Question 1

How do you measure the ROI of higher education marketing?

Accepted Answer

Connect marketing spend to enrollment outcomes, not just clicks or leads. That means tracking each step from inquiry to application, deposit and enrollment by program and campaign, then comparing cost per enrollment and the tuition revenue those students represent. Where the data can’t be fully connected, be clear about which results are confirmed and which are estimates.

Question 2

What is cost per enrollment?

Accepted Answer

Cost per enrollment is the marketing spend for a program or campaign divided by the number of students who enrolled from it. It is more meaningful than cost per lead because it reflects whether the leads became students. Calculating it requires matching campaign data to enrollment records in the CRM.

Question 3

What are the stages of the enrollment funnel?

Accepted Answer

A typical enrollment funnel runs from awareness to inquiry, then application, admission, deposit and enrollment. Many institutions also track appointments or campus visits between inquiry and application. Measuring conversion at each stage shows where students drop off and where the next dollar or staff hour will do the most good.

Question 4

Which KPIs should enrollment marketing teams track?

Accepted Answer

The core set is cost per inquiry, inquiry-to-application rate, application-to-enrollment rate, cost per enrollment and speed to first contact, all broken out by program. Page conversion rate and lead quality help explain why those numbers move.

Question 5

How do you connect CRM data to marketing campaigns?

Accepted Answer

Capture the campaign source (for example UTM parameters) on every inquiry form, store it in the CRM record and report on how those records progress through admissions. Agree with IT and admissions on which fields are shared and how student data is protected before connecting anything.

Question 6

Why don’t ad platform conversions match admissions data?

Accepted Answer

Ad platforms count conversions their own way. They often credit the same inquiry to more than one channel, count form starts or use different time windows. The CRM records what actually happened to each student. Reconciling the two by program, and treating the CRM as the source of truth for enrollment, gives a more reliable picture.

Make better decisions with your enrollment data

Program-level reporting

From first inquiry to first day

The path to enrollment

Where interest is coming from

What happens after outreach

Differences across programs

Making the most of your budget

What are you recruiting for right now?

From first inquiry to cost per enrollment, as the data allows.

Discovery

Inquiry

Appointment

Application

Deposit

Enrollment

32%

Reporting that leads to a decision

What worked (and didn’t) in student outreach and message testing.

214 ad variations and 18 landing pages for a New York City career institution.

See all enrollment work

Frequently Asked Questions

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