Advanced PPC and SEO for Higher Education
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While colleges and universities were among the first in terms of industries diving in to the abundant world of Internet marketing, they face very unique challenges when it comes to advertising online: Competing departments cannibalizing efforts and budget, disparate content management systems threatening accurate tracking and integration… the list goes on. In these webinar slides we will focus on: - What makes the EDU market so competitive when it comes to online advertising. - How your SEO campaigns can help alleviate some of the competition through management of content sources, segmentation of users and a variety of other specific methods. - How you can optimize your PPC efforts through cost per enrollment tracking, remarketing, and multi-channel marketing/attribution strategies and improve market share while maintaining campaign goals. - The potential future of the EDU marketplace for both SEO & PPC, and how you can proactively be prepared for what’s next.
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Advanced PPC and SEO for Higher Education
- 2. ERIK DAFFORN • President of Intrapromote • Speaker at SMX Advanced • Co-Author of SEO Secrets • Editor of Search Engine Visibility @erikdafforn
- 3. KAYLA KURTZ • Paid Search Consultant @ Hanapin w/EDU account management experience • 2nd most widely-read writer on PPC Hero • Keynote Speaker at Search Exchange Internet Marketing Conf. 2013 • Emcee of HeroConf Paid Search Conference @one800kayla
- 4. Main Topics What makes the EDU market so competitive when it comes to online advertising? Have questions throughout the webinar? Use #ppcseo on Twitter!
- 5. Main Topics:Main Topics How can your SEO campaigns help alleviate some of this competition through management of content sources, segmentation of users and a variety of other specific methods? Have questions throughout the webinar? Use #ppcseo on Twitter!
- 6. Main Topics:Main Topics How can you optimize your PPC efforts through cost per enrollment tracking, remarketing, and multi-channel marketing/attribution strategies to improve market share while maintaining campaign goals? Have questions throughout the webinar? Use #ppcseo on Twitter!
- 7. Main Topics:Main Topics What does the future of PPC & SEO look like for the EDU vertical, and how can you be prepared for what’s next? Have questions throughout the webinar? Use #ppcseo on Twitter!
- 8. Main Topics:Poll Questions! How long have you been involved in SEM? A. Less than 1 year B. 1-3 years C. 3-5 years D. 5+ years Have questions throughout the webinar? Use #ppcseo on Twitter!
- 9. Main Topics:Poll Questions! How do you manage your SEM accounts? A. I manage it myself B. I’m a part of a team that manages it C. I outsource my account management D. I’m rethinking how my account is managed Have questions throughout the webinar? Use #ppcseo on Twitter!
- 10. PPC & SEO for EDU A highly competitive marketplace
- 11. Fewer conversions occurring, period. -18% y/y decline for EDU converters
- 12. PPC & SEO for EDU A highly competitive marketplace Search Competition Factors • Waning Interest • External Perception • Internal Competition • External Competition
- 13. Waning Interest
- 14. External Perception "OUR ACADEMIC REPUTATION SPEAKS FOR ITSELF"
- 15. Internal Issues
- 16. Internal Issues
- 17. Internal Issues
- 18. External Issues
- 19. How can your SEO campaigns help alleviate some of this competition through management of content sources, segmentation of users and a variety of other specific methods? Have questions throughout the webinar? Use #ppcseo on Twitter!
- 20. SEO for EDU Knowing your potential users
- 21. SEO for EDU Knowing your potential users Segment your Audience! • Geography • Device • Internal Search
- 22. How can you optimize your PPC efforts through cost per enrollment tracking, remarketing, and multi-channel marketing/attribution strategies to improve market share while maintaining campaign goals? Have questions throughout the webinar? Use #ppcseo on Twitter!
- 23. PPC for EDU Campaign management & optimization • Education in PPC is getting more expensive • Less people are looking • More for-profits are trying to compete • Competition is increasing
- 24. COST PER LEAD AS A METRIC IS LOSING RELEVANCY NEW FOCUS: Lead Quality & Cost-Per- Enrollment
- 25. PPC for EDU How EDU brands can keep up • Set your brand apart from the rest • Stay top of mind for the student • Target your competition directly
- 26. 8 in 10 Prospective students don’t know which school they want to attend as they initiate their journey -Google Think Education, 2013
- 27. PPC for EDU Timeline from 1st visit to conversion
- 28. PPC for EDU Multi-brand comparison before conversion
- 29. PPC for EDU Choice brand visits before conversion
- 30. Remarketing “Are you telling me that you built a time machine… …out of a DeLorean?” -Marty McFly, 1985 REMARKETING:
- 31. PPC for EDU Direct geotargeting of brand & competitor locations
- 32. 9 in 10 Enrolled students use online to research -Google Think Education, 2013
- 33. PPC for EDU Higher Ed research sources More reliance on ONLINE resources.
- 34. PPC for EDU Cross-device use increasing
- 36. PPC for EDU More online applicants +10%y/y rise in Online applicants
- 37. Main Topics:Poll Questions! Which medium do you find more difficult to manage for EDU? A. SEO B. PPC C. Neither – we’re all dialed in! D. Both – we can’t seem to keep up! Have questions throughout the webinar? Use #ppcseo on Twitter!
- 38. What does the future of PPC & SEO look like for the EDU vertical, and how can you be prepared for what’s next? Have questions throughout the webinar? Use #ppcseo on Twitter!
- 39. The Future of EDU How can you be prepared? Students (and their parents) are consumers.
- 40. The Future of EDU How can you be prepared?
- 41. The Future of EDU How can you be prepared?
- 42. The Future of EDU How can you be prepared?
- 43. The Future of EDU How can you be prepared? • Assume the competition will continue to get smarter, as well as multiply • Likewise – how much longer can the ‘traditional’ mediums keep up? • More total university paid search programs
- 44. Round Up • All mediums of online marketing are becoming more competitive for the EDU vertical. • If you move with the market and changes in competition, you can still run profitable and sustainable PPC & SEO campaigns for EDU brands. • It isn’t done changing!
- 45. Main Topics:Poll Questions! Which exclusive webinar offer(s) are you interested in? A. Free Google Webmaster Tools audit from Intrapromote B. Free account consultation (Solutions Blueprint) with Hanapin Marketing C. Neither D. Both
- 46. Thank you for attending Intrapromote and Hanapin Marketing’s webinar on Advanced PPC & SEO for Higher Education. #ppcseo • Sign up for a Google Webmaster Tools audit from Intrapromote: http://www.thewebsiteaudit.com/contact/webinar-offer/ Password: webinar126 • Get a free account consultation (Solutions Blueprint) from Hanapin Marketing: http://www.hanapinmarketing.com/solutions-blueprint-sign-up • Or contact us directly: • Erik Dafforn: erik@intrapromote.com • Kayla Kurtz: kayla.kurtz@hanapinmarketing.com Your Questions!
- 47. THANK YOU!
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- KaylaSo again, what we know about PPC for EDU brands is that it’s getting more expensive, less people are looking, and with more schools from profit and non profit sectors getting in the mix, competition is increasing. The key comes in to accepting that this will continue to be the case moving forward for this vertical, and find a way to manage paid search more efficiently in spite of it.
- KaylaSo rather than hang our hats on filling an EDU brands funnel with as many leads as possible, or maneuvering around cost per lead goals or ranges…we’ve moved to a focus that revolves around finding quality leads and tracking all the way down to a cost per enrollment number. This maintains a focus for account optimizations occurring where they truly matter, rather than strictly on interface-level data.
- KaylaWe have other ways we really tackle the EDU vertical head on, and while of course this list of methods isn’t exhaustive by any means, it’s a great glimpse behind the overall strategy. What we know we have to do for our EDU clients is 3 fold – set that client’s value higher than the competition in the eyes of the prospective student, stay in front of the student and keep the client’s brand top of mind, and finally…we have to do some serious direct competition targeting in a variety of ways. Now we can dig in to the more exact methods.
- KaylaWhile there may be fewer online EDU based searches, what we do know is that the searches that are occurring don’t necessarily have a target brand in mind yet. Google tells us that based on query strings leading to EDU conversions and general polling that 8 out of 10 students don’t know which school they want to go to when they first start searching. Hopefully those other two picked you already, or if they didn’t – let’s not focus on the 20% of the bucket, shall we? How can your brand push those other 8 in your direction?
- KaylaOther stuff we know about EDU searchers…Well over half, around 61% of all EDU search converters touch their final choice brand for the first time at least 30 days prior to finally submitting their information and truly converting.
- KaylaWe also know that as this research phase begins, 73% of students are going to research at least 2 different schools or EDU brands before they convert. So in that 30+ day gap from the first time they see their brand pick…there is still opportunity to be another research point. This isn’t a one and done vertical.
- KaylaFinally, we know that EDU searchers don’t go to each consideration brand’s sites once, take 30 days to think about it, then go back and convert/send through their information to the school of choice. No – they are going to come back to your site between 2 and 9 times before you get that information. What does all that mean?
- KaylaRemarketing is HIGHLY valuable. Catch those undecided searchers as often as possible and bring them back to another of those crucial touches to YOUR brand, especially during the even more crucial and somewhat long 30+ day decision cycle. We have to do this through impeccable brand messaging (SEO helps a lot and can usually provide excellent jumping off points) and creative benefit placement. Your school may not be the only one offering the student’s probable degree program – but maybe you offer the ability to take the pre recs online from home first and your top competitor doesn’t. These are not only the kind of value add and benefit statements we use in normal paid search ad copy of course, but usually the visual element of the display network via remarketing in tandem with that messaging stance is vital to pulling down as many of the quality leads in your market as possible.We’ll talk more about the other ways you can stay as top of mind to those searchers as possible in just a minute. This competition thing really gets me going though, so I want to talk more about that now.
- KaylaThe method we’re going to discuss now is geotargeting, and this can be applied for your own brand or campus; or to more directly targeting your competitor’s brand/campuses. For example, let’s pretend Hanapin University is located in Bloomington, IN. We have a brick and mortar location with online abilities, but for our non-online programs we have to keep in mind that students tend to be more likely to come to the school if they live closer, let’s say. That isn’t ALWAYS true, but for the most part. The percentages and rings above are a bit drastic probably and not necessarily to scale, but you get it. We would geotarget the 20 mile radius directly outside our campus and bid those searches/keywords up 20% because we know those students have a higher likelihood of choosing us. The 20-40 mile radius group might get no adjustment up or down at all; we want those students, but not more or less than any others. Now the searchers who are more than 40-60 miles away? We bid those keywords down 20% from the norm because we know it’s harder to make those students convert and choose our school. You can apply this similar tactic to targeting your competitor’s locations. Pick out your top 3 competitors for your top 5 degree programs and geotarget the areas where they get the most of THEIR enrollments from. Maybe it’s a radius breakdown much like yours, or do they have a high influx of students from their surrounding states? Find where they target and target it specifically – both in bids and in messaging – so that you’re directly staring the prospective student in the face as many times as your competition.
- KaylaOk back to that “stay in front of them all the time” piece. Google loves to tell us how much online potential there is in a market, and EDU is a vertical that fits that bill. They tell us that 9 in 10 students polled who are enrolled in a higher education institution used online mediums to research their options. Alright – but ‘online’ is pretty vague, isn’t it? Is Google just telling us about Google search being used? No. It’s the whole kitchen sink of the internet.
- KaylaYes, most students use search engines as a huge means of research, in addition to the school’s website itself. But look at the rest of those online resources with INCREASES year over year!We still see family/friend conversations, brochures and counselors being important in the process, but college ranking sites are being referenced 66% more in the last year, and social networks are following suit with a 32% increase. This means we need to saturate the online market in order to bring students to our schools, we can’t necessarily do it all with straight up paid search or search engine advertising. Of course now that social channels have paid advertising options, that allows teams like Hanapin to push the envelope even further…but we can’t ignore those channels by any means. Also – one last note on this slide – see how the college matching sites references have gone down 20% since 2011? (this is all 2012 compared to all of 2011 data, by the way) That means students want to pick their bucket of possible schools themselves, which makes all of this even more important. You can’t let another site do it for you – if you want them to pick your school, you have to show them.
- KaylaAnd then finally – EDU searchers are going the way of different device searches….andddd that’s not really different from other verticals, but I can tell you specifically what we’re seeing!Google is reporting that while mobile and tablet devices are only used 44 and 29%, respectively, for EDU searches, those numbers are increasing QUICKLY. Both devices saw huge increases from last year, mobile up 32% and tablets up 21%. So even if you’ve got all the channels under control, don’t think for a second that you can assume all the touches are coming from a home desktop computer.
- KaylaIt is! Despite the fact that year over year EDU searches and leads are declining…the truth is that the remaining applicant/lead pool is continually converting more online when they do choose, with online applicants up about 10% in 2012 from 2011, taking a small chunk from both over the phone and in person applicants.
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