About Care for Kids
Care for Kids has spent 20+ years becoming Australia's #1 destination for finding and comparing childcare, helping parents compare centres side by side with verified reviews, tour bookings and ratings. More than 2 million Aussie parents visit the site every year.
The Challenge
Three problems stood between Care for Kids and confident growth:
- Attribution chaos. Meta and Google Ads were each reporting strong lead numbers, but Care for Kids' internal reporting system, the true source of truth on what a lead actually costs, told a different story. Every platform runs its own attribution window and model, so the numbers never lined up. It's one of the most common headaches we see across the industry, and it was making Meta's real cost per lead look high enough to question the investment altogether.
- Scaling without blowing out cost per lead. Care for Kids wanted to grow Google Ads spend meaningfully, not just nudge it, without watching cost per lead climb in the process.
- Creative that actually lands with parents. Standard ad formats weren't cutting through with a notoriously discerning, emotionally invested audience: parents choosing childcare for their kids.
Every platform runs its own attribution window and model, so the numbers never lined up, making Meta's real cost per lead look high enough to question the investment altogether.
What We Did
- Fixed attribution first. Rebuilt UTM tracking with proper cookie storage so campaign data survived past the second page. Once that was solid, Care for Kids finally had a clear, trustworthy view of which channels were actually working.
- Scaled Google Ads on new demand, not old campaigns. Instead of pumping more budget into existing campaigns, we found and tapped into new keyword territory parents were actually searching.
- Diversified Meta creative with UGC and influencer formats built to connect with parents on their terms.
- Planned budget around real demand. Flighted spend up when enquiry demand was high, dialling back in quieter periods, instead of spending flat month to month.
Holding Strong Through a Tough Second Half
From September, the sector faced a genuinely difficult period. High-profile safety failures across Australian childcare made parents more cautious about enquiring at all. Despite that, Care for Kids' results held strong through the rest of the year.
The Results
Care for Kids closed the year 35% lower on cost per lead and 55% higher on leads generated, on the same media investment as the year before.
Just as important, Care for Kids now has one trustworthy source of truth across every channel, directly shaping next year's strategy.