Effective or latent demand? Selecting channels and content for your programme's marketing campaign

Why will you never see this ad? 

And why will you see this one?

It has everything to do with locating an audience. Think about it. Demand doesn’t get much more effective then when your toilet is clogged. What would you do when this happens? Browse your Facebook timeline? Or get onto Google and search for a plumber? Exactly.

Selecting the right channels

Selecting channels is one of the most important steps in determining the success of a programme’s campaign. A campaign will look very different if the audience is actively seeking out a solution to meet their needs, than if the audience doesn’t yet know they need a product or service. In the latter case, there's a latent demand for it. Not sure what that means? Think about Henry Ford’s quote at the dawn of the automobile age: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Of course there are more modern examples of companies that appealed to latent demand and became hugely successful. Any disruptive service, like Uber or Airbnb, originally appealed to a latent demand. Customers didn’t know they could stay in someone’s home instead of a hotel at first. Or get into a back seat of a car they hailed through an app instead of calling a taxi. They had to create that awareness from scratch. Ever considered this great alternative to a taxi? 

Effective or latent demand?

The same is true for some of our programmes at the University of Groningen. To get the right students to apply for a programme, we have to consider their actions. How do students research a specific programme? Is it an established programme and are they ‘simply’ comparing universities, or is it a great new programme that only our university offers and students need to be made aware of this? Ad message and ad distribution will differ accordingly.

So before firing up a fresh new campaign, I ask myself three questions:

1. Is this programme well established?
2. Is there competition for students between universities?
3. Is this programme a good alternative to a better known one?

Yes-yes-no? You can be sure there is effective demand for your programme. Two no’s and a yes? Latent demand. For the sake of argument, lets assume our physics programme is struggling to attract students. Is physics a well established programme? Yes. Do universities compete for students? Yes. Is it an alternative to a better known one? No. Effective demand.

What does that mean for my media mix? I want my ads to be where students will actively be looking for and comparing institutions. So, the budget allocation could look something like this:

• Google Ads - 60% of budget
• Affiliate partners - 20%
• Facebook timeline ad - 5%
• Instagram video ad - 5%

Sometimes you want to drive results

And what does it mean for the message? I want to be driving results. No need to inform the audience what the programme entails exactly. They know. Don’t promote lengthy articles about the employability of physics students. They know. Give them our university’s USPs and get them to apply.

These Physics Facebook and Google ads* address the student's intent and call for action.

Other times you want to create awareness

Let’s compare that with a relatively new programme at the University of Groningen: Sustainable Entrepreneurship. Is it a well established programme? No, it started in 2017. Do universities compete for students? Not with this exact programme, no. Is it an alternative to a better known was? Yes, to business economics among others. So, it is a latent need we're addressing.

Instead of diving in head first pushing for applications, we’ll need to create awareness and interest. A budget allocation that would go well with that goal could be:

• Google Ads - 10% of budget
• Display banners - 10%
• Facebook video ad - 30%
• Instagram video ad - 30%
• YouTube pre-roll ad - 20%

The message would be less focused on driving applications and more on showing what the programme entails.

These ads for Sustainable Entrepreneurship* are much more focused on showcasing programme content instead of driving immediate action.

So, before you set up a campaign for your latest programme at your university, take a step back and ask yourself three questions. Is your programme well established? Is there competition for students between universities? Is your programme a good alternative to a better known one? The answers should determine the nature of your campaign.

*We don't actually run these ads, nor do they represent the programmes' content. They are purely meant as examples.