See how an SEM campaign generated 722 Direct Leads for 35 academic programs in 20 Weeks

When I was an associate vice president of marketing at a tuition-dependent college, my budget was never big enough to promote individual academic majors. Faculty would approach me with a request, but outside of the big programs like nursing, we didn’t have the funds to drill down to that level.

But today there’s an affordable way to market multiple academic programs at once—and it will yield results. This article breaks down how Search Engine Marketing (SEM) cluster campaigns helped 35 majors generate 722 direct leads in just 20 weeks.

SEM for Academic Programs

When done the right way, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) makes smart use of your marketing funds. It uses paid search to connect prospective students to programs they are actively seeking.

For higher ed, this means meeting students at the exact moment they search things like:

• “best business degree near me”
• “allied health programs”
• “graphic design major”

The key to success is creating ad content that matches users’ search terms.

Why SEM Is Effective for Higher Education

SEM works especially well for colleges and universities because:

• It reaches students who are ready to take action. These are students who are already comparing programs or exploring careers.
• It’s budget-efficient. You only pay when someone clicks.
• It allows for precise targeting. Each major or cluster can have unique keyword groups and messaging.
• It scales easily. You can promote 5 programs or 50 in the same campaign structure.

Google’s SEM campaigns are flexible enough to promote several programs in one campaign. Their responsive ad text fields allow for a variety of messages (quality/success, career potential, affordability) and Google’s AI-driven ad delivery is effective in connecting the user’s search query to appropriate campaign text, ensuring strong performance across multiple program types.

Programs in this Campaign

Calculate recently completed a campaign that focused on 35 academic programs divided into 8 clusters:

• 7 Allied Health
• 5 Business
• 5 Computer Arts and Technology
• 5 Creative Arts
• 3 Education
• 2 Humanities
• 4 Science
• 4 Pre-Professional

Each cluster linked to a dedicated landing page that matched user search intent — a critical factor for quality score and conversion rate.

Campaign Overview

The academic program campaign ran for 20 weeks on Google Ads with stints in November, February-March, June-July. The budget for media: $25,200.

Results

Actions taken by Users

• Primary Actions (Direct Leads): 722 completed forms and phone calls to Admissions
• Secondary Actions: 2,463 clicks to apply, clicks to institutional website
• Tertiary Actions: 689 Google site link clicks, clicks for directions and location

Performance Metrics

• Impressions: 143,306
• Clicks: 8,678
• Click-through Rate (CTR): 5.85%
• Cost per Click (CPC): $2.91

For higher education SEM, all metrics fall well above national benchmarks — particularly the CTR.