One of the major frustrations we hear from colleges is around figuring out if their marketing campaigns are actually working to impact enrollments. This is especially true for colleges that are taking the first steps in the digital marketing realm after years in business. When you’re new to the game, it’s hard to understand the rules.
So, from our perspective, the best thing any higher education marketing expert can do is take the time to determine what marketing activities are both driving prospects to your website but also resulting in student applications, and ultimately enrollments.
BUT….how EXACTLY can you do that?
Here are three ways we suggest that you measure your marketing to see what is working best for your college.
- Check those industry metrics
First, you can start off by comparing the performance of your campaign to industry metrics. You’ll want to make sure that you are comparing apples to apples, so only use metrics from higher education. Metrics in other industries vary widely.
While impressions are important, the metrics that really matter are your clicks, engagements, calls and website activities. You’ll want to make sure that your ads are driving traffic and inquiries that lead to action.
And, if you want a great tutorial on what all the different metrics mean (after all, how many people really know what a “bounce rate” is?), then check out this great article from Webmastered.
2. Keep Track of Your Leads and Conversions
Ideally, you would be able to track a potential student directly from the digital ad that they clicked on, into your application process, all the way through enrollment. However, most college systems prohibit tracking past the “Click to Apply” stage of the application process. And those colleges that do may not allow for tracking to occur past the application phase because of privacy issues.
This presents challenges to college marketers who struggle to attribute enrollment to marketing activities. Some colleges have worked around this conundrum by triggering a pop-up form targeting users who enter via a paid ad. The form asks for minimal information: first name and email, for example. When the campaign ends, the marketer can then compare the data in the form submissions to applications and enrollments. Not a perfect science. But it’s a great start.
3. Figure Out Your Student Acquisition Cost
When we look to the stock market we know each and every day what our investments are doing. Are they up? You’ve made money. Down? You’ve lost money. We do know it’s a bit more involved than that, but the point is that when you make an investment, you want to know if your investment is making you dividends. And that can be really tough to do for college marketers.
Your student acquisition cost is in its most basic sense, the cost of convincing a potential student to apply and enroll (and then stay past census! But that’s another post). This metric, as you might imagine, is integral to marketing success in pretty much every industry. Everyone wants to have as many students as possible, but not at the expense of going broke from a giant marketing spend.
Here is a simple calculation for you:
MARKETING SPEND: $100,000
NEW STUDENTS: 2,000
STUDENT AC QUISITION COST: $50
This means that if your marketing brought in 2,000 new students, it cost you about $50 per student. Not too shabby!
You could also approach things a little differently. Let’s assume, between tuition and apportionment dollars, that a full-time student brings in the college $1,000 in revenue each semester. With a $100,000 marketing spend, you would need to recruit 100 new students to “break even”. Now, this is oversimplifying things (for example, this doesn’t account for salaries of your marketing staff or other overhead), but it is a useful little trick that could help convince higher ups that your marketing budget is worth it.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST
No matter what metrics you end up using to measure your campaigns, make sure that you do track them. Check in monthly to see how the campaigns are optimizing month-over-month and if anything triggered changes in your campaign. Then, take it a step further, and do an annual summary of your marketing efforts…then share those successes far and wide. If you are Interested In speaking with us about your metrics and how we may Improve them, don’t hesitate to reach out!
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