Education Marketing

University Admission Marketing

Improved admission inquiries through audience targeting and optimized campaign execution.

Client

A mid-sized private university specializing in graduate liberal arts and professional development programs.

The Challenge

The university faced a 15% decline in prospective student inquiries year-over-year, leading to under-enrolled graduate cohorts. Previous marketing efforts were broad, failing to distinguish between career-starters and working professionals seeking advancement.

Digital tracking was fragmented, making it difficult to attribute enrollment back to specific ad spend. The cost-per-lead (CPL) had reached an unsustainable level, exhausting the recruitment budget before the peak application window closed.

Our Approach

• Segmented audiences into 'Career Switchers' and 'Advancement Seekers' with tailored messaging.
• Integrated CRM data to exclude current students and alumni from paid acquisition funnels.
• Developed high-intent keyword lists focusing on specialized degree clusters rather than generic terms.
• Implemented a tiered remarketing strategy targeting users who visited specific program pages.
• Optimized mobile landing pages to reduce friction in the 'Request Info' form submission.
• Utilized LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms to capture professional data directly within the platform.
• Launched a lookalike audience model based on the university's highest-converting historical leads.

Execution

The campaign was executed across Google Search, LinkedIn, and Meta, with a heavy emphasis on search intent during high-volume periods. We utilized automated bidding strategies focused on conversion volume to maximize lead flow during the critical 60-day window before application deadlines.

Weekly performance sprints allowed for rapid creative testing, where we rotated video testimonials against static programmatic graphics. Lead data was synced in real-time to the university’s admissions team via Zapier, ensuring response times under 4 hours for every new inquiry.

Results

Total Inquiries

242%

Cost Per Lead

38%

Conversion Rate

4.2%

Admissions Appointments

+55

The strategic pivot to intent-based search and LinkedIn professional targeting successfully reversed the university's enrollment slump. By lowering the cost-per-lead, the institution was able to maintain its market presence longer into the recruitment cycle, ultimately exceeding its graduate enrollment targets by 12%.

Duration: 6 months