Aeropower
Co-piloting Paid Ads that Convert with Aeropower
Services Used
Project Manager
Project Location
Brisbane, Australia
Services Used
Solution
SEO & Paid Media
Project Manager
Project Location
Brisbane, Australia
Project Goals
Aeropower is a multifaceted helicopter organisation leading the industry in specialist aviation-based inspection and maintenance services. Beyond servicing, Aeropower is an RTO backed by pilots with 15,000+ hours of experience collectively.
The RTO realised there was an opportunity to reach more potential pilots through an effective paid ads strategy rather than simply boosting posts and repurposing existing content. Understanding the gap Neighbourhood could fill, Aeropower reached out to develop a high-flying paid strategy that attracted and converted quality leads.
Their wants
01
A greater financial ROI through their paid ads
02
More qualified leads to enquire about Aeropower flight school
Their needs
01
A strategic paid media approach to reach the right people at the right time
Identifying the problem
Looking to grow Aeropowers lead base, Adam reached out to see whether his long-time friend, Trav, could create movement after months of stagnation. With the introduction of Government VET-FEE support recently in effect, Adam knew there would be an influx of pilot students to be, he just needed to reach them. Managing their Facebook Ads internally, Aeropower was working with what little knowledge they had in developing engaging content that attracted and converted prospective students.
Adam tried his hand at setting up a Facebook Ad campaign though the results were disheartening and the campaign attracted unqualified leads at a higher cost per click. Aeropower were spread thin trying to reinvest their internal resources into an underwhelming campaign while trying to service and support non-starter leads.
Understanding there was more to gain than lose from investing in a thorough paid media strategy, Neighbourhood began preparing Facebook and Google Ads paired with an SEM campaign that would assist in an ads-to-website funnel, both educating and enabling leads every step of the way.
The Plan
- So, you want to be a pilot?
- Exploratory sessions
- Researching the playing field
- Establishing the channels and goals
- Buyer personas supporting tailored content development
So, you want to be a pilot?
- Establishing the customer journey within an aviation RTO required a less-traditional scope. Aeropower wasn't providing short business courses appealing to a wider audience - it was attempting to engage students who sought niche careers as helicopter pilots.
Exploratory sessions
- Our exploratory sessions involved a research approach: who exactly are Aeropowers students? What are students trying to learn when considering an aviation career? What careers are available in this industry?
- Through exploratory sessions, Neighbourhood worked with Aeropower to discover the intricacies of their customers' journey, as well as current students' experiences in, and post the course.
Researching the playing field
- An industry and competitor analysis was conducted to discover a target demographic and how other aviation RTO's were attracting customers.
- Neighbourhood conducted keyword research to determine high converting and traction heavy keywords Aeropower could leverage to reach a broad audience.
- Our aviation education research concluded one of several findings, being our target market would be males from 18 to 35.
Establishing the channels and goals
- Solidifying channels for new enquiries that were financially sustainable whilst rendering a positive ROI was next. With a Facebook presence already existing, Facebook Ads was a chosen paid media channel, in addition to Google Ads.
- To measure an effective paid media strategy we set sights on the following goals for both Facebook and Google Ads:
- Boost brand awareness
- Increase form and call enquiries
- Drive more visits to the website
- Increase search Impression share
Buyer personas supporting tailored content development
- Previously paid Facebook Ads lacked education of Aeropower courses and thorough call-to-actions to harness qualified leads, resulting in a poor ROI.
- With an understanding of Aeropower's buyer personas, tailored content was curated for students at each stage of the funnel - from awareness to the purchase stage.
- Neighbourhood introduced responsive search ads, calls ads and expanded text ads as they promote greater visibility, and have proven to generate stronger click-through rates when searching for related content.
The Strategy
- Tailored, influential content
- Strategy for brand awareness
- Campaigns that engaged and attracted
- Utilising Facebook insights
Tailored, influential content
- Newly created Facebook Ads displayed images of potential helicopter careers with nurturing copy. The top of the funnel consisted of educating leads on the content and opportunities the course offers - to the bottom of the funnel opting for students that have viewed Aeropowers content to, 'Secure Your Spot" and "Train with Experienced Pilots".
Strategy for brand awareness
- Our first month of paid ads was purely driving brand awareness and website traffic to educate leads on Aeropower and its services, helping be front-of-mind when students considered an aviation career. After achieving this, our approach shifted to a bid strategy that boosted our conversions, capitalising on Aeropowers new leads.
Campaigns that engaged and attracted
- Neighbourhood developed 3 segregated campaigns for Brand, Services Aeropower offered, and a Competitor campaign to target competing brand names and keywords. This allowed extensive visibility of Aeropower - both educating leads while being widely displayed in the aviation category. These were further divided into broad and dynamic ad groups.
- These campaigns were split between Brisbane and Sydney where Aeropower is located...
- Brisbane included 2 ad groups: one containing generic and non-branded keywords, in addition to a specific ad group containing Aeropower flight training-related keywords
- Sydney's campaign consisted of generic keywords relating to aviation training, and an ad group consisting of helicopter service licenses and their requirements.
Utilising Facebook insights
- Facebook insights drew same interest and behavioural audiences Neighbourhood targeted through paid ads as a broad approach.
- Neighbourhood then refined this audience by implementing a remarketing campaign to gain quality leads, more likely to convert.
The Results
1352+
Leads in 12-months
$1.53m
In Revenue
140%
Increase in Website Traffic
A sturdy strategy was now implemented that nurtured leads from top to bottom of the funnel through content derived from Aeropowers buyer personas.
This laid the groundwork for a successful paid media campaign, with a 140% increase in website traffic and a 60% increase in overall account impressions. Our brand awareness strategy was successful, reaching a qualified audience that provided Aeropower with 1352+ leads within 12 months.
With our remarketing campaign sifting through the crowd for quality leads, Aeropower began converting genuinely engaged students, contributing to an impressive $1.53m in revenue across the past year.
The Impact
"The team at Neighbourhood took our marketing/branding and CRM to the next level. We had reached the end of what we could do on our own and the Neighbourhood team picked up our marketing ball and ran with it. I would recommend Trav and the team to anyone looking to refresh and turbo charge their marketing efforts. We look forward to working with the team on our future marketing efforts."
Conclusion
Enabling Aeropower with a healthy balance of paid media tools, the aviation RTO now has a channel that garners quality leads to warrant this advertising investment as a successful one. With a thorough understanding of customer journeys and how best to cater to prospective students, Aeropower is now scaling into other capitals in Australia, as well as extending their training to post-graduate flight instructor training. We're excited to be sitting as co-pilot as Aeropower continues to scale, year on year.