University of Dundee
Recruiting on an international scale
The University of Dundee had previously focussed more on ‘tenancy’ profiles for its international markets, through media such as Hotcourses or Studylink. These were often managed by individual Schools and had led to
a dominance of course-specific campaigns and diluted impact.
The University was keen to raise its profile internationally and promote entry opportunities at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Our brief was for institutional targeting in multiple markets, mainly Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and the USA for undergraduates and India, Nigeria and Thailand for postgraduates.
Approach
The international office and School of Business combined forces to enable increased overall spend and, to maximise its impact, we planned a campaign with bursts on Google and Facebook. These were timed to the lead up to various
in-country recruitment events, targeting both potential students and their key influencers over a seven-month period.
In addition we deployed programmatic advertising to reach specific target groups and placed a variety of advertisements, profiles, listings and banners on sites including Masters Compare, StudyPortals and the Complete University Guide.
Result
The mix of media meant that Dundee was able to reach a number of different audience segments. This included those actively searching for opportunities (for example, through paid search) as well as the more passive, but highly targeted audiences (through programmatic and social media).
As expected, each medium delivered different results, with the education titles attracting fewer clicks and higher CPCs (£3.88 for Studyportals, £2.89 for Complete University Guide); but delivering the highest engagement levels with the longest average session duration rates at 4.29 and 6.45 minutes respectively. The traffic from both media had average page sessions of over four pages.
In terms of volume, Google and Facebook together delivered over 84,000 clicks at competitive CPCs of £0.57 and £0.25 respectively, delivering on the goal to broaden the reach of the Dundee brand in key target markets.