Paid Search Advertising
Fill your applicant pool in weeks—not months—with Paid Search ads.
Whether you’re launching a new degree program, expanding online reach, or filling gaps among a specific cohort, Paid Search campaigns let you target with laser accuracy.
Unlike most marketing tactics that takes months or years to show results, Paid Search can pay off in weeks or months—giving you the agility to respond to application deadlines, seasonal demand, or sudden shifts in competition.
With real-time analytics and precise targeting control, you can measure campaign performance at a granular level to cut waste and optimize results.
Paid search connects you with prospects who are actively researching programs like yours—when they’re most ready to act.
Discover your potential in days, not months.
Need to move fast? Consider potent consulting. We can help research a critical issue, uncover quick wins, and provide a fresh perspective to help you get unstuck fast.
These short engagements range from a day to a couple of weeks and are led by our founder. You can expect a burst of ideas and insights, tailored to your needs.
Paid Search Advertising for Higher Education
Bidding on the wrong keywords is an expensive disaster. Research which search queries are most likely to connect your school with the right applicants.
Craft compelling ad headlines and keyword-rich descriptions that compel students to click.
Organize campaigns by program, location, audience, or funnel stage to maximize ad relevance and drive conversion.
Collaborate with your web team to build or refine conversion-optimized landing pages that align with user search intent and institutional brand to maximize conversion.
Implement full-funnel tracking for phone calls, form submissions, and other key events so you know exactly what’s working.
Deliver ads to ZIP codes, DMAs, or specific high school clusters with strategic enrollment importance.
Focus campaign spend on specific high-value programs—or underperforming ones.
Apply age, gender, household income, and affinity interest targeting to reach segments most likely to apply and enroll.
Analyze performance by device type and time of day to ensure your ads appear when prospective students are most likely to act.
Serve tailored ads to recent visitors—such as those who started an application or attended a virtual event—to drive return traffic and conversions.
Deploy skippable and non-skippable YouTube ads that introduce your institution to new audiences and reinforce brand messages.
Use analytics tools to assess how users interact with your landing pages—and where they drop off.
Ensure ad spend is distributed strategically across peak application windows, deadlines, and fiscal cycles.
Provide clear, visual reporting on impressions, clicks, CPC, CPA, conversion rates, and ROI by program and campaign.
Continuously review performance and reallocate ad budget toward the best-performing keywords, ads, and geographies.
Audit how your programs stack up in search visibility, ad copy, and cost-per-click versus regional and national competitors.
Why Choose Potent?
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Experience.
We’ve been helping higher ed clients since 2001. In that time, we’ve enabled colleges to leverage the Web, adopt Social Media, and navigate AI.
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Reliability.
We keep our promises. When you ask us to do something, you know it’s getting done.
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Results.
We know how to get the most from your budget, regardless of size.
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Team.
We have an exceptional team of professionals who wake up ready to solve your toughest problems.
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Transparency.
We will always give it to you straight, from strategic recommendations to performance reporting.
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Longevity.
We’re here to stay. We’ve been serving some clients for over two decades.
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Exclusivity.
When you work with us, we’re not working with your competitors.
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Curious.
We approach every new client with a fresh perspective, ready to dive into the details and imagine your greatest possibilities.
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Attention.
We are not a volume agency. We invest our time in a small roster of clients whom we believe are ready to grow.
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Partnership.
Like our parent company, Partners Marketing Group, we’re committed to building trusted relationships.
Case Study
Unlocking the Potential of a Historic Brand Marching to Their Own Drum
Learn how this historic institution reversed enrollment decline through digital strategy, upgraded web experiences, and automation—driving growth, reducing costs, and renewing the brand.
Case Study
Science + SEO: A Powerful Reaction
Emory’s Pharmacology graduate degree program had the research credentials, but not the national visibility. Learn how targeted digital marketing helped them reach elite applicants across the country.
Case Study
Growing a Corporate Training Brand
See how our enrollment marketing program helped a leading Project Management training organization turn flagging sales into an 800% increase in revenue.
Frequently Asked Questions
Paid Search ads focus on the bottom of the marketing funnel where prospective students are closest to taking action. A student searching Google for a specific program, degree or certificate is already deep into their decision-making process. Text ads appear at the top of search results, influencing this decision. For higher ed institutions and training companies seeking immediate results, Paid Search is often the best tactic. It’s also effective at building awareness of a new or underattended program.
Costs vary, but successful Paid Search programs pay for themselves. Most Paid Search campaigns for education clients focus on programs or degree. Costs are based on a cost-per-click (CPC) model, with average clicks ranging from $3–$15 depending on competition, program type, and geography. Monthly ad spend can range from a few thousand dollars per month for niche programs to six figures for large universities. Because Paid Search campaigns can be easily measured—impressions, clicks, and inquiries are all tracked—it’s typical to understand performance within the first month, optimize in the second month, and find strong ROI by the third month. Not all Paid Search programs are successful, but it doesn’t take long to find out what works. Most other marketing programs take far longer to evaluate performance.
Paid Search campaigns generate awareness, traffic, inquiries, applications, and event sign-ups. Conversion rates depend on the strength of your website, landing pages, and follow-up systems, but benchmarks often include click-through rates of 3–6% and inquiry conversion rates between 10–50%. Cost Per Lead varies with the program and competition—clicks are priced competitively based on a marketplace. We typically see Cost Per Lead between $20 and $100 for colleges and training companies.
Targeting options allow ads to show based on keywords, location, demographics, device type, and even intent signals. This ensures marketing dollars are directed toward prospects most likely to apply or inquire.
Cost Per Lead and Cost Per Enrollment are the gold standard in measuring any enrollment marketing program. With Paid Search Advertising, this is simpler (and more accurate) than in most other marketing programs because of the tight data stream from search to click to application. Other KPIs such as impressions, clicks, conversions, cost per click, and time on site are reported through software, like Google Ads and Google Analytics. Paid Search programs that are integrated with your CRM and admissions data provides 360º visibility into ROI.
Clients sometimes complain that they’ve tried Paid Search and it didn’t work. When we hear this, we often see signs of overbidding on generic keywords, poor keyword research, casting a broad net, neglecting negative keywords (keywords to prevent ads from being served), sending traffic to weak landing pages that fail to convert, and failing to align campaigns with admissions cycles.
Any experienced Paid Search Advertising agency brings expertise in keyword strategy, ad copywriting, campaign structure, bid management, and optimization. More importantly, an agency managing a Paid Search ad program for education clients must understand their clients’ prospective students, academic programs, and culture, as well as compliance requirements and how to maximize ROI by aligning campaigns with enrollment goals.
Let’s Talk
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