Hi TBC,
You're not just offering small class sizes and strong academics (though you do). You’re offering certainty. A guaranteed pathway. A real sense of security in a world where the independent school journey can feel overwhelming. For London parents, that’s gold dust.
You’ve clearly thought about what keeps families up at night — the stress of entrance exams, the endless prep, the pressure. And you’ve built a school that says: We’ve got you.
But when we ran a quick Mirror Test on your current ad, that reassurance — that clarity — was slightly lost.
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 Snaresbrook Prep? Would a parent?
Snaresbrook Prep in the Wild
This is your current Meta ad. Let’s look at it through a parent’s eyes.
What’s Working
✅Clear value proposition: “Exam-free entry into a top independent school” is a strong hook. It speaks directly to one of the biggest pain points for London parents and offers emotional relief and makes a powerful case for peace of mind.
✅Benefit-led subtext: “Guaranteed place” and “no entry exam” convey security and assurance, two things that resonate deeply with parents who are future-focused and risk-averse. These messages go beyond surface-level features and tap into deeper parental motivations.
✅Call-to-action is specific and warm: “Book your free 1:1 with our Headmaster Ralph” is more personable than the usual “Register Now” style CTA. It suggests care, availability, and genuine connection — and that aligns with the copy’s tone.
What’s Getting Lost:
🔁 Same old script: “small class sizes” is common phrase: It's a well-meaning line, but in school marketing, it's become a cliché. We found 250 active school ads using the exact phrase in their campaigns.
❌Missing the ‘Snaresbrook feel’: The body copy sounds like something that could be copied and pasted between any number of London prep schools. It’s safe — but lacks the charm, character, or point of view that would make a parent stop scrolling and think, this sounds like the right kind of place for us.
🗣️No narrative build: The copy starts with an emotive insight but then immediately switches to feature-based messaging. There's an opportunity to build on that emotional resonance — perhaps with a simple story or example to illustrate how Snaresbrook “offers more.”
👉 When we searched Meta’s Ad Library, we found over 250 other ads using “small class sizes” verbatim.
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.