What metrics should colleges use to measure undergraduate digital marketing performance?

The framework should show whether campaigns reached relevant audiences, generated useful responses, and supported progress toward enrollment goals.

A marketing partner can help recommend measures that fit each campaign’s role. Campus teams provide institutional goals and admissions context. Together, the team should establish which decisions each measure will support and how findings will be reviewed.

Agree on definitions before comparing results. Examples include:

• Clickthrough rate: Clicks divided by impressions, multiplied by 100.
• Landing page conversion rate: Eligible sessions with the defined successful action divided by eligible landing page sessions, multiplied by 100.
• Inquiry-to-application rate: Unique students in a defined inquiry group who submit an application divided by unique students in that group, multiplied by 100.
• Application completion rate: Students who submit an application divided by students who start one within a defined group and observation period, multiplied by 100.
• Enrollment yield: Enrolled students divided by admitted students within a defined group, multiplied by 100.

Campus analysts and marketing partners can help document entry terms, timeframes, exclusions, and duplicate handling.

Leading indicators may include relevant page visits, event registrations, inquiry submissions, application starts, and completion of enrollment tasks.

Outcome measures include completed applications and enrolled students. Delivery and engagement measures provide additional context about campaign exposure and response.

The team should match the primary measure to the campaign’s purpose and evaluate later progression as students have time to move forward.

Depending on the objective, useful sources include advertising reports, web analytics, form records, admissions CRM data, application records, and official enrollment records.

Marketing partners contribute campaign information and analysis. Campus teams provide admissions and enrollment context. Shared identifiers, timestamps, source information, and matching rules can help connect records where appropriate and available.

Start with historical results for similar campaigns, audiences, and recruitment periods. Account for changes in spending, programs, requirements, timing, and audience composition.

A partner can help assess whether external benchmarks are comparable and recommend useful evaluation approaches. Experiments or carefully designed comparison groups may help assess whether campaigns generate additional outcomes.

Review results by recruitment stage, student type, entry term, program interest, geography, campaign, and inquiry source when data supports meaningful comparisons.

Device and destination page can help explain differences in the response experience. Campus teams and partners should interpret small groups cautiously and apply appropriate privacy protections when sharing results.

Review delivery, spending, broken experiences, and record flow frequently enough to identify operational problems promptly.

Schedule broader campaign reviews according to volume, recruitment timing, and the decisions at hand. Marketing partners can monitor campaign patterns and recommend adjustments. Campus teams contribute current admissions information and insight into student needs.

Application and enrollment outcomes require enough time for meaningful progression.

Advertising platforms, web analytics, and admissions systems may count different events and use different attribution rules. Students also interact across devices and through experiences that cannot always be connected.

Reported conversions may overlap across platforms. Attribution assigns credit according to a reporting method; it does not by itself establish that advertising caused an outcome. Shared interpretation helps prevent misleading conclusions.

• Weak delivery: Review audience availability, campaign settings, and spending.
• Strong delivery with limited response: Investigate audience relevance, messaging, and creative.
• Strong clicks with few completed actions: Review destination pages, forms, and tracking.
• Many inquiries with weak progression: Examine record quality, student needs, and follow-up.
• Positive results in a limited audience: Assess whether additional investment can reach more relevant students.

Marketing partners can guide campaign recommendations, while campus teams address related admissions processes and student support.

Encoura provides campaign reporting and marketing expertise to help institutions understand performance and identify opportunities for adjustment. Digital Solutions Reporting includes campaign delivery, engagement, actions, and other performance details.

Working with campus teams, Encoura helps interpret campaign findings in relation to recruitment goals. Admissions and enrollment records add context for evaluating progression and deciding how future strategy should change.