Many institutions are focusing on transfer recruitment right now as they gear up for fall. I’ve broken down the strategies that work best for our clients in this guide to help you reach transfer students this summer:
1. Start with data and analytics
Tapping into your current transfer enrollment data might seem obvious. But it goes beyond the geographies and feeder schools of those who’ve applied or enrolled in the past. Take a look at your Google Analytics traffic to note any new cities of potential based on high traffic to your transfer admission pages. You might find a new territory for this year’s recruitment, where you can focus more efforts. Take a look in Google Webmaster Tools and Analytics to see which pages students view after searching for “transfer” and related terms. Notice which pages transfer students drop off or bounce, and optimize your landing page from there. The data is at your fingertips already! But you must interpret it and design campaigns accordingly.
2. Segment your transfer audience
Through Retargeting off your transfer admission pages, you can target banner ads directly to those who’ve visited transfer-related pages and distinguish them from your general undergraduate admission pool. This is a fantastic opportunity to reengage prospects who’ve already been to your site, by serving them unique messaging, with strong calls to action promoting Transfer Tuesdays, application deadlines, or other event oriented, time sensitive messaging.
3. IP Select
Using the latest IP Targeting technology, schools can reach a list of addresses through banner advertising into each home’s IP network. Since a solid transfer purchase list is hard to come by, we suggest you use your own data. Taking your current pool of transfer inquiries or dated accepted students, you can leverage those addresses to match for related IP addresses, providing unique access to the students’ devices at home. More importantly, these ads can also be served to devices operated by the parents in the household, so you’ll get in front of all stakeholders. Summer is a perfect opportunity to serve these ads; students are back home, with where to attend school in the forefront of their minds and in discussions with their parents.
4. Rooftop targeting to feeder schools
A large percentage of undergraduates and community college students use WiFi networks at their institution. A staggering 90% of students now consider WiFi essential to their educational success. This means one thing for rooftop targeting: those students can be easily reached in competing institutions or community college feeder schools. But rooftop targeting remains a simple yet effective way to increase your school’s transfer enrollment: through segmented display banner ads you can remind students of upcoming deadlines, highlight degree completion programs, reinforce the university’s brand, or simply get them back to the school’s website.
5. End with data and analytics
Just as this guide started with data and analytics, it ends there as well. Ensure campaign reporting benchmarks are being met, like steady impressions, solid CTRs, and increased conversions in advance of deadlines. If metrics are lower than desired, make optimizations, including swapping out the creative and call-to-action. Run A/B testing on ads, and check their effectiveness through Google Analytics. Through UTM parameters on your Retargeting, IP, or other campaigns, you can easily see in Google Analytics which campaigns (and specifically which banner ads) generate more users, sessions, length of time on site, page views and goal completions. Also take a look at your top traffic sources and geos. Was there some traction in the locations your ads were delivered? Did you see lifts in brand keyword search activity in Webmaster Tools and Analytics?
It’s not too late to start your summer transfer recruitment, and it’s never too early to start planning for next year’s transfer plans. Talk to us today to find out how we can customize a recruitment guide to meet your transfer needs.