145,000 people search “VBS near me” every single year. But they won’t find your church’s Vacation Bible School if you don’t do digital marketing correctly.
Hi, I’m Chris Jackson—many people call me the SEO Priest. I’ve helped thousands of churches with their digital marketing, with a special focus on search engine optimization (SEO).
Chris Jackson AKA SEO Priest
Connecting with young families is hard. It’s harder than ever for churches. Fewer kids, less religious interest among young people, and greater competition make it tough to get a critical mass to your church events aimed at kids.
But digital marketing is a powerful way to cut through the noise and recruit participants for programs like Vacation Bible School. Today, we’re going through the four pillars of digital marketing for churches as they apply to VBS.
Why Promoting Your VBS Online Matters Now More Than Ever
It’s harder than ever to connect with families and get kids involved. There are simply fewer kids than there used to be—fertility rates are at shocking lows. And many families with kids have other commitments: travel ball, busy schedules, or they’re simply not interested in religion.
In the past, you could put up some flyers, stick a sign in the front yard, and fill your Vacation Bible School. Those days are gone. That doesn’t mean we give up. It means we have to work smarter and harder to get students to VBS, Sunday school, and other programs.
Other marketing efforts are expensive—both in staff/volunteer time and material costs. Running around the neighborhood with flyers is costly. Print is expensive. Postcards are expensive. Promoting your VBS online via digital marketing is, by comparison, very inexpensive. With one afternoon of work, you can launch a complete campaign. Add a hundred dollars or so in ad spend, and you have a strong driver of students to your VBS.
Digital marketing is also highly targeted. A postcard mailer or a sign in front of the church reaches everyone—including the vast majority who don’t have kids at home. Digital lets you reach people actively looking for programs like yours.
Even without ad spend, SEO passively gathers good-fit participants. There’s significant search traffic: my tools show about 12,100 monthly searches for “VBS near me” and 10,000 for “vacation Bible school near me,” averaged across the year. People are searching Google, ChatGPT, and elsewhere for VBS—and digital marketing connects you with them.
Finally, this is simply how people operate today. We order groceries on our phones, line up dates on our phones, and yes, we sign our kids up for summer programs on our phones too.
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The Four Pillars of Digital Marketing for Churches (Applied to VBS)
I like to organize church digital marketing into four pillars. Always start with the first one—it supports everything else.
Pillar 1: Web / Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Do this first. Nothing else before it.
You need a dedicated page on your own website that serves as the single source of truth about your Vacation Bible School. Not just info buried on the homepage or children’s ministry page—a standalone page just for VBS.
Apply the same principles from my Christmas landing page video. Minimum viable product: dates, times, and a clear sign-up form. For a stronger page, add advanced copywriting, a personal invitation, objection-handling, map directions, lesson overviews, video, photos of kids having fun, etc. Here’s an example.
Then dial in the SEO:
- URL should end in /VBS.
- Meta title: Include “Vacation Bible School,” “VBS,” year, church name, and location. Example: “Vacation Bible School (VBS) 2026 | St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County”
- Meta description: Optimized for clicks, using key terms, within character limits.
- One H1 tag with “Vacation Bible School” in it.
- Supporting H2s, H3s, and paragraph text with variations of VBS and Vacation Bible School, plus hyperlocal references (e.g., “VBS in Door County,” “Sturgeon Bay Vacation Bible School,” etc.).
- SEO content section at the bottom for additional local searches.
- Build internal links (especially from homepage), external links, Google Business Profile posts, Pinterest, Facebook, X, press releases, etc.
Leave the page live all year. Update dates next spring. Over time, this page builds SEO power and can rank at the top for local VBS searches.
Pillar 2: Free Media
Use everything free before you spend money. Apply the same strategies from my “Promote Your Christmas Services for Free” content.
Use AI (like ChatGPT) to interview yourself about your VBS and generate a press release. Send it to local blogs, newspapers, newsletters, TV, radio, school districts—anywhere that might list summer activities. Include the link to your VBS page.
Send in multiple formats (PDF, DOCX, inline text) and attach photos to make it easy for them to use. Consider a cheap $25 press release distribution on Fiverr for extra links and AI-friendly signals (and ask if you can embed your Google Business Profile map).
Pillar 3: Meta Ads (Facebook & Instagram)
Meta is inexpensive and highly targeted—great for VBS.
Follow the principles from my “Stop Posting” content, but with one tweak for VBS: use a vertical video creative featuring a young mom.
Script idea: She opens with, “Are you looking for fun and wholesome activities for your kids this summer? Then sign them up for Vacation Bible School at [Church Name].” End with a clear call to action: “Click below to get started.”
This clues Meta’s algorithm into showing it to the right moms and uses good copywriting to get viewers in a “yes” mindset. Amateur and authentic works well here—don’t overproduce. A teleprompter app like BigView or CapCut can help.
Target within 10 miles (urban) or 25 miles (rural). Link the ad to your Pillar 1 landing page.
Pillar 4: Organic Social Media
This one comes last because it’s actually harder and more expensive than most people realize. The first place many people go to promote their VBS online is to social media. That’s not likely to be as effective as social media ads. Platforms are crowded and the algorithm is tough—your posts often don’t even reach your own followers reliably.
That said, you can still use social media SEO tactics: mention your community, VBS, Vacation Bible School, and local towns in posts. This helps you show up in searches on Instagram, Facebook, and Google.
Ready to Get Started?
Start with that dedicated VBS landing page and SEO foundation. Then layer on the rest. You can launch a solid campaign with just a little focused effort and modest budget.
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