Guides
How to Work With Your Enrollment Marketing Vendor
A school gets the most from an enrollment marketing vendor when four things are agreed in writing before work starts: what counts as success, who owns the accounts and data, what the school sees every month, and how the school can leave. NAIS found that 44% of responding independent schools work with an external marketing agency for digital marketing for enrollment management, so most schools face this choice. This guide gives a checklist for each of the four, and the questions to ask before you sign. Taylor Wiz is an enrollment marketing agency, so read this as our view and hold any vendor to it, including us.
How many schools work with an outside vendor?
NAIS asked independent schools how they describe their use of digital marketing for enrollment management. 44% work with an external marketing agency, 26% have a full internal capability, 25% are just beginning in-house, and 5% do no digital marketing for enrollment.
Method line: NAIS Research, 2024-2025 State of Independent School Marketing, published February 27, 2025. 285 schools answered this question. Independent schools only. We did not find a comparable published figure for charter schools.
What should the vendor be measured on?
Measure the vendor on submitted applications and the cost of each one, not on clicks, impressions, or inquiries alone. A vendor can report strong clicks while few families apply. Agree on the measure before the first ad runs, and agree on where the number comes from.
- Name the measure in writing: submitted applications, and ad spend divided by submitted applications.
- Agree on the source of the count. It should be your own application system or CRM, not only the vendor's report.
- Agree on the date range, so months are compared the same way.
- Ask the vendor to separate what it controls, such as ads, landing pages, and follow-up, from what it does not, such as tuition, admissions decisions, and enrollment.
See Cost Per Enrolled Student for the method, and Leads vs Enrollments for why the first count matters less than the last.
Who should own the accounts and the data?
The school should own every account the vendor works in. If the vendor owns them, the school can lose its ad history, audiences, and tracking when the contract ends.
- Ask that ad accounts, analytics, tracking tags, and forms are created in the school's name, with the school as an administrator.
- Ask that the vendor has its own access to those accounts, so the school can remove that access on exit.
- Ask who owns the creative, such as images, videos, and copy, and whether the school can keep using them after the contract ends.
- Ask that the school has direct access to its application data and inquiry data at any time, without asking the vendor to export it.
What should you see every month?
A monthly report should let the school check the vendor's work without trusting a summary. Ask for these items, and ask for them in the same format every month.
- Ad spend for the month, by campaign.
- Submitted applications for the month, and ad spend divided by submitted applications.
- Inquiries received, tours booked, and applications started.
- How fast each inquiry was answered, and who answered it.
- What changed this month, and what the vendor will test next.
We did not find a published standard for agency reporting in school marketing. This list is our recommendation, not an industry norm.
What should the agreement cover?
We did not find a published standard for school marketing contracts, so this list is a checklist of items to settle, not a statement of what is normal. Have your own counsel review any agreement.
- Scope. What the vendor does and does not do: ads, landing pages, follow-up, creative, reporting.
- Fees and ad spend. Whether ad spend is paid by the school directly to the platform or through the vendor, and whether the fee is separate from it.
- Term and exit. The length of the agreement, how to end it, the notice required, and what the vendor hands over on exit.
- Reporting. The monthly items above, and the date they arrive.
- Access and ownership. The account and data points above.
- Claims. What the vendor may say in ads on the school's behalf, and who approves it.
- Who answers inquiries. If the vendor follows up with families, how fast, and in whose name.
What questions should you ask before you sign?
- Which schools like ours do you work with, and can I speak with one?
- What do you measure, and where does the number come from?
- Who will actually work on our account, and how often will we talk?
- Whose name are the accounts in?
- What happens to our data, accounts, and creative if we leave?
- How fast do you answer a family who sends an inquiry?
- What do you need from our team each month, such as approvals, photos, and tour availability?
- What do you not do?
What are warning signs?
- The vendor reports clicks and impressions but cannot show submitted applications.
- The vendor will not give the school administrator access to its own accounts.
- The vendor promises an enrollment number. A vendor controls ads and follow-up, not the school's decision on each family.
- The agreement has no way to exit, or the exit terms are unclear.
- The vendor cannot explain a number in its own report.
Should you hire a vendor at all?
It depends on your team. If one or two people run marketing, compare the real cost of covering ads, website, follow-up, and reporting in-house against hiring help. See In-House vs Agency Enrollment Marketing, Private School Marketing Budget, and Private School Marketing Agency.
Frequently asked questions
What should a school ask an enrollment marketing agency before hiring?
Ask what they measure and where the number comes from, whose name the accounts are in, what happens to your data if you leave, who works on your account, and how fast they answer a family who sends an inquiry.
Who should own a school's ad accounts?
The school. Accounts, tracking, and forms should be created in the school's name, with the school as administrator, so the history stays with the school if the vendor changes.
What should a monthly report from a school marketing vendor include?
Ad spend, submitted applications, ad spend divided by submitted applications, inquiries, tours booked, response time, and what will change next month.
How many private schools work with a marketing agency?
NAIS found that 44% of responding independent schools work with an external marketing agency for digital marketing for enrollment management.
Should a vendor promise a number of enrollments?
Be careful of one that does. A vendor controls ads and follow-up. The school decides on each family.
How much does Taylor Wiz cost?
Pricing is scoped to each school on a strategy call, based on your enrollment goals and your market.
Find out what a seat actually costs you
Bring your current enrollment numbers and ad spend. We will map your funnel from inquiry to submitted application and show you where families are lost.
Written by Will Rodriguez, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Sources to watch: NAIS State of Independent School Marketing (next edition).
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