Webinar: Webinar: 7 Paid Ad Campaigns Universities Should Be Running (But Aren’t)
Get more clicks at a lower cost with these highly effective but often-overlooked campaign strategies.
Paid Digital Media
Facebook and Instagram Ads for Higher Ed
You know your prospective students are on Facebook and Instagram. We know how to reach them with strategic targeting, creative assets, and data-driven insights that maximize your return on ad spend (ROAS).
Meta (Facebook and Instagram) Doesn’t Exist in a Silo. Neither Should Your Social Media Marketing Agency.
For many colleges and universities, advertising on Facebook and Instagram is a no-brainer. You can reach a wide audience, from high school students to parents and adult learners, with sophisticated targeting at a relatively modest cost. But even if your Meta ads are converting well, it’s all too common for social media marketers to operate in a vacuum — and that means missing out on huge opportunities for cross-platform learning.
As a full-service website and digital marketing agency with a laser focus on higher education, we take a totally different approach. Our deep industry expertise enables us to apply proven strategies to maximize ad performance while driving continuous improvements across your institution’s enrollment marketing ecosystem.
Why higher ed paid advertising is so challenging
Colleges and Universities Worked With
Higher Ed Facebook and Instagram Ad Services We Offer
Campaign Strategy
We work with you to understand your institution’s brand, audience, competition, enrollment targets, and more. This holistic approach enables us to implement Meta ad campaign strategies that meet your goals for platform-specific engagement, conversion, and lead generation while delivering data and insights that add rocket fuel to your omnichannel marketing efforts.
Custom Ad Creative Development
When it comes to Facebook and Instagram advertising, the more high-quality photos, videos, and designed assets you have, the better. Our design, photo, video, and copywriting teams are experts at customizing your institution’s pre-existing assets for Meta campaigns — and if you’re missing anything essential, we can help with that, too. Then we launch, test, and optimize the heck out of your ads to make sure your institution stands out in your audience’s crowded feeds.
Audience Targeting & Segmentation
As higher education social media marketing specialists, we start with tried and true strategies like targeting parents on Facebook and younger audiences on Instagram. But we don’t stop there. We use data to hone in on more detailed demographic and psychographic segmentation tactics, such as detecting patterns in your audience’s interests and values, as well as the posts they interact with. This not only introduces your brand to new prospective students, it enables us to more effectively map our creative strategies onto receptive audiences.
Geotargeting
If your institution attracts a regional audience, geotargeting is a great strategy to drive some quick, low-hanging-fruit wins. But we want you to get all the fruit — and geotargeting can help with that, too. Think customized messaging for commuters, competitor-conquest campaigns to offer in-state tuition to out-of-state students, and affinity campaigns targeting region-specific interests. Even online and nationally-known programs can benefit from this often-overlooked way to connect more deeply with niche audiences.
Ad & Landing Page Optimization
Even the most solidly-designed Meta ad campaigns can (and should) get better over time. From images to copy, call-to-action design, offers, and more, we take a disciplined approach to determining what works best, when, on which platform, and with what audiences. By testing one variable at a time and setting frequency caps to avoid creative fatigue, we ensure that your institution’s ads stay fresh and effective.
Cross-Channel Integration & Remarketing
When you work with Vital for Facebook and Instagram advertising, you get more than performance — you get data, plus the know-how to apply it across channels to boost your institution’s brand visibility, drive more website traffic, generate more leads, and ultimately enroll more right-fit students at a lower overall cost. We are experts at the technical science of interaction tracking, so you get the most nuanced, effective, and on-trend campaigns possible.
Lead Generation Campaigns
Generating leads via Meta ads can be a bit tricky, due to the interruptive nature of the medium (no one hangs out on Instagram hoping to find the right college to apply to). Luckily, when it comes to higher ed paid media, tricky business is our business. From the secrets of effective higher ed lead-gen offers to strategic form design and CRM integrations, we help you maximize high-quality conversions both on-platform and on your site.
Brand Awareness Campaigns
We love Facebook and Instagram for higher education brand awareness campaigns — mostly because they enable us to buy more awareness for less money. For example, by targeting audiences based on their interactions with other ads, we can get your brand in front of people with a demonstrated interest in higher ed institutions like yours, without having to bid on competitive, expensive search terms. (And that’s only one of the many brand awareness tactics we have up our sleeves.)
Event & Deadline Campaigns
Urgency is a great motivator, and Meta ad campaigns promoting events and deadlines typically perform well for our higher education clients. We collaborate with your enrollment marketing team to create a campaign calendar for proactive, strategic campaigns around application deadlines, on-campus and online enrollment events, and more.
Custom Reporting & Data Insights
Did we mention that we’re really into data and reporting? We go above and beyond standard key performance indicators (KPIs) to report on the findings from our extensive A/B testing, so you know exactly what creative and strategic approaches drive the results that matter to your institution. And you don’t even need to ask — our client relationships are built around a regular cadence of weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual reports.
–65%
Cost-per-lead decrease year-over-year
30%
Click-through-rate increase year-over-year
1.4b
Instagram users in 2024
18.6%
Facebook users aged 18-24
What’s Included in a Higher Ed Facebook and Instagram Management Plan?
Everything you need to run successful Meta ads for your higher education institution, all in one place.
- Campaign strategy
- Calendar planning
- Audience targeting and personalization
- Competitor analysis
- Campaign setup and management
- Ad placement and optimization
- Ad copywriting and creative services
- Videography and photography for creative assets
- Landing page creation and optimization
- Ad testing and optimization
- A/B testing
- Conversion tracking and retargeting
- Campaign analytics and reporting
- Compliance and best practices
Benefits of Facebook and Instagram Ads for Higher Education
Facebook and Instagram ads offer several compelling benefits for higher education institutions looking to enhance their marketing strategies.
1. Targeted Reach
These platforms provide sophisticated targeting options that allow you to reach specific demographics, such as age groups, interests, geographical locations, and more. This is particularly useful in attracting the right student body.
2. Visual Engagement
With the visual nature of Facebook and Instagram, institutions can use rich media formats like images, videos, carousel ads, and stories to engage potential students more effectively than traditional text-based advertising.
3. Cost-Effectiveness
Compared to traditional media, social media ads often offer a more affordable option with a lower cost per impression and cost per click, making it an efficient way to extend your reach.
4. Brand Awareness
Regularly appearing on users’ feeds helps increase brand visibility and awareness among potential students and their networks, which is key in building a strong educational brand.
5. Direct Communication
These platforms allow for direct communication with prospective students through comments, messages, and more, facilitating immediate engagement and interaction.
6. Increase in Enrollment
By directing traffic to tailored landing pages, Facebook and Instagram ads can effectively contribute to higher conversion rates and increased enrollments.
7. Analytics and Measurement
Both platforms offer comprehensive analytics tools that help measure the effectiveness of campaigns, providing insights into audience behavior, engagement, and conversion. This helps in fine-tuning strategies for better results.
8. Flexibility and Scalability
Ads can be adjusted, paused, or scaled depending on performance, budget adjustments, or strategic shifts, offering flexibility not always possible in other advertising mediums.
9. Multimedia Capabilities
The ability to use a mix of text, images, videos, and interactive elements makes these platforms ideal for creating compelling and influential campaigns that resonate with a younger audience.
10. Community Building
Beyond just advertising, Facebook and Instagram help build communities around your brand, fostering loyalty and long-term engagement with current and prospective students.
Vital’s Approach to Managing Facebook and Instagram Ad Campaigns for Higher Education
What sets us apart from other social media marketing agencies? A unique, structured approach honed over our decades of experience with higher education paid advertising to ensure maximum efficiency and return on your ad spend.
1. Quarterly Strategy Sessions
We meet with your enrollment marketing team at the beginning of our engagement and every quarter thereafter to align on goals, ensure that the results we’re delivering are having a tangible impact on your institution, and craft a plan for boosting brand awareness, increasing website traffic, and driving more leads from right-fit prospective students.
2. Weekly Status & Data Calls
Once we’ve kicked off your campaigns, we meet with you weekly to review the metrics that matter most to your institution, get your input, and plan tests, tweaks, and optimization strategies to keep growing your ROAS.
3. In-depth Monthly Reports
Once a month, we go deep into the data to deliver a comprehensive picture of your Meta ads performance. We identify areas of potential growth and recommend new campaigns, content enhancements, fresh lead-gen offers, and more.
Facebook and Instagram Ads for Higher Ed Process
We take a thorough, deliberate approach to getting started on the right foot. Here’s how:
Step 1: Questionnaires
We’re more than Meta ad managers — we’re higher education marketing strategists who take a holistic view of any marketing challenge. That’s why we ask every new higher ed client to fill out questionnaires, not only about their ad history but about their institution, their goals, their ideal prospective students, and their competition.
Step 2: Audit of Current Account
Unless you’re brand new to Meta ads, we dive into a thorough assessment of the accounts we’ll be managing. We have a custom Meta ad account audit process and checklist that’s based on years of experience in analyzing accounts for weaknesses and opportunities. We break down your current account to learn as much as we can from past performance, then benchmark all KPIs as a baseline to measure future success.
Step 3: Audience & Competitor Research
We conduct thorough research to address any missed opportunities found in our audit, compiling ideal student profiles and competitor insights. Then we detail our audience targeting and segmentation strategy before launching into creative production work.
Step 4: Ad Copywriting, Design, & Creative Assets
In the highly visual world of social media, your ads need to be eye-catching, compelling, and unique. We help create multiple versions of ads to test the effectiveness of different approaches, from highly-designed ads to more natural formats.
Step 5: Report Creation
Vital creates a custom dashboard report for each client. We pride ourselves on reporting in the language of your institution (traffic, leads, inquiries, applications, etc.) and we don’t try to mislead you with vanity metrics. We provide and review reports with clients on a monthly basis. That said, you’ll always have full access to your account and can log in at any time to review metrics.
Step 6: Account Maintenance Meetings
Once we’re up and running, we get you into our established cadence of weekly status updates, monthly in-depth reporting, and quarterly strategy sessions. This is the structure that drives continuous improvement that builds over time, and it’s why the majority of our higher education clients grow their engagements with us year after year.
Higher Ed Facebook and Instagram Ads Pricing
Vital’s pricing for Facebook and Instagram ad management is pretty straightforward. We charge a one-time account setup fee which varies depending on the size and status of the account we’re onboarding. After that, you pay a percentage of your ad spend as a monthly management fee.
Account Setup Fee Structure (One Time)
Example Pricing:
| Setup Project | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery: kickoff-meeting, strategy, competitive research, questionnaires, stakeholder interviews | $800 | $1,200 |
| Keyword research & grouping / audience & demographic targeting | $1,400 | $2,100 |
| Account review / setup, budgeting | $560 | $1,120 |
| Campaign creation / updates | $1,680 | $2,800 |
| Landing page design and content update | $980 | $1,960 |
| Miscellaneous Projects | $0 | $1,400 |
| Total: (final project pricing TBD in Discovery) | $5,420 | $10,580 |
Ongoing Management Fee Structure (Monthly)
Spend level is based on a per-channel/network spend unless otherwise stated. If you partner with Vital to manage paid digital advertising in addition to your Facebook and Instagram ad accounts, your monthly management fee will be a percentage of your spend on a single channel, not on all channels combined (e.g. If you spend $5,000 on Meta Ads and $5,000 on Google Ads, your rate will be based on a $5,000 spend level, not a $10,000 level).
Clients who enroll in a digital marketing retainer in addition to social media ad management services receive a 10% discount on monthly management fees.
Custom quotes can be provided upon request.
| Paid Media Spend (Monthly) | Management Fee (Monthly) |
|---|---|
| < $4,999 | $980 (minimum) |
| $5,000 – $9,999 | 17.5% |
| $10,000 – $19,999 | 15% |
| $20,000 – $29,999 | 12.5% |
| $30,000 – $99,999 | 10% |
| $100,000 – $499,999 | $10k+ Custom retainer available |
| $500,000 – $1mm+ | $20k+ Custom retainer available |
Want to Get a Facebook and Instagram Ads Proposal from Vital?
Think we might be a good fit for your higher education institution? Fill out the form on this page and we’ll set up a call to talk about it.
