Peak scholarships season is wrapping up and our school marketers will soon be evaluating their campaign performance and assessing the number of applications received.
We’ve seen (and launched) some stellar campaigns this season and wanted take a quick moment to share the elements that make up a successful campaign and some of the reasons why your campaigns aren’t driving actual applications after all the dust has settled.
There are four main reasons why schools see a flurry of clicks and initial interest with very few applications come closing date.
1. Short copy and creatives that lack brand and storytelling. Schools often feel that just opening up the opportunity to apply for a scholarship should be reason enough for people to apply, but we’ve seen an increasingly competitive landscape where parents with gifted students are really shopping around for the best choice of school for their child. “Scholarships now open” is not going to cut it or provide families with an insight into the world of opportunity that will be opened up to successful candidates. Storytelling is key, think quality over quantity rather than 10 ad variations with no story to tell.
2. When running online ads, people are often caught in a ‘not prepared to take action’ state. They may see an ad and click to get the details and even have the intention to visit again, but as we all know, people get busy and will forget to apply before closing date. Your ads are the first touchpoint, not the final destination. The best way to ensure that families will actually follow through with an application is to have a short expression of interest form so that you can continue to communicate with families, send the full application details and more about what is on offer. An SMS a few days before closing is another great way to remind families to apply.
3. Click optimised campaigns that are designed to show vanity metrics with no real application intent. Scholarship campaigns are particularly prone to ‘sticky beak’ clicks from local families that lack the actual intent to apply. If your campaigns are optimised for link clicks or conversions that are just button clicks to an application, Meta platforms in particular will show your ad to more people that will just click but not necessarily apply. In order to ensure your campaign will drive actual applications, we suggest setting up conversion tracking for actual applications and optimising for this.
4. No lead up to peak application season.Schools find that they are often only receiving applications from current families or families already on their list. This could be because the first step of many scholarship landing pages is to apply to the College first and then submit a detailed application followed by their student sitting a test. This is a huge commitment to families and if your expectation is to reach beyond your current community, a nurturing campaign needs to run for at least a few months prior to peak application season.
So what can you do about it?
The key to success for your scholarships campaign is build up to your application season for the entire year leading up to. Instead of just saying “scholarships are closed” on your landing page, build expressions of interest ready to receive a launch announcement and tell the stories of transformation throughout the year to build anticipation of the opportunity that will open.
P.S. Here are 3 ways I can help you grow in your education marketing career:
1. Join our Marketing Mastery for Schools Facebook Group and connect with over 1,000 school marketers. It’s a place to learn best practise, connect and ask your questions. https://www.facebook.com/groups/MarketingMasteryForSchools
2. Sign up to join our monthly schools’ marketing training calls: https://robertsdigital.com.au/training
3. Take advantage of our 2025 Media Placements for your next campaign. Affordable campaigns created by education industry experts. https://robertsdigital.com.au/digital-marketing-for-schools/
