Cause Effect studies our various markets to determine the best digital advertising strategies. Effective marketing for the education industry is shifting towards digital. This is a presentation on what we found about how digital ads are currently run for the education industry. If you are in the education space and need help with crafting the perfect digital marketing strategy for you, contact us at hello@causeeffect.asia or visit our website at www.causeeffect.asia and book a consultation with us.

1. 00 MONTH
EDUCATION
& Advertising

2. Every year, universities, colleges and private
schools alike pour thousands into advertising.
An institution even reported spending a total of
RM47,350 during an intake earlier this year (2017).
Our aim was to quantify the effectiveness of
these advertising efforts and to gather feedback.
Our reasons

3. We performed phone interviews among
200 parents on a qualitative basis across
Malaysia from various states.
As parents are the key decision makers in a
child’s education, a balanced perspective
was important to us.
Whilst selecting participants, we ensured
there was a diversity of the parents based
on the following demographics:
• Race
• Financial Status
• Gender
What We Did

4. THE RESULT
A resounding 61% of parents responded that
advertising efforts by Educational Institutions
made little to no impact on their choice for
their children’s education.
39% of the sample size admitted that
advertising by these institutions did improve
brand recall and 8% of which took further
action upon exposure to the ads.
Percep&on of Educa&onal Ads By Parents
Nega+ve Posi+ve Took Ac+on

5. Peer/Relatives
Buy-in or
Perception
Courses
Available/
Specialization
Brand
Perception
and Prestige
When asked regarding factors
affecting decision making, the
following are the 3 most common
considerations:

6. As for the 61% of parents that responded negatively
towards advertising, further qualitative questions were
asked to obtain their viewpoints, specifically in regards
to online advertising.
All responses were categorized and grouped into the
following 6 factors:

7. BEING
TOO
GENERIC
FACTOR #1
Parent Responses:
Majority of parents described the advertising as generic in one way or another.
Pretty much the same everywhere.
They all use the same words or messaging.
Every university is award-winning.
Our analysis:
Education Ads that parents were exposed to just don’t stand out or grab their attention
effectively. Parents are on their smart phones and devices a big chunk of the day and to a
degree have developed a certain level of Banner Blindness.
Although, through Facebook Insights, this audience still remains as one of the more
receptive groups to act on online advertising, when compared to other audience sets.
Instead of relying on messages that have been overused by many other competitors in the
industry. More emphasis can be placed on ads that arouse a strong emotions amongst the
parent group.
Utilizing a strategy that effectively strikes a strong chord that resonates with the parent
requires a well-researched message, well crafted copy and a compelling yet simple
creative.

8. WRONG
AUDIENCE
FACTOR #2
Parent Responses:
A large number of parents expressed a strong mismatch between the messages forwarded,
and what they were actually interested in.
Wrong area for my kid
My child’s only 7, don’t think she’s ready for college enrolment just yet.
The advertisement didn’t resonate with me.
Our analysis:
Good design and great copy must also be coupled with relevance. Else, the ad will not
succeed if the parent does not feel a strong connection.
Knowing which messages resonate with an audience ensures effective campaigns with low
CPC and high click-through rates.
Sufficiently testing a few messages to a single group of audience before launching a
campaign can greatly benefit the performance of a campaign.
Furthermore, our findings showed poor use of targeting tools by Educational Institution
Advertisers. Common platforms such as Facebook, Instagram & Google have targeting tools
that may seem complicated to the untrained eye. The mastery of these targeting settings
will give Advertisers the ability to effectively dissect between groups, vastly improving ad
relevance.

9. INEFFECTIVE
TEXT OR
DESIGN
FACTOR #3
Parent Responses:
A significant group of parents expressed that they just didn’t understand the ads.
I didn’t understand what the motive was.
I was very confused at the advertisement.
Yes, there were a few advertisements that caught my eye but I just didn’t click on
them.
Our analysis:
Simplicity is extremely important.
The parent should be able to identify what is going on within a few seconds of
viewing an ad. If this is not the case, the ad is too confusing or complicated.
Common causes of this are text that has bad grammar, or just incomprehensible and
does not match the image. Sometimes a design that is too complicated and not easy
on the eyes.
The Parent group have statistically shown to have longer attention span hence eye
catching copy and designs should be able to draw their interest and move them
further down your marketing funnel.
.

10. MISSING
THE USER
JOURNEY
FACTOR #4
Parent Responses:
Even when they had clicked on the advertisement, one or a few causes had prevented them
from taking further action.
Wasn’t sure what to do next.
Saw something else from what I saw on the ad.
Had too much stuff on the page after I clicked.
Took too long to load, didn’t want to waste time.
Our analysis:
Parents need to be hand-held towards taking the desired action after clicking an ad.
The average internet user only has a few seconds of attention span, if there is too much
information on the page that the parent lands on, they will just click away.
A landing page should be optimized with a clear call-to-action. If the parent has to put in
effort in trying to search for more information, your conversions will suffer greatly.
Avoiding big blocks of text and utilize strong visuals for ease of user experience. This can
also be an opportunity to add testimonials by other students through videos or pictures but
should still maintain a simple idea of what to do next.
Website loading times are very common to be overlooked for many companies. The user’s
experience has to be taken into account when optimizing a website.
47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less according to Innovation
Insights. There are many things that can be done to quicken website speed.

11. LACK OF
BRANDING
FACTOR #5
Parent Responses:
A large segment of the respondents expressed difficulty in discerning which
institution the ad was from.
Couldn’t recognize who the ad was from.
Didn’t know they were from the same Uni.
Didn’t know who they were.
Our analysis:
Parents must be able to recognize a brand before being introduced to any sort of
benefit offered by the institution. This is also related to Banner Blindness.
Comfort can be established from ensuring a string of ads are launched to introduce
the brand before further nurturing.
Consequent ads must be also be able to elicit an effective brand recall from the
parents. This can be done through brand consistency in design and tone of the text
used.
Having a Corporate Identity and Brand Guide is pivotal and should be developed,
enforced & applied by all Educational Institution.

12. HARD
SELLING
FACTOR #6
Parent Responses:
Also a reoccurring theme amongst respondents were that some ads came across as too
“sales-y”.
Kept seeing ads asking me to register but I didn’t want to.
Didn’t care about their scholarships and waivers.
Education is shouldn’t be sold like items on sale at a market.
Our analysis:
Parents are on social media to check out their friend’s updates and to be entertained.
When solicited with advertising that is selling to them, they get annoyed and deem ads
like these intrusive.
A relationship should be built before any sort of effective selling can happen.
Registration, online enrollment, and “ Call Now! ” ads belong at the end of the user
journey. These ads aim to get the parents to be more comfortable with the institution
through encouraging more intimate forms of interacting such as a call or an appointment.
Intimacy of the parents is built stronger as he/she goes further down the user’s journey.
Hence, any sort of advertising has to accurately match the parent’s position in user’s
journey.

13.
Having worked with companies like Berjaya
UCH, HELP, Sri Cempaka, and Kingsley,
understanding the industry and its local
landscape has helped us in providing great
results and ROI for our clients.
Fresh graduates have always been a pillar to
our hiring strategy and has aided us into
delving deeper into the psyche and mindset
of the parent-student target audience.
For better insights, contact us via our
website or our social media pages.
www.causeeffect.asia
www.facebook.com/causeeffectagency
UNDER STANDING PARENTS

14. W : www.causeeffect.asia
P : +603 6206 4602
E : hello@causeeffect.asia