Case Study

Carnegie Mellon University Heinz College

Driving Domestic Students to a Customized Landing Page to Generate Incremental Applications

CMU Heinz

The Challenge

The Master’s in Arts Management Program at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College needed to increase the number of qualified domestic students applying to the program. Specifically, they needed to drive qualified leads and application starts from US-based prospects over a four-month period leading up to the application deadline.

What We Did

  • Paid Media Strategy
  • Paid Media Execution

The Solution

Our media mix focused primarily on paid search to reach users currently seeking arts management graduate education as well as those interested in career opportunities in arts administration and cultural leadership. The media plan included a test investment in LinkedIn to reach arts individuals ready to make a career change into administration/management and to support program consideration. 

Our team also recommended a dedicated paid media landing page and provided guidance on UX/UI, content hierarchy, messaging direction, and content messaging to ensure the landing page was optimized to drive conversions by providing relevant information that addressed prospective student needs and questions.

The Impact

This campaign exceeded expectations, driving 79 new leads for the program, 66 application starts, and 49 application submits attributed to paid media as a source.

20%

increase in domestic applicants YoY

69%

of app starts came in as direct “stealth” applicants

77%

of app submits came in as direct “stealth” applicants