Karine Joly No Comments

Top Insights on Search Engine Optimization and online advertising for Higher Ed from the 2017 Parent E-Expectations Survey

Exclusive Preview of the 2017 Student & Parent E-Expectations Survey Part 3: SEO & Ads for Parents

This is the 4th part of the 7-installment series on the April 2017 RNL E-Expectations survey results. This survey focuses on the E-expectations of high school seniors, juniors and sophomores (n=4,274) and their parents (n=3,530) and will be officially released on July 27. If you read the first part, just skip to the next section without reading the short intro below.

As I explained in the first post of this series, Stephanie Geyer from RNL shared with me the complete survey data set she’ll present for the first time at the 2017 National Conference on Student Recruitment, Marketing, and Retention in Denver, Colorado.

This annual survey launched in 2005 has become the gold standard of research on the digital expectations and habits of college-bound students. With parents playing an increasing role in the college search and decision process, having fresh data (April 2017) about their digital expectations is also invaluable.

Here’s the key to understand the legends used in the charts:

  • 2017: High school seniors, class of 17 – or their parents
  • 2018: High school juniors, class of 18 – or their parents
  • 2019: High school sophomores, class of 19 – or their parents

If parents can’t find your website on search engines, no need to bother.

We’ve seen in my previous post about this topic and prospective students: search is the top marketing channel for college websites. It’s the same for parents who use search engines even in larger numbers than their children in the case of juniors and sophomores. Email and direct links are next but don’t come close to search engines in terms of popularity.

You’d think that parents would be more into print publications than their digital native progeny, but you’d be wrong. Only a quarter of parents (vs. about a third of students) cited print materials as a gateway to school sites.

Top website referral marketing channel used by students

A large majority of parents use school names to search for college websites. About half of the parents will also search a combination of school names and program names.

Search keywords used by students to find a school website

Online ads, anybody? For students more than parents

While 47% of seniors, 55% of juniors and 61% of sophomores have clicked on an online ad for a college, their parents are less eager to so with only about a third of them self-identifying as an “ad-clicker.”

Parents who clicked on an online ad

When they end up clicking on a digital ad, almost three quarters of parents did it with a search ad. However, half of them – a bigger share than their kids’ – do it on Facebook.

Online ads targeting parents might not lead to as much clicking as ads directed to students. If your school wants to use digital advertising with parents, you should focus on Google and Facebook ads, but stay away from YouTube ads.

Types of ads parents clicked on

When they click on a digital ad, parents are interested in more information about your school – whether or not it’s new. They want to keep interacting with the content offered by a school of interest. A smaller portion of them – compared to students – will also click on ad making an interesting offer. The difference between students and parents on this point could also be explained by fewer offers from colleges targeted to parents.

Reasons for clicking on an ad for parents

What do parents do after clicking on a digital ad?

Three quarters looked at a website and less than a quarter watched a video (vs. a third for students). Some of them will also fill out a form to request more information. Keep this in mind when you design these forms and make sure you offer the option for parents to self-identify as and not pose as their student.

Actions taken by parents after clicking on an online ad

Next: Insights on Websits for Students & Parents

Check out my next post in this series with insights from the 2017 E-Expectations Survey about higher ed websites.

Tags: , ,