Education

Education Case Study

Goal

  • A community college was looking to increase both brand awareness in their area and increase applications to both their community college programs and higher education programs.

Approach

  • Based on the client’s goals, River Valley Media Group developed a campaign that had touchpoints throughout all portions of an individual’s consumer journey.

Results

  • All portions of the campaign performed above industry averages;
  • 400+ direct conversions that included “Register Now” & “Apply Now” clicks;
  • Heightened brand awareness throughout their local community.

Goal & Approach

A community college was looking to increase both brand awareness in their area and increase applications to both their community college programs and higher education programs.

Based on the client’s goals and objectives, Working with Amplified Digital, River Valley Media Group developed a cohesive and blended digital media campaign that allowed multi touchpoints throughout a potential applicant’s online journey. The community college’s campaign included the following tactic breakdown:

  • Brand awareness: Facebook/Instagram targeting, YouTube TrueView
  • Brand reconnection: Facebook/Instagram remarketing
  • Lead generation: Paid Search

The tactics were broken down by targeting specific candidates where they spent most of their time online.

Facebook and Instagram was dedicated towards targeting individuals based on certain degrees in which they have shown interests. The YouTube tactic targeted individuals that were watching content and topics related to study grants, college scholarships, and also furthering education. And lastly, the Paid Search portion focused on driving leads by implementing ad copy that was specific to the community college degrees offered as well as furthering education.

Results

During the client’s fiscal year, the River Valley Media Group delivered results continuously performing over industry benchmarks. River Valley Media Group tracked conversions such as “Register Now” clicks, calls from ads, and “Apply Now” clicks to meet the client’s KPI-s.

The Paid Search portion of the campaign generated an overall average conversion rate (CVR) of 16.93%. At this time, the education industry benchmark average was 3.39%; the community college’s campaign delivered an average direct conversion rate that is 300%+ higher than other campaigns of its same caliber. In addition to the high performance of the campaign, Amplified Digital was able to gain insight on the audience that made up the engagement (women and younger individuals). This additional insight can be pertinent for strategic marketing decisions further made by the community college and Amplified.

In addition to the Paid Search campaign, working with Amplified Digital, River Valley Media Group deployed a YouTube TrueView and Social Campaign that focused on the community college’s brand awareness goal.

During the time of the YouTube campaign, River Valley Media Group saw a lot of engagement. Individuals were clicking through to learn more about the community college (0.22% vs. 0.11.2%) and also having a higher engagement rate of watching the video to completion (21.75% vs. 15%). The campaign also yielded 29 direct conversions, with 48% of those being “Register Now” clicks.

Lastly, the Facebook/Instagram campaign delivered metrics above all industry benchmarks. During the fiscal year, the Facebook/Instagram campaign delivered over 17,000 post engagements. A portion of the campaign that stood out the most was the brand reconnection. This portion was dedicated to reengaging with individuals who had previously visited the community college’s site and had left.

Working with Amplified Digital, River Valley Media Group started to track conversions within the last six months of the remarketing campaign, and within the six months it yielded a total of 1,836 (both direct and view through) conversions. This was an overall conversion rate of 53%.

During the course of the client’s campaign, River Valley Media Group capitalized on their fluidity and digital expertise to continuously optimize the campaign and was also able to make strong executive marketing decisions based on analytics and reporting findings to ensure that the campaign was performing within the industry benchmarks.