The paid search campaigns yielded conversion rates 29% - 60% higher than the industry standard.

The Challenge

The NC State Jenkins MBA program reached out to VisionPoint seeking a website redesign during a time of year when prospective students were actively searching and applying for MBA programs. During early research efforts, VisionPoint had already uncovered that the programs’ top goal was to increase enrollment, therefore missing this window of opportunity to reach prospective students could not be justified. An interim solution was needed that would increase the number of students seeking enrollment in the Jenkins MBA program while the strategy and design phases of the website were being conducted.

What we did

In the midst of the strategy engagement, VisionPoint launched a banner ad campaign that would increase brand awareness, drive applicants to the old website through a new landing page, and invite prospective students to Jenkins MBA program info sessions.

VisionPoint created banner ads that spoke to the key messaging points of the  program - real projects, technology focus, partnerships within the university, and value -  and strategically placed them on nationally recognized and visited outlets, such as Business Week, ESPN and Yahoo!. Not only did this increase program exposure, but it also created a sense of pride within the university.

The online banner ads targeted both local and regional audiences, as well as national audiences. Through the local and regional banner ads, prospective students were invited to an on-campus information session. The nationally targeted banner ads allowed prospective students to register for a Jenkins MBA program viewbook. VisionPoint  even created online banner ads that were placed on international sites, such as Yahoo! China, to facilitate interest in information sessions being held in Beijing and other international cities.

While the online banner ads were generating positive results, VisionPoint recommended that the Jenkins MBA program also implement a paid search campaign to supplement organic search results and to strategically position the program against it competition. The Jenkins MBA program, like all university programs across the University of North Carolina school system, was facing budget cutbacks at the time, and a campaign that effectively targeted prospective students at a low cost was the perfect option.  VisionPoint worked with program leaders to develop very specific program keywords to use in the paid search ads which targeted two audiences: local prospective students invited to university information sessions and national prospective students invited to request a program viewbook. Once executed, the ads allowed for an excellent ROI for the MBA program and generated narrowly targeted, qualified leads and applicants.

Additionally, VisionPoint created unique landing pages for each of the various targeted audiences from both the online banner ads and the paid search ads. These unique landing pages were designed and written in a way that provided compelling content  to the user based on their specific search terms and drove visitors, through strong  calls-to-action to sign-up for information sessions and viewbooks.

VisionPoint also delivered analysis and reporting of the paid search results and tracking that measured the successfulness of  the online banner ads.

Results

The banner ad and paid search marketing campaigns together generated a record-level number of highly qualified applicants.  The banner ads alone yielded a click through rate 20-30% higher than the industry average, while the paid search campaigns also impressively delivered. Locally targeted paid search ads delivered a conversion rate 29% higher than the industry standard, while the more nationally targeted paid search ads produced a conversion rate 60% higher than the industry standard. The Jenkins MBA program was thrilled with the results and has continued to implement the banner ad and paid search campaigns through VisionPoint.  The VisionPoint / Jenkins MBA program relationship is entering its third year and shows no signs of stopping.