Best methods to advertise online
Best methods to advertise online
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Discussion

geek84

Original Poster:

610 posts

102 months

Sunday 26th September 2021
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Good Morning

I want to advertise my tuition business online on some social media platforms on a few days every week.

Can you kindly suggest any relevant advertising platforms?

After putting the advert out initially, what is the best/most efficient way of getting the same advert out to the audience in future?

Do you suggest that I write out the advert each time or is there an easier/more efficient method.

Thanks in advance for your responses.


singlecoil

34,881 posts

262 months

Sunday 26th September 2021
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You've not said what subjects you will be offering. Suggestions are bound to vary depending on what those subjects are.

alfabeat

1,332 posts

128 months

Sunday 26th September 2021
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I'd just go for free advertising on your local Facebook pages. That is what most small local businesses do, with I imagine very good results - and it is free - and easy - and you can target it as you like.

Gilmore

315 posts

150 months

Sunday 26th September 2021
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What’s the budget and who specifically are you trying to reach?

geek84

Original Poster:

610 posts

102 months

Sunday 26th September 2021
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Hi Folks

Thanks for your responses.

I teach GCSE maths online to school age children and older individuals who want to improve their numeracy skills.

StevieBee

14,292 posts

271 months

Monday 27th September 2021
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Facebook should be your preferred platform with a paid-for campaign run via their ad-manager service.

You need to create an eye-catching advert - video based preferably or really strong static graphic. Aim for 10 seconds, 20 max with some brief supporting narrative. If this isn't something you can do well, pay someone to do this for you. If the ad's wrong, it won't work.

When you set up ad-manager, you'll be asked to select your audience so apply some logic to this to get a well-targeted campaign.

You don't need to spend fortunes on this. £60 - £100 a month tops. Read the analytics and hone each time you run it.

HTH

Hoofy

78,759 posts

298 months

Monday 27th September 2021
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alfabeat said:
I'd just go for free advertising on your local Facebook pages. That is what most small local businesses do, with I imagine very good results - and it is free - and easy - and you can target it as you like.
Just do this.

Find local Facebook groups. You know, the sort of groups where people moan about police helicopters, fireworks, dogs barking, new builds, kids begging for sweets on Halloween night etc. Just post your services there. It's completely free to use.

anonymous-user

70 months

Monday 27th September 2021
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Agree with everyone who said Facebook.

When I owned a business that served the public I set up a proper business page on Facebook and used the built in advertising features to run various adverts targeted at the local population, and I found it worked really well and was pretty cost effective.

jonsp

1,252 posts

172 months

Monday 27th September 2021
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geek84 said:
I want to advertise my tuition business online on some social media platforms
Are you set on social media rather than search/Google etc?

Seems there's going to be traffic for people searching for what you offer - that traffic should be easier to capture than trying to facebook ads etc by demographic.

Also assuming online means you can cover the whole UK - clients don't have to be local?



singlecoil

34,881 posts

262 months

Monday 27th September 2021
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I tried GCSE Maths Tutor on YouTube. There were LOTS of results. Presumably the OP is offering one-to-one tuition where the communication is 2-way and immediate, so I tried Google for that. LOTS of results. I think the OP has very little chance of breaking into the market, given that he is starting from so far behind and doesn't have a USP.

Simpo Two

89,419 posts

281 months

Monday 27th September 2021
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I too feel that trying to be 'on the first page of google' is a fool's errand.

But not everyone is on Facebook. Hence I'd also try a small display advert in the local free magazine. Probably £50 and it will be on people's coffee tables for a month. And of course, time it so it lands when people are looking for that service. My local supermarket car park also has a noticeboard where people can pin up adverts for local stuff - it's free so there's nothing to lose by pinning up a nice piece of encapsulated A4.

'Need to be a Geek for a Week? Call Geek Tuition!' etc.

OK it's not online but if it works, who cares!

jonsp

1,252 posts

172 months

Monday 27th September 2021
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singlecoil said:
I tried GCSE Maths Tutor on YouTube. There were LOTS of results. Presumably the OP is offering one-to-one tuition where the communication is 2-way and immediate, so I tried Google for that. LOTS of results. I think the OP has very little chance of breaking into the market, given that he is starting from so far behind and doesn't have a USP.
Agreed if he's looking at SEO that will be a long hard slog. This is where paid search drilling down and targeting lots of low traffic phrases could work.

So start by distinguishing between between people looking for online vs a personal one/one tutor they visit.

For example "gcse maths tutor online" - lots of results/established advertisers. He'll struggle here.

So we drill down to the different subjects within maths. We might assume some people struggle with a particular part of maths rather maths as a whole - "gcse calculus tutor online" there's still competition but nobody's targeting that particular phrase. So list out every part of maths and build keyword lists/ads around that. Too long out of school to remember the various subjects within maths but there should be a few.

Then we can drill down to areas. Even though (presumably) location is irrelevant lots of people search by location. So get a list of towns in the UK and perm up all the subjects above with every town. So we might have "gcse calculus tutor manchester" and so on.

You should be able to generate keyword lists/ads like this in Excel and upload them into adwords.

Simpo Two

89,419 posts

281 months

Monday 27th September 2021
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^^ And how long and how much is that likely to cost him before it earns its keep? And I presume it will need constant fettling as algorithms change.

jonsp

1,252 posts

172 months

Monday 27th September 2021
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Impossible to answer without knowledge of his specific sector - which I don't have.

As a rule though it's going be difficult to enter an established space and be profitable from day one. Ideally try and find a google coupon so you're learning with their money. Failing that you'd need to be prepared to potentially lose a bit of money. The definition of "a bit" is obviously down to you.

In general terms assuming he has a website now that is receiving traffic from somewhere which converts into a lead/inquiry.

How much is each lead worth?

How many visits does it take to generate 1 lead now?

Divide and that's the price you're prepared to pay Google per click. So bid that. One of 2 things happen

You don't get any traffic

You get traffic but it doesn't convert to leads

Ideally we'd need some need idea of the guy's existing website, previous experience in online advertising (if any) and what sort of budget he's thinking of - is it £50 or £500 etc.

Simpo Two

89,419 posts

281 months

Monday 27th September 2021
quotequote all
I drove traffic to my website by advertising in the right place. On average, for every £400 I paid out, I got £22K back. No SEO, just good marketing and a website showing people what they wanted to see.

silobass

1,213 posts

118 months

Tuesday 28th September 2021
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Google's free business listing is worth doing. We stopped on Adwords during Covid and I still get a bit of work from the free business listing. You appear in a local search, probably ideal for what you're looking for.

clockworks

6,834 posts

161 months

Tuesday 28th September 2021
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As above, a free Google Business listing.

I run my own business from home, so no passing trade. "Retail" jobs are currently coming in 50:50 word of mouth from previous customers, and Google searches which find my free listing.

I used to have a free classified listing in Yellow Pages. When they started charging for classifieds, I decided to pay for it, about £40 a year.
I'm getting far more new customers via Google than I ever did from Yellow Pages, so I can see why they stopped printing and went online-only. I don't pay for the Yellow Pages online listing, as the free Google Business listing does the job for me.

Easy to set up, add a brief description, opening hours, etc. Make sure you put the marker in the right place on Google Maps if customers will be visiting you.

I think it works well for me because there isn't much "competition" in the area, so I show up at the top of the page if anyone local searches for my line of business.

C722

643 posts

172 months

Tuesday 28th September 2021
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Google AdWords if you can do it properly. If someone is after your exact service then you’re more likely to convert than random Facebook ads I’d say.

The Moose

23,417 posts

225 months

Wednesday 29th September 2021
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Simpo Two said:
I drove traffic to my website by advertising in the right place. On average, for every £400 I paid out, I got £22K back. No SEO, just good marketing and a website showing people what they wanted to see.
Not hugely relevant unless you're in the tutoring industry!

Gilmore

315 posts

150 months

Wednesday 29th September 2021
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Facebooks most recent update could be huge for you:

https://www.facebook.com/business/news/introducing...

Highly recommend getting familiar with this.