Flight School Lead Generation
Flight school lead generation, built by a working CFI.
Local SEO, paid search, structured open days, and a discovery-flight conversion funnel in one engagement. The mechanics are calibrated by someone who has signed off student first-solos from the operator side. Public pricing from $1,500 USD/month, with no required strategy call before you see the scope and price.
Pilot-built · public pricing · async intake
Built for flight schools that want to grow enrolment without the call-required, opaque-pricing routine most agencies run.
What's in the funnel
- ·Local SEO — "flight school [city]" + suburb-level pages within 60min drive
- ·Google Ads — high-intent searches (PPL, learn to fly, discovery flight)
- ·Structured open days — paid landing page, attendee retargeting, time-limited offer
- ·Discovery-flight conversion funnel — pricing transparency, instant booking, 48hr CFI follow-up
- ·Retargeting + 14-day inactivity check-ins from the assigned CFI
- ·Monthly pipeline report — enquiries, bookings, PPL conversions, attribution
5
mechanics in one engagement
$1,500 USD/mo
Foundation tier from
60-90 days
Expected ramp to first enrolment uplift (Standard tier)
Quick answer
What is the Flight School Lead Generation engagement?
A productised lead-generation funnel for flight schools, built by a working commercial pilot and Grade 1 flight instructor. Five mechanics, sized into three tiers: Foundation $1,500, Standard $2,500, Heavy $4,000 USD per month. Public pricing on this page, six-month minimum, then month-to-month with 30 days notice. No required strategy call before you see the scope and price.
The pattern
The three places most flight school funnels lose enrolments.
- ·Discovery-flight conversion is not measured consistently.
- ·No universal benchmark — schools differ on cohorts, windows, lead sources, capacity, enrolment.
- ·Measure a stable booked-and-flown cohort, then compare channels and months.
- ·Then inspect booking experience, pathway-page pricing, follow-up, and retargeting on that definition.
- ·Local search visibility is missing.
- ·Students search "flight school" plus a city, expecting your map-pack and pathway page.
- ·Most schools rank for neither.
- ·Audits find one indexed page, a stock-photo GBP, outdated hours, and empty suburb coverage.
- ·Students go to the better local SEO posture, not the better school.
- ·The follow-up disappears.
- ·Bookings land in an inbox; schools reply Monday with a generic email.
- ·By then the prospect may be comparing another school.
- ·Instant booking, prompt CFI follow-up, and inactivity check-ins keep the next action visible.
- ·Your team is busy flying — the workflow carries the follow-up.
None of these leaks is catastrophic alone. Together they explain schools doing fine on enquiries while enrolment stays flat. The enquiries arrive; the funnel leaks them.
How it works
Five mechanics, sequenced for the six-month ramp.
Months 1-2
Local SEO foundation
- ·"Flight school [city]" plus suburb-level pages within a 60-minute drive of base.
- ·Pathway pages with transparent pricing — PPL, CPL, instrument, helicopter, multi-engine.
- ·Schema markup, Google Business Profile audit, and media uplift.
- ·Search Console and Analytics wiring.
- ·The slow-but-permanent layer of the funnel.
Months 1-3
Google Ads acceleration
- ·Paid search on high-intent terms: "PPL [city]", "learn to fly [city]", "discovery flight [city]".
- ·Runs while the organic SEO ramps.
- ·Budget guidance: $2-5K/mo paid spend at Standard tier, $5-10K at Heavy tier.
- ·Negative-keyword lists strip wasted clicks.
- ·Landing pages are tested against the organic pathway.
- ·Tracking measures discovery-flight bookings, not just clicks.
Month 2 onwards
Structured open days
- ·Paid landing page with a defined promotion window.
- ·A discovery-flight offer priced against your own aircraft and instructor economics.
- ·Attendee retargeting and a follow-up email sequence.
- ·A CFI-call script for non-converters.
- ·Registrations, attendance, bookings, and starts are tracked as one cohort.
- ·Your team runs the day; we build everything around it.
Month 2 onwards
Discovery-flight conversion funnel
- ·Dedicated pathway pages and published pricing anchor high-intent local searches.
- ·A Pacific Northwest flight school and FBO: 22 of 26 tracked keywords in the top 3, Southwest Washington market.
- ·Instant-booking integration where your booking system supports it.
- ·Automated 48-hour post-flight CFI follow-up.
- ·Retargeting for students who booked, flew, then went quiet.
- ·The Discovery-Flight Conversion Calculator contrasts your rate with a 40% scenario.
- ·That scenario is illustrative — not an industry benchmark or forecast.
Month 3 onwards
Retargeting + 14-day inactivity check-in
- ·Warm visitors who did not enquire get retargeted with discovery-flight offers.
- ·Students inactive for 14 days get a personal text from their assigned CFI.
- ·Retention is half the funnel.
- ·Losing a student at lesson eight costs the same as one who finishes the PPL.
Pricing
Three tiers, public pricing, six-month minimum.
Foundation ($1,500 USD/mo), Standard ($2,500 USD/mo), and Heavy ($4,000 USD/mo) — the scope and price are on this page before any call.
Foundation
Organic-only build
When the budget is tight — slower ramp, same destination.
- +Local SEO + pathway pages + schema
- +Google Business Profile audit + media uplift
- +One open day per quarter (full execution package)
- +Monthly pipeline report
- +Six-month minimum, then month-to-month
- +NO paid search (organic-only ramp)
- +Expected ramp: 6-9 months to meaningful enrolment uplift
Standard
Organic + paid build
The default lead-gen engagement. Organic + paid acceleration.
- +Everything in Foundation
- +Google Ads ($2-5K spend managed)
- +Open day every six weeks
- +Discovery-flight conversion funnel build
- +Retargeting + 14-day inactivity check-ins
- +Fortnightly pipeline call
- +Expected ramp: 60-90 days to first enrolment uplift
Heavy
Full-stack build
For schools chasing aggressive enrolment growth. New aircraft capacity, a second base, or growth ahead of an exit.
- +Everything in Standard
- +Higher paid budget management
- +Monthly open day cadence
- +Weekly pipeline calls
- +Quarterly business review with the operator
- +Priority response time
Bundle 10% discount when combined with a Website Design engagement. The website is the conversion surface; the lead-generation engine is the traffic that fills it. The 10% bundle also applies when combined with the Audit-Defensible CBTA Pack, aligning marketing growth with audit-defensible documentation.
Other Services
Services that work alongside this one.
Markets We Serve
Aviation marketing worldwide.
The global page serves every market. Localised pages cover our five priority English-speaking regions, with no forced location redirects for operators elsewhere.
Client Results
Aviation businesses
that worked with us first.
Public case-study results
See proof and Google profile ->- Public case study
A Pacific Northwest flight school and FBO
22 of 26 tracked keywords in top 3 across Southwest Washington
- - 22 of 26 tracked keywords in top 3
- - 18 keywords at #1 across Kelso WA core
- Public case study
A UK flight school
From 3 enquiries per month to 40+
- - 13× enquiry growth
- - 94 PageSpeed score
- Public case study
An Australian aviation safety training provider
From zero rankings to a national voice in aviation safety training
- - Top 3 for "aviation safety training Australia"
- - National enquiry coverage
Frequently Asked Questions
What aviation operators usually ask us.
Two ways. The founder is a working CFI. Joey Pehrson is a Brisbane-based commercial helicopter pilot and Grade 1 flight instructor who signed off discovery flights and mentored first-solo students. The mechanics are calibrated from the operator side of the funnel, not by a marketer with a private pilot rating writing copy. The pricing is public: tier, inclusions, and dollar figure are on the page, no strategy call required for a quote.
No. The three pricing tiers are listed below — Foundation ($1,500 USD/mo), Standard ($2,500 USD/mo), Heavy ($4,000 USD/mo). The enquiry form below is async. Fill it in, and we reply within one business day with a tier recommendation and a 30-minute intake call slot. The call happens after you have already seen the scope, not before. If you prefer to talk first anyway, the longer /contact form is the path for that.
Five mechanics move enrolment: - Local SEO: "flight school [city]" plus suburb-level pages within a 60-minute drive of base - Google Ads on high-intent terms: PPL [city], learn to fly [city], discovery flight [city] - Structured open days: paid landing page, attendee retargeting, 4-week promotion window, time-limited enrolment offer - Discovery-flight conversion funnel: pricing transparency, instant-booking integration, 48-hour CFI follow-up, retargeting non-enrolled flyers - Retention discipline: 14-day inactivity check-in from the assigned CFI before students decide to quit
Recommended starting budget is $2,000-5,000 USD/month on top of the retainer at Foundation or Standard tier. At Heavy tier, budget $5,000-10,000 USD/month. Click prices and volume vary materially by country, airport catchment, season, and licence pathway. We use current market forecasts for your locations instead of promising a fixed click total. We optimise the mix against qualified discovery-flight bookings and student starts.
Six-month minimum at any tier. The funnel ramps over the first 90 days; by month three the data tells us what is converting and what is not. Shorter engagements cannot reach steady-state. After the six-month minimum, the engagement continues month-to-month — cancel any time with 30 days notice. No long-term lock-in. No auto-escalating spend. The tier you sign for is the tier you stay on unless you ask to move up or down.
A monthly pipeline report tracks five numbers. Search visibility on target keywords, qualified enquiries, discovery-flight bookings, discovery-flight-to-PPL enrolment conversion, and channel attribution for each enquiry. Standard and Heavy tiers add fortnightly or weekly pipeline calls. A quarterly business review compares results against the intake baseline — same metrics, every quarter, no goalpost moving. At intake we audit your measurement quality and booking-to-enrolment path before recommending where to intervene.
Get the lead-gen scope
Send the school details. Tier recommendation back within one business day.
Tier recommendation, expected ramp timeline, and a 30-minute intake call slot. We run standalone or split scope with an existing marketing person or vendor — no duplicated work, no turf fights.
Or use the longer /contact form if you want to chat first.
About
Built by the instructor who has signed off student first-solos, not by a marketer who got a PPL to write copy.
Joey Pehrson is a commercial helicopter pilot and Grade 1 flight instructor based in Brisbane. The mechanics that move enrolment are operator-recognisable patterns: local SEO, paid search on the right terms, structured open days, discovery-flight conversion tuning, retention discipline. The founder did the operator side first; the agency came second.
We serve flight schools worldwide. Search language, regulator references, currency, and comparison set are localised to your school.
Free diagnostic tools before you enquire:
- Discovery-Flight Conversion Calculator — an illustrative revenue-sensitivity comparison
- Discovery Flight ROI Calculator — a multi-lever read on what a 10% input change would mean