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Driving scholarship applications for Geelong Grammar School

How we increased scholarship applications from Years 7 to 11 for an independent co-ed boarding school.

Finding the right decision-makers to increase scholarship applications.

Prestigious, independent co-ed boarding school Geelong Grammar School approached Student Garden to assist in driving scholarship applications for its 2022 intake.

So how did we tackle this one?

$19 Cost per lead

Across the 4 month campaign

12% Conversion Rate

From click to lead capture

100s of Scholarship Applications
Timeframe

2021 - 2022

Services

Strategy & Student Acquisition
Digital Advertising & Lead Generation
Content Creation
Meta Advertising
Google Advertising

The job to be done

1. Effective targeting

One important factor for success was to ensure the targeting remained on point. We involved the client from the get-go to ensure we understood our audience - who they are and how they behave online. This, paired with our internal expertise targeting parents and guardians, allowed us to overcome the difficulties presented targeting under 18s on Meta channels.

2. Painting a real picture

Leveraging video content on Meta channels proved to produce the highest click-through rate when compared to static images. Videos performed at 1.19% CTR, well above our benchmark of 0.34%.

As Geelong Grammar School is a boarding school, it was important to the client to highlight the campus and student life.

3. Regular optimisations

Our team created a mobile-first landing page with a clear value exchange to drive conversions.

Prospects were asked which campus and year level they were interested in to help Geelong Grammar School's scholarships team with personalised follow ups.

Crucially, the landing page continued to evolve with campaign insights.

How did we create the optimal landing page?

Hero Section

  • Split testing a call-to-action around the scholarships vs. positional brand messaging
  • Introducing the school as ‘Geelong Grammar School’ in the first instance

Section 1

  • Highlighting the Geelong Grammar School KSPs to give prospects who won’t scroll enough information to reach a decision
  • This quick-fire section covers the four campuses, reputation and unique approach to learning, and the scholarships deadline

Section 2

  • We included Years underneath each scholarship to make it easy for people to skim the page on mobile
  • To appeal to those who want to learn more about the selection criteria, we adopted ‘Who Can Apply?’ rather than ‘Learn More’ as we’ve found specific CTAs can be more compelling and provide us with better insights as to what people are looking for

Section 3

  • In this section the key features and benefits of the different campuses for the different school years are summarised. Again, this is all about ease of navigation for the parents to find the information they’re looking for

Section 4

  • Student testimonials align with values: a unique approach to learning, diverse student cohort and the impact of the scholarship

Bonus optimisations we tested!

  • Trialling different images above the fold
  • Using a web-form at the top of the landing page so that mobile users could submit their details upfront
  • Adopting a sticky CTA for mobile. This floating button keeps conversion front of mind
  • Emphasising the scholarships deadline to create a sense of urgency around applying
  • Ensuring no others links were on the page other than to submit details. For the privacy policy and T&Cs, we had this pop instead of letting users leave the page