Most higher ed advertisers assume that better targeting or bigger budgets are the key to driving enrollments. But the best available research tells a different story.

A 2023 econometric analysis of 28,000 campaigns identified 10 key factors that separate high-performing ad campaigns from those that waste budget. These findings reveal what actually drives advertising ROI—and it’s not always what marketers expect.

The good news? Every institution—big or small—can apply these principles to get more from their ad spend. The bad news? Many universities are still relying on outdated media strategies that limit their potential.

This checklist distills what the research says actually works in advertising. If your campaigns aren’t delivering the results you need, here’s where to focus.

Creative Quality – Up to 12X ROI Multiplier

Creative quality is the single biggest factor you control that determines whether an ad is profitable or forgettable. While there’s no universally accepted model for assessing creative quality, ad testing platform System 1 may be getting close. According to their research, there are five creative elements that consistently predict the effectiveness of ad creative: 

• Characters – A person or creature your audience can become invested in.
• Emotion – The more your audience feels, the more they’ll remember.
• Story arc – Tell a story worth caring about.
• Soundtrack – Emotive melodic tracks outperform highly rhythmic tracks.
• Fluent devices – Distinctive assets and cues that make it easy for your audience to connect the ad to your brand.

Apply the Research:
Your ads need more than drone shots of campus and students in lab coats set to the “Dare to Dream Concerto”. Replace institutional chest-thumping with stories of transformation, challenge and triumph, hard-won success, and the emotional journey of college life.

Budget Setting Across Geographies – Up to 5X ROI Multiplier

Higher ed marketing is still a largely regional game. Yet university marketers consistently under-appreciate the profound impact geography can have on returns from advertising, even for online programs. As a result, they tend to spread their limited advertising budgets far and wide, which dilutes its impact.

Apply the Research:
Pay careful attention to the specific locations that drive the results you want. This is especially true for inquiry generation campaigns where down-funnel analysis often shows the regions that generate enrollments are considerably smaller than the regions that generate inquiries. If your strategic goals direct you to advertise in markets where you face headwinds, that’s fine. Just do so deliberately, with enough budget to move the needle, and the understanding that these efforts will likely underperform relative to your tried and true markets until you’re well-established.

Further reading: Marketing Online Programs? Own Your Backyard First

Budget Setting Across Portfolios – Up to 3X ROI Multiplier

Even small institutions look to divide their budgets between promoting the institution, individual academic units, and priority programs. Making smart choices here can lead to significant returns.

Apply the Research:
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to optimizing your portfolio, but there are some principles that are largely transferrable from one institution to the next.

• Avoid spreading your budget evenly. Instead, base allocations on your near-term goals, long-term strategy, and the media plan that makes the most sense for each of your priorities.
• Prioritize program-focused advertising based on overall demand, revenue potential, and enrollment capacity. Programs that have good overall demand, attractive acquisition costs relative to their revenue potential, and capacity for enrollment growth should be your top marketing investments.
• Balance institutional branding with program-level advertising. While it’s tempting to funnel every dollar into lower-funnel channels that show quicker returns, marketing research consistently shows a combination of both brand and direct response is the most profitable in the long-run.
• Be willing to make some tough choices. Far too often, schools spread their already modest advertising budgets across too many separate initiatives, and as a consequence, none of them are adequately funded. The hard reality is there is a minimum threshold to move the needle and it’s generally higher than you want it to be. Don’t make the mistake of funding your portfolio based on internal politics or wishful thinking.

Multi-Media Strategy – Up to 2X ROI Multiplier

If you follow major advertisers, you’ll notice they don’t just run ads during the big game. Instead, they execute across social, streaming video, radio, OOH, on-site activations, and more. Why go to the extra effort? Because again and again, research shows campaigns that run across a wide range of channels outperform those that run on a fewer channels.

The good news for universities is you don’t need a multi-million dollar budget to get the same improvement in returns. Just the act of dividing up your existing budget across multiple channels can substantially improve your returns.

Apply the Research:
Ensure every significant campaign spans multiple channels. The research suggests 5+ is best. Maintain enough commonality between executions to tie the campaign together and customize each one to suit the unique strengths of each channel.

Ratio of Brand to Performance Spend – Up to 2X ROI Multiplier

CFOs have long questioned the value of brand marketing over seemingly easier to measure direct response ads. But the research from Dyson and others is clear: brands that invest in both broadly-targeted, emotionally-engaging brand advertisements and targeted short-term direct response efforts see the greatest returns over the long-run. This works because smart brand marketing actually makes your performance advertising more efficient, and in the long run, make you less reliant on performance marketing tactics to acquire students in the first place.

Apply the Research:
The most commonly recommended budget split between brand and performance advertising is 60/40. If that kind of investment in brand makes you roll your eyes, don’t fret: it’s not an all or nothing proposition. A more gradual approach (like moving from say 0/100 to 10/90, then to 20/80) can make it easier to build confidence in brand marketing while still satisfying short term enrollment goals. Ultimately, it’s not about hitting a specific ratio, but investing your limited budget more intelligently for the long run.

Further reading: Brand vs. Performance Marketing: Playing the Long Game without Losing Your Shirt

Other Profitability Drivers

Budget Setting Across Ad Variants – 1.7X ROI Multiplier
Run multiple creative variations improves ad performance and engagement across student segments.

Cost / Product Seasonality – 1.6X ROI Multiplier
Adjust spend to ebb and flow based on seasonal demand and enrollment cycles.

Laydown / Phasing – 1.2X ROI Multiplier
Rather than alternating between bursts of advertising and silence, build sustained campaigns with strategic spikes during high-intent periods.

Target Audience Selection – 1.1X ROI Multiplier
While hyper-specific targeting sounds smart, overly-segmented advertising tends to inflate cost and exclude students who aren’t in market now but will be soon.

The Biggest Factor You Can’t Change? Brand Size – Up to 20X ROI Multiplier

Unfortunately, the single biggest factor driving advertising ROI is something that’s entirely out of the marketing department’s immediate control: brand size. This means a few things:

1. The rich get richer. Not only do larger schools have bigger budgets, but every dollar they spend goes farther. That kind of buffer means they can screw up on all sorts of things and still come out on top.
2. Be careful who you copy. We all love a good keynote from the CMO at Big State U, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Just remember that copy/pasting their strategy or tactic into your marketing plan probably won’t generate the same results.
3. Hidden gems get trampled. Long-term, the most successful path is building a big, bold, famous brand in your neck of the woods.

The Bottom Line

The best available research makes it clear: higher ed advertising success isn’t about guesswork—it’s about applying proven principles that drive ROI. From creative quality to media mix, the institutions that optimize these levers will get more inquiries, stronger engagement, and better long-term results from their ad spend.

If you’re ready to take a more strategic approach to your media planning—one backed by data instead of assumptions—let’s talk. We help universities optimize their advertising strategy to ensure every dollar works harder toward enrollment goals.