Your Poster is Ugly: Tales from a Multi-Year Digital Recruitment Campaign
1.
2. Your Poster is Ugly:
Tales from a Multi-Year Digital
Recruitment Campaign
#PSEWEB Conference
Western University
August 13, 2018
#PSEWEB Conference 2018
3. Who are we?
#PSEWEB Conference 2018
Julia Beltrano
Technical Specialist Manager,
Department of Visual Arts, Western University
@juliabeltrano @juliabeltrano
jbeltra3@uwo.ca
Jo Jennings
Communications Officer, Faculty of Arts &
Humanities, Western University
@jojennings33 @jostar33
jo.jennings@uwo.ca
4. Overview
We will share our journey in the first two years developing
a comprehensive faculty-specific recruitment campaign
using both paid and organic content on Facebook
ØWhere we began
ØHow to make the case to your stakeholders
ØHow to figure out your audience and messaging
ØKey learnings and takeaways
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6. #PSEWEB Conference 2018
Our current
situation
• Enrolments in the arts trending
downward
• Feeling of panic ensues
• Clipart will save us !?
(the week before the event)
• “This is how we’ve always done
things”
14. Moving forward
• Summer 2016 received increase to budget over 3
years to specifically address Arts & Humanities
recruitment
• Audited our current strategy, tactics, and materials to
determine priorities; formed a multi-year plan which
included our first foray into digital advertising
• Met with Deans and Department Chairs to present
plan and get buy-in to move forward
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19. Step 1: Internal Research
• Met with central recruitment team to learn from their
experiences with digital advertising and share plans,
messaging and timelines;
• Also ensured not competing against each other
• Considered overall recruitment cycle; Developed
strategy about timing, messaging – proactive instead
of re-active
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20. The A&H Campaign was built
following successful central
recruitment strategies
31. Key insights:
• Individual student stories
had the highest click through
• Over 89% viewing the ads on
mobile
• Video ads had a lower cost
per click, and thousands
more engagements
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34. Updated Photos & Video
TIP: use same assets across all platforms to reinforce messaging
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35. Step 4:
Build upon winning strategies
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• Further segmented audiences
(ie. who had already viewed videos)
• Also tested ads for specific program deadlines
(ie. BFA, studio arts program)
• Left room for organic content
40. Digital Advertising
Results
Ø Results improved over last year’s
campaigns (152% increase in traffic to
Future Students page)
Ø Video performed really well; surpassed
industry standard in views (28%) during
2018 campaign
Ø Click through rate rose 47% YOY
Ø Cost per ad click lowered over first year
by 55%
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41. Digital Advertising Results
Ø Program-specific ad for BFA deadline received almost
1,000 clicks to website over short run; Visual Arts portfolio
submissions were up 12.5% this year over last
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44. Recap
1. Do Your Research
2. Overhaul Your Assets
3. Measure, Rinse, Repeat
4. Build on Wins
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45. Takeaways & Tips
• Repurpose your best performing organic content
• Be clear about your goal – is it getting them to your website, or
winning their hearts?
• Make a plan – but be prepared to throw out the plan
(or at least re-work it based on what’s working)
• Don’t be afraid to play! Change up words, segment audiences,
try new things to determine what works best
• You don’t need $50,000. – boost a post for $50 see how it
performs, use it to make the case with your stakeholders
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46. Questions? Feedback?
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Julia Beltrano
Technical Specialist Manager,
Department of Visual Arts, Western University
@juliabeltrano @juliabeltrano
jbeltra3@uwo.ca
Jo Jennings
Communications Officer, Faculty of Arts &
Humanities, Western University
@jojennings33 @jostar33
jo.jennings@uwo.ca
