Location-based marketing is a powerful tool for schools looking to boost visibility and brand awareness. In addition to basic geotargeting deployed on popular digital platforms like Google and Meta, Mobile Location Targeting (MLT), Connected TV (CTV) advertising, and modernized Direct Mail strategies offer more sophisticated and highly-targeted ways for schools to reach prospective families directly in their homes. Let’s take a look at each of these tactics and how schools can leverage them. 

What Is Mobile Location Targeting?

Mobile Location Targeting is an advanced digital advertising strategy that allows schools to serve highly targeted banner and video ads to devices based on where a user is or has been physically located.

Unlike traditional geographic targeting on Google or Meta, which uses circular radius targeting (limited to 1 mile on Meta or 1 km on Google), MLT uses polygonal boundaries to geofence specific buildings, events, or neighborhoods within an accuracy of three feet. This allows advertisers to outline a specific area (like a feeder school, neighborhood, or business), capture the devices present, and then serve those users banner ads or video both in real time and later at home. Like other paid platforms, self-serve geofencing platforms like GroundTruth, provide the option to layer in demographic targeting, including household income, age, parental status, and gender. GroundTruth (Enroll Media Group's MLT platform of choice) can also supplement this with a broad range of interest and affinity targeting categories based on shopping habits, sports, hobbies, and other psychographic information, allowing schools to hone in on their ideal audience and serve ads that will resonate with them.

MLT advertising can be executed as an ongoing or short-term strategy and offers the ability to execute multiple campaigns with different objectives simultaneously under a single media budget. This makes MLT a cost-effective way to deliver static image ads, animated ads, or video ads to phones, tablets, computers, and even smart TVs to boost brand awareness. Although these ads typically do not generate direct leads or inquiry form completions, one of the most valuable and unique features of MLT advertising is its ability to match targeted devices to physical campus visits. Once a device is captured at a geofenced location and served an ad, the system can later identify if that same device appears on campus. Schools can see which zip code those devices came from and on what day they visited, offering rare visibility into attribution. 

How Schools Are Using MLT for Enrollment Marketing

Many independent schools are already using MLT advertising to reach prospective parents directly in home and on their mobile devices. Here are just a few examples of strategies EMG has deployed for our partners: 

• Targeting feeder schools: Even with a one-mile radius limitation for sensitive locations, schools are geofencing public or private elementary schools to reach families likely to consider an independent middle or high school.
• Event-based device capturing: One school geofenced a large local fall festival attended by families and later served ads to those households. Another school targeted families attending school expos or admissions fairs.
• Program-specific targeting: A boarding school with a ski program geofenced ski resorts across the country. Another school promoted its hockey program by geofencing five local rinks after hiring a new coach with an NHL pedigree. Both strategies presented opportunities for highly-targeted, sport-specific creative.
• 1st-party provided addresses and lists: home addresses collected through your inquiry or application forms can be uploaded to serve MLT ads directly to those households. The EMA Student Prospect List also qualifies for this purpose, since families have opted in to receive communication from independent schools, allowing you to extend the reach of that investment ethically and effectively.
  
  

MLT Case Study: Orange Lutheran High School

Orange Lutheran High School in California used MLT to promote campus tours by geofencing nearby feeder schools. Not only were these banner ads a top source of traffic to Orange Lutheran's admission pages, but the campaign also delivered: 

• 697,000+ impressions
• 4,480 clicks
• 0.67% CTR
• 15 confirmed campus visits
  
  

Extending Reach Through CTV Advertising

CTV (Connected TV) refers to content streamed to a smart TV, phone or laptop for instant, on-demand viewing or listening, bypassing traditional downloads or cable/satellite TV.  CTV advertising enables schools to deliver video ads directly to people in their homes through streaming networks like NBC Universal, Comcast, Hulu, Roku, Samsung, Vizio, and more.

With streaming accounting for over 45% of all television viewing in October 2025—more than cable and broadcast combined—and 83% of all US adults and 91% of upper income Americans using streaming services, CTV advertising has unparalleled reach. Additionally, because CTV ads are non-skippable and viewed on the largest screen in the home, they prove to be memorable and effective with completion rates often over 90%.  When executed properly, they can be highly targeted and delivered based on demographics like zip code, income, and ages of children. Enroll Media Group partners exclusively with AmbioEdu to deliver its independent school CTV campaigns, which allow for enhanced tracking and attribution,  known as Performance TV (PTV).

Through PTV, schools can leverage additional streaming inventory and identify users from households that were delivered ads who go on to inquire, apply or register for events on their website. These efforts allow for placement across multiple platforms, providing a powerful way to repurpose video content and drive results for your school.

CTV Case Study: Brimmer and May School

Brimmer and May, a Pre-K–12 day school in Massachusetts, used CTV to target families in the Boston area:

• 46,000+ households reached with specific demographic targeting
• 340,000 impressions delivered
• 98% video completion rate
• 1,051 website visits directly from the video
• 13 leads from QR code scans on the ad
  
  

Traditional Direct Mail Meets Modern Digital Targeting

Direct Mail is a classic marketing strategy that involves sending postcards directly to homes via purchased lists or because parents have opted in to receive material from your school. Using GroundTruth, schools can combine direct mail with digital campaigns by mailing postcards to a targeted household list and retargeting the same households with digital ads based on address-level device data.

In addition to tracking QR code scans from the postcards and monitoring user activity on your website, pairing postcards with digital MLT ads offers enhanced attribution by measuring campus visits from households that were targeted with postcards and companion digital banners. Schools can also put a unique code or message on the postcard to better understand ROI and increase response rates. Examples of this include offering incentives like school swag for bringing the postcard to a tour or event, or a unique application fee waiver code. For even more attribution data, be sure to include postcards and digital banner ads as options when you survey families about what marketing efforts led them to visit campus.

Direct Mail with MLT Case Study: Springer School

Springer School in Cincinnati, which serves students with learning differences in grades 1-12, mailed postcards to promote upcoming open house events in its core target area, accompanied by MLT banner ads. The banner ads targeted parents who met a specific household income threshold and resided within the same core geography, while excluding currently enrolled families. The results of this effort were as follows:

• 11,000+ users reached with targeted MLT ads
• 150,200 impressions delivered
• 377 clicks to the website
• 33 website users from the postcard QR code scans
• 1 in-person campus visit conversion recorded within weeks of seeing the ads & postcard
  
  

Why MLT, CTV and Direct Mail Works for Independent Schools

Mobile Location Targeting, CTV ads, and hybrid direct mail strategies offer private schools precision in who they reach, getting in front of both parents and students within that household. It creates expanded brand awareness in competitive markets, measurable ROI, and opportunities for repurposing video and creative content. Most importantly, these tools allow schools to reach families on their devices and in their living rooms, and with personalized content based on their demographics, interests, and more, providing a critical touch point in the school search process.

Ready to Try It?

Enroll Media Group currently works with over 100  independent schools around the world to develop and implement strategies like these. If you’re interested in learning how these tools can help your school, contact EMG for an introductory call.