TWU - Adult Degree Completion

Premiere Private University Gains 25% of Students through PPC Advertising

Connecting your PPC ads to customized, relevant landing pages is a search marketing best practice. Using relevant landing pages and conversion pathways, this premiere private university created an online sales pipeline that
 
CHALLENGE
The Extension team at Trinity Western University, the premiere private university in Canada started laying foundations for online marketing shortly after opening their Bellingham, Washington extension campus in 2008. The Extension team at TWU is responsible for recruiting students for Trinity Western University’s Adult Degree Completion programs. They hoped that paid search ads would generate leads for the ever-expanding degree and certificate programs that are offered to adults who wish to complete their undergraduate degrees.

When they started to implement the Google pay-per-click campaign, they took the time to create unique landing pages that would outline the degrees and certificates available for adult learners at their Langley, BC and Bellingham, WA campuses.

As a team, they wondered how effective it would be to purchase geo-targeted ads on Google and drive traffic to their unique landing pages. It turned out that the landing pages generated 25% of their students for the first semester in their Langley, BC program.

CAMPAIGN
 The Extension team realized that if they were going to attract students to their program, they needed to be visible where people were searching. They could see that the neighboring universities were buying PPC ads for their continuing education programs and they knew it was essential to get into search results as well.

The Adult Degree Completion program is unique in that it meets a specific need for adults who have partially completed their undergraduate degree. Here are four steps that the team followed to create an effective paid advertising campaign:

Step #1. Create a microsite that can be changed quickly and grow exponentially.
Working together with Stir, the team created a microsite that would provide each of their extension campuses with an online presence that could clearly outline their Adult Degree Completion program and would provide multiple methods for the site visitors to connect with the Program Adviors.

Key features that were included:

• Clean design that matched the university’s branding standards 
• Compelling copy 
• Careful use of search keywords 
• Clear calls to action 
• Conversion pathways created to gather analytics 

The team made sure that the entire microsite clearly outlined the programs that were available for adult learners, providing them with multiple methods to connect with TWU’s program advisors.

Step #2. Build a landing page for paid advertising
Once the microsite was created, Stir created a pay-per-click campaign that drove traffic to specific unique landing pages.

The features included in these landing pages were:

• Corporate branding that matched the university’s standards and reinforced the known brand 
• Clear headline 
• Compelling copy 
• Careful use of search keywords 
• Image use 
• One clear call to action form 

Each landing page emphasized a single degree or certificate program. This would ensure a stronger connection between the search ad that was clicked and the landing page that was served -- giving searchers the information they wanted up front. The pages used the same submission form, layout and copy in the Flash images and body. Multivariate landing pages were used to tweak the campaign and increase the conversion rates.

Step #3: Create a geographically targeted pay-per-click campaign
After creating the infrastructure, the Extension team was ready to buy paid advertising on the Google search engine. They contracted Stir to research keywords that would be used by people searching for places to complete their degrees. They set up two geographically targeted campaigns - one that would only appear for people searching in the Bellingham, WA area and one that would only appear for people searching in the Langley, BC area.

Since the Adult Degree Completion program was brand new, the Extension team was interested in how many people would see the PPC ads and how many of those would click through to investigate further. Over the course of the campaign, the ads received over 3.8 million impressions and more than 5900 visitors clicked through to investigate further.

Step #4. Measure the Success
The Extension team knew that it would take an extra amount of effort to get the word out that they had a brand new Adult Degree Completion program offered in two locations - and they knew that it would be essential that the program be found on the internet. With more than 3.8 million ad impressions over the course of the campaign and over 5900 visitors investigating further, it was no surprise that 25% of their course enrollment in their Langley, BC program was directly attributed to their Google PPC campaign.

Creative Samples

Microsite

Landing Page Design