Target Students At Universities With These Adwords Strategies

In today's competitive education market, it is crucial for universities to stand out and attract prospective students. With students spending a lot of their time online, digital media placement is key. This can include advertising through video, social media, and search engine results pages (SERPs). Facebook and Google Ads are two popular platforms for reaching students. Facebook's interest and age targeting can help universities narrow down their audience based on specific needs, preferences, and lifestyles. Google Ads, on the other hand, offers search network ads and display ads, allowing universities to target prospective students based on keywords and topics they've searched for.

Target parents of prospective students

When it comes to targeting students on Adwords, Facebook is an invaluable tool. Students use it to connect with friends, share updates, join groups, and keep track of academic schedules. However, students have unique consumption habits and lifestyle patterns that differ from other demographic groups. They often have limited disposable income but have specific needs and wants related to their academic life and social activities. Therefore, it is essential to understand their preferences and patterns to create content that resonates with them.

While targeting students directly may be the initial impulse, businesses and educational institutions should not overlook the potential of reaching out to parents. Parents often play a significant role in their children's educational decisions, especially when choosing a college or university. They often have an equal, if not more significant, influence on big-ticket decisions like course selection and college admissions. Facebook's interest targeting can be a valuable tool in reaching parents. By combining age targeting with interest targeting related to higher education, you can narrow down your audience based on their specific needs, preferences, and lifestyle.

To target parents on Facebook Ads, use the "Parents" category under demographics to reach specific age groups. Refine targeting with interests like parenting tips, kids' education, and life events like "new parents." Custom Audiences help reach parents who have interacted with your brand, while Lookalike Audiences find similar prospects. Add location, income, or behaviour filters to align ads with parenting needs. For example, you can focus on ages 18-24 to capture the Gen Z demographic, targeting their interests, such as tech, sustainability, gaming, or pop culture.

Google Ads also offers options to target parents of prospective students. While Google doesn’t allow its ads to be targeted to minors, it does offer a detailed parental status targeting option. Google can help you hyper-target parent audiences based on the age groups of the students your school wants to recruit. Google's ad platform provides detailed education demographics targeting options based on a person's current level of educational achievement. This is especially useful for higher educational institutions intent on attracting recent high school graduates or promoting specific programs to current college students. Search and display campaigns have different targeting options, and demographic targeting lets you narrow your efforts by segmenting your prospective audience according to shared traits.

Personal narratives from students and teachers are powerful tools for ads targeting parents. These authentic stories can resonate with prospective parents, providing a glimpse into real experiences and success stories within the school community. Highlighting student achievements, personal growth, and unique experiences can illustrate the school's positive impact. For example, a testimonial from a student who excelled in a particular program or overcame challenges can be inspiring and persuasive. Brand differentiation is vital for any school looking to appeal to parents with high expectations.

Understand student consumption habits and preferences

Students have unique consumption habits and lifestyle patterns that differ from other demographic groups. They often have limited disposable income but have specific needs and wants related to their academic life and social activities. For instance, a freshman undergraduate may have different interests, needs, and behaviours compared to a senior postgraduate student. Therefore, understanding the specific needs and preferences of your target student group is crucial for creating relevant and resonating content, ensuring high engagement and conversion rates.

When creating targeted ads for students, it is essential to consider their academic level and corresponding age group. For example, undergraduates are typically younger students exploring their independence, while postgraduates are older and may have more specific academic interests. By combining age targeting with interest targeting related to higher education, you can effectively narrow down your audience.

Facebook's interest targeting can be a valuable tool for reaching undergraduate and postgraduate students. You can target specific age groups, such as 18-24-year-olds, and layer that with interests related to higher education, like "Bachelor's degree", "College", "University", or "Students' union". This approach ensures that your ads are tailored to the right audience based on their academic pursuits.

Additionally, when considering student consumption habits, it is worth noting that their food purchasing behaviours are heavily influenced by taste, value, convenience, and cost. Students often seek good value for money and affordable options. They also tend to be influenced by their peers, and their eating habits may be subject to change as they gain more independence from parental control. Understanding these dynamics can help tailor your ad messaging and positioning effectively.

While targeting students directly is intuitive, don't underestimate the influence of parents, especially when it comes to educational decisions. Targeting parents of prospective university students can be a strategic move, as they often play a significant role in their children's choices regarding college selection and course admissions. Google Ads' detailed parental status targeting option can be beneficial in this regard, allowing you to reach parent audiences based on the age groups of the students your university aims to recruit.

Utilise search network ads

When it comes to utilising search network ads to target students in universities via AdWords, there are several strategies and best practices to keep in mind.

Firstly, understand the basics of search network ads. These are text ads that appear on a results page when someone performs a Google search. They are typically based on specific keywords provided by the advertiser and include a headline, URL, and a brief description. For example, if a prospective student searches for "business programs Boston", relevant search ads from schools will appear based on the keywords they've bid on, along with a ""Quality score" assigned by Google.

To optimise your search network ads, consider the following strategies:

• Keyword Bidding: Choose relevant keywords that your target student audience is likely to search for. For instance, if your offering is a ""Full Stack JavaScript Development" course, bid on those keywords so that your ad appears when users search for them.
• Dynamic Search Ads: Enhance your reach by using dynamic search ads, which don't rely solely on keywords. These ads target frequently used phrases and titles on your website, ensuring that your ads appear when prospects search for similar phrases.
• Demographic Targeting: Utilise Google's detailed demographic targeting options to reach the right students. You can target based on age, gender, location, and educational level. For instance, if you're targeting recent high school graduates, use the parental status targeting option to reach their parents.
• Audience Targeting: Go beyond basic demographics and target students based on their interests, habits, and long-term life facts. Use methods like Remarketing to target students who have previously interacted with your university's website, or Similar Audiences to find new users similar to your existing student base.
• Ad Extensions: Include ad extensions, such as business details or contact information, to make your ads more appealing and informative. However, note that ad extensions may not always be displayed, depending on your Ad Rank and placement.

By following these strategies, you can effectively utilise search network ads to target university students and achieve your recruitment goals.

Use dynamic search ads

When it comes to Google Ads for schools and universities, there are two basic categories: search network ads and display ads. Search network ads are text-based and appear on a results page when a user performs a Google search. They are based on specific keywords and usually include a headline, URL, and a small amount of body copy. Display ads, on the other hand, are visual ads that appear on third-party websites that are part of Google's Display Network.

To enhance your Google Ads campaigns and ensure you're covering all the bases, consider using dynamic search ads (DSAs). DSAs are ideal for advertisers with well-developed websites or a large inventory. They use your website content to target ads and can help fill in the gaps in your keyword-based campaigns. This means that even if you have a lot of keywords, you might still miss relevant searches. DSAs work by targeting the most frequently used phrases and titles on your website. When a prospect's search query resembles those phrases and titles, Google will create an ad that directs the user to the most closely associated landing page. This keeps your ads in sync with the content on your website.

To get started with DSAs, you'll need to decide which sets of pages to target, how to group similar pages, and the level of detail. You can choose from various targeting options, such as targeting specific URLs or groups of URLs. For example, you can target all the webpages you're currently running search ads against or target specific URLs with labels like "products with 4-star reviews". You can also use a feed to target your DSAs, which allows for more focused and controlled targeting.

When creating your DSA, you'll need to write a creative description and select the actions you want customers to take after viewing your ad, such as website visits or app downloads. You'll also need to choose a campaign type, bidding strategy, budget, and target locations and languages. Keep in mind that DSAs can appear on mobile devices, so it's important to ensure your website is mobile-friendly. Additionally, consider upgrading your DSA campaigns to Performance Max to reach new customers and potentially increase conversions.

Leverage Facebook's interest targeting

Facebook is an invaluable tool for reaching young, tech-savvy audiences like college and university students. It is a place where they connect with friends, share updates, join groups, and keep track of academic schedules. However, students have unique consumption habits and lifestyle patterns that differ from other demographic groups, so it is important to understand their preferences to create content that resonates with them.

Facebook's interest targeting can be a valuable tool for reaching undergraduate and postgraduate students. By combining age targeting with interest targeting related to higher education, you can narrow down your target audience based on their specific needs, preferences, and lifestyles. For example, you could target 18-24-year-olds with interests in "Bachelor's degree", "College", "University", or "Students' union".

Additionally, you can target users based on their geographic location, such as by city, zip code, or radius. This is especially useful if you are targeting students in a specific area, such as those within a certain distance of your university or college. You can also target users who like specific Facebook pages, such as the college Facebook pages of the institutions you are targeting.

While targeting students directly is important, don't overlook the potential of reaching out to parents. Facebook restricted detailed targeting options for teenagers under 18, but targeting parents of college and university students can be an effective strategy. For example, a university promoting a new engineering program could target parents aged 40-60 in the same region who have shown interest in educational topics or organizations.

To create a more specific audience, you can use the "Narrow Audience" button to add more criteria, such as excluding those who are already attending school or have advanced degrees. You can also consider factors beyond demographics, geography, and education, such as a prospect's outside interests, hobbies, publications they read online, and their digital habits like device usage and browsing behaviour. These factors will enable you to leverage Facebook's laser-focused audience parameters and maximize the effectiveness of your ad campaigns.

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