Search ads for education centres: turning hot “course + city + price” queries into trial lesson bookings.
Someone searching for “UNT preparation Almaty price” or “IELTS courses Astana” has already decided to study and is choosing a centre. We run Google Ads on such queries, send traffic to programme landing pages with a schedule and booking, and count calls and enquiries for every keyword.
Search ads are the hottest channel for programmes with strong intentional demand: UNT, IELTS, TOEFL, professional IT courses. People search, compare and are ready to pay on their own — you just need to be on the first page with a clear ad and a landing page with a price and schedule. For kids' courses and lesser-known programmes, search ads work worse than targeted ads: demand has to be created, not captured.
In Kazakhstan most search happens on Google, so we start with Google Ads: search campaigns by programme, local campaigns with a map, remarketing. Yandex Direct comes second — it brings extra traffic from Russian-language queries in Almaty, Astana and the north of the country.
Search ads in education have pronounced seasonal peaks: UNT queries grow from March to August, language course queries in August–September and January. We reallocate budget and bids for the season; in the off-season we reduce them without switching off completely, so as not to lose auction positions.
What search ad management for an education centre includes.
Queries by programme and city with search volume and cost per click; negative keywords like “free”, “jobs”, “self-study”, “download”, “essay” — so you do not pay for irrelevant traffic.
Separate campaigns for UNT, IELTS, language courses, IT, early development, local queries and brand. Separate budgets and bids for each programme's seasonality.
Headlines with a “from” price, the next group start date, Kaspi instalments and a trial lesson. Assets — address, phone, links to programmes, callouts.
A page for each advertised programme with the curriculum, price, schedule, teacher and booking — instead of the website's home page.
Google Business Profile and maps: showing the centre on the map for “education centre near me”, directions and a call in one tap.
Dynamic numbers by campaign, call recording, assessing how well the administrator answers — this is often exactly where calls are lost.
Bringing back those who visited the website and did not book: banners and search remarketing with a trial lesson offer.
Raising bids and budget 3–4 weeks before the seasonal peak, preparing ads with current group start dates.
Campaigns and queries.
- “UNT” search: preparation, tutor, courses, price, Almaty/Astana/Shymkent
- “IELTS and TOEFL” search: preparation, courses, price, sign up
- “Language courses” search: English, German, Chinese, Korean + city
- “IT courses” search: coding, Python, web development, courses for kids
- “Early development” search: kids' courses, robotics, school readiness
- “Local” search: education centre + district/metro/near me
- Brand: the centre's name and teachers' names
- Google local campaigns (maps)
- Remarketing: website visitors who did not book
- Yandex Direct: priority programmes for ru queries
What to consider when launching ads for educational services.
Google does not require a licence for most educational programmes, but it prohibits misleading promises: an ad cannot guarantee a specific UNT or IELTS score or claim “100% admission”. Yandex Direct requires licensed educational services to upload their licence during review — we help gather the documents. We write ads to the platforms' rules the first time and do not waste time on rounds of review.
How much a student from search ads costs.
Benchmarks for Kazakhstan: a click on language course and early development queries costs ₸80–250, on UNT and IELTS in season ₸200–600. An enquiry or call costs ₸2,000–6,000 for language courses and ₸4,000–12,000 for UNT and IELTS at peak season. A trial lesson booking costs 1.5–2 times more than a lead. With a course price from ₸50,000 per month and a student LTV of several months, this pays off — provided the administrator answers calls and enquiries quickly.
What affects the price of ad management.
Managing one platform for one centre costs ₸150,000–250,000 per month; Google and Yandex together, several branches or two languages — ₸250,000–400,000. The ad budget is separate, at least ₸200,000 per month; in season for competitive programmes in Almaty — from ₸250,000. Setup is included in the first month; a one-off setup without management costs ₸150,000.
Programme landing pages are quoted separately as landing pages. General terms are on the search advertising page.
The short version.
How much do search ads for an education centre cost?
Management from ₸150,000 per month plus a budget from ₸200,000. In season, for competitive programmes in Almaty, the budget starts from ₸250,000. Setup is included in the first month.
Google or Yandex for an education centre?
We start with Google Ads — it has the main share of search in Kazakhstan. Yandex Direct comes second: traffic is cheaper, volume is smaller, and it works well for Russian-language queries in Almaty and Astana.
For which programmes do search ads work better than targeted ads?
For programmes with intentional demand: UNT, IELTS, TOEFL, professional IT courses. For kids' courses and new programmes, where demand has to be created, targeted ads are more effective.
How do you account for seasonality in search ads?
3–4 weeks before the seasonal peak we raise bids and budget and update ads with current group start dates. In the off-season we reduce the budget but do not switch off — so as not to lose auction positions for the next season.
How do you measure results?
Call tracking counts calls by campaign and keyword, the CRM counts trial lesson bookings and payments. The report shows the cost per booked student for each programme, not clicks.
Same service for other industries
Want students from hot queries? Send us your list of programmes — we will calculate a budget and a forecast.
Tell us your city, priority programmes, current website and ad budget. We will reply with a cost-per-booking forecast and a campaign plan within 1–2 business days.