Pupil enquiries for independent schools – do you want more or better, or both?

Article by Andrew Merrifield | 1 September 2026

So, the new school term has arrived, have you filled all of the places available at your independent school?

If the answer is yes, well done, you must be doing something right. Carry on with what works.

If however the answer is no, then read on….

There are numerous marketing channels you may be employing, some of which work, some of which don’t and some you’re simply not sure about.

The first challenge: Measurement

There’s an old management saying: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”

It’s still very true today. Even in the digital world, where we were promised we would be able to see all of the data needed to inform our decision-making, it turns out not to be quite that simple.

In this digital world there are many channels we can use. When we use multiple channels, we know prospective families can be influenced by each one: advertising, blog posts, emails, social media, PR, the school website and more.

Some to a greater or lesser extent.

However, it’s very difficult to understand which interaction caused what effect.

The second challenge: Attribution

So let’s assume for a moment that, despite these challenges, your marketing efforts produce pupil enquiries.

Great! Or maybe not so great?

Some enquiries are better than others.

The third challenge: Enquiry Quality

It’s great that a specific marketing channel produces a steady flow of pupil enquiries, but if these are of poor quality and never progress, maybe your marketing budget would be better spent elsewhere.

So what’s the answer to these challenges?

Through the Digital Empowerment Solution (DES), MA for Schools is helping schools bring together digital marketing data across their website and digital channels (including Google Ads) to provide greater visibility of what’s happening across their online presence. This includes reporting for SLT (Senior Leadership Team) and Heads through concise one-page senior leadership reporting, helping schools translate digital performance into a clearer picture of visibility, engagement and marketing impact.

But which marketing channel to use?

Google Ads is one marketing channel that can go a long way towards addressing the fundamental challenges.

Google Ads (formerly AdWords) has been around since the early 2000s. It now comes in various campaign formats, but probably the most well-known is Google Search – Pay Per Click.

People go to Google and type in words (search terms) to describe what they are looking for.

This demonstrates intent.

Back comes a results page containing a mixture of paid ads (sponsored links) and organic listings, including local Google Business listings where relevant.

Some people will choose to click on your advert, which takes them through to whichever page you select on your website. From there they may choose to enquire – perhaps by completing a form, making a call or using another contact method.

So why is this important?

It’s because Google Ads can go a long way towards helping with the challenges mentioned above:

1. Measurement – Providing the tracking is set up correctly, you can see a considerable amount of information about how your advertising is performing.

2. Attribution – This isn’t perfect, particularly when prospective parents may have interacted with your school through several channels, but you can see actions attributed to Google Ads.

3. Enquiry Quality – There are native and third-party tools available to help assess the quality of enquiries coming through form submissions. Better still, this information can potentially be sent back to support and optimise towards better enquiries (see below – the neat part).

For example, Google Ads can:

• Help you target people actively searching for what your school offers.
• Allow exclusions to help avoid wasting advertising budget.
• Generate pupil enquiries through website form submissions, which can then be passed into your CRM or admissions process.

And here’s the neat trick…

Following your interactions with these prospective families, you can assess the quality of those enquiries and, with the appropriate setup, send that information back to the Google Ads platform.

So that you can adjust your targeting to attract the preferred enquiries.

But what about the cost?

Google Ads can sometimes be perceived as expensive, so looking beyond the initial cost per enquiry is important.

For example, Campaign A could generate 25 enquiries at £30 each, while Campaign B generates only 10 enquiries at £50 each.

At first glance, Campaign A looks like the better investment.

But what if very few of those 25 enquiries progress, while a much higher proportion of Campaign B’s enquiries become strong prospective families who visit the school or apply?

Suddenly, the picture looks rather different.

That’s why measuring quality as well as quantity matters.

So there you have it…

More Pupil Enquiries: If you aren’t already using Google Ads to generate enquiries for your school, perhaps it’s worth considering.

Better Quality Leads: If you want to focus on generating better-quality enquiries, there are ways of using data to help achieve this.

The best of both worlds.

More pupil enquiries – and better quality.