business schools marketing benchmark report 2021
TRANSCRIPT
Your School is Great – Why Doesn’t Everyone Know?Working with higher education clients for 23 years
Over 120 higher education clients
• Complete website redesigns – discovery, design, development
• Digital marketing – paid search, digital ads, landing pages, SEO
• Enrollment marketing – email, Slate/Salesforce
• Measurement – web analytics and predictive models
OVERVIEW OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2020 OHO Interactive
Jason SmithFounder & Managing Director
Twitter: @jason_smith
OVERVIEW OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2020 OHO Interactive
TODAY’S SPEAKER
Marketing Benchmark ReportThis benchmarking report is based on an analysis and review of the digital marketing spend and traffic generation strategies of the 94 business schools listed on the Bloomberg Businessweek list of top business schools 2019-2020.
Using web-based audit and analysis tools, we analyzed the organic search value generated by each website, and we analyzed the advertising spend for paid search.
We reviewed the main website for the school and specific sites and landing pages based on data collected between January 1 and December 31, 2020.
OVERVIEW OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2020 OHO Interactive – ADVANCE COPY
Research Approach• Conducted using a third-party tool that reverse engineers Google traffic and
CPC estimates
• The CPC estimated costs were calibrated against actual spend data to produce a more accurate result.
• Attempts were made to identify all landing pages for PPC advertising – the business school website, stand-alone landing pages, and web pages set up by OPM partners.
• Some business school websites are integrated into the main website in a way that we cannot accurately assess organic traffic or separate out paid search traffic for just business schools. These schools were excluded from the results.
OVERVIEW OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2020 OHO Interactive – ADVANCE COPY
Why Organic Search Matters.Business schools websites that generate valuable traffic with organic search do so by publishing content that is widely searched by a broad audience. Why does producing value from organic search matter? 1. Prospective students from organic channels are more engaged and more likely to convert. 2. Strong organic results can provide savings on paid campaigns. If you can generate traffic
from organic search, you don’t have to pay for digital advertising.3. Producing valuable content that ranks in search builds your brand.
ORGANIC SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2020 OHO Interactive – ADVANCE COPY
Organic Search Value
ORGANIC SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2020 OHO Interactive – ADVANCE COPY
LOTS OF KEYWORDSTHAT PEOPLE WILL PAY MONEY FOR
Determining Organic Search ValueThe dollar value is calculated by taking the keywords that are generating organic traffic and multiplying them by the cost it would take to purchase a click from these keywords through paid search.
ORGANIC SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2020 OHO Interactive – ADVANCE COPY
“Healthcare MBA”
720 Search/month
10% #2 rank in Google Search
72Clicksmonth
$45Cost-Per-Click
$3,240Est. Value of Organic Search
X= =
Example: Chicago Booth
ORGANIC SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2020 OHO Interactive – ADVANCE COPY
keyword: “business school in chicago”
50 Search/month
10% #2 rank in Google Search
5Clicksmonth
$25Cost-Per-Click
$125Est. Value of Organic Search
X= =
CHICAGO BOOTH IS IN THE #2 SLOT
4 Categories of Search Terms
ORGANIC SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
Includes variation of school name.
BrandSpecific program – usually includes location.
Program
An article that is topical, but could be of interest to a wide audience.
Interest© 2020 OHO Interactive – ADVANCE COPY
Specific term, program, article that does not contribute to recruitment.
$0 Value
Program-Based SEO
ORGANIC SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2020 OHO Interactive – ADVANCE COPY
4 PAID ADS
#1 ORGANIC PAGE
PROGRAM PAGESTOP SEO PRIORITY FROM
A LEAD AND BUDGET PERSPECTIVE
Interest – Content Marketing
ORGANIC SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2020 OHO Interactive – ADVANCE COPY
RANKS 5TH FOR “BAIL OUT”
1,900 SEARCHES/MONTH
Program + Content Marketing
ORGANIC SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2020 OHO Interactive – ADVANCE COPY
PROGRAM:40 KEYWORDS$4,145/MONTH
CONTENT MARKETING3 ARTICLES
45 KEYWORDS$10,500/MONTH
Brand
ORGANIC SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2020 OHO Interactive – ADVANCE COPY
#1 LINK
#2 LINK
BRANDED SEARCHES ARE MORE FREQUENT DURING
TRANSACTION STEPS.
The .edu advantageThe .edu advantage: Google automatically gives websites with a .edu domain a high-level of trust and credibility. Whereas, .com or .org websites need to build credibility, Google endows .edu sites with instant credibility. This advantage means that schools can more rapidly see results from organic search optimization efforts.
ORGANIC SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2020 OHO Interactive – ADVANCE COPY
Organic Search ValueWe were able to isolate and to assess the Organic Search Value generated by 78 of the 94 business school websites.
This benchmark ranks business school websites by the quality of traffic (measured in dollars) the schools are able to generate from Google search results.
ORGANIC SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
12 schools are generating less than $100/month in value from organic search traffic
36 schools are generating between $100-$1000/month in value from organic search traffic
3 schools are generating organic search traffic valued at over $20,000 per month or $240,000 per year.
12 36 $20K+
© 2021 OHO Interactive | www.oho.com
Best Organic Search – Top 10 SchoolsThese business schools are generating significant, high-value organic traffic from their website. How? First, by optimizing their degree and certificate pages to be properly crawled, indexed, and ranked by Google. Second, by writing high-value content that users are searching for on Google. Third, keeping their content and site systems up-to-date.
ORGANIC SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
1. Harvard Business School2. Chicago – Booth3. Stanford4. MIT Sloan 5. Houston Bauer 6. NYU – Stern 7. Vanderbilt – Owen8. USC – Marshall9. Northwestern - Kellogg10. CUNY/Baruch – Zicklin
Rankings: Organic Search Value Generated
ORGANIC SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
No. Business School Value/Month 1st Page Keywords
1 Harvard $61,732 3,102
2 Chicago – Booth $39,111 847
3 Stanford $21,927 785
4 MIT – Sloan $18,533 373
5 Houston – Bauer $13,633 579
6 NYU – Stern $13,332 680
7 Vanderbilt – Owen $8,640 867
8 USC – Marshall $8,263 323
9 Northwestern – Kellogg $7,341 736
10 CUNY/Baruch – Zicklin $6,458 174
11 Rice – Jones $6,102 189
12 Columbia $5,262 588
13 Hult $3,895 274
14 Arizona – Eller $3,699 277
15 North Carolina – Kenan-Flagler
$3,123 159
No. Business School Value/Month 1st Page Keywords
16 Rutgers $2,945 269
17 Yale – SOM $2,596 293
18 Texas at Austin – McCombs $2,518 350
19 Texas A&M – Mays $2,137 238
20 Auburn – Harbert $1,988 54
21 UPenn – Wharton $1,671 126
22 Cornell – Johnson $1,616 128
23 Maryland – Smith $1,423 104
24 Indiana – Kelley $1,350 202
25 Georgia Tech – Scheller $1,226 123
26 Florida Int’l – Chapman $1,179 212
27 Babson - Olin $1,115 289
28 Georgetown – McDonough $1,058 98
29 Minnesota – Carlson $1,049 147
30 UC Berkeley $1,032 185© 2021 OHO Interactive | www.oho.com
Rankings: Organic Search Value Generated
ORGANIC SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
No. Business School Value/Month 1st Page Keywords
31 Washington – Foster $967 204
32 Texas-Dallas – Jindal $952 98
33 Cincinnati – Lindner $894 78
34 Florida – Hough/Warrington $860 135
35 Pepperdine – Graziadio $859 131
36 Virginia – Darden $776 57
37 Kentucky – Gatton $638 49
38 UCLA – Anderson $631 199
39 UC at Davis $611 48
40 Emory – Goizueta $581 68
41 Miami $547 132
42 Notre Dame – Mendoza $545 59
43 Michigan – Ross $492 185
44 Duke – Fuqua $477 84
45 Wisconsin $405 89
No. Business School Value/Month 1st Page Keywords
46 Arizona State – Carey $366 201
47 Georgia – Terry $362 89
48 Purdue – Krannert $362 86
49 Ohio State – Fisher $333 112
50 Washington U in St. Louis – Olin $319 91
51 Texas Christian – Neeley $307 26
52 Syracuse – Whitman $285 30
53 Northeastern – D'Amore-McKim $244 66
54 Pittsburgh – Katz $243 57
55 Tulane – Freeman $236 25
56 UC at San Diego – Rady $231 58
57 Utah – Eccles $212 110
58 Connecticut $210 26
59 Penn State – Smeal $180 47
60 Case Western Reserve $167 36© 2021 OHO Interactive | www.oho.com
Rankings: Organic Search Value Generated
ORGANIC SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
No. Business School Value/Month 1st Page Keywords
61 RIT – Saunders $141 59
62 SUNY Buffalo $140 73
63 UC at Irvine – Merage $137 48
64 Michigan State – Broad $128 83
65 George Washington $127 96
66 Boston College – Carroll $111 6
67 Oregon – Lundquist $61 47
68 Denver – Daniels $60 84
69 William and Mary – Mason $59 14
70 Tennessee – Haslam $53 27
71 North Carolina State – Jenkins $48 39
72 Dartmouth Tuck $43 5
73 Missouri – Trulaske $38 24
74 Rochester – Simon $21 61
75 Brigham Young – Marriott $1 39
No. Business School Value/Month 1st Page Keywords
76 Howard $0 6
77 South Carolina – Darla Moore $0 4
78 Mississippi $0 4
© 2021 OHO Interactive | www.oho.com
For the following schools, we were unable to isolate traffic just to the business schools:• American – Kogod• Baylor – Hankamer• Bentley• Boston University – Questrom• Brandeis• Carnegie Mellon – Tepper• Colorado at Boulder – Leeds• Fordham – Gabelli• Hofstra – Zarb• Oklahoma – Price• Southern Methodist – Cox• Tampa – Sykes• Texas Tech – Rawls• University of Charleston• University of San Diego• Willamette – Atkinson
This media spend does not include other digital display, retargeting, or social media advertising campaigns – just PPC advertising on search engines.
Paid Search CampaignsBased on the 69 business schools that we were able to evaluate, these schools spent:
PAID SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
Over $16 million on paidsearch campaigns in 2020
© 2021 OHO Interactive | www.oho.com
Paid Search CampaignsWe were able to assess the Paid Search Campaigns were run by 69 of the 94 business schools between January 1 and December 31, 2020.
PAID SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
Of business schools did not spend on paid search
Estimated average monthly paid search spend per business school
There are 3 primary target audiences for the advertising: on-campus MBA, online MBA, and executive education.
10% $19.5K 3
© 2021 OHO Interactive | www.oho.com
Paid Search CampaignsDetermining exact spends for paid search campaigns is challenging because Google Adwords is a bidding-based platform so prices fluctuate. We excluded the 7 business schools with $0 investments. This resulted in 62 business schools with paid search campaigns running between January 1 and December 31, 2020. We assessed their relative paid search spends and divided these 62 schools into quartiles.
PAID SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
1st Quartile
62nd Quartile
103rd Quartile
214th Quartile
25SCHOOLS SCHOOLS SCHOOLS SCHOOLS
© 2021 OHO Interactive | www.oho.com
2020 Spend by QuartileWhen we look at the data by month, we see a pull-back in spending in March (likely related to the pandemic), and a drop off in July with the start of the new fiscal year.
PAID SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2021 OHO Interactive | www.oho.com
$0
$50,000
$100,000
$150,000
$200,000
January February March April May June July August September October November December
1st Quartile 2nd Quartile 3rd Quartile 4th Quartile
Aver
age
Mon
thly
PPC
Spen
d
Rankings: First Quartile
PAID SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
No. Business School
1 Harvard
2 Syracuse – Whitman
3 Fordham – Gabelli
4 Notre Dame – Mendoza
5 Chicago – Booth
6 MIT – Sloan
Each school spent between $700K and $2.4 million on paid search ads in 2020.
The majority of Harvard’s spend is focused on executive education and online programs.
Average monthly spend per school: $104K
© 2021 OHO Interactive | www.oho.com
Spend Distribution: First Quartile
PAID SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2021 OHO Interactive | www.oho.com
Together, these 6 schools spent $7.5 million on paid search campaigns in 2020. This is the only quartile with a steady trend line.
$0
$250,000
$500,000
$750,000
$1,000,000
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Rankings: Second Quartile
PAID SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
No. Business School
7 Pepperdine – Graziadio
8 Florida International – Chapman
9 Yale – SOM
10 Purdue – Krannert
11 Michigan – Ross
12 Northwestern – Kellogg
13 NYU – Stern
14 Rice – Jones
15 Miami
16 CUNY Baruch – Zicklin
Each school in this quartile spentbetween $300K and $600K in 2020.
The estimated average annual spend per school in this quartile was $463K.
Average monthly spend per school: $39K
© 2021 OHO Interactive | www.oho.com
Spend Distribution: Second Quartile
PAID SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2021 OHO Interactive | www.oho.com
In total, these 10 schools spent $4.6 million on paid search campaigns in 2020, and, as a group, they reduced media spend in the second half of the year.
$0
$150,000
$300,000
$450,000
$600,000
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Rankings: Third Quartile
PAID SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
No. Business School
17 Indiana – Kelley
18 Howard
19 Wisconsin
20 UC at Davis
21 George Washington
22 Oregon – Lundquist
23 Babson – Olin
24 North Carolina – Kenan-Flagler
25 Columbia
26 Duke – Fuqua
27 Washington U in St. Louis – Olin
28 UCLA – Anderson
29 Denver – Daniels
30 Arizona – Eller
31 Hult
No. Business School
32 Emory – Goizueta
33 Hofstra – Zarb
34 Virginia – Darden
35 USC Marshall
36 Houston – Bauer
37 Texas at Austin – McCombs
The estimated average annual spend per school in this quartile was $164K.
Average monthly spend per school: $14K
© 2021 OHO Interactive | www.oho.com
Spend Distribution: Third Quartile
PAID SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2021 OHO Interactive | www.oho.com
In total, these 21 schools spent $3.54 million on paid search campaigns in 2020.
$0
$125,000
$250,000
$375,000
$500,000
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Rankings: Fourth Quartile
PAID SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
No. Business School
38 Auburn – Harbert
39 Rutgers
40 Stanford
41 Cornell – Johnson
42 Utah – Eccles
43 Ohio State – Fisher
44 Texas A&M – Mays
45 Case Western Reserve – Weatherhead
46 Oklahoma – Price
47 Vanderbilt – Owen
48 Washington – Foster
49 Boston College – Carroll
50 Minnesota – Carlson
51 Tennessee – Haslam
52 Texas Christian – Neeley
No. Business School
53 RIT – Saunders
54 UC at Irvine – Paul Merage School of Business
55 Georgetown – McDonough
56 Michigan State – Broad
57 South Carolina – Darla Moore
58 Arizona State – Carey
59 Maryland – Smith
60 Texas Tech – Rawls
61 Georgia – Terry
62 Florida – Hough/Warrington
The schools in this quartile spent an average of $2,000 per month in 2020.
© 2021 OHO Interactive | www.oho.com
MASTERS IN MARKET RESEARCH
Spend Distribution: Fourth Quartile
PAID SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2021 OHO Interactive | www.oho.com
In total, these 25 schools spent $577K on paid search campaigns in 2020. The spending patterns for the schools in this quartile is much more irregular.
$0
$20,000
$40,000
$60,000
$80,000
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Why Paid Search Matters.Simply put, paid search campaigns typically target users with a high-degree of intent to purchase.
These ads are targeted based on key words or phrases such as “online MBA program near me” or “MBA accounting degree.” The specificity of the search makes the user a more qualified lead.
The challenge is that paid search campaigns can be expensive with the cost-per-click ranging from $45 – $85/click, and that’s just to get someone to look at your website, not to give you a name, email address or phone number.
PAID SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2020 OHO Interactive – ADVANCE COPY
Beyond Paid Search.But there are other options.
LinkedIn campaigns can be very effective in reaching prospective business students.
Specialty websites for MBA students, email, and niche websites provide lower cost opportunities for reaching well-qualified prospects with intent to purchase.
PAID SEARCH OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2020 OHO Interactive – ADVANCE COPY
Head to Head Competitor AnalysisLooking for more information about your competitors?
We’re providing a free competitor analysis for two of your competitors plus a 30-minute presentation of the results.
GO DEEPER OHO INTERACTIVE
© 2020 OHO Interactive – ADVANCE COPY
Web + Digital Marketing for Higher EducationOHO helps ambitious, forward-looking marketers maximize their investments in digital to elevate their school’s prestige and recruit the students they need.
How Can We Help You?