Hi TBC,
This ad is clear, confident, and well-organised. It tells us who you are, who you teach, and that places are limited — which is good. The language feels professional and the message is neat. But the real question is: does it pass the mirror test?
Right now, the message — “independent school for ages 4–18 with individualised learning and a rounded education” — is something almost every independent school could say. It’s safe, accurate, and entirely uncontroversial. But it’s also forgettable.
In an age where attention is the hardest thing to earn, an ad like this risks blending into the noise.
To a parent scrolling Facebook with a half-eaten sandwich in one hand and school search tabs open in the other, your ad might look... like everyone else’s.
That’s not a dig, it’s a pattern. We’ve analysed over 100 school ads running right now in the UK, and most sound eerily similar. Same phrases. Same format. Same promises.
So we built a simple test, just a mirror. A moment of reflection. If you passed your ad in the wild, would you know it was Birkdale school? Would a parent?
Birkdale School in the Wild
This is your current Meta ad. Let’s look at it through a parent’s eyes.
What’s Working
✅Cohesive brand tagline: “Stronger Together” gives you a clear unifying message. It could work really nicely across different stages of school life — from Prep all the way to Sixth Form — and opens up storytelling opportunities around community, pastoral care, and shared growth.
✅Urgency message: Mentioning “limited places available for September 2025” adds helpful pressure and gives parents a reason to act now. Even though it’s buried a bit, it’s a solid addition.
What’s Getting Lost?
Lack of emotional hook: The ad tells us what you offer but not why it matters. There’s no emotional lift, no sense of who thrives at Birkdale, and no storytelling about outcomes. As a result, it feels like a polite announcement rather than an invitation.
Copy feels like a prospectus paragraph: Phrases like “Prep School, Senior School & Sixth Form” and “independent school where children are stronger together” feel like brochure boilerplate. They don’t show voice or personality — and they’re not doing much to stop the scroll.
What does ‘Individualised Learning’ mean here? Every school claims this. Without context, it becomes white noise. Are you setting individual pathways? Offering coaching-style feedback? Allowing timetable flexibility? Show us.
Without being too cringy - this causes something called paradox of choice. When every option looks the same, people don’t feel empowered. They feel overwhelmed. So they scroll past, not because they didn’t like what they saw, but because nothing stood out. If you're not subverting the pattern, you’re at risk of getting skipped over.