CASE STUDY
Rochester Christian University
Company Profile
Rochester Christian University is an accredited liberal arts educational institution firmly grounded in the teachings of Jesus, offering Bachelor’s, Master’s, and accelerated learning programs. Located in Rochester Hills, Michigan, the university fosters an inclusive and welcoming environment that is committed to making Christian higher education affordable while offering students a depth of learning that educates them holistically in mind, body, and spirit.
Objective & Goals
In partnering with Rochester Christian University, our objective was to develop a strategy that specifically targeted the prospective student demographic that aligned with the university’s values in order to generate leads for student enrollment. Additionally, we aimed to refine the university’s messaging to serve in God’s world while affirming all worldviews.
- Attract students to their undergraduate, graduate, and accelerated learning programs.
- Effectively communicate the culture of their diverse and welcoming community of learners among students, faculty, and staff.
- Refined RCU's creative strategy and messaging in order to effectively capture the organization’s mission, values, and legacy, in return, attracting the appropriate audience in our digital marketing efforts.
Services We Offer
- Meta Ads
- Goodle Ads
- LinkedIn Ads
- TikTok Ads
- Content Creation
- Social Media Management
- Editorial Calendar & Strategy
- Influencer Marketing
- Consulting
- Strategy Development
- Marketing Audit
- Marketing Plan Development
Challenges & Opportunity
One of RCU’s biggest challenges they faced with previous ad campaigns was that they were all geared toward general brand awareness and gaining exposure, rather than designed toward increasing student enrollment. While Rochester Christian University benefitted from brand awareness, they were looking for more direct and convertible results.
The other great challenge at hand was that RCU did not have a system set in place to track or measure ROI and prospective leads. This created a bottleneck in their student enrollment process while preventing ongoing campaign optimization for maximized conversions.
Lastly, RCU’s internal team lacked the additional capacity and expertise to expand to additional channels and test new tactics on an ongoing basis.
That’s where we came into the picture. RCU knew it was critical to drive targeted traffic to its website to inform prospective students about the unique offerings of the university.
Strategy
- Create a Google search online conversion campaign to optimize for leads/form-fill submissions
- Refine messaging to be geared toward increasing enrollment applications
- Narrow audience to drive high-intent traffic only
- Set up effective tracking to measure ROI and prospective leads
Our team developed a comprehensive campaign strategy focusing on RCU’s accelerated learning programs. This involved creating a Google search online conversion campaign to boost high-intent prospective students to the connected landing page.
Our team optimized the landing page for a seamless online user experience, focusing on page load time and accurate website tracking. Our role extended to refining messaging to align with our client’s voice and values. The landing page included a contact form capturing essential information for future retargeting and nurture campaigns, such as first name, last name, email, phone number, ZIP code, and high school graduation year.
In preparation for launch, our team crafted targeted ad copy, employing demographic targeting for Michigan students and relevant keywords related to “Accelerated Learning Programs”, “Rochester University”, and specific program offerings. The campaign deliverables were clearly defined with actionable steps to guide our strategy execution.
To optimize engagement, we incorporated messaging that highlighted RCU’s Christian identity, diversity, and values. This tailored approach effectively captured the attention and interest of prospective students, resulting in successful lead generation across all program levels.
Results
Ultimately, this campaign generated over 39,000 impressions, an above-average click-through rate for the higher education industry, and 129 high-intent leads from prospective students in the 4 months this campaign served ads, significantly improving application rates for the Spring 2024 semester.
