DMS Success Story: Scaling Higher Ed Program Enrollments For A Leading Vocational School

Background

A leading vocational school in the Northeast offering programs both online and at ground campuses was looking to scale enrollments and optimize efficiency in their marketing efforts for their career training programs.

Challenge

The school partnered with Digital Media Solutions (DMS) to manage and generate high-intent prospective student inquiries. Due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic across higher education in 2020, the DMS team of enrollment marketing experts needed to work in close partnership with the client's marketing team to help the higher education institution meet their enrollment and growth goals.

DMS Solution

The DMS digital performance marketing team leveraged their extensive network, multichannel expertise and comprehensive optimization efforts to drive high-intent, qualified prospective students into the client's enhanced admissions process.

• Strategic Methodology: The DMS team identified the best potential partners for two campaign types, which were interactive campaigns that direct prospective students to a dedicated landing page and third-party pay-per-lead (PPL) campaigns. DMS worked closely with the client to optimize the digital media mix, analyze historic performance at a granular level and create custom media plans for each of the campus locations. Ultimately, DMS created a strategic plan to allocate the majority of volume and budget to the top-performing partners for individual markets.
• Multichannel Expertise: Based on proprietary DMS data demonstrating heightened social media traffic and performance during this particular time period, the DMS team increased focus on social media campaigns. After testing multiple variations, the DMS team determined that more candid campaigns performed best, helping to drive engagement and interest in the vocational school's program offerings.
• Robust Optimization: The DMS team closely monitored campaigns each day and performed full-scale optimization analyses on a bi-weekly basis, rigorously analyzing conversion data both holistically and at the campus and program levels. The team continuously optimized the media and affiliate partner mix by adjusting allocation toward top performers to achieve the client's performance goals.

Unparalleled Results

Due to the consistent efforts of the DMS performance marketing team and the close partnership and streamlined enrollment process with the vocational school, DMS helped the client achieve a 76% increase in enrollments year over year, while decreasing the CPE by 67% and beating the client's CPE goal by 61%, all during a year that brought unprecedented challenges in the higher education landscape. 

Seeking New Ways To Maximize Your Enrollment Efforts?

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