How to Choose a Childcare Marketing Agency: 10 Questions to Ask Before You Sign

Hiring a marketing agency is a big call for a childcare centre. You're handing over your budget, your reputation with local families and, often, the keys to your website and Google accounts. Get it right and you have a partner who keeps your rooms full. Get it wrong and you can lose months, plus access to accounts you thought you owned.

This guide is a plain checklist for how to choose a childcare marketing agency: ten questions to ask, what a good answer sounds like, and the red flags to walk away from. Yes, we're an agency too. Ask us every one of these questions, and ask everyone else on your shortlist the same ones so you can compare answers fairly. If you want to see how we work first, here's our childcare marketing agency page.

Before you talk to anyone: know what you're hiring for

Agencies are easier to judge when you know the job. Write down three things before the first call:

• Your gap. Which rooms and age groups have vacancies, and by when do you need them filled?

• Your current numbers. Roughly how many enquiries, tours and new enrolments you get a month. Rough is fine.

• Your bottleneck. Is the problem not enough enquiries, or enquiries that don't turn into tours and enrolments? If it's the second, our guide to turning enquiries into enrolments may help more than any agency.

Send these to each agency before the call. The good ones will come back with questions, not a price list.

The 10 questions to ask a childcare marketing agency

1. What will you judge this work on?

You want to hear enquiries, tours booked and children enrolled, without having to prompt. If the answer is mostly likes, reach, impressions or "brand awareness", that agency is measuring what's easy for them to see, not what fills your rooms.

2. What have you done for centres like mine?

Ask for childcare examples, not just general small-business work. Then ask if you can speak to a current or past childcare client. Google's own advice on hiring an SEO says the same thing: check references and ask past clients whether the work was useful and the agency was easy to deal with. An agency with real results won't mind you checking.

3. How do parents in my area choose a centre?

This is a test of childcare knowledge. A strong answer mentions things like Google Maps and reviews, tours, word of mouth, your website and government tools such as Starting Blocks, and how that changes between, say, a busy inner suburb and a growth area. A vague answer about "engaging content" is a sign they'll run your centre like any other business. (We've written about how parents choose childcare if you want to compare notes.)

4. Who will own my ad accounts, website and Google Business Profile?

This one matters more than most owners realise. Your Google Ads account, Meta ad account, website, domain, analytics and Google Business Profile should be in your centre's name, with the agency added as a user.

Google's help pages explain why. In Google Ads, Admin access can manage users and billing, and Google suggests having more than one admin so you don't get locked out. On a Business Profile, owners have full control while managers can't add or remove users or delete the profile. So the agency should be a manager or a standard user, and you should stay an owner and admin. If an agency insists on setting things up in its own name, ask what happens to the account and its history if you leave.

5. What's in the contract, and how do I get out?

Ask for the contract before you agree to anything, and read the term, notice period, cancellation fees and any automatic renewal. Australia's unfair contract terms laws cover standard form contracts with small businesses, and since 9 November 2023 businesses can be penalised for proposing or relying on unfair terms. The ACCC counts a small business as one with fewer than 100 employees or turnover under $10 million. The WA Small Business Development Corporation even gives an advertising company's automatic rollover clause as an example of a term that could be unfair.

That doesn't mean every 12-month contract is bad. It means you should understand exactly what you're signing. For what it's worth, we work month to month with no lock-in, because we'd rather keep clients with results than with paperwork.

6. How much goes to the agency, and how much goes to ads?

Ask for a clear split between the agency's fee and your advertising spend. Ideally, ad spend is billed by Google or Meta straight to your card, so you can see every dollar. Also ask what's included (ads, website changes, photography, reporting) and what costs extra. Unclear pricing usually gets more unclear once you've signed.

7. What can you promise, and what can't you?

Be wary of guarantees. Google says plainly that no one can guarantee a #1 ranking and warns against anyone who claims a "special relationship" with Google. The same goes for guaranteed enrolment numbers. A trustworthy agency will tell you what it will do, what it expects to happen and how you'll both know if it's working.

8. How will you get reviews and handle photos of children?

Reviews and photos are two places where a careless agency can do real damage. Google's Maps policy bans offering incentives for reviews and removes reviews from people with a conflict of interest, like staff or family. Any agency offering to "boost" your reviews should be shown the door. Our guide to getting more Google reviews the right way covers what is allowed.

For photos and videos, ask how the agency works with your consent process for families, and whether they ever use images of enrolled children without written permission. The right answer is never.

9. Do you know the childcare advertising rules?

Childcare ads have rules most general marketers don't know. The Department of Education doesn't allow financial inducements such as cash, vouchers or gift cards to get families to enrol, though offers like free trial days are allowed. Ask the agency what they'd do if you wanted to run an enrolment special. If they've never heard of the rules, that's a risk to your service, not just your marketing. Our childcare advertising guide covers this in more detail.

10. What will I see each month, and who do I talk to?

Ask to see a sample report. It should show enquiries by source, tours booked and, where you can share the data, children who started, plus what was tried that month and what's next. Also ask who will actually work on your account and how quickly they reply. Centres move fast when a room suddenly has spots, and you need someone who picks up the phone.

Red flags that should end the conversation

• Guaranteed rankings, guaranteed enrolments or a "special relationship" with Google.

• Ad accounts, website or Business Profile set up in the agency's name, not yours.

• Long lock-in contracts with automatic renewal and big exit fees you only learn about late.

• Offers to buy, swap or incentivise reviews.

• Reports full of reach and clicks, with nothing about enquiries or tours.

• No childcare examples, and no client you can call.

Specialist or generalist?

A childcare specialist won't automatically be better, but they should already know the parent journey, the busy enrolment periods and the advertising rules, so you aren't paying for them to learn. A generalist can still do good work if they answer the questions above well. Judge the answers, not the label. If you'd rather build the plan yourself first, our childcare marketing plan template is a good place to start.

FAQs

How much does a childcare marketing agency cost?

It varies a lot with the services, the number of centres and how much you spend on ads. Ask every agency for its fee and your ad spend as separate numbers, and compare what's included, not just the total.

Should I sign a 12-month marketing contract?

Only if you understand the terms and they're fair. Check the notice period, any automatic renewal and exit fees. Many agencies, including us, work month to month.

What should a childcare marketing agency report on?

Enquiries by source, tours booked and children enrolled where possible, plus what was tested and what's planned next. Likes and impressions are fine as extras, but they shouldn't be the headline.

Want to put us through the same 10 questions?

Book a free chat and ask us anything on this list. We'll tell you honestly whether we can help your centre and, if we can't, what we'd do in your shoes. You can read what our clients say on our testimonials page, see how we work on our childcare marketing page, or get in touch for a free chat.