Childcare Marketing Strategies That Fill Places: A Practical Guide for Australian Centre Owners
Most childcare marketing advice starts with the channel: "run Facebook ads", "do your SEO", "post more on Instagram". That's the wrong place to start. A strategy begins with a much simpler question: which places are you actually trying to fill?
This guide walks through childcare marketing strategies in the order we'd tackle them with a centre owner: pin down the gap, get found by local families, choose the right paid channels, then make sure the enquiries you earn turn into enrolments. If you want the short version of how we help with this, see our childcare marketing services.
Start with the gap, not the channel
"We need more enrolments" isn't specific enough to market against. Occupancy is rarely even. You might be full in toddlers but light in babies, or solid Monday to Thursday with Fridays sitting empty.
Write down, for the next three to six months:
Vacancies by room (age group)
Vacancies by day of the week
The start dates you can offer
The suburbs your families realistically travel from
That list becomes your brief. An ad that says "Toddler places available Wednesdays and Fridays from February" will do more for you than a generic "Enrol now".
Strategy 1: Make local search work for you
Most families look for care close to home, work or the route between them, so local search is the foundation.
Your Google Business Profile is the first impression. Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence, and that complete, accurate business information helps (Google Business Profile Help). In practice:
Verify your profile and pick the most accurate primary category
Keep hours, phone number and website current, including public holiday closures
Add real photos of each room, the outdoor space and your educators, and refresh them each season
Ask happy families for reviews and reply to every one
Your website needs to answer parent questions quickly. Families often compare a handful of centres side by side, and tools like the Australian Government's Starting Blocks let them compare quality ratings, fees and service information. Make your own site just as easy to assess: age groups and rooms, current availability, how fees work, your quality rating, and a tour booking button that's easy to find on mobile.
Add genuinely useful suburb content. If families come from several nearby suburbs, a page for each (with real local detail, not a template with the suburb name swapped) helps you appear for those searches. This is also where search engine optimisation pays off over time. It builds slowly, but keeps working when you pause your ads.
Strategy 2: Use paid ads to fill specific gaps
Paid advertising is the fastest lever, and the easiest place to waste money. The two main options do different jobs.
Google Ads reach parents who are already searching. They suit suburbs with real search demand and places you want to fill soon. Target the searches that match your service ("long day care [suburb]", "kindy [suburb]") and send clicks to a landing page with a tour booking form, not your homepage. See how we run Google Ads.
Facebook and Instagram ads reach local families before they start searching. They suit new centres, new rooms and quieter catchments. Enquiries tend to be earlier-stage, so they need more follow-up. Our Facebook and Instagram ads service is built around this.
Whichever you choose:
Name the room, days and start date in the ad
Keep the radius realistic for how far families will travel
Make sure the ad, landing page and the person answering the phone all say the same thing about availability
Judge results by enquiries, tours and enrolments, not clicks or likes
Strategy 3: Show parents the centre before they visit
Choosing childcare is an emotional decision, and many parents want to see inside before they book. A 360° virtual tour or a short walk-through video on your website and Google profile lets a nervous parent look around at 10pm on their phone. It won't replace an in-person tour, but it can be the nudge that gets a family to book one.
Other trust builders that cost little: named educators with a short bio, a "typical day" page, a clear explanation of fees and the Child Care Subsidy, and genuine family reviews.
Strategy 4: Fix the path from enquiry to enrolment
This is the most overlooked part of childcare marketing. Extra enquiries are wasted if they aren't answered well.
Reply the same day. Families often enquire at several centres, so speed matters. Give one person ownership of this.
Offer specific tour times. "We have Thursday at 10am or Saturday at 9:30am" beats "give us a call".
Answer the main question first: do you have a place, on these days, from this date?
Personalise the tour. Ask about the child and the parent's worries, then show the room they'd be in.
Follow up within 48 hours with a clear next step: enrolment link, start date, deposit details.
Make enrolment mobile-friendly, so families can finish the form on their phone.
For a deeper walkthrough, read our guide on how to increase childcare enrolments.
Strategy 5: Keep the families you already have
Every family that leaves early opens another vacancy you then pay to fill. Regular communication, smooth transitions between rooms, and acting quickly on feedback protect your occupancy. They also feed your marketing, since your happiest families are the source of your best reviews and referrals.
Strategy 6: Measure four numbers, monthly
You don't need a complex dashboard. Track these for every month:
Enquiries (calls, forms, emails, messages, walk-ins)
Tours booked
Tours attended
Enrolments
Add the source of each enquiry (Google search, Google Maps, Facebook, referral, other). Within a quarter you'll see which channels bring families who actually enrol, and which stage is leaking. Fix the weakest stage before raising your ad budget.
A simple 90-day starting plan
Days 1 to 14: List your vacancies by room and day. Tidy your Google Business Profile. Check your website shows availability and a tour button.
Days 15 to 45: Set up a tracking sheet. Introduce same-day replies and set tour slots. Launch a small, targeted campaign for your biggest gap.
Days 46 to 90: Review where families drop off. Add a virtual tour or video. Start a review request process and publish suburb content.
Which childcare marketing strategy comes first?
If you only do one thing this month, make sure every enquiry is answered quickly with a specific tour time. If enquiries are the problem, start with local search and a targeted ad campaign. Either way, start from the gap you need to fill.
Want a plan built around your centre?
Maximize Marketing works with childcare centres across Australia on local SEO, Google and Meta ads, websites and virtual tours. If you'd like a second opinion on where your centre is losing families, book a free chat with our team or explore our childcare marketing services.
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