A specialist Queensland college was struggling to generate a noticeable increase in new student enquiries and enrolments from Google Ads. They had previously tried various Google Ads strategies, but found it difficult to target potential students who were serious about studying, and exclude the huge number of people who were carrying out more speculative, informational, and career-related searches. The relatively long buying cycle of educational courses made it difficult to measure marketing effectiveness and ROI, so they contacted Calculate Marketing for assistance with their Google Ads strategy.

Summary

Highest ever student enrolments

How I helped

Wanting to focus largely on potential students who were closer to application, but still recognising that a lengthy buying cycle existed for educational courses so still wanting to target potential students at all stages of the buying cycle, 26 campaigns were created with hierarchical levels of keyword qualification:

• 3,169 ad groups
• 17,156 keywords
• 23,302 ad messages

Keyword themes which suggested that the searcher was further along in the buying cycle were given higher bid weightings and more direct call to action messaging, while more informative searches (typically made by people earlier in the buying cycle) were given lower bids, and messaging which aims to engage with the searcher more generally.

Since enrolment conversion data was limited due to the length buying cycle, softer secondary metrics were used for measurement and optimisation to align the campaigns to maximise visitor engagement. 18 visitor audience segments were created based on website action and recency of website visit, with RLSA (remarketing lists for search ads) used to further engage with each audience as they later searched Google for more generic education-related themes. RLSA ads were then used to communicate upcoming open days and special events, promote the blog to help increase credibility, and help to reach visitors in relevant moments online as they progress through the buying cycle.

Campaign results

The hierarchical campaign structure worked well to skew Google Ads click spend towards directly-relevant themes, while still engaging with searchers at all stages of the buying cycle with ad messages relevant the nature of their query:

• CTR of over 15% for highly-qualified themes
• CTR of over 5% for location-based themes
• CTR of over 1% for more informational themes

The average cost per click (CPC) for highly-qualified themes was over 10x higher than for more informational and research themes. However since enquiry conversion rates and visitor engagement were also much higher, these higher CPCs could be justified. Without a campaign structure which separated keywords themes of a different nature, insights would have been lost in averages, making it difficult to assess Google Ads spending as effectively.

Client results

Separating keywords by qualification allowed the college to achieve almost full visibility on Google for the most highly-qualified themes, while RLSA and tailored ad messaging allowed the college to respond to searchers at different stages of the buying cycle. This helped to increase repeat visits, online enquiries, and new student enrolments:

• 97% Impression Share for highly-qualified searches
• 18% increase in return visits from Google Ads
• Highest-ever student enrolments after one year

Based on the success of Google Ads, the college since decided to use Google Ads as a core driver of website visits and new enrolment enquiries for its second campus location in Australia.

If you’re looking to closely align your Google Ads marketing with your business goals, please get in touch for more information.