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

Confidential Material – Chegg Inc. © 2005 - 2015. All Rights Reserved.

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”

SEM PPC 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 2 USE 5+ PLATFORMS

Social Media as a Decision Engine

4 in 5 SAY SOCIAL MEDIA CONVERSATION INFLUENCED THEIR ENROLLMENT

DECISIONS

1 in 2 USE 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

CUSTOM AUDIENCE TARGETING

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 Schools High 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

How do I avoid doing this?

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 Confidential Material – Chegg Inc. © 2005 - 2016. All Rights Reserved.

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 them 93%

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

MOBILE DISPLAY SOCIAL

POSTAL MAIL VIEWBOOKS EMAIL PHONE

+

Names or Digital Marketing

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

+




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

+



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 [email protected]