YoY Growth Using Paid Media

The Client + Goal

OER Project, backed by the Gates Foundation, is an educational resource tool that allows middle school and high school teachers the opportunity to download free lesson plans for their classes.

Every Q3, there is a ramp-up in media spend heading into the new school year to get teachers and administrators to register for their resources. 

Approach

With budgets in the $25-40k range per month, we primarily rely on Google and Meta platforms to run our campaigns. Of that budget, 80-90% is focused around “conversion campaigns” designed for a teacher or admin to click on our ads and register post click.

  • Paid search has a mix of brand and non-brand running, with our non-brand focused on providing resources for educators and showing up when they look for content for their classrooms. 

  • We also layer on top of our search, YouTube to help increase awareness and give visibility to longer form content that is educational.

  • On paid social we use a lookalikes of our 1st party audience (website, page fans, engagers) to find new admins/teachers and drive them to the site with engaging history content.

Results

Looking at our results for Q3 in 2023 compared to 2022, we have found efficiencies in our results that have led to both stronger performance at the brand and non-brand level.

  • Google Ads: Looking at just our non-brand campaigns only, we saw significant gains YoY, all while spending 48% less. 

  • Meta: Using consistent evergreen campaigns coupled with audience and creative optimizations, we have seen a 20% increase in CTR results when looking at Q3 YoY data. The steady uptick in quality traffic resulted in an increased conversion rate, jumping from 9% to 13.6%, which led to a 57% decrease in cost per lead.

Summary

OER is an evergreen advertiser with some level of presence 12 months of the year, primarily leaning on Google and Meta. But within that year, the months leading up to the school year are its most important, and they rely on their core channels to drive action. By continuing to adjust and optimize our campaigns, we can drive more efficiencies YoY that help teachers and admins provide resources to their students.