Not Tracking Cost Per Inquiry? Expect Budget Waste
September 4th, 2024 by
Key Insights
- Tracking and optimizing CPI is crucial for higher education marketers to ensure budget efficiency and maximize return on investment.
- Failing to track CPI can make it difficult for higher ed marketers to correlate marketing success with enrollment, justify budget allocations, and optimize campaigns.
- Tracking CPI empowers higher ed marketers to forecast conversion rates accurately, allocate resources cost-effectively, and refine strategies to attract the right audience.
In the competitive realm of higher education marketing, efficiency is critical.
Higher education marketers that understand cost per inquiry (CPI) will significantly influence the success of advertising campaigns, when the metric is leveraged properly. CPI, which measures the cost to acquire each inquiry is the first step to budget efficiency and maximum return on investment.
Failing to track CPI can lead to you missing out on valuable insights that enable you to streamline your marketing efforts and better engage your target audience.
Search Influence, in collaboration with (UPCEA), The Online and Professional Education Association, has conducted extensive research on the benefits of CPI tracking in higher education marketing.
Through a comprehensive survey collecting data from industry leaders, we established the first higher ed cost per inquiry benchmark of $140. This initiative is part of a broader, multi-year goal to encourage higher education institutions to measure CPI diligently and consider all factors included in advertising costs.
In this post, we’ll discuss how to successfully track your campaigns using CPI.
The Importance of Tracking Cost Per Inquiry in Higher Education Marketing
In higher education marketing, failing to track cost per inquiry results in inefficient budget use and an incomplete understanding of your marketing efforts. Without CPI tracking, higher ed marketers struggle to correlate marketing success to enrollment, making it challenging to justify budget allocations and optimize campaigns effectively.
When you don’t track CPI, you risk:
- Spending money on campaigns that drive clicks but no conversions
- Making decisions solely on metrics like cost per click and click-through rate, rather than focusing on which campaigns are actually driving inquiries
- Funneling money into underperforming campaigns based on the wrong metrics
- Discontinuing campaigns that effectively generate leads because you’re not focusing on the right metrics
Tracking CPI offers numerous benefits, including empowering higher ed marketers to:
- Make data-driven decisions
- Forecast conversion rates accurately
- Allocate resources more cost-effectively
By understanding the cost and quality of inquiries, institutions can refine their strategies to attract the right audience, thereby improving overall campaign performance. Metrics like CPI are vital for evaluating marketing health and success, enabling institutions to enhance enrollment processes and achieve a better return on investment.
Insights from our higher ed marketing research study
Our Higher Education Marketing Research Study, conducted in partnership with UPCEA, reveals critical insights that demonstrate the importance of tracking cost per inquiry.
Higher education institutions spend an average of $800,970 on paid ads each year.
Without tracking CPI, higher education marketers can’t be sure they’re allocating their resources effectively and getting the appropriate results for the amount they’re spending.
Only 29% of higher ed marketers are satisfied with their capabilities to track the success of their campaigns. This is a frighteningly low percentage, considering the average higher ed marketer spends nearly a million dollars on paid ads yearly.
You can achieve your enrollment goals more efficiently by focusing on tracking and reducing CPI.
Tracking cost per inquiry allows you to:
- Have confidence that you’re driving an appropriate amount of inquiries and yielding the desired results
- Direct where to optimize your budget to make it more efficient
- Understand how adjustments, including targeting and budget changes, impact results
- Establish a jumping-off point that allows you to look at deeper metrics — such as the lead quality driven by these channels and conversion ratios as these inquiries move through the enrollment funnel
By establishing a CPI benchmark, we encourage universities to track key metrics and be aware of all factors included in your advertising costs. This benchmark serves as a tool for your institution to compare its results with similar schools and programs, giving you confidence in your efforts by truly demonstrating how much you’re spending — no more guessing games.
At Search Influence, we know these insights will empower institutions to improve their marketing strategies and achieve better results.
Are You Able to Truly Track the Success of Your Ad Campaign?
Universities investing in paid advertising must be setup to effectively track the success of their campaigns. Without the necessary information and strategies in place, you risk wasting significant portions of your budget. This underscores the true necessity of tracking cost per inquiry for higher education institutions.
Some universities suffer from lack of data. Some universities suffer from an overabundance of data spread across disparate systems. Both scenarios hamper effective measurement.
You need readily available information to make timely adjustments to your strategies, and a process that ensures you regularly analyze cost data and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly. Unfortunately, our research indicates that many institutions struggle in this area. Fewer than half (47%) of marketers are satisfied with their campaign performance, and only 29% are satisfied with their ability to track success. This dissatisfaction highlights a significant gap in campaign efficiency and effectiveness.
CPI allows you to truly measure the success of your campaigns because your true success is measured by the number of students filling seats at your institution. By focusing on CPI, you get exactly what you pay for, ensuring your budget is used wisely and efficiently to boost enrollment.
This correlation between tracking ability and campaign satisfaction reinforces the importance of CPI in driving higher ed marketing success.
According to our research study, 92% of those who are satisfied with their ability to track also report they agree or strongly agree that they are satisfied with the performance of their marketing campaigns.
Track Cost Per Inquiry With Confidence
Don’t waste your budget — utilize CPI to achieve precise, measurable results and ensure every dollar spent on advertising contributes to your institution’s enrollment goals.
At Search Influence, we advocate for robust CPI tracking to help you optimize your strategies and achieve the best possible outcomes. Our team has years of experience assisting higher ed institutions to maximize their marketing results including helping Tulane SoPA exceed its inquiry goal by 58%.
Need support creating cost-effective campaigns with definitive KPIs?
Download our Higher Education Marketing Research Study for further insights, or contact us directly to learn more about all our digital marketing services.
Image Credits: Unsplash
