Non-marketers want to market individual programs.
But marketers know that's not how students shop.
Case-in-point: Program vs. Segment Search Volume
The Situation
When looking at search trends it’s easy to see that the majority of the market tends to search for general areas of academic interest, not individual programs.
So when we decide to invest our hard-earned marketing dollars in program-specific marketing, we end up with a much smaller audience to reach and it’s much more competitive - and expensive - to reach them.
The Solution
The solution is "Area of Study" campaigns that cluster like-offerings and serve against upper-funnel, segment-specific keywords.
This strategy dramatically increases our addressable market while decreasing our acquisition costs.
This isn’t to negate program-specific marketing. When our ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) justifies it, it’s still a viable strategy.
But more-often-than-not, we should be spending 2x - 5x+ more on our segment-specific, “Area of Study” campaigns, when compared to program-specific marketing activities.
Conclusion
So the next time you want to drive enrollment for a specific program, consider investing in that program's segment instead.
Editor’s Note
Kanahoma recently released our second-annual Kanahoma Coffee Roasters gift box. Chances are if you’re on Twitter or LinkedIn, you may have seen some posts about it.
We’re planning to roll out one last mailing ahead of the end of the year and still have a few boxes to give away. Are you a coffee lover based in the US? Send me an email with your address and I’ll try and get you on the list for next week’s mailing! It’s on the house. - Seth
About the Author
Seth is the founder and CEO of Kanahoma, a San Diego-based performance marketing agency on a mission to build a better agency for organizations building a better world.
If your organization has big goals for big growth in 2023, Kanahoma is here to help.