The Do's and Don'ts for Digital Marketing for Higher Education

Confidential Material – Chegg Inc. © 2005 - 2015. All Rights Reserved.
1
Do’s and Don’ts of Higher Education Marketing
Defining Terms and Establishing Best Practices

THANK YOU!
Questions?
•  Overview of common digital marketing terms
•  Evaluating the pros and cons of common digital
marketing tactics
•  The enrollment management landscape
•  Recommendations for balancing and supporting
traditional outreach with digital marketing
Today’s Agenda …

3
Common Digital Marketing Terms

•  Retargeting
•  Geofencing
•  PPC
•  SEM
•  Dayparting
•  Frequency Capping
•  SEO
•  Custom Audience
•  List Loads
•  Promoted Posts vs.
Lookalike Audiences
•  IP Tagging
•  CPM
•  CPC
Terms on top of terms on top of terms

Retargeting
Re-Engage visitors once they have left your “.edu”

Retargeting mainly focuses on students who visited you

Pros and Cons of Retargeting
Pros
•  Relatively easy to deploy in-house
with cooperation between
marketing and admissions (lowers
cost!)
•  Students are generally not
“annoyed” by retargeted ads
•  Research shows that visitors that
return from retargeted ads convert
at higher rates
•  Accelerate response to indication of
interest to within minutes
Cons
•  Easy to burn through budget
quickly without proper controls in
place
•  Diﬃcult to ensure your message is
being received by the appropriate
visitor
•  Ex. Faculty oﬀ campus
browsing your admissions
content
•  Potential transfer that only
visited admissions landing
page
•  Time devoted to creating fresh ads

PPC, SEO, SEM
An approach to ensuring you are “found”

SEMPPC SEO
•  Defined as “Search Engine
Marketing”
•  A blanket term for all
activities (paid and un-paid)
meant to boost your
visibility on search engines
•  Some tactics are strategic
priorities (SEO) while others
may balloon your budget if
not used strategically (PPC)
•  Defined as “Pay Per Click”
Advertising
•  Search engine advertising
(i.e. Google) that you “bid”
to have your ads seen in
search results based on
terms
•  Opens opportunities to be
discovered when someone
is searching for specific
terms related to your
programs
•  Defined as “Search Engine
Optimization”
•  Methods used to ensure
your site is found
organically on search
engines
•  While you aren’t paying
out of pocket to Google,
this does involve
investment of time and
resources internally, and a
certain expertise

Comparing SEO to PPC Ads
SEO
•  The goal is to have your institution/
programs appear higher in search
results relative to your competitors
•  Higher appearance of your
programs builds credibility
•  “We’re so good we don’t have
to advertise!”
PPC Ads
•  Your program appears at the top,
however it is labeled “ad”
•  The “ad” label in the context of
higher education may harm your
brand
•  “We’re recruiting students, not
selling treadmills”
Note: In TeensTALK® 2016 we uncovered that most students start on
your .edu directly, and when searching on sites like Google they favor
college search/help/review sites.

IP Tagging
Reaching students (and influencers) where they live
(among other places)

What is IP Tagging?
Generally, IP Tagging is the process of leveraging
the home address (or other locations like high
schools, libraries, and more) to serve ads on any
devices using that home IP address.
Example: Using IP tagging you could serve an ad
on the home PC of your prospect pool.
Additionally, IP tagging can take the form of
retargeting by identifying the IP address, rather
than a cookie of a device that accesses your site.

Why IP target for retargeting?
•  Alleviate concerns about about users deleting cookies
(potentially keeping them in your pool longer)
What’s the big challenge?
•  While a cookie identifies a single computer, IP address
identifies any computer accessing that network

Limitations of IP Tagging
•  While potentially good for reaching influencers (like parents), research indicates
that students are using multiple devices
•  IP tagging, currently, is not always the most accurate method of reaching an
audience based on their location. IPs can be masked, or simply inaccurate.
•  IP addresses may be static (easier to work with) or dynamic (change over time)
•  There are a diverse array of tools/resources/networks you can use to reach
prospects without relying on IP tagging
•  IP tagging is one tool in the tool box that we are working on optimizing to help
you reach your audience

Social Media Advertising
List Loads, Lookalike Audiences, and More

48%!
87%!
51%!
31%!
64%! 63%!
82%!
54%!
37%!
81%! 80%! 79%!
66%!
51%!
Instagram
Snapchat
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
2013
2014
2015
Trended Overall Social Media Usage
#socadm16

28%!
60%!
31%!
14%!
48%!
26%!
67%!
46%!
20%!
70%!
48%!
67%!
56%!
21%!
Instagram
Snapchat
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
2013
2014
2015
Trended Social Media Usage for College Info
#socadm16
1 in 2USE 5+ PLATFORMS

Social Media as a Decision Engine
4 in 5SAY SOCIAL MEDIA CONVERSATION
INFLUENCED THEIR ENROLLMENT
DECISIONS
1 in 2USE SOCIAL MEDIA WHEN DECIDING
WHERE TO ENROLL
#socadm16 Did you use social media as a resource when deciding where to enroll?
How influential were each of the following in helping you decide where to enroll?

•  Combined with the fact that
Facebook and Instagram are
top platforms for researching
colleges, we recommend
starting there when
considering ad investments
•  While Snapchat is popular,
growing and evolving, ROI is
tough to measure and
quantify
•  Proceed with caution as some
strategies with Facebook are
more precise than others
When thinking social, Facebook is (still) king

Audience Targeting Advertising on Facebook
Demographic
Interests
Behaviors
Custom Audience List Loads
Lookalike Audiences
Broadest
Most
Precise

Custom Audience vs. Lookalike Audiences
Custom Audience finds the
students who you already have
on your radar
•  Search Names
•  Inquiries
•  Admits who haven’t
deposited
•  Alumni (for giving campaigns)
Lookalike Audiences finds people
based on the people you know
and want to find more of
•  More prospective students like
the ones who enrolled last year
Pro Tip: Leveraging your existing data sets with predictive models may be
more cost eﬀective than trying to cast a wider net with lookalike audiences

What are you doing with your DATA?
PURCHASED LISTS
INQUIRIES
NON-COMPLETES
ADMITTED STUDENTS
APPLICANTS
ENROLLED STUDENTS
ALUMNI
NON-RESPONDERS

First-Party: Data YOU Own
CRM Data • Purchased Lists • Referral Data
Purchased Chegg Inquiries/Matches • Retargeting Data from .Edu Site

Make the most eﬃcient use of your data
Purchased Search
Names
Prospects
Chegg Inquiry Data
Applicants
Step 1
Data files are onboarded to
a data matching platform
Admitted Students
Step 2
Data is anonymized and
matched to IDs
176749830
Step 3
Media is targeted to IDs across
devices /channels

Location-Based
Mobile Advertising
Reach Students On-the-Go,
Where They Are

91% of consumers have their phones within
arms reach 24 hours a day
The average user checks their
phone 150 TIMES / DAY
Sources: Study by app Locket, 2014. Under the Cover with
College Students. Chegg, 2015.
93% of students own a
smartphone

Dynamic targeting zeros in on the strongest performing locations
Standard Geo-fence
Chegg’s Geo-fence
Chegg Geo-fence

2-Year Schools
Corporations,
Military Bases
ESL Centers &
Boarding Schools
Target potential
students anywhere
with location-
verified media on
their mobile devices
High SchoolsHigh School &
Transfer Fairs
Concerts, Events, Open
Houses, Airports, etc.

Reach students across 100K apps around the world*
Social Entertainment Sports
News &
Info
Interests Local Music
* Over 35K apps in the U.S.

CUSTOM INTERACTION
CUSTOM LANDING PAGE
.EDU SITE
Dream Big. Live Limitless. Learn more!
Reach students on their favorite apps and drive to your mobile EDU site or a
custom landing page/interaction developed by Chegg

CPM vs. CPC
How your budget is going to be divided

There are two main ways you’ll pay for digital ads
“Cost Per Click”
As part of a PPC campaign,
determines how much you
are willing to pay for a single
click.
Guarantees a number of
clicks but potentially at a
lower overall performance
CPC CPM
“Cost Per 1,000 Impressions”
For big brands, generally
used for branding and
visibility,
For higher ed, CPM may be
most cost eﬀective if used
with the appropriate
targeting strategy

Example: CPC vs. CPM
$15,000 investment on a
CPM campaign
$15 CPM = 1 million ad impressions
Assuming a 1% CTR (Click-Through Rate) that
drives 10,000 direct clicks to the desired web
page and ensures visibility to persuade behavior
for a larger audience
Quality creative can boost CTR, lowering
eﬀective CPC while maintaining volume benefits
$15,000 investment on a
CPC campaign
$1 CPC = 15,000 clicks to your website
Volume of impressions may vary based on
performance of the ad unit being used
(strong call to action, Resonating with the
audience, etc.)
Poor ad creative with low CTR (Click-
Through Rate) can damage your brand
Click-Through Rate is one metric that should not be used in isolation.
Attribution tracking provides a much clearer picture on impact of a campaign.

Cross-Channel Tracking & Attribution

47%
Laptop
37%
Smartphone
or Tablet 13%
Desktop
Students use multiple devices to research colleges
#socadm16 Which device do you primarily use to research colleges?

ONLY
12%SUBMITTED AN
APPLICATION
THROUGH MOBILE
#socadm16

Google Analytics evaluates performance
via Cookie IDs
In-app mobile advertising can only be
tracked by Device IDs NOT Cookie IDs
The biggest challenge to measuring mobile advertising

Track conversions from the initial click…

Track conversions from the initial click…
…track conversions from other
devices after the first view

Keeping it Under Control
Methods for keeping your campaign running on a
shoestring budget

Frequency Caps & Dayparting Optimize Campaigns
•  These methods ensure that your ads are less “stalkerish” by
limiting how many times or when your ad is seen by a prospect
•  By limiting views/restricting times you can maximize the duration
of your campaign
•  These controls are a prudent way to ensure you are getting the
most out of your digital advertising budget

Example of Frequency Capping
•  You are running an ad campaign where
you are retargeting visitors to your “.edu”
and want to drive them back to an open
house registration form
•  Frequency caps can be put in to place to
limit the number of times a visitor sees
that ad
•  # of times in 1 day
•  # of times without taking an action
•  No more than 5
ad impressions
served per day
•  Remove user
from campaign if
no action taken
in 30 days

Example of Dayparting
•  You are using geofencing and are
running an awareness campaign focused
on feeder high schools and local malls
•  Dayparting ensures your ads only appear
at the mall after school hours and at the
high school an hour before school starts
to an hour after school ends
•  High School ads
run from 7 AM to
3 PM
•  Mall ads run from
3 PM – 9 PM*
Additionally, ad unit can be adjusted based on goal … ex. Parents at the mall during the day

Name Buy Services
Providing the reach you need for traditional outreach

49
The Enrollment Marketing Landscape

Everyone in admissions marketing is buying name lists
Source: Collegeboard.com, NACAC Conference,October 2015
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d14/tables/dt14_303.10.asp?referrer=report
1992-1993 2003-2004
in millions
2014-2015
0
20
40
60
80
100
38M
65M
100M
14M 17M
20M
# names sold by
Collegeboard
College student
enrollment
More and more schools are recruiting students in
the same traditional ways.

Subscriptions and Survey Services
Test Lists in Junior Year (or earlier)
Senior Searches
The Name Buy Process
•  Limited Options Focused on Test Scores … Not Intent
•  Leads are Cold Before You Get Them
•  Low Conversion (2-5%)
•  “We’ve always done it this way.”
•  Lack of Alternatives

Class of 2021 is diﬀerent from any generation before
Only 6% complete
homework by hand*
(vs ~25% of college students)
Born after
Google
1 in 5 recall ever
calling a landline*.
But they send
40 texts/day
*Source: CheggHeads, Feb 2016 (High School n=378; College Student n= 454)
Introduced to Khan
Academy in 1st grade

Emerging as the “on-demand” generation
“I want it now.”
SMS or
Snap Me
Binge
watch
Not email
Uber
everywhere
Stream
anything

This is the what students are
getting …
Traditional search alone is not the way of the future

Inquiries and Matches
Connect with students who are researching your school and
schools like yours at the height of their interest.

Students raising their hand to connect
with colleges (inquiries)
Schools raising their hand to connect with
students (matches)
Chegg has the largest opt-in database of students
actively researching schools.

Cloud
Connect students
who have raised
their hand to be
contacted by your
institution.
13 of the top sites & apps!

Academic
Performance
Grad
Year
Geography
Match
fined tuned to meet
your admissibility
criteria
Gender

Academic
Performance
Grad
Year
Geography
Match+
fined tuned to meet
your admissibility
criteria
Gender
Behavioral
Interest in
Similar
Schools

Cloud
Inquiries
Match Student
Names
Match+
Connections
•  Identify students who are
“raising their hand” to
express interest in you
specifically
•  Connect with those students
in real-time, as they are
researching
•  Infuse fresh contacts into
your recruitment pipeline to
actively grow your inquiry
and applicant pool year-
round
•  Segment the largest opt-in
database of college-bound
students based on your
strategic priorities
•  Utilize your homegrown or
consultant-built predictive
models to focus your list buy
purchase
•  Reach undecided students
who are actively researching
schools at the height of their
interest (not simply taking a
test)
•  Identify students who have
indicated an interest in your
peers or aspirational peers
but do not yet have you on
your list
•  Ensure you are on a
student’s consideration set
when they are actively
researching schools you
associate yourself with
•  Segment your recruitment
to fill specific enrollment
gaps/priorities

This generation expects active, personalized dialogs with
Admission Oﬃces
53%
expect to be
engaged with
admissions within 24
hours
would like to receive
communications tailored
specifically to them93%
2016 Social Admissions Report

Perspective of Retargeting and Promoted Posts
Fewer than
1 in 4
Students who indicated they
have a negative response to
retargeted ads or sponsored/
promoted content on social
Positive or
Neutral
Negative
Reaction
#TeensTALK

How prepared are you
for winning the Class of
2021?

Communication plans usually look like this…

POSTAL MAIL VIEWBOOKS
N A M E B A S E D T A C T I C S E N A B L E R E A C H
EMAIL PHONE

D I G I T A L M E D I A E S S E N T I A L T O C O N V E R S I O N
& Y I E L D
MOBILEDISPLAY SOCIAL
POSTAL MAIL VIEWBOOKSEMAIL PHONE
+

Names & Digital Marketing
Turn-key digital student marketing solution
with best of breed technology partners

Mobile
Ad
Network
Multi-
Platform
Data
Targeting
Cross-
Platform
Tracking
Remarketing
Display
Inquiry
Generation
on 13 sites
and apps
Sponsored
Social Media
Content

Breadth and depth in direct-to-student marketing
40M+
Unique visitors / year*
52/48
% Female/Male
1M
Social media followers
*Based on comScore U.S. Annual Unique Visitors (Custom Analytics), April 2015 – March 2016. Other
sources include Google Analytics, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
10M
Unique visits / month
100K+
Mobile apps in ad
network
13 sites
in Chegg Cloud
Network
1400+ colleges and universities served (and counting)
Chegg Reaches:

Opportunity 1: Cast a Wider, Smarter Net

Names + Location-Based Mobile Advertising
•  Get in front of traditionally hard-to-reach
audiences by precisely identifying them
at a specific location
•  Reach students via a network of 100K+
mobile apps on the xAd mobile ad
network
•  Support engagement and conversion
with interactive microsites and/or
custom mobile experiences
Chegg’s Geo-fence

Opportunity 2: Support Conversion and Yield

•  Serve digital media to your identified
prospective student populations on social
media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
LinkedIn)
•  Expand your reach by serving ads to your
identified audience on mobile and desktop
ad exchanges
•  Serve a unique call-to-action based on
where the identified student is in the
recruitment process
Names + Custom Audience Targeting

A new approach in enrollment marketing
$40,000
100,000 Names
Traditional New
$40,000
100,000 Names
+
~2.7 MM Digital Marketing
Impressions
Note: This strategy is scalable to nearly any budget, example above leverages Match Names

2017 Application Push Bundle
•  Senior search or “undecided
senior” names in January
•  Time and money spent on
print and e-mail outreach
What you used to get What you get today
•  Immediate access to students
who are actively researching
you and your peers
•  Opportunity to digitally
engage students
immediately to support
conversion and yield

It doesn’t have to be this big (although it could be)
$40,000
100,000 Names
Traditional New
$40,000
100,000 Names
+
Impressions

It could be this …
$10,000
4,000 Names
Traditional New
$10,000
4,000 Names
+
~667K MM Digital Marketing
Impressions

Or this …
$100,000
250,000 Names
Traditional New
$100,000
250,000 Names
+
Impressions

Match Student Names/Other Name Buys/Brand
Awareness Campaigns
Match+ Connections
Inquiries
Applicants
Admitted
Enrolled
Names + Digital = Reach + Conversion
Custom Audience
Targeting supports
conversion & yield
Location-Based Mobile
Advertising Raises
Awareness
Retargeting accelerates
response

Thank you!
Gil Rogers, Director of Enrollment Marketing
gil@chegg.com

The Do's and Don'ts for Digital Marketing for Higher Education

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (19)

Similar to The Do's and Don'ts for Digital Marketing for Higher Education

Similar to The Do's and Don'ts for Digital Marketing for Higher Education (20)

More from Gil Rogers

More from Gil Rogers (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

The Do's and Don'ts for Digital Marketing for Higher Education