How to Advertise Daycare on Facebook

Advertising your daycare on Facebook can feel overwhelming, but it's one of the most effective ways to reach local families and fill your open spots. This guide breaks down the exact steps you need to take, from setting up your page for success to creating ads that get parents to schedule a tour. We will cover how to build a trustworthy presence, target the right audience with precision, and craft messages that speak directly to the needs of parents in your community.

First Things First: Optimize Your Facebook Business Page

Before you spend a single dollar on ads, your Facebook Page needs to act as a welcoming digital front door for your daycare. Parents will visit your page to vet your services, and a professional, informative page builds instant trust. If your page looks neglected, parents might assume your facility is, too.

Make a Strong First Impression

• Profile Picture: Use a clear, high-quality version of your logo. This is your brand's identifier across Facebook.
• Cover Photo: This is prime real estate. Use a bright, happy photo of your facility, ideally showing children engaged in a fun activity (with parental consent, of course) or your wonderful staff interacting with kids. A photo of your clean, inviting playground or main classroom works great.
• Create a Username: Set a custom username (e.g., @SunshineDaycareSpringfield). This makes your page easy to find and tag.

Fill in All the Details

In your page's "About" section, be thorough. Parents are looking for specifics that make their decision easier.

• Contact Information: Double-check that your phone number, address, and email are correct. Add your website link.
• Hours of Operation: Clearly list your opening and closing times.
• Our Story: Don't skip this! Tell the story of why you started your daycare. What is your philosophy on childcare? Are you play-based, academically focused, or Montessori-inspired? This is your chance to connect with parents on an emotional level.
• Services: List the programs you offer (e.g., Infant Care, Toddler Program, Preschool, After-School Care).
• Call-to-Action (CTA) Button: Customize the button at the top of your page. "Contact Us," "Call Now," or "Learn More" (linked to your enrollment page) are all excellent choices.

Build a Foundation with Organic Content

Ads work best when they direct parents to an active, engaging page. Think of your organic posts as building a relationship and your ads as inviting new people to join the conversation. Consistently posting valuable, non-promotional content shows you're a vibrant, caring community - not just a business hungry for new enrollments.

Content Ideas That Build Trust:

• Behind-the-Scenes Fun: Share photos and videos of daily activities. Art projects, story time, science experiments, or outdoor play all work beautifully. Always get written consent from parents before posting pictures of their children. A great alternative is to show activities from a perspective that focuses on the children's hands or the back of their heads, emphasizing the activity itself.
• Staff Spotlights: Introduce your teachers! Post a nice photo of a staff member with a short bio about why they love working with children. This puts a friendly face to your center.
• Parenting Tips: Share helpful articles or quick tips related to child development, handling tantrums, or easy rainy-day activities. This positions you as an expert in early childhood education.
• Testimonials: When a parent says something wonderful about your daycare, ask if you can share it. Create a simple, branded graphic with their quote. These testimonials are incredibly powerful forms of social proof.
• Celebrate Absolutely Everything: Acknowledge holidays, classroom birthdays, "Pajama Day," or the first day of spring. This creates a warm, community-focused atmosphere.

Your Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Facebook Ads for Your Daycare

Once your page is alive with great content, you're ready to start advertising. The goal of your ads isn't just to be seen, it's to get qualified local parents to take the next step, which is usually scheduling a tour or inquiring about enrollment.

Step 1: Choose the Right Ad Objective

In Facebook Ads Manager, the first thing you'll do is select a campaign objective. This tells Facebook what you want to achieve. For a daycare, these three objectives are your best friends:

• Leads: This is often the most effective objective. It allows you to create an "Instant Form" that parents can fill out directly on Facebook without leaving the app. You can collect their name, email, and phone number, essentially creating a list of warm leads to call about scheduling a tour.
• Messages: This objective encourages parents to start a conversation with your page via Facebook Messenger. It's a low-friction way for them to ask about pricing, availability, and hours. It's direct, personal, and great for busy parents.
• Engagement: Use this if you have an upcoming Open House or a limited-time enrollment offer. The goal is to get more likes, comments, and shares on that specific post, increasing its visibility in the local community.

For most daycares starting out, Leads or Messages will deliver the most measurable results.

Step 2: Target the Right Audience (This is The Most Important Part)

The power of Facebook Ads lies in its targeting capabilities. For a physical daycare, your audience is hyperlocal. Wasting money on ads seen by people 50 miles away is a common and costly mistake. Here’s how to set up your targeting:

Location Targeting

This is non-negotiable. Use the "drop pin" feature and set a radius around your daycare's address. Start with a 5 to 10-mile radius. You want to reach parents who live or work nearby. Be sure the setting is on "People living in or recently in this location."

Demographic Targeting

Next, you'll narrow down your audience based on who they are. Go to "Detailed Targeting." Here you have unbelievably powerful options:

• Age: Start with a range like 24-45. Adjust based on the age you know your typical parent client is.
• Parenting Status: This is a goldmine. Under Demographics >, Parents >, All Parents, you can select parents based on the age of their children. For example:
  • Parents with Infants (0-12 months)
  • Parents with Toddlers (1-2 years)
  • Parents with Preschoolers (3-5 years)
  • Parents with Early School-Age Children (6-8 years)

You can layer these. If you are promoting your preschool program, you would specifically target "Parents with preschoolers (3-5 years)." This ensures your ad is only shown to families who are actually in the market for your services.

Step 3: Create Ad Creative That Connects

Your ad's image or video has one job: to stop a parent's scroll. Polished, corporate stock photos will fail here. Parents want to see authenticity.

• Video is King: A simple, 30-second walk-through tour of your facility shot on your smartphone can outperform a slick, professionally produced ad any day. Show off the bright classrooms, the safe outdoor play area, and the friendly faces of your staff. Add captions, as most users watch videos with the sound off.
• Use Real Photos: Use high-quality photos of your space. Bright, clean, and organized is the goal. Photos of kids engaged in fun activities work wonders (again, with consent). Even a cheerful photo of your director or a group of happy teachers carries more weight than a generic stock image.
• Showcase What Makes You Different: Do you have an amazing art program? A beloved music teacher? A fantastic garden? Feature it in your creative. Highlight your unique selling proposition.
• Testimonial Graphics: Turn a powerful parent quote into a simple, attractive image. Put the quote on a colored background with your logo. This is trusted social proof in an easily digestible format.

Step 4: Write Compelling Ad Copy

Your words need to quickly communicate value and tell parents what to do next.

• Speak to Their Pain Points: Start with a hook that addresses a parent's needs.
  • "Looking for a safe and nurturing daycare in [Your Town]?"
  • "Need flexible childcare that fits your work schedule?"
  • "Give your child a head start with our play-based preschool curriculum."
• Focus on the Benefits: Don't just list features. Translate them into benefits.
  • Instead of: "We have low teacher-to-child ratios."
  • Try: "Your child gets the personal attention they deserve with our small class sizes."
  • Instead of: "We use a daily reporting app."
  • Try: "You'll never miss a moment with daily photo and video updates sent right to your phone."
• Have a Clear Call-to-Action (CTA): Tell them exactly what to do next. Be direct.
  • "Click to schedule your personal tour today!"
  • "Send us a message to check on current availability."
  • "Download our free parent handbook to learn more about our approach."

Step 5: Set Your Budget and Monitor Results

You don't need a massive budget to see results with local ads. You can start with a modest budget of $10 to $20 per day. Let the campaign run for at least a week to give Facebook's algorithm time to learn and optimize.

Instead of getting lost in dozens of metrics, focus on the one that matters most for your daycare: Cost Per Lead or Cost Per Message. This tells you how much you're spending to get one parent to raise their hand and show interest. A healthy cost can be anywhere from $5 to $25 per qualified lead, depending on your area. If you're getting leads in that range, your campaign is working. You can then slowly increase your budget to get more of them.

Final Thoughts

Advertising your daycare on Facebook is a powerful way to connect with local families actively searching for childcare. By optimizing your page, posting engaging content, and running highly-targeted ads with authentic creative, you can effectively fill your classrooms with happy children.

Before you spend a dollar on ads, building that consistent, trustworthy presence through organic posts is what gets parents to click and convert. That's why we built Postbase. We realized that juggling fun behind-the-scenes videos for Reels, staff spotlights for Facebook, and parenting tips for your Stories is a huge time commitment. Our visual calendar lets you plan and schedule all that great content across multiple platforms from one simple place, so you can build your community and get your time back.