• 30% increase in new leads
  • 20% decline in CPA
  • 50% reduction in operation time
  • Improved registration visibility through integration with offline CRM systems
With Marin, we were able improve conversion rates, reduce acquisition costs and gain significant workflow efficiencies.”

Andrew Leinicke,
Director at Red Bricks Media

Nation’s Largest Art University Increases Leads on Facebook by 30% with Red Bricks Media and Marin Software

OVERVIEW

The largest art and design school in the United States hosts more than 17,000 graduate and undergraduate students. Students can enroll in traditional on-campus or online degrees and certificate programs in more than 18 majors. To help build awareness of its programs and increase applicants, the university tapped Red Bricks Media and Marin Software to optimize and manage its Facebook marketing campaign.

Since 2010, Red Bricks Media has managed the schools marketing efforts on Facebook. In addition to the university, Red Bricks provides online marketing services for such companies as Marvel, SanDisk, and Nestle. Red Bricks’ core services include SEO, SEM, Social Marketing, Analytics, Creative, Media, Mobile and Web Development.

CHALLENGE

Red Bricks’ Media Director, Andrew Leinicke, describes Facebook marketing campaigns as “100 percent different” from traditional paid-search and display ad campaigns. Marketers need to worry not only about targeting the right segments, interest groups, and geographic locations, but also ensure ad creative matches the right audience. Ad creative also needs to rotate frequently to stay fresh and appeal to a target markets. And, depending on the goal of the campaign, traffic needs to be directed either offsite or to another Facebook page. Managing the entire process by hand, as Red Bricks did for the art university for over a year, can be a nightmare that wears on the outcome and performance of the program.

Managing by hand also creates an additional challenge: tracking the success of campaigns. The university directs Facebook traffic to a school site landing page, which asks visitors to fill out an online form for additional information. Upon completion, a prospective student’s information and inquiry gets entered into the university’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. The school’s administrative department then follows up on the leads. Determining by hand which prospects originated from Facebook and the effectiveness of ad creative or keywords takes hours to do and is prone to error. As a result, ad campaigns are not as effective as analysts find themselves unable to effectively manage tests and respond to change.

SOLUTION

Marin Software helps Red Bricks realize significant workflow efficiencies and time savings across their Facebook marketing efforts for the large university. Marin allows Red Bricks to manage target audiences more effectively, and the improved efficiencies enable Red Bricks to be more granular and focused with targeting, particularly geo-targeting.

Currently, the school runs roughly 3,500 ads on Facebook. With Marin Software, Red Bricks can manage and optimize the ads much more efficiently, translating into better conversion rates. Through Marin, Red Bricks sets alerts to notify them once the conversion rate of an ad drops below a certain threshold. Red Bricks then cycles in a new ad geared for the specific audience. Similarly, Marin provides a dashboard where Red Bricks can see the performance of all the ads at once and assess which ads are working better with which audiences and adjust accordingly. The increased efficiency permits Red Bricks to change ads multiple times a week, avoiding ad-fatigue by audiences and improving response rates.

The flexibility and openness of Marin Software’s platform also allows Red Bricks to integrate the university’s CRM system with Facebook campaign results. Consequently, Red Bricks saves hours of work each week and gains complete visibility into which campaigns, keywords, and ad creative produce the most leads. Red Bricks can now allocate resources and energies more effectively.

Marin Software’s best in class client services offering was also a key factor in Red Bricks and the university’s success with Marin. The dedicated account team ensured Red Bricks was up and running on the platform quickly, without disrupting the school’s existing campaigns.

RESULTS

With Marin Software, Red Bricks media has achieved significant improvements in Facebook advertising performance for the nation’s largest art university. Leveraging Marin’s Facebook optimization tools to promote the school, the agency saw a jump in leads, significant reduction in cost per acquisition (CPA), and improved workflow efficiencies.

Improvements included:

  • 30% increase in new leads
  • 20% decline in CPA
  • 50% reduction in operation time