Ever wondered why hiring a marketing agency can feel like throwing money into a black hole? You’re not alone.
I know what you’re thinking: what warrants me having an opinion on this topic? Well, I spent seven years working as a consultant at a marketing agency, collaborating directly with K-12 private and independent schools across North America.
Most school Marketing & Communications Directors have at one time battled with the decision to either build a team and run digital advertising internally or hire an outside agency to run everything for them. The obvious benefits of doing it internally include quicker decision-making and a team focused entirely on your school. However, the drawbacks are significant – an internal team is drastically more expensive and often lacks the diverse expertise of an agency. This is especially true for smaller schools that can’t afford to build a well-rounded team with a designer, copywriter, strategist, data analyst, and developer. Could you find someone that can do everything? Maybe. But not at the level you would expect a balanced team to and you may find yourself starting to lower your expectations.
I’ve come across some pretty impressive internal marketing teams at schools (you know who you are), but the reality is they are few and far between – and even the best teams have knowledge gaps. As the table below illustrates, these gaps exist because internal teams don’t have the advantage of working across multiple markets and diverse school positions. Without exposure to a wide range of strategies, trends, and ad performance insights, it’s harder to refine and optimize campaigns effectively.
Given this, it’s probably no surprise that I believe most schools benefit from seeking outside help to create and manage their digital advertising.
| Role | Agency Team Responsibilities | School MarComm Responsibilities |
| Content Strategist/Copywriter | Develops content for dozens of schools across different markets, constantly testing and refining messaging for maximum engagement and conversions. | Writes all school communications, including newsletters, brochures, website updates, and social media—often without the ability to A/B test or refine based on ad performance. |
| Designer | Specializes in ad creative optimized for performance-driven campaigns. Works on multiple industries, stays updated on best practices, and produces high-end visuals. | Designs everything from admissions brochures to website graphics, social media posts, and internal school annoucements—often juggling multiple priorities and limited by internal resources. |
| Digital Strategist | Develops data-driven ad strategies informed by results from hundreds of campaigns. Focuses exclusively on paid media performance. | Manages a single campaign with ample time to optimize, but often becomes overly focused on minor adjustments instead of exploring broader strategic improvements. |
| Data Analyst | Continuously tracks ad performance, optimizes spend, and adjusts targeting based on thousands of data points across multiple schools. | Data analysis often falls to team members without expertise, leading to less comprehensive insights. Most schools lack a dedicated analyst, as the workload typically doesn’t justify a full-time position. |
| Developer | Handles web development and technical support for multiple campaigns, optimizing user experience and conversion rates. | May update the school website, but often lacks the expertise to optimize ad landing pages or implement advanced tracking, leading to lost attribution data. This role tends to fall on the IT department at the school – who are managing a number of things already outside the scope of the website. |
So Now to My Point. Why Do Marketing Agencies Charge So Much?
Raise your hand if you’ve ever paid a hefty sum for an assessment. Then another large fee for a strategy. And then, before your campaign goes live, spent even more just for ‘one time’ set up costs.
Don’t be embarrassed if I made you instinctively raise your hand…
By the time your ads are finally running, months have passed, and a significant portion of your budget is already gone. But when the ROI numbers are presented, those upfront costs? They’re often swept under the rug.
Agencies justify these costs by emphasizing the importance of research, planning, and creative development – all of which have value. But for many schools, the reality is that they don’t have the budget to spend tens of thousands before even launching a campaign.
That’s not to say high-end creative isn’t valuable. I’ve been part of some great creative campaigns, and there’s undeniable power in telling a compelling brand story. However, for it to be effective, this story needs to be told consistently across all platforms – not just in digital ads. That includes organic social posts, videos, brochures, magazines, posters around campus, and even flagpoles. To do this right, you need buy-in across your entire school – and a significantly larger marketing budget.
The benefits of high-end creative often overlook the substantial costs required to achieve it, which eats into your media budget. The reality is, most schools don’t need fancy images, but effective, results-driven campaigns.
At the end of the day, school marketing budgets currently don’t line up with the needs of high-end creative. Should they? Yes – because you are selling a premium product. But in reality, most school’s marketing budgets more resemble those of a local furniture store than a luxury brand.
And Even Then… Breaking Through the Noise is Harder Than Ever
Even with a solid strategy, schools face another challenge: breaking through the noise. Families are bombarded with ads from every direction – competing schools in the area, summer programs, tutoring services, and everything in between.
Agencies respond to this by throwing more money at the problem – more creative, more strategy, more testing – like a chef trying to fix a burnt dish by adding more salt! But as advertising platforms continue to restrict access to granular user data, the old methods are becoming less effective. That means schools are often paying premium prices for strategies that no longer work as well as they once did.
Enter Aryval: The Anti-Agency.
We’ve come from the agency world and understand its dynamics. We’ve also worked with independent schools long enough to recognize that they don’t have quarter-million-dollar marketing budgets to experiment with and that they need a different approach rather than the all-in, enterprise-level strategies agencies propose by default.
That’s why Aryval Promote prioritizes the most important factor: getting in front of the right families with the right message – without unnecessary overhead.
We achieve this by:
- Prioritizing media spend over excessive creative costs
- Linking previously anonymous prospective families to their acquisition channels, allowing us to track their journey all the way to enrollment and determine which tactics were most effective
- Leveraging first-party data from Aryval Events (provided *FREE* to Aryval Promote customers)
This first-party data helps reach a crowded market and combat the diminishing returns of traditional digital targeting – ensuring your marketing budget is spent efficiently and effectively.
The Bottom Line: Strategy Over Flair
In a landscape where every dollar counts it’s crucial for schools to approach marketing with strategy and purpose. While high-end creative has its place, prioritizing data-driven, results-focused strategies often yield better outcomes – especially when budgets are tight.
If you’re navigating the complexities of school marketing and seeking a partner who understands your unique challenges, send me an email I’d love to chat. Together, we can create a tailored strategy that effectively drives enrollment without straining your budget.
