For those familiar with my previous articles, you know I transitioned to paid search from a background steeped in academia. While the academic life wasn’t for me, I’ve overseen numerous accounts where paid search and social media advertising were crucial for connecting with individuals interested in pursuing higher education, encompassing everything from localized advanced degrees to globally accessible MOOCs.

Managing higher education (higher ed) accounts can be challenging due to two primary factors:

1. Limited budgets
2. The multiple interactions needed to achieve a conversion Keywords related to higher education come at a premium. In a study we conducted last year on Bing’s priciest keywords, those related to “MBA” secured a spot in the top 10, commanding a hefty price of over $60 per click!

This would be a pain point even for companies with substantial budgets, but it’s particularly troublesome when funds are restricted. Higher ed clients often lump paid search and social media into their overall marketing budgets, shared with various channels like email, radio, and other promotional materials—you get the idea—resulting in finite financial resources. Here’s a helpful tip: To maximize your budget, aim to allocate a significant portion of your resources to peak periods, typically fall and late winter/early spring for programs without rolling admissions. During the summer (the college admissions lull), maintain minimal operations. Unlike buying furniture or calling a plumber, a conversion in a higher ed account is a multi-step process that necessitates a carefully designed lead nurturing funnel.

Paid search might be the initial point of contact or the final step before someone applies. The key is understanding when potential students engage with your ads and tailoring your value proposition and call to action accordingly. Let’s be real, you’re already aware of this. You’re seeking in-depth strategies, and that’s precisely what I’ll provide. Here are three methods to boost lead generation in your higher ed PPC campaigns.

1. Remarketing: The Essential Element of Higher Ed PPC

Remarketing is non-negotiable for every higher education paid search account. In fact, it should be mandatory for all paid search accounts, period.

Unless you’re solely focused on branded keywords or your institution holds significant recognition, it’s improbable that prospects encountering your ads will be intimately familiar with your program. While strong ad copy might entice clicks over competitors, it won’t necessarily guarantee immediate conversions, regardless of your landing page’s appeal. This is where remarketing comes in. By re-engaging individuals who’ve shown initial interest by visiting your website, you initiate the nurturing process. If, while researching competitor programs or even shopping online, they consistently encounter your compelling ads (perhaps offering valuable information, reduced application fees, etc., in exchange for an email address), conversion becomes highly likely. When these hard-won prospects flourish as exceptional students—creating the next Uber, writing a literary masterpiece, or discovering medical breakthroughs—you’ll be grateful for the targeted advertising that made it happen.

And don’t forget about Facebook…

Combining search remarketing with its social media counterpart, Facebook remarketing, maximizes effectiveness. Facebook’s platform allows for lead ads that capture new customers without needing a landing page. This is particularly beneficial if you have the time or resources for direct prospect contact.

Two valuable pieces of advice on remarketing:

1. Don’t hesitate to block IP addresses if spam becomes a problem in your remarketing campaigns.
2. Implement your remarketing tag across your entire website, not just on specific PPC landing pages. Earlier this year, I took over an underperforming higher education account. They had a fantastic graduate program combining engineering and entrepreneurship but faced the challenge of bidding on expensive keywords in both fields. By implementing the remarketing tag site-wide instead of limiting it to paid search landing pages, we saw a significant increase in conversion volume, rising from an average of 12 per month to over 30 per week. While analyzing lead quality, we noticed some irrelevant entries from bots or individuals using random character strings. Thankfully, we avoided implementing a Captcha on our landing pages (which could deter potential applicants) by diligently blocking recurring IP addresses.

2. Create Dedicated Campaigns for Each Discipline

The term “granular” is prevalent in paid search for a reason—it effectively describes the ideal structure for most accounts. Distilling the unique aspects of your program, or all offerings from your institution, into well-defined campaigns, ad groups, and keywords is essential. This not only helps manage costs, as touched upon in the remarketing tip, but also significantly simplifies account optimization unrelated to budget constraints. Naturally, some disciplines within your program will garner fewer impressions than others. However, these lower-impression terms could emerge as top performers in terms of conversion rate and cost-per-acquisition (CPA). If grouped with expensive keywords from different disciplines, they would likely be paused or removed due to perceived underperformance.

As Jackie Jordan, SEM Manager at nexus-security, aptly points out, “The fluctuation in CPCs based on the area of study (business being the highest by far) is astounding, so keeping them separate makes it much easier to manage spending.” For instance, avoid grouping all hard science programs under a single campaign with ad groups for individual disciplines. Instead, allocate separate campaigns for each subject, from physics to biochemistry. A similar approach should be applied to ad groups. Separate inquiry-based keywords (those containing question words like who, what, where, when, why, and how) from branded terms. Categorize top-performing and long-tail keywords into their own ad groups. Closely monitor broad research terms such as “+online +mba +program,” potentially assigning them their own campaign or excluding them entirely if they strain your budget. This granular approach provides valuable insights into effective and ineffective terms, allowing for the refinement of ad copy that directly addresses prospect searches. You’re no longer in the same vicinity; you’re practically sharing a meal and conversation with your potential leads. The ultimate goal is maximizing control over your budget. While this demands upfront effort and might seem tedious initially, it yields long-term cost savings and simplifies daily and weekly optimization tasks.

3. Leverage Display Advertising Strategically

So far, we’ve discussed remarketing (targeting past visitors) and highly focused search campaigns. These methods concentrate your efforts and budget on promising prospects. By actively managing negative keywords, testing creative elements and landing pages, and adjusting bids regularly, you should observe a positive trend in lead volume. You might wonder why we’re shifting focus to the Display Network, often compared to casting a wide net in the vast ocean of AdWords.

The answer lies in its potential for cost-effective opportunity. While Display can reach broad and potentially uninterested audiences, two targeting methods allow you to harness its power effectively: Gmail ads and In-Market Audiences.

Gmail Ads

Gmail Ads (formerly Gmail Sponsored Promotions) are paid advertisements displayed within Gmail inboxes globally. As a relatively new addition to the Display Network, they hold significant potential for higher education marketing.

GSP ads are located in the promotions tab. Note: You are charged when a prospect opens the email, not when they click through to your website. This emphasizes the need for a compelling teaser (the subject line that entices clicks) and engaging creative within the ad itself.

Examples of ineffective teasers: It’s evident I recently moved. To avoid an excessively broad (and costly) reach, utilize domain targeting. According to Big G: “Domains can be used to target (or exclude) users who’ve received emails from specific companies. Domains should be entered as keywords in the format example.com or site.example.com (not example.com/site). The system analyzes the content of the last few hundred non-spam emails, including deleted and archived messages.” This means you can use domain targeting to:

• Target your own domain: Reinforce your message to individuals already receiving your emails by controlling more of their inbox space. Consider this a strategic complement to your existing email marketing funnel.
• Target competitors’ domains: Showcase the unique value proposition and return on investment your program offers to those considering other institutions. This approach is often more cost-effective than bidding on competitor keywords and provides an opportunity to impress potential students with compelling visuals and messaging.

After segmenting ad groups (you wouldn’t group them all together, right?), revisit the market research conducted during the program development phase. Identify your ideal student profile and, more importantly, determine the websites they frequent. Utilize this information to create a “Prospect Profile” ad group. For example, an online MBA program might target websites like Forbes and ETrade, while an online full-stack developer course could focus on platforms like Stack Overflow and Code Academy. Remember to leverage exclusions—similar to negative keywords—to minimize wasted ad spend and refine your target audience.

Display In-Market

Finally, let’s explore Display In-Market. Turning to Google for a clear definition: “Select from these audiences to find customers who are in the market, meaning they are actively researching products and considering purchasing a service or product similar to yours. In-market audiences are available to advertisers in all AdWords languages. These audiences are designed for advertisers focused on driving conversions from customers most likely to make a purchase. In-market audiences can help drive remarketing performance and reach consumers close to completing a purchase.” Essentially, Display In-Market helps advertisers connect with more qualified audiences. In the context of higher ed marketing, Google assists in identifying prospects exhibiting online behavior indicative of potential conversion. This might include visiting your website or competitor sites, conducting research on forums, or engaging with third-party platforms. The key takeaway is that it targets a specific segment of the population, and the associated click costs are often lower than standard search campaigns.

While In-Market might not become your highest-performing channel, it offers value by providing an additional avenue for prospecting. Moreover, it’s likely an untapped resource among your competitors. *** There you have it—three effective strategies to maximize your higher ed account’s performance. Whether implemented individually or collectively, remarketing, targeted search campaigns, and strategic Display Network utilization will undoubtedly boost conversions while effectively managing your budget. One final piece of advice: when in doubt, offer a course catalog.