Enrollment Intelligence for Childcare Operators

Spending More on Marketing but Getting Fewer Tours?

If that's true, you're not alone — and more ads isn't the answer. ChildcareDM works with childcare and early education operators to build the strategy, systems, and accountability that actually move enrollment.

Sound Familiar?

The marketing is running. The seats aren't filling.

Over the past few years, centers across the country have experienced the same pattern:

Your inquiry volume is down, or the inquiries coming in aren't the right families

You're getting reports full of clicks and impressions, but nobody can tell you what's actually driving enrollment

Competitors with worse programs are consistently outranking you and out-enrolling you

You have a media vendor, maybe internal staff, maybe both, and no one owns the full picture

You've tried agencies. You've boosted posts. You've spent money. But nobody can tell you why it's not working — or what to do about it.

The Real Problem

Most childcare marketing is built to report activity. Not fill seats.

Vendors measure what they can control — clicks, impressions, open rates. Those numbers look like progress. But they don't connect to a toured family, an enrolled child, or a full classroom.

After working with 225+ early childhood education centers and managing over $8 million in childcare-specific ad spend, the pattern is consistent: operators aren't failing because they're not spending enough. They're failing because nobody has built a system that connects marketing activity to enrollment outcomes — and then holds it accountable.

That's the only problem ChildcareDM exists to solve.

What We Do

Every engagement starts with strategy. Everything else follows from that.

We don't sell channel packages. We build enrollment systems, then deploy the right channels to feed them. For some operators that's a full-service engagement. For others it starts with a single service and grows from there.

Paid Search Google Ads

Hyper-local, childcare-specific campaign architecture. Built around inquiry volume and cost-per-enrollment benchmarks, not click-through rates.

Paid Social Meta

Awareness and retargeting campaigns built for the enrollment funnel — not brand impressions. Families in your radius, at the right moment in their decision.

Local SEO & Google Business Profile

The highest-ROI channel most operators ignore. Map pack visibility, review velocity, and local authority that compounds over time and drives local website search.

Website & Landing Page Optimization

Traffic without conversion kills your budget. We audit and optimize the pages families land on — for speed, trust signals, and a clear path to inquiry.

Analytics & Reporting Infrastructure

One dashboard. Real numbers. Inquiries by source, cost per lead by channel, tour rate, enrollment rate. No more reconciling reports.

Multi-Location Strategy & Alignment

Consistent brand standards, location-level performance visibility, and channel strategy must coordinate across the portfolio.

What We Do

One location or twenty — the problem is usually the same.

We work with independent childcare operators, franchisees, and multi-site groups across the country. The size of the portfolio changes the complexity of the engagement. The core problem is almost always identical: marketing activity that isn't connecting to enrollment outcomes.

Single & Small Operators

You're running the center and making the marketing decisions. You may have a vendor you inherited or a platform you signed up for. You need to know if it's working — and what to do if it isn't. Our modular services let you start where the need is biggest and build from there.

Multi-Site & Growing Operators

You have internal resources, vendor relationships, and a portfolio to manage. What you need isn't more execution — it's strategy that sits above the channels, connects the data, and holds every piece accountable to enrollment outcomes. That's the engagement we're built for.

Childcare, Daycare & Preschool Marketing You Can Trust

years specializing in childcare and preschool marketing

early childhood education centers served

of childcare-specific ad spend managed

Get Started

Why ChildcareDM

You work directly with the strategist. Not an account manager.

ChildcareDM was built on a simple premise: childcare operators deserve marketing expertise that's as specialized as the industry they're in. After a decade working exclusively in early childhood education — across independent operators, franchise networks, and multi-site groups — the gaps are always the same. Generic marketing advice from generalist agencies. Vendor reports that measure activity instead of outcomes. No one accountable to enrollment.

Every ChildcareDM engagement is led directly by Cory Gabel, not handed off to a junior team. That means the strategy, the analysis, and the accountability sit with someone who has seen the inside of this industry from every angle.

Ready to start?
Let's find out if there's a real fit.

Tell us about your centers and what you're trying to solve. We review every submission and respond within one business day — with a straight take on what we're seeing, not a package presentation.