Reaching new audiences on LinkedIn drove a 1060% Return on Investment for the launch of the Executive Master.
École polytechnique is the top engineering school in France and ranked fourth worldwide by Times Higher Education in 2017 among institutions with fewer than 5000 students. However, when it came to the launch of the Executive Master, the team needed to reach a new audience with a compelling message. Investing in Sponsored Content and Sponsored InMail on LinkedIn transformed its ability to generate leads, driving roughly half of all inquiries and applications, and delivering a Return on Investment (ROI) of 1060%.
Reaching the right candidates at scale
While using search and newspaper display advertising had played a part in marketing the Executive Master, the team needed a more precise approach to reaching the right audience within the given timeframe. “École polytechnique has a strong brand in France as the top engineering school, however we had to engage a very specific set of people that our school doesn’t typically target for their programs: experienced executives who were ready to take on a role as leaders in innovation and technology”, explains Roman Ayoubi, in charge of the Digital Marketing for the Executive Master. LinkedIn’s targeting capabilities enabled Roman and the team to focus their investment on the right potential candidates, ensuring that they were generating leads with a high conversion rate. “LinkedIn was the ideal solution for reaching a very specific audience at the scale we needed,” explains Roman. “We used different campaigns to approach our target audience in different ways – we used sector targeting to reach IT and consultancy companies, and then used job function targeting to reach engineers and managers of R&D departments. For both campaigns we focused on larger businesses likely to be able to fund the course, and people with at least seven years’ work experience who would be reaching the right stage of their careers.”
Compelling messaging for the desired audience
Combining Sponsored Content and Sponsored InMail enabled the Executive Master team to mix broader awareness-building activity with personalised call to action. “For the Sponsored Content, we aimed to communicate the value that the course offered people in their careers – becoming a leader who stays ahead of the curve,” says Roman. “For the Sponsored InMail, we took a more personalised approach, with very precise targeting, explaining that our course was particularly relevant for them. We focused our InMail investment more closely on people in France who would find it easier to attend our information sessions. In both cases, we aimed at delivering a compelling and relevant message for people with limited time on their hands.” This approach not only delivered strong engagement through both LinkedIn touchpoints (a click-through rate of 1.8% for Sponsored Content and over 30% for Sponsored InMail), it also delivered relevant leads that converted quickly into participants for the Executive Master. “LinkedIn really excelled,” says Roman. “Over half of the applications for our programme came from the platform and the revenue generated by successful candidates from LinkedIn taking up places for 2017 was more than 10 times the initial investment.”
