It’s well known that paid search is a highly effective way to reach your target audience. This is the reason for its long-standing reputation for driving growth for marketing professionals and small businesses alike.
However, like all advertising mediums, PPC has its limits. In order to refine your paid search campaigns, you can try to use it in conjunction with other advertising strategies, such as CRO, Display Ads, and Remarketing. By carefully matching the right paid search strategy to the right marketing goals, you can maximize your results.
Here are questions you need to be asking for an effective ad digital strategy:
Is PPC enough to serve as your whole marketing strategy?
The answer is a point-blank NO. Sure, paid search is mighty useful. However, keep in mind that educational institutions face a unique challenge. Not only do you need to compete for students with brand-name schools, but you also need to generate leads and convert them into paying customers.
As such, PPC ads can be a great way to increase (and ensure!) visibility when potential students type in their queries in their search engines. This drives home awareness and increases interest in your programs. However, without other strategies, you’ll just be increasing your website traffic without any increase in conversions.
How Can You Use CRO To Make Sure That The Traffic You’re Getting Converts?
Educational institutions need to generate leads and convert them into students. Landing pages play a crucial role in this process. Imagine working so hard for students to come and browse through your website only for them to take one good look and forever drop off the marketing funnel.
That’s why you need to choose keywords that are relevant to both your field of study and target audience. When crafting a landing page, make sure you adhere as closely as possible to the interests and needs of students—this will help increase conversion rates.
In addition to excellent copywriting, images, videos, and other elements can also play an important role in drawing and locking in visitors. It’s essential that you measure results frequently and make changes accordingly based on what works best for your business model and target audience. The keyword for success here is: OPTIMIZE.
Some quick tips and fixes for ensuring conversions include:
- Providing Relevant Content
- Use eye-catching and meaningful photos and videos
- Keep website easily navigable
- Use clear headings, titles, and subtitles
Check our previous article on CRO here for an in-depth approach to your landing page.
What Do Display Ads Do?
Display ads appear on a website’s homepage and typically have longer ad intervals (30, 60, or 90 seconds). Click-through ads rotate through different online pages on an educational institution’s site, allowing users to learn more about the offered program from the advertiser directly.
When run accompanied by PPC campaigns, it results in better ad performance.
Does Remarketing Even Work?
Remarketing is used to target students who have interacted with your site or app in the past, as well as the campaign around event dates or campus happenings. This way, you can reach specific audiences with ads that are relevant to them.
It can be used in a number of different ways—from ads that are displayed on the web pages they visit to email campaigns that contact them directly. Remember not to bombard your customers with retargeting ads too aggressively as this could annoy them and cause them to click away from your marketing efforts altogether
Instead, use retargeting wisely by tailoring it specifically to those who have shown an interest in what you have to offer before. This way you can continue building trust and rapport with potential customers until the time when they are ready to make a purchase!
Paid search is a great way to reach potential students, and remarketing is the perfect tool to make sure the ads are reaching the right people.
How To Improve My Social Ads Game?
It’s important to understand who your target students are and what keywords they might be using when searching for education-related content. Knowing what school goals your student personas represent can help you create relevant ads and even tailor marketing strategies towards achieving these specific objectives (like increasing enrollment rates).
Remember the target audience you are trying to reach and ensure your ads are relevant. Check out the latest trends found on social platforms among education institutions.
Educational institutions can make the most of their paid search campaigns by understanding the conversion funnel. Each channel of your marketing mix should be adding something to the equation. This symbiosis of every part working together can prove to be quite successful.
Think of it as a feedback loop: the more successful your paid search efforts are, the higher your chances of CRO success, which allows for better testimonials for your social ads. This ultimately feeds back to company recognition and paid search success. And so on and forth.
