OMTAC LTD ONLINE ADVERTISING SERVICES

ONLINE ADVERTISING WORKS FOR SCHOOLS, COLLEGES, UNIVERSITIES AND OTHERS!

Over the last 10+ years providing training and support in digital education marketing and admissions OMTAC Ltd has given instruction in how to set-up and implement online advertising to Schools, Colleges, Universities and other training organisations (such as Language Colleges, Online Educators, Outdoor Activity Centres, Summer Camps, Adult Education providers etc).

Why? Because it works… in our experience an online digital advertising campaign with Google, Bing, Yahoo, Facebook, LinkedIn and/or other platforms and networks can start delivering results within a day… or even an hour of its launch.

Please scroll down this page to read about putting online advertising at the centre of your pupil/student recruitment, marketing and admissions strategy and about the online advertising packages provided by OMTAC Ltd, or click on the sub-headings below to be taken to a particular section:

• Online Advertising Is The Future (Now!)
• Give Up On “Hit & Miss” Traditional Advertising
• Online Advertising Packages
• What Is The Cost Of An Online Advertising Campaign?

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ONLINE ADVERTISING IS THE FUTURE (NOW!)

Every hour of every day – locally, regionally, nationally and internationally (depending on your type of institution/organisation) – there are prospective students and parents searching online for you. They just don’t know it. Instead they find your competitors.

The solution is a well planned, targeted online advertising campaign.

A prospective parent or pupil/student can see an advert and click through to the web page customised for the campaign… then register online for a prospectus, course guide etc.

Ultimately, following contact, engagement and perhaps attendance at a taster event or an Open Day, they may then enrol.

All for the cost of just one click.

For example, an advertising spend of £250/300 Euro might generate anything from 60-250 visitors… people who are actively looking for the education/training you offer but who would not have found you otherwise.

Compare this return on investment to the “hit and miss” advertising traditionally undertaken by institutions in local, regional and national media, directorates etc.

Your target audiences no longer rely on traditional print media or printed directories… that was then, this is now.

The great majority of your prospective pupils/students, their parents and advisers have left “offline” behind and embraced “online”… so should you.

> SETTING-UP AN ONLINE ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

We believe online advertising is something you could develop in-house which is why we offer training (click here) and organise events to help you learn tips, techniques and best practice. (Book now for our ‘Digital Advertising’ Conference in London.)

However we know your time is limited and you may feel you lack the expertise to set-up and implement a successful digital campaign quickly.

True there is a lot to consider, with the challenges of:

• Targeting – who should you target, where and how?

• Re-targeting and Re-marketing – inexpensively bring back visitors to your website who failed to register or enquire on their first visit.

• Creating Text and Display Adverts – creating and testing a variety of adverts increases impact and return on investment.

• Tracking Conversions and Attribution – how well is the advertising working, how can you attribute success (given other advertising activity online and offline)?

• Using Analytics – digital means you can analyse and report on the return on your investment unlike most offline advertising.

For this reason we have been providing online advertising services over the last 3 years to a small number of education and training institutions/organisations that have attended our training seminars but then asked us to assist them in developing their digital advertising campaign(s) rather than trying to do it themselves in-house.

We have now decided to make this service more widely available, providing a range of specialist, cost-effective packages to any Schools, Colleges, Universities and other learning and training institutions/organisations (such as Language Colleges, Online Educators, Outdoor Activity Centres, Summer Camps, Adult Education providers etc) who wish to benefit from online advertising.

For information about the packages available please scroll down to the section ‘ONLINE ADVERTISING PACKAGES‘ or… if you still need convincing or need to convince colleagues… please read on for more reasons why online advertising should be at the core of your marketing and admissions strategy, and why your current offline advertising spend is mostly a waste of time and money!

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GIVE UP ON ‘HIT & MISS’ TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING

Your target audiences have largely moved online… have you?

Your prospective pupils/students, their parents, agents and other influencers have moved online in their consumption of media and entertainment, for social and professional networking, for researching information, reviews and recommendation etc.

Before the Internet, and before the evolution of Online Advertising, our choices for advertising our institution/organisation were restricted to print media, radio, publications, outside advertising and sponsorship. But that was 15+ years ago!

Why continue doggedly spending precious marketing resources on what we all know is ‘hit & miss’ advertising, especially when your competitors are moving their pupil/student recruitment marketing online?

We have been in Education Marketing roles ourselves… we know how the media sales teams are constantly calling to push the next ‘Education Supplement’… we know how placing advertising in print media is relatively straightforward and simple to do… we know how Governors and Senior Management mistakenly think something is wrong if their institution/organisation is not featured alongside competitors who have succumbed to the media’s sales pitch! (Even if it is, in reality, a complete waste of money!)

But advertising in the media, especially print media can be:

• Poorly targeted,

• Short-term,

• Catch-all,

• Ineffective,

• Wasteful,

• Hard to track.

So why continue to do it?

Online digital advertising is:

• Much cheaper than you may think (once set up),

• Highly targeted,

• Timely,

• Focused,

• Customised,

• Measurable,

• Cost-effective.

> ONLINE ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES

Objectives for an online advertising campaign for your institution/organisation may include:

• Increasing registration numbers locally, regionally, nationally and/or internationally to meet and exceed your enrollment targets;

• Boosting attendance at taster events and Open Days etc;

• Attracting more able pupils/students in the short, medium and long-term;

• Promoting scholarships, awards and/or bursaries;

• Raising your profile within your catchment area;

• Communicating and explaining your ethos and learning offer;

• Reinforcing recommendation and reputation for your institution.

Online advertising has numerous advantages over traditional advertising and considerable potential… if you feel the time is right to test it fully please read about our online advertising packages below.

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ONLINE ADVERTISING PACKAGES

If you would like to outsource the set-up and implementation of your online advertising campaign please see the information about costs below and then email us.

We will then contact you to discuss your needs and to develop an online advertising campaign for your institution/organisation depending on which platforms and channels best suit your objectives… whether Paid Search advertising (Google, Bing, Yahoo etc), Social advertising (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc) and/or Display advertising (Google etc)… integrating the campaign activity with your other online and offline marketing activity.

> SPECIALIST PACKAGE THEMES

Depending on your institution/organisation, the type and breadth of qualifications you offer, your location, your target markets etc… there are a variety of different advertising campaigns you could run at different times of the year, or throughout the year, to increase your registrations and the quality of student you recruit; for example, one or more of the following:

• To meet enrolment targets for different entry ages – from Nursery/Elementary to Adult (2+, 4+, 6+, 11+, 13+, Sixth Form, 18+ with adult, undergraduate, postgraduate and professional development);

• To re-target & re-market to draw visitors back to your web presence who have shown initial interest but have not yet converted (enquired, registered, “liked” etc);

• To advertise specialist provision – courses or types of education or care – such as Boarding (residential) or Day, Single Sex or Co-Educational, Faith, Ethics, Online Learning, Languages, Vocational, Camps, Outdoor Education etc;

• To advertise pupil/student recruitment events such as taster events, Open Days etc;

• To fill places ‘last minute’ with special campaigns to boost 11+, 13+, Sixth Form and 18+ enrolment close to the start of the new academic year;

• To promote opportunities around exam results and clearing;

• To market to International Students at home and abroad;

• To promote pupil/student bursaries and loans etc;

• To promote pupil/student scholarships and awards;

• To raise awareness of key aspects of your institution/organisation – the humanities, science, languages, business, music, drama, sports etc;

• To promote new or specialist qualifications;

• To celebrate success – special achievements by your students or institution (teaching excellence, high placement in League Tables, Special Awards etc);

• To promote Summer Camps and related activities and events;

• To advertise special events, such as sports competitions, theatre productions, celebrations, ceremonies etc;

• To offer facilities for private hire (for parties, weddings etc);

• To recruit new staff.

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WHAT IS THE COST OF AN ONLINE ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN?

> SETTING UP AND IMPLEMENTING YOUR ONLINE ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

The process of setting up and implementing an online advertising campaign can be time consuming and requires a range of skills and techniques:

• To determine the best approach to meet objectives;

• To identify the most appropriate platforms and channels (whether Google, Bing, Yahoo, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc);

• To decide on targeting criteria;

• To produce effective text and display advertising;

• To implement remarking, retargeting and conversion tracking code;

• To set-up analytics and reporting.

However once a campaign is set-up and running it can be left in place for a long time, paused and restarted as required with relatively low on-going costs (see below).

Our basic online advertising campaign packages normally cost from £750/900 Euro to £1900/2250 Euro (ex-Vat) depending on the type and extent of the particular campaign. (An average campaign costs around £900/1050 Euro to develop and set up, if multi-platform and highly targeted using a range of variable criteria, locations etc.)

The package price will include all the consultancy and developmental work undertaken by OMTAC, including the targeting research and production and implementation of the advertising, but excludes the costs of the advertising paid to the third-party platform(s) and the day-to-day running costs once the campaign is underway and has passed a pre-agreed total spend. However the on-going costs for a standard campaign may be relatively low, for example £250/300 Euro for 60-250 highly targeted visitors to your web presence – see below.

Ready to try it? For more information and to discuss an online advertising package to suit your needs, please email us with information on your institution and a brief description of what objectives you have, or campaign themes you have in mind. We will then contact you to explore the opportunity with you.

> MANAGING YOUR ONLINE ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

In terms of your advertising spend once your campaign(s) are set-up and underway, you might expect a cost ranging from £0.50/0.60 Euro to £5/6 Euro per click (per unique visitor) paid to whichever third-party platforms are bring used (whether Google, Bing, Yahoo, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc).

The day-to-day advertising costs will depend on the audiences being targeted, the competition from other advertisers, the advertising costs charged by the particular platform(s) etc.

Generally we expect an average cost of around £1/1.2 Euro to £2.50/3 Euro per click for an average campaign.

The mistake often made with online advertising is to prioritise volume over quality.

It is very easy to attract a high number of visitors to your web presence (website, social media pages etc) using online advertising but that is no guarantee of a successful outcome.

It may cost more to attract higher quality, better targeted visitors but they are more likely to ‘convert’ into registered pupils/students.

Most campaigns should be judged not on visitor numbers but on the number of conversions… ie. the number of people eventually enquiring, requesting information, attending events etc.

There will inevitably be additional costs in time and/or money for campaign management and reporting. You may wish to outsource this. OMTAC Ltd provides a campaign management service based on a 20% management fee.

On this basis OMTAC Ltd will work hard to maximise the reach and impact of the advertising spend, to achieve as many high quality clicks as possible at the lowest possible cost, stretching your budget as far as possible for the maximum return on investment.

Ready to try it? For more information and to discuss an online advertising package to suit your needs, please email us with information on your institution and a brief description of what objectives you have, or campaign themes you have in mind. We will then contact you to explore the opportunity with you.

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> ALSO OF INTEREST…

TRAINING

INTRODUCTORY/INTERMEDIATE EDUCATION MARKETING ONLINE 1-DAY TRAINING SEMINAR – Please click on the link to read about the popular 1-day ‘How To Advertise & Market Your School, College or Education Organisation Online‘ Masterclass Seminar we have been running for over 10 years.

ADVANCED EDUCATION MARKETING ONLINE 1-DAY TRAINING SEMINAR – Please click on the link to read about the 1-day ‘Exceeding Admissions Targets With Digital Marketing, PR And Advertising Online‘.

INTRODUCTORY/INTERMEDIATE GOOGLE ANALYTICS & FACEBOOK INSIGHTS 1-DAY TRAINING SEMINAR – Please click on the link to read about the 1-day ‘Google Analytics & Facebook Insights Training Seminar‘.

ADVANCED GOOGLE ANALYTICS 1-DAY TRAINING SEMINAR – Please click on the link to read about the 1-day ‘Advanced Google Analytics Training Seminar‘.

CONFERENCES

‘BEING FOUND ONLINE’ CONFERENCE – Please click on the link to read about the 1-day ‘BEING FOUND ONLINE’ Conference 2013, Tuesday 17 December 2013, London UK.

‘DIGITAL ADVERTISING’ CONFERENCE – Please click on the link to read about the 1-day ‘DIGITAL ADVERTISING’ Conference 2013, Wednesday 18 December 2013, London UK.

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> GET IN TOUCH

We would like to hear from you on any topic, with any question or comment.

Please use our Contact Us page to tell us about any ideas, issues, difficulties or challenges you face.

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