After an audit of their current PPC campaign setup, our team made some adjustments we thought would (hopefully) improve performance during the campaign, including:

• More “long-tail” keyword bidding – Most of their previous traffic and budget was being “eaten up” by some high level and broad keywords like “MBA”. Our team adjusted budget allocation and segmented traffic for more “long-tail” targeted searches like “1 year accredited MBA Programs”. Someone searching for these longer phrases likely would be further down the decision making process of identifying and selecting a MBA program.
• Negative keywords – Previously, a portion of the budget was being spent on slightly untargeted phrases and searches for other schools’ programs that were not converting. Our team did a thorough search term assessment and added numerous negative keywords to focus the campaigns on searches for their core MBA offerings.
• Day parting – Our team noticed certain days of the week and times of day that converted better than others. Our team adjusted bids to focus on days/times that had higher conversion rates, and lower bids or exclude campaigns entirely from days/times that did not convert.
• Adjusting Bids – The higher level education space is extremely competitive with CPC’s (Cost per clicks) easily in the $40-$60+ range. Our team carefully monitored average position and tried to find the sweet spot to help drive traffic for the allocated budget – at lower costs – and still drive conversions (leads).
• Remarketing – Setup a remarketing campaign to target those that had visited the MBA program pages, but didn’t convert – on sites they visit later. Choosing a program is a big decision and investment, so most people are not ready to give you their information right away.