The high end branding campaign commercial is still very much in vogue.

1. TV Advertising for Branding and Lead Generation in
College Recruitment
Slide 1
TV Advertising for Branding and Lead
Generation in College Recruitment

2. TV Advertising for Branding and Lead Generation in
College Recruitment
Slide 2
1) Television as an Advertising Medium
2) TV and Recruitment Norms
3) A Student’s Perception?
4) But Is It Effective?
Overview
Source: Higher Education Marketing – TV Advertising for Branding and Lead Generation in College Recruitment

3. TV Advertising for Branding and Lead Generation in
College Recruitment
Slide 3
 TV advertising has a long-standing tradition in the higher
education marketing space.
 Higher ed ads have evolved a lot over the years from being more
branding oriented to the much more lead generation, direct response
type, that we see today.
 The high end branding campaign commercial is still very much in
vogue, as seen in this example from University of Michigan, which
won a 2013 gold medal from EduAdAwards.
1. Television as an Advertising Medium
Source: Higher Education Marketing – TV Advertising for Branding and Lead Generation in College Recruitment

4. TV Advertising for Branding and Lead Generation in
College Recruitment
Slide 4
 Branding ads typically target individuals at the very top of the
recruitment funnel, using inspirational and promotional content to
invoke a strong positive impression towards the institution.
 In recent years the rise of digital video has stirred the mix of this
landscape even more, enabling higher ed marketers to get into high
quality ad production at very reasonable costs. The $200,000 ad
agency created TV ad are still being made but freelance production
costs have dramatically dropped budgets to as low as the $25-
50,000 range for solid commercial work.
1. Television as an Advertising Medium
Source: Higher Education Marketing – TV Advertising for Branding and Lead Generation in College Recruitment

5. TV Advertising for Branding and Lead Generation in
College Recruitment
Slide 5
 Let’s start with an overview of all advertising dollars spent. The chart below
provides an summary of higher ed marketing dollars spent in 2013 in the
US.
2. TV and Recruitment Norms
Source: Higher Education Marketing – TV Advertising for Branding and Lead Generation in College Recruitment

6. TV Advertising for Branding and Lead Generation in
College Recruitment
Slide 6
 In 2012, a Barnes and Noble College Marketing Group
survey of students reported that their research indicated TV
commercials were a very effective means to reach college
students.
 Barnes and Noble marketing is different from your school’s recruitment
marketing but it is a close cousin, with the same target audience, so this
does give us some insight.
 But we need to be careful with these assumptions as the effectiveness of
TV will change as you break down your audience into more discreet
segments.
 Masters level students, see local TV advertising as the least effective of
all marketing tactics and strategy.
 Interestingly enough, 43% of the institutions surveyed in the category
responded that they were running TV ads.
 This is a pretty big disconnect so if you are a Masters level program
marketer you might want to look closer into the effectiveness of your ads.
3. A Student’s Perception?
Source: Higher Education Marketing – TV Advertising for Branding and Lead Generation in College Recruitment

7. TV Advertising for Branding and Lead Generation in
College Recruitment
Slide 7
 In 2013, Noel Levitz surveyed and reported on the
importance of TV advertising in higher ed marketing.
 At that time, both private and public 4 year institutions ranked
television ads as 37th of 53 tactics, in their usage and effectiveness
of the tactic.
 Two year public institution’s ranked them much higher at 9th of 50.
 We would suggest that this implies that TV is more effective for very
targeted marketing in local catchment areas by more locally focused
2 year colleges.
 This makes sense to me given the typical targeting and reach of TV
ads.
 Unfortunately in their 2014 follow-up report, Noel Levitz
focuses more on E-recruitment.
 The efficacy of TV advertising did not make it into their
survey report so we can’t compare.
4. But Is It Effective?
Source: Higher Education Marketing – TV Advertising for Branding and Lead Generation in College Recruitment

8. TV Advertising for Branding and Lead Generation in
College Recruitment
Slide 8
 Tracking of offline marketing activity like TV advertising can
be done effectively, in a number of ways, using analytics.
Approaches include:
 Setting up a vanity URL specifically for your TV ad campaign,
publishing it prominently within the ad to drive interested visitors to
that site, and then tracking it in a Google Analytics account.
 Use a custom URL, sub-domain or landing page similarly to above
 Include a promo code in the ad and then ask visitors for it on your
home page, linking to an exclusive landing page
 Assign a unique 800 number to your TV ad and track it with Call
tracking software.
 Conduct simple before and after analysis on your TV landing pages,
identifying traffic and conversion activity above your baseline during
TV ad campaign periods
 Regardless of which method is used, be sure to think your
ad tracking approach through very carefully.
4. But Is It Effective?
Source: Higher Education Marketing – TV Advertising for Branding and Lead Generation in College Recruitment

9. TV Advertising for Branding and Lead Generation in
College Recruitment
Slide 9
Questions?
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info@higher-education-marketing.com
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