4 Reasons Why You Need Paid Social in Your Digital Postgraduate Recruitment Strategy
With over 60% of the world’s population using social media, and the average daily usage being over two hours, it’s clear that we spend a lot of time connecting to each other (and to brands!), digitally. Are you making the most of this captive audience?
You could choose to focus on organic reach, and there’s nothing wrong with that! But you’re only targeting your own engaged audience, who probably already know who you are and what you provide. You’re also a slave to algorithms, fighting against all the other brands who are targeting the exact same market.
That’s why paid social advertising is so important. It can help you get high-quality, targeted ads out in front of prospective students on the platforms they use every day. Paid social media is a method of displaying adverts or sponsored marketing messages on social platforms and targeting a specific sub-audience. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, branded or influencer-generated content, and display ads are all examples of paid social media.
In honour of the launch of our paid social campaign service, we’ve chatted with Rob Barnes, our Senior Ad Operations Manager, about the benefits of using paid social as part of your digital postgraduate recruitment strategy, and how our product can get you the leads you’re after.
#1 Narrower (and unique) targeting
A paid social campaign gives you the freedom to narrow your targeting, so that you can ensure your ads are reaching the right people.
Our product goes even further than that, enabling you to target our audience who you know are actively interested in postgraduate study. You may still need to stand out from the crowd – differentiating yourself from the likes of Adidas, Spotify, Amazon – but you can rest easy in the knowledge that you’re getting in front of the most relevant audience possible!
We can also use our wealth of search data across our flagship websites to target students who are interested in a particular subject, as well as geo-targeting to reach users in a specific country or region.
#2 Less intrusive than standard adverts
You’ll usually know a paid social media advert when you see one – they’ll have a ‘sponsored’ or ‘promoted’ tag near the post, but they’re not as ‘in-your-face’ as a standard advert. Because it’s less distracting (and targeted specifically to the user’s interest), it’s more likely to catch their attention and make an impression.
If you use our product, your brand will be in partnership with either FindAMasters or FindAPhD, so you’ll benefit from the trust and authority we have built with our audience.
#3 Get creative with more advertising formats
When it comes to advertising on social media, the opportunities for creativity are as diverse as the platforms themselves! Rather than being restricted to traditional search advertising formats, you’ll be able to experiment with all the variations of image, text and video that social media has to offer. For example, on Facebook and Instagram (which our product targets), ads can be images, videos, carousels, or stories.
This gives you greater flexibility, and allows for creativity in determining how your ad appears. We’re also happy to lend you our sector expertise and advise on what might work best for our audience.
#4 Increased engagement
With an overwhelming percentage of internet users browsing social media daily, it’s no wonder that paid social can generate some serious engagement! In fact, research suggests that paid social advertising benefits from a much higher click-through rate (CTR) than other forms of digital marketing.
If you work with us, we’ll report back on how your ads are doing. We’ll be able to tell you audience reach, impressions, and clicks via the platform we run the ads through. We’ll also be checking in on these and adjusting the campaign to make sure we’re hitting your objectives.
How FindAUniversity can help
As well as all the benefits outlined above, we’ll do the hard bit!
If you opt to purchase one of our paid social packages, our expert Advert Operations Team will manage your campaign from start to finish. They’ll use their combined knowledge and expertise to ensure optimal exposure and performance.
All you’ll need to supply is your campaign objectives, desired targeting and design assets. But we can also create your design and copy for you if required.
These are just some of the many ways that paid social advertising can enhance your postgraduate recruitment campaigns! If you’re interested in purchasing one of our paid social packages, contact us today.
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