Enrollment marketing for how students actually choose.
Choosing a college takes months, not clicks — students and parents research programs, costs, and outcomes long before an application starts. We build enrollment campaigns for that timeline: search intent, program-page SEO, and reporting measured in inquiries and applications, not impressions. Planned, built, and reported in-house from Seattle, Tampa, and Orlando.
Measured to the application, not the click.
Enrollment marketing fails when it’s graded on clicks: education keywords are expensive, and the decision they start takes months to close.
So the KPIs are enrollment-shaped from day one — inquiries, campus-visit bookings, applications started — tracked at the campaign level and reviewed against the academic calendar, not a generic monthly cycle.
Budget paces to application windows, and the dashboard shows what each program’s spend actually produced.
The three realities enrollment marketing runs on.
Two audiences decide together
Students discover programs on social and search; parents vet cost, outcomes, and credibility. Campaigns split creative and messaging by audience — the same budget has to convince both.
Program pages are the search surface
Nobody searches “college” — they search nursing programs, MBA costs, transfer requirements. Each program is its own query universe, so SEO treats program pages as the pillar, not the homepage.
Enrollment runs on a calendar
Application windows and term starts make pacing a strategy. Spend ramps when decisions actually happen — not evenly across twelve months — and reporting reads against the admissions cycle.
What we run for colleges and higher ed.
How an engagement runs.
Goals in enrollments
Discovery starts with program economics: what an enrolled student is worth, which programs have capacity, and where the admissions cycle sits. Channels get picked to match.
KPIs before launch
Inquiry, visit-booking, and application events — with targets in writing before the first dollar moves. If we can’t measure it, we don’t launch it.
Optimize in the open
You see every dollar — where it went, what it returned, what we changed and why. The dashboard is live, not a monthly PDF.
Earn the renewal
A monthly strategy review walks through the numbers together. Stay because the work is working — no contract makes you.
What it costs — honestly.
Ad management — Google Ads, paid social, display, and video — runs at 20% of monthly ad spend, with a $500 monthly minimum. The rate steps down as spend scales, and larger institutions run on a flat-rate retainer, so extra budget goes to media, not management. SEO/GEO/AIO plans are flat from $1,299 per month. Every fee is itemized in the proposal.
- No setup fees
- No long-term contracts
- Retainer option — one set fee
- Live reporting dashboard
Questions we get from this vertical.
What enrollment marketing costs, which channels move applications, and what we will — and won’t — promise an institution.
It depends on the programs and the markets they compete in — a nursing program in a major metro costs many times what a niche graduate certificate does. We scope backwards from enrollment economics: what an enrolled student is worth, which programs have capacity, and what the market charges per click. The management fee is published: 20% of monthly ad spend with a $500 monthly minimum, stepping down at higher spend — larger institutions run on a flat-rate retainer.
Search captures the demand that already exists — students typing program names and “near me” queries. Social and video build the consideration a months-long decision runs on. Most institutions need both, weighted by where their programs sit: we start where the intent is, measure to inquiries and applications, and let the numbers reallocate the budget.
Expect movement in 3–6 months. Higher-ed SEO compounds through program pages — each one is its own query universe — so the curve depends on how many programs you have and who you’re up against. We set milestones at onboarding and report against them monthly.
No — and be wary of anyone who says yes. Enrollment depends on admissions, aid packaging, and program reputation as much as on campaigns. What we do put in writing: KPIs agreed before launch, a live dashboard showing every dollar, and month-to-month terms — so we have to earn the renewal.
No. Everything is month to month, with no setup fees. We earn the renewal every month — stay because the work is working, not because a contract says you have to.
Let's talk about Digital Marketing for Colleges.
Free proposal, honest scope, published pricing. No obligation, no long-term contract.