Challenge

Reach highly targeted prospects for niche business programs

Build awareness of business programs in regional area

Increase diversity of applicant poo

Solution

Sponsored Content

Precise targeting by location, career type, and company

Ongoing optimization to improve targeting

Results

60% more enrolled students than Google AdWords, with a2.5x lower budget

Average CTR is more than 50% above LinkedIn benchmarks(top-performing campaigns exceed benchmarks by more than 4.5X)

Average engagement rate is more than 51% above LinkedIn benchmarks

Company Page followers increased by more than 100%

Driving quality leads that convert

Compared to other lead generation platforms, LinkedInSponsored Content generates leads that are eager to engagewith school representatives. “You can connect these leads withan actual person, and they have a real profile,” says Johnson.“Leads from LinkedIn are ready to talk about enrollment. Yourarely find anyone who won’t return a call or email.”The results speak for themselves. "Since the initiation of ourLinkedIn campaigns, 21 inquiries have converted into enrolledstudents, compared to 13 from Google AdWords," saidLendora. "Over the course of these campaigns, our GoogleAdWords budget was, on average, 2.5 times greater than ourLinkedIn campaign budget." 

Increasing applicant diversity

LinkedIn’s targeting capabilities have helped the schoolincrease the quality and diversity of its applicant pool. Forinstance, a new Sponsored Content campaign for the FlexMBA program is focused on increasing the number of femaleapplicants, to help address the “glass ceiling” issue for womenin business. The campaign features testimonials from femaleprogram participants and graduates, with messaging focusedon enhancing work/life balance with flexible education models.Within days of launch, the campaign had already resulted in fivehighly qualified leads.The school has also focused on targeting by geography in a“Beyond the Beltway” campaign. “There are an abundance ofMBA programs in the Washington, D.C. area, so by extendingour targeting outside of the area of Hampton Roads andRichmond, Virginia, we’ve been very successful and have beenable to maintain a reasonable cost per lead,” says Johnson.

Testing and tweaking made easy

Johnson also appreciates LinkedIn’s unique ability to stop andstart campaigns at any time, and to easily change targetingsegments or ad creative on the fly. That allows William & Maryto make the most of its online marketing budget, paying onlyfor ads that get clicks, and optimizing campaigns to decreasethe cost per click.“It’s a really good way to test different things withoutcommitting to a fiscal year’s worth of creative or an extensivecontract,” says Johnson. “This form of advertising allows youto experiment and figure out what works. LinkedIn makeseverything that a marketer does so much easier.”