Our first step in managing their paid advertising budget was designing a marketing funnel that built the value of camp over time by retargeting prospects with different types of content. A week of camp cost about $400, so it was unlikely that prospects would pull out their wallets and enroll in camp after watching an ad only one time.

In our keyword search campaigns, we started out by analyzing the most relevant high-intent keywords that prospects were searching for when researching a summer camp for their kids. Then we wrote ads that captured the benefits of camp and encouraged families to click through to learn more about local camps in their area. From there, we targeted prospects actively researching summer camp options based a 15 mile radius near each camp site with keyword search ads and Google display banner ads based on their search history.

For our social campaigns, we designed video and blog content for each stage of the funnel. Content built for the top of the funnel was designed to create awareness about the camp by positioning it as a safe summer destination for kids to have fun while learning new things. The middle of the funnel campaigns were served to prospects who visited a landing page or the homepage but didn’t enroll in camp. Content for this audience built the value of camp through videos featuring parent testimonials, staff testimonials and even a video from the CEO about the camp’s mission and what they hope campers will take away after a week at camp. We also wrote blogs related to the camp’s mission and themes, such as “Why we should teach our kids to take more risks.”

After refining our targeting strategy and testing the best forms of content for our prospects at each stage of the funnel, we generated over $10 million dollars in measurable revenue directly related to our marketing campaigns.