CPL is Dead! Why End-to-End Tracking MattersSydney Sheedy - Account Manager | 360Partners

sydney.sheedy@360partners.com | 512-583-0078

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What to Expect to Learn Today

• The essential role tracking plays in meeting your business goals– What we learned following implementation of end-to-end tracking– What you should do if you don’t have this level of tracking – How to use the data when you do

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Agenda

• Student recruitment is like baseball• RN to BSN case study• What should I do?

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Today We Are Going to Talk About Baseball

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Historically, Baseball Used Scouts to Evaluate Talent

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Scouts Looked for “Ideal Players”

Wanted this… …not this

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Teams with the Most Money Could “Buy” the Best Talent

New York Yankees Boston Red Sox St. Louis Cardinals Baltimore Orioles Oakland A's Minnesota Twins $-

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Payroll & World Series Wins

Payroll World Series Wins

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How Could the “Have Not” Teams Compete?

New York Yankees$125,000,000

Oakland Athletics$39,000,000

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In this Environment, Billy Beane Became the General Manager of the Oakland A’s in 1997

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Brought Statistical Analysis into the Game

• A player’s overall statistics centered on the player’s batting percentage (the ability to get on base)

• Beane shared learnings about each players’ analysis to help them improve their chances

• For example, he told some:– No bunting– Don’t steal bases– Don’t swing at the first pitch

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Under Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s Showed Amazing Success

Today, all teams use elements of Statistical Analysis

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Finding Baseball Talent is a Lot Like Finding Students for Your Programs

Website Information Request Application Enrollment

High SchoolCollegeInternational

AAA AA Major LeagueA

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Agenda

• Student recruitment is like baseball• RN to BSN case study• What should I do?

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360Partners Worked with a Not-for-Profit University RN to BSN Degree

• Strong brand name– National powerhouse– Top nursing degree program– Well-known and respected

• Compelling value propositions– Competitive price– Multiple start dates– Short time to completion

Marketing had grown stale

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We Were on a Digital Marketing Roller Coaster

Does this sound familiar?

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Team Used a Four Step Process for Implementing End-to-End Tracking

Step 1: Implement Tracking

Step 2: Analyze Results

Step 3: Make Changes

Step 4: Repeat

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Step 1: Implement End-to-End Tracking

Website Information Request Application Enrollment

Channel Data

CRM Data

Excel

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Step 2: Analyze Data for Insights

Website Information Request Application Enrollment

Website Information Request Application Enrollment

Before:

After:

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End-to-End Tracking Revealed that All Leads are Not Equal

• Lead quality varied drastically by channel– Facebook leads enroll at about 1/5 the rate of Google Search

• Even within a channel, lead-to-application and lead-to-enrollment varied by keyword– This led to the creation of not only channel-specific CPL goals as an

initial indicator of performance, but also targeting specific CPLs for keyword segments

• Geography is important – even for an online program– The vast majority of enrollments still come from within 100 miles of the

physical location– Other hot-spots for students exist, but it’s not always where you would

expect

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Step 3: Take Action on Insights

• Change allocation of spend between channels– Increased spend on Google Search– Decreased spend on Facebook

• Set different CPL goals based on the channel, geography, and keyword type

• Rebuilt some campaigns to align with the updated strategy

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Results – Was it Successful?

Series1 -

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

11,892 12,309

Number of Leads

Year-Over-Year, leads increased by 4%...

Series1 $-

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$120.00

$99.43

$111.00

Cost Per Lead

…while CPL increased by 13%

By “historical metrics” efforts were not successful

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However, Based on Results that Matter, Efforts Were Wildly Successful

Series1 -

200

400

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800

1,000

1,200

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1,197

1,578

Number of New Enrollments

New enrollments increased by 32%....

Series1 $-

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$1,000

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$988

$866

Cost Per Enrollment

Cost-per-enrollment decreased by 12%

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Step 4: Repeat. We Continue to Optimize Over Time

• This is not a set-it-and-forget-it method• Both back-end (lead-to-app and lead-to-enroll) and front-end metrics

fluctuate over time• In order to continually grow the account and ultimately the number

of enrollments, we: – refine CPL targets on an ongoing basis – shift budgets to ensure we are maximizing the best performing

segments – expand profitable segments (do more of what works)

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Today We Measure Success Using Several Metrics

• We still use CPL to measure success, but…• It’s not the sole focus of our optimizations• We also look at CPA (application) as an initial indicator• And ultimately tie performance back to CPE (enrollment)

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Agenda

• Student recruitment is like baseball• RN to BSN case study• What should I do?

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If You Still Use CPL as the Sole Metric for Success…

• Determine if you have full funnel data available– If so, use it!– If not, start that conversation

• Implementing an end-to-end tracking solution can be difficult, but it’s not impossible

• Once tracking is in place, begin collecting data• Use the data to adjust CPL goals based on varying performance• Wash, rinse, repeat

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If You Have End-to-End Tracking…

• Use it to your advantage!• Create reports to tie channel data (cost) to applications and

enrollments• Analyze the data on an ongoing basis• Use back-end data to create front-end goals• Measure initial performance against these, while continuously

revisiting the back-end data

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If I Were to Do This Again

• I’d implement end-to-end tracking sooner• And use it better

• No, really:– End-to-end tracking would be the initial focus, ensuring we can

accurately measure results– This would solve the majority of our early problems

• Spend roller coaster• Making decisions based on the wrong metrics

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The Whole Story…

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Questions?

Sydney SheedyAccount Manager | 360Partners

Questions or Feedback: sydney.sheedy@360partners.comTwitter: @Sydney_Sheedy