How To Recruit Postgraduate Students by Leveraging our Targeted Display Advertising

As summer whizzes by and September draws ever closer, we’re helping you boost your recruitment efforts with our targeted display advertising.

This product is a great way to increase your visibility onsite and target users with your key messages. With this in mind, we’ve taken a look at the benefits of targeted display advertising, as well as how our student journey research can help you time your campaigns to maximise results.

How does our targeted display advertising work?

Our targeted display advertising is a great way to get more eyes on your programme listings through two different creatives. You can choose to target up to 35 disciplines – and your campaign will only be shown to users who have search for or viewed programmes in those disciplines. Campaigns can be displayed in mobile, desktop and tablet formats. Check out a sneak peek of what your adverts will look like on different devices!

So now you know how they’ll work, what messaging should you use to make the most of the product?

How can you maximise your targeted messaging throughout the year?

Targeted display advertising is effective because it is just that – targeted. You can make your campaigns even more so by timing them according to where students are likely to be in their student search.

Looking at our search data from across FindAMasters and FindAPhD, we know which topics prospective students are thinking most about at different points in the application cycle. Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve learned and how you can use it to refine your messaging.

August – October

In late summer and early autumn, we tend to find that many visitors to our websites are in the exploratory phase, mainly reading content related to potential funding options, costs, student life and international study.

Campaigns advertising scholarship opportunities or centred on study experience (perhaps even linking to student stories) could work particularly well during this time. It’s also a good opportunity to target disciplines that are especially popular with international students.

One key difference that we found between Masters and PhD students here is that those considering a Masters are more likely to browse careers information during this pre-application period. Messaging that emphasises post-graduation outcomes could work well on FindAMasters during the late summer and early autumn, if not so much on FindAPhD.

November – January

This is when the first application cycle kicks in for both audiences, and students are thinking more seriously about choosing and applying for programmes. Consider strong calls to action that emphasise deadlines during this period. Interest in funding content remains high throughout the year for both audiences, but it’s especially important (and complicated) for PhDs, so keep pushing your fully-funded and scholarship opportunities.

February – May

This period is where we found the biggest uptick in traffic to our careers content on FindAPhD, as well as continuing interest in this topic on FindAMasters. It’s possible that this is accounted for by people who have already applied and are now considering their post-graduation prospects, but some may be driven by students looking to apply in the next cycle. Late spring might be a good time for careers-focused messaging in both FindAMasters and FindAPhD.

In our student journey research for FindAMasters, we found that there are two obvious application cycles – one in December/January and another in May. With this in mind, the similar application-focused messaging mentioned above would also work well on FindAMasters during this period. The same does not seem to be true for FindAPhD, where we only identified a strong peak in people viewing application-themed content during the winter.

Targeted display advertising is just one way that you can boost your recruitment efforts as we head into a new academic year. For a fully tailored package that hits your objectives, get in contact with your Account Manager today or drop us a line on our enquiry form and we’ll get in touch!

And we have a new package deal for our UK customers on FindAPhD, which guarantees to increase your advert views by 33% to 50% (depending on your investment) so have a chat with us about your options.