Retargeting in higher ed: Turn curious prospects into enrolled students
April 10, 2025
Retargeting is a proven strategy for turning curious prospective students—those who have shown an interest in your university or college but haven’t yet taken action—into future students. Let’s discuss the science of retargeting and insights to increase your conversions.
Understanding retargeting
Retargeting involves directing ads to potential students and parents who have engaged with your school online but haven’t yet taken action. These ads reach those who’ve browsed your website, explored your app or interacted on social media but still haven’t visited campus or applied. As they look at your site, they leave a digital path showing who they are and what they want. Every click, page view or search is an opportunity to turn a high school student into a college applicant.
Why it’s important: Research indicates only 2% of web traffic converts on the first visit to a website. Retargeting encourages prospective students or parents to return to your page, explore more and take action.
How it works: You can track your visitors as they browse using a small piece of code known as a pixel. After they visit your sites or social media, the pixel follows them to show targeted ads about your college or university. This is especially important for your website, as 93% of high school students visit college websites and 73% of them expect to enroll after taking a virtual tour.
Budget considerations: Retargeting campaigns are cost-effective as they focus on a smaller, more engaged audience segment. The budget depends on factors such as the size of your audience and how long you want to retarget them.
Strategies for retargeting
Segment your audience: Not all prospective students are the same. Segmenting your audience based on behavior, such as page visits to tuition & fees, degree programs or student life, allows for more personalized ads. Parents should also be included as they have a significant influence on their child(ren)’s choices.
Personalize your message: Crafting messages to appeal to each audience segment increases the chances of conversion. 56% of prospective students expect websites to show personalized content. This customization may include student stories, reminders of application deadlines or scholarship recommendations.
Use dynamic ads: Dynamic ads display content around what students and parents have seen or shown interest in to drive higher engagement. These personalized ads increase brand loyalty and encourage conversions.
Clear call-to-action: Make sure your ads drive the action you want the prospective student to take, like filling out an application, scheduling a visit to campus or contacting the admissions team.
Measuring success
Like any advertising strategy, the success of retargeting should be measured using clear metrics, such as:
Click-through rate: Gauge how effective your ad is in prompting action.
Conversion rate: Measure the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action post-click.
Return on ad spend: Evaluate the efficiency of your ad spend in generating revenue.
How to get started
Define your goals: Determine what you want to achieve with your advertising strategy.
Build audience segments: Use data to create audience segments based on their interactions with your website or social media.
Craft personalized content: Create personalized messages for each audience segment. Tailor your ads to their specific interests like degree programs, athletics or tuition and fee information.
Choose the right channels: Work with our team of advertising experts to guide you in retargeting on various platforms like Google Display, AdRoll and Facebook Dynamic.
Monitor and optimize: Analyze key metrics and make adjustments to maximize your return on investment.
Retargeting is a great tool to have in your higher education advertising toolkit. It reconnects you with prospective students who are on the verge of making a decision and parents who are offering guidance to your next applicant. By implementing a retargeting strategy, you will boost conversions and increase student enrollment.
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