The Fessenden School
The Fessenden School is an independent boarding and day school founded in 1903 educating boys in grades Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 9 on their campus in Newton, Massachusetts. The RMG team has guided The Fessenden School’s paid media and SEO efforts over the past several years, successfully blending multiple marketing channels to lift awareness and drive annual enrollment numbers. Results show that staying true to the school’s longstanding traditions while taking an innovative stance in terms of our marketing recommendations will continue to set Fessenden apart from its competitors.
Agency Partner
Media campaign creative for The Fessenden School are developed thanks to the talented team at Graphic Details.
Media plan Objectives
The school’s annual media campaign focuses on two primary goals: Promoting Open House registrations and encouraging Admissions inquiries. Setting a 20-mile geographic radius around Newton, Massachusetts, we aim to reach families looking for a top notch private school option for their sons. Ads drive traffic to dedicated landing pages containing specifically-crafted content and responsive web forms to capture leads.
Media Plan
The Fessenden School media plan blends digital and traditional media tactics. Using paid search (Google Ads), paid social (Facebook and Instagram) and Retargeting banners, we have blanketed the target geographic area with messaging that appeals to families with boys ages PreK to 9th grade. Print ads in the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine and Boston Magazine Private School issues top off the mix, generating awareness of the school and its longstanding mission which is to promote Open House events and drive leads to the admissions team.
Media Plan Results
Over the past fiscal year, we have seen continued growth across all paid media channels. The Google Ads campaign is a strong driver of engagement and conversions, with 56,651 impressions delivered, 4,610 clicks and an 8.14% CTR along with 121.50 conversions traceable to the PPC campaigns. Top non-branded keywords include boarding school for boys and all boys boarding school teaching us that Fessenden’s boarding school option is something parents are actively seeking. The Meta campaign (Facebook and Instagram) has shown itself to be a significant driver of impressions (views) and a tangible source of traffic to the website. The combination of Google Ads and Meta ads has driven nearly 33,000 website visits so far this year. Our third tactic, retargeting display banners, has yielded over 966,000 impressions and successfully done its job of lifting awareness of The Fessenden School brand within the target market.
In the graph below, we see the progression of Google Ads impression delivery and conversions over time, with the highest numbers happening during peak admissions season (September – December) just when we would expect to see them.
SEO objectives
When building The Fessenden School’s SEO Strategy our primary objectives included:
- Maintaining strong visibility for junior boarding-related queries
- Increasing fourth-grade visibility by appearing more frequently for parents researching education alternatives.
- Lifting visibility for Pre-K and Kindergarten enrollment keywords
We also were keen to make sure Fessenden would appear in Google AI Overviews for select education‑related queries. This experience, albeit early-stage, would signal that Fessenden’s content is being recognized as authoritative and well‑aligned with users’ informational search intent.
SEO Tactics
Thanks to RMG’s careful research leading to a robust keyword strategy and corresponding content recommendations, the majority of Fessenden’s rankings appear within standard organic listings, reflecting strong foundational SEO performance driven by content relevance, site authority, and alignment with parent search intent. These organic placements are especially valuable for sustained discovery and long‑term enrollment consideration. Local SEO also plays a key role in Fessenden’s increase in visibility. The school’s appearance in select enhanced SERP features that support local discovery and high‑intent searches, particularly for families researching schools within specific geographic areas reinforces Fessenden’s local presence and supporting enrollment goals.
SEO results
Since beginning SEO back in 2023, we have produced a measurable increase in Fessenden’s visibility in SERPs, resulting in more prospective families discovering and ultimately engaging on the school’s website. In 2025 alone, Fessenden’s visibility increased by over 30%, attracting approximately 4,500 organic visitors to the website per month.
These metrics mean that Fessenden now appears in search results far more often than competing schools when families are researching options online.
Additionally, the total number of keywords ranking in search results has grown by 249%. This list includes 42 additional keywords ranking in the top three positions on Google: the spots that receive the majority of clicks and inquiries.
Finally, we’ve shifted where website traffic comes from. Early on, we saw most of the site traffic from towns located very close to campus, such as Newton and West Newton. Since implementing SEO, the school’s reach has expanded significantly.
The stats below showcase improved website traffic in more competitive and high-value communities:
- Boston: organic traffic up 74%
- Cambridge: organic traffic up 90%
- Wellesley: organic traffic up 57%
- Brookline: organic traffic up 245%