing works on our pricing page.
Do we have to sign a long-term contract?
No. We don’t require long-term contracts, and you can cancel at any time with 30 days’ notice. We just ask you to complete a brief exit interview, which helps us improve. If you don’t believe you’re getting value from the program, we won’t hold you hostage. We call it our No Hostage Policy.
Whose account do the search ads run in?
Campaigns run on our own bid management platform rather than your Google account. That lets one budget cover Google and Microsoft Advertising (Bing and Yahoo) at the same time and shift spend toward the keywords that produce calls, emails and form submissions. You still see spend and daily results 24/7, and you can ask for a tour of a live campaign.
