How can you use targeted advertising to attract students who are a good fit for your institution?

1 Define your goals and target audience

Before you launch any targeted advertising campaign, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and who you want to reach. Your goals should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. For example, you may want to increase the number of applications for a certain program by 10% in the next six months. Your target audience should be based on your ideal student profile, which is a detailed description of the characteristics, motivations, challenges, and aspirations of your ideal student. You can use data from your website, social media, surveys, and CRM to create your ideal student profile.

2 Choose your platforms and channels

Once you have defined your goals and target audience, you need to decide where and how to reach them. There are many platforms and channels that you can use for targeted advertising, such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, YouTube Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and more. Each platform and channel has its own advantages, disadvantages, and best practices. You need to consider factors such as your budget, your message, your audience's preferences, and your conversion funnel. For example, if you want to raise awareness and generate interest in your institution, you may use Facebook Ads to create engaging video ads that showcase your campus, faculty, and students. If you want to drive action and generate leads, you may use Google Ads to create search ads that match your audience's queries and direct them to a landing page where they can request more information.

4 Test and optimize your campaigns

The final step is to test and optimize your campaigns to ensure that they are effective and efficient. You need to monitor and measure your campaigns' performance using key metrics such as impressions, clicks, conversions, cost per click, cost per lead, cost per enrollment, and return on investment. You also need to conduct A/B testing to compare different versions of your ads and landing pages and identify which ones perform better. You should also analyze your campaigns' results and feedback to identify what works and what doesn't, and make adjustments accordingly. For example, you may find that your ads are getting a lot of clicks, but your landing pages are not converting well. This may indicate that your landing pages are not relevant, clear, or engaging enough, and that you need to improve your copy, design, or offer.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?