Paid ads that found future pilots.
A Brisbane helicopter flight school whose boosted posts brought in the wrong enquiries. The fix started with who its students actually are.
- Industry
- Aviation training (RTO)
- Channels
- Facebook Ads and Google Ads
- Scope
- Strategy, content, remarketing
- Project lead
Trav White- Location
- Brisbane, Australia
01 The briefBuild Facebook and Google Ads that reach people seriously considering a career as a helicopter pilot, teach them what the course offers, and send them to the website ready to enquire.
More students coming, and ads that missed them.
Aeropower is a helicopter business that inspects and maintains aircraft, and trains pilots. It is an RTO, a registered training organisation that can deliver accredited courses, and its instructors have more than 15,000 flying hours between them.
Enquiries had flatlined for months. Government VET-FEE support had just come in, so Adam Roy knew a wave of would-be pilots was coming. He needed a way to reach them.
Aeropower ran its own Facebook ads, mostly by boosting posts and reusing content it already had. The campaign Adam set up brought in unqualified leads at a higher cost per click, and the team was spread thin answering enquiries from people who were never going to enrol.
The ads were never built for the buyer. The boosted posts did not explain the courses and did not give a clear next step. A career this specialised needs both before anyone fills in a form.
The goals set for the program
- A better financial return from paid ads.
- More qualified leads. People seriously considering a career as a helicopter pilot.
- More visits to the website. Sent there ready to enquire.
- Brand awareness.
So, you want to be a pilot?
Aeropower sells a niche career, and a short business course playbook would not have fit it. The work started with who its students are.
Exploratory sessions, With Aeropower
Who exactly are the students? What are they trying to learn when they consider an aviation career, and which careers are open to them? We mapped the journey through the course and after it.
Current students' experience included
Researching the field, Competitors and keywords
An industry and competitor review of how other aviation RTOs find students, and keyword research for the searches that convert.
Core audience: men aged 18 to 35
Choosing channels and goals, What had to pay for itself
Facebook, because Aeropower already had a following there, and Google Ads beside it. Both had to bring enquiries in at a cost the school could sustain.
Two channels, four goals
Personas and content, Every stage of the funnel
Buyer personas shaped content for each stage, from first hearing about the school to booking a place. Responsive search ads, call ads and expanded text ads went into Google.
Education first, then a clear next step
Four things the campaigns measured, on both channels
Brand awareness
Be the school people already know when they start looking at an aviation career.
Form and call enquiries
More people asking about the course, by form or by phone.
Website visits
Send people to the site, where the course is explained properly.
Search impression share
Show up more often when someone searches for pilot training.
The research gave the ads their audience. The competitor review showed how other aviation RTOs were finding students, the keyword research found the searches most likely to convert, and together they pointed to a core market for the course: men aged 18 to 35.
The personas gave them something to say. The earlier ads had not explained the courses or offered a clear next step, which is why they drew poor leads and a poor return. With the personas in hand, we wrote for each stage of the funnel. Early on, the ads showed the careers a helicopter licence can lead to. For people who had already seen Aeropower's content, they asked for the next step.
Teach first, then ask them to enrol.
Boosting posts and getting the wrong leads?
From school news to a career on offer.
The first month ran purely for awareness and website traffic. Once people knew the school, the bid strategy switched to conversions, and a remarketing campaign followed up the people most likely to enrol.
Secure Your Spotor
Train with Experienced Pilotsand a link to the course.
Three campaigns. Brand, for people searching for Aeropower. Services, for the courses it offers. And Competitor, for people searching other schools' names. Each was split into broad and dynamic ad groups, and run separately for Brisbane and Sydney.
Facebook, broad then narrow. Facebook's audience insights gave us the interests and behaviours to target first. Remarketing then narrowed that down to the people who had already engaged, who were the ones most likely to enquire.
| Ad group | Brisbane | Sydney |
|---|---|---|
| Ad group 1 | Generic and non-branded keywords | Generic aviation training keywords |
| Ad group 2 | Aeropower flight training keywords | Helicopter licences and what they require |
Four goals. Here is how they went.
The goals set before the program started, and where Aeropower stood twelve months later.
Goal 01
A better financial return from paid ads
We built Facebook and Google Ads on the buyer personas, with remarketing to follow up the people most likely to enrol.
$1.53M
in revenue across the year. Remarketing picked out the people genuinely weighing up a career in the air, and Aeropower began converting them into students.
Goal 02
More qualified leads asking about the flight school
We wrote content for each stage of the funnel, each piece ending on a clear next step, and set up call ads in Google.
1,352+
leads in 12 months, by form and by phone. The boosted posts before them brought in unqualified leads at a higher cost per click. The new ads explain the course first, then ask for the next step.
Goal 03
More visits to the website
We ran the first month purely for awareness and traffic, sending people to the site where the course is explained.
140%
increase in website traffic. That first month put Aeropower in front of a qualified audience, before the bid strategy switched to conversions.
Goal 04
Brand awareness
We built Brand, Services and Competitor campaigns, split into broad and dynamic ad groups across Brisbane and Sydney.
60%
increase in overall account impressions. The three campaigns put Aeropower's ads in front of people searching for its name, its courses and other schools, in both cities.
Put together, Aeropower now has a paid channel that brings in quality leads and earns back what it spends. The ads carry people from first hearing about the school through to enrolling.
With a better understanding of how its students choose a course, the school began scaling into other Australian capitals. It also extended its training to post-graduate flight instructor training.
“The team at Neighbourhood took our marketing/branding and CRM to the next level. We had reached the end of what we could do on our own and the Neighbourhood team picked up our marketing ball and ran with it. I would recommend Trav and the team to anyone looking to refresh and turbo charge their marketing efforts. We look forward to working with the team on our future marketing efforts.”
Adam Roy
Aeropower
Who ran it
Trav WhiteFounder and Head of AI Engineering
Led the research, personas and content, and a year of Facebook, Google and remarketing campaigns.
HubSpot Certified Trainer, 9 HubSpot Impact Awards, Founded Neighbourhood in 2015
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