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Royal Grammar School (RGS) Newcastle

Royal Grammar School (RGS) Newcastle is one of the North East’s leading independent schools, with a reputation for academic excellence and a highly competitive admissions process.

To support key recruitment periods, RGS needed a digital campaign that would not only increase visibility but also drive traffic to admissions pages and ensure they remained top of mind for prospective families when deciding on a school for their children.

Aim

RGS operates in a competitive education landscape where timing, visibility and messaging are critical.

While awareness of the school was already strong, the challenge was to:

  • Maximise visibility during key admissions periods
    • Drive high-intent traffic to specific application and event pages
    • Ensure messaging reached parents at different stages of the decision journey
    • Maintain consistent presence across multiple platforms
    • Deliver results efficiently within defined campaign budgets

Over the course of the 12-week campaign, the objective was not just to generate clicks, but to ensure those clicks came from the right audience, to maximise their advertising budget.

The Campaign

Harvey & Hugo developed a multi-channel paid ads strategy to reach audiences at different stages of intent:

  • Google Search to capture high-intent demand from parents actively researching school admissions
    • Meta (Facebook and Instagram) to build awareness and drive consistent traffic at scale
    • LinkedIn to reinforce visibility among professional, decision-making audiences

Each platform played a distinct role, working together to ensure consistent visibility across the full decision-making journey — from early awareness through to application deadlines.

The strategy also focused on aligning messaging with landing pages, ensuring parents were directed to the most relevant content without multiple clicks.

For the ‘Year 12’ campaign alone, Google Search resulted in:

  • 1,800 clicks
    • £0.41 average cost per click
    • Majority of traffic driven directly to the Sixth Form admissions page

Search activity was heavily driven by branded terms, showing that users were actively searching for RGS and were already in the decision phase.

This ensured that the campaign didn’t just generate traffic – it captured highly qualified leads at a competitive cost.

Meta formed the foundation of the campaign, delivering scale and cost-efficient traffic from Facebook and Instagram.

Across the ‘Open Morning’, ‘application deadline’ and ‘bursary’ campaigns, RGS had:

  • Over 1.8 million impressions
    • Over 17,000 landing page visits
    • Average cost per landing page view of £0.29

A mix of carousel, video and static ad formats ensured the content remained fresh and engaging throughout the campaign period.

The carousel ads delivered the strongest performance at scale, while video played a key role in capturing attention and driving initial engagement.

LinkedIn activity supported the wider campaign by extending RGS’s reach into professional networks. The campaign here achieved:

  • 18,000+ impressions
    • 224 clicks
    • Strong engagement from senior roles including directors, managers and business owners

While lower in volume than Meta, LinkedIn ensured that RGS’s messaging reached decision-makers within households, reinforcing credibility and awareness.

The Results

Strong, measurable impact, with high-volume, high-quality traffic:

  • Over 21,000 total clicks and landing page visits across all platforms
    • Google Search delivered high-intent traffic at highly competitive CPCs
    • Meta campaigns generated consistent, scalable traffic at low cost

Strong visibility across key audiences:

  • Over 1.9 million impressions delivered
    • Nearly 1 million users reached across platforms
    • Consistent engagement within the 35–54 parent demographic

The campaigns ensured RGS remained visible throughout key decision-making periods, particularly around open events and application deadlines.

Effective multi-channel performance:

Each platform played a clear role in driving results:

  • Meta generated the majority of reach and traffic
    • Google Search captured high-intent demand
    • LinkedIn reinforced visibility among professional audiences

Cost-efficient delivery:

  • Google Search CPC as low as £0.41, below typical UK benchmarks
    • Meta campaigns delivering traffic from as low as £0.12–£0.30 per visit
    • Strong performance across all formats, particularly carousel and video

By combining high-reach social activity with intent-driven search and targeted professional visibility, RGS was able to engage prospective families at multiple points in their decision-making journey – from early awareness through to application.

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