8 smart digital ad strategies to hit your college enrollment targets
July 16, 2025
Higher education recruitment isn’t just about “being online.” Prospective students are tech-savvy, selective and have multiple choices. To win their attention (and their applications), colleges and universities need digital ad strategies that speak directly to future students in ways that feel relevant, personal and inspiring.
Here are eight ways to stay top-of-mind from first click to enrollment.
1. Build brand awareness and name recognition
The college search starts long before a student hits your website or campus. Digital advertising builds the awareness and name recognition you need across multiple channels to keep your brand front and center. Social media, search and display ads drive visibility and shape perception from the very first interaction.
Maintaining a digital presence reinforces your name, values and offerings over time. The more prospective students see you, the more likely they are to explore what you offer and remember your name when they start their college search.
2. Reach prospective students where they are
Prospective students live online, and digital advertising targets them where they spend most of their time based on their habits and behaviors. You’ll also establish a more powerful brand presence when you make digital platform choices guided by real data and not guesswork.
Design your ads with engaging content to answer questions, create emotional connections and encourage students to explore programs and apply. Achieve this with behind-the-scenes campus life videos, student testimonials and storytelling to get attention and results.
Just as important: they need to find you. Search engine optimization (SEO) connects your content to the phrases students are searching. Targeted content and smart keywords increase visibility and keep your site climbing in search results, bringing more prospects to the right pages at the right time.
3. Target the right demographics with precision
Use the data you’re already collecting to target specific audiences with your advertising, including high school students, parents, online learners and transfer students. Leverage insights from your data, website analytics and social media to identify trends and refine your targeting strategy. This increases your engagement and conversion rates.
As all prospective students are not the same, segment your audiences based on behavior and interests, such as academics or athletics programs. Personalize messages with relevant content like student success stories or application information, and include a clear action like scheduling a campus visit or contacting admissions.
4. Highlight your school’s unique value proposition
Your value proposition connects prospective students emotionally with your school’s story, mission and values and plays a key role in turning interest into engagement and enrollment. Incorporating your school’s value proposition into your advertising produces a strong, memorable brand and sets your school apart from the competition.
With 58% of students beginning their college search by exploring schools rather than specific programs, your brand needs to make a strong first impression. Whether your advertising highlights small class sizes, a strong job placement rate, innovative research or a supportive campus community, it must give students a clear reason to choose you over another option.
5. Drive traffic to high-impact enrollment webpages
Your website is an extension of your admissions office and it’s available 24/7 to guide a prospective student toward the next step. What you choose to highlight needs to be effective and easy to navigate, especially on mobile, where most students start their search. Key call-to-action pages or bullets like “Apply Now” or “Request Info” need to be front and center. Program pages should clearly show value: the programs you offer, where their career will take them and how your university or college supports them during school.
This is where your digital advertising comes into play as it steers prospective students directly to these high-impact pages. Whether you’re promoting a new degree program, an open house or an application deadline, your digital ads act as a direct path from browsing to finding specific reasons to choose your institution.
6. Support every stage of the enrollment funnel
The student enrollment journey is a lengthy process that moves prospects from curiosity to commitment. To guide students along this path, it’s essential to tailor your digital ads at each stage.
Awareness Stage
Prospective students are just beginning to explore career paths and post-secondary options.
Your primary goal is to introduce your college or university, spark interest and build an early connection.
Consideration Stage
Your emphasis shifts toward applicants and admissions.
Communications focuses on career outcomes, program strengths, financial aid and campus visits to encourage students to apply.
Decision Stage
Prospective students are choosing where to enroll.
Personalized outreach, timely action steps and reassurance play a key role in confirming their decision and keeping them engaged with your school.
7. Optimize advertising in real-time for better results
Real-time monitoring enables your college or university to improve current strategies and apply insights to future advertising. Instead of waiting to analyze results, you can access performance data as it happens to quickly optimize your message, creative and budget.
If an ad isn’t driving engagement, you can change it. If one platform is outperforming another, you can reallocate budget. This minimizes wasted spend and ensures your message is consistently reaching the right prospective students at the right time. By acting on this information while advertising is running, you’re improving efficiency with a more responsive approach to student recruitment for stronger results over time.
8. Measure return on investment and prove advertising value
The return on investment of your digital advertising determines the effectiveness and impact of your advertising.
Impressions
Impressions are the number of times your digital ad is displayed or viewed, regardless of whether it gets clicks.
Tracking impressions helps you measure brand awareness and reach of your ads.
Click-through rate (CTR)
CTR measures the percentage of prospective students who clicked on your ad.
A higher CTR suggests your ad captures attention and drives traffic.
Conversion rate
Conversions look at the percentage of students who took action after clicking on an ad. Did they apply? Did they sign up for a visit day?
A higher conversion rate indicates your digital ads are effectively taking your desired action.
This information arms you with the value you need to explain your spend, optimize future advertising and demonstrate impact on enrollment to your leadership
Digital advertising isn’t slowing down and neither should your enrollment advertising. By putting these eight ad strategies to work, your school will break through the noise, connect with the right students and grow applicants. It’s time to think bigger, act faster and market smarter.
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