Case Study
Carnegie Mellon University Heinz College
Driving Domestic Students to a Customized Landing Page to Generate Incremental Applications

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