Search Engine Marketing for Academic Programs
722 Direct Leads in 20 Weeks
Challenge
This midwestern Catholic university partnered with Calculate to maximize its existing budget in order to market specific academic programs. The goal was to increase inquiries across 35 majors.
Solution
With a limited budget, Calculate built a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaign focused on 8 program clusters:
- Allied Health
- Business
- Computer Arts and Technology
- Creative Arts
- Education
- Humanities
- Science
- Pre-Professional
Each cluster linked to a dedicated landing page that matched user search intent. Ad content focused on the university’s strengths, including
- Quality of teaching
- Career success
- Catholic mission
- Campus community
- Affordability
Results
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.
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: 5.85%
- Cost per Click: $2.91