University of North Texas

University of North Texas Gets Top Grade in CTV Performance With MNTN

As one of the nation’s largest public universities, the University of North Texas (UNT) offers 114 bachelor’s, 97 master’s, and 39 doctoral degree programs. With a mission to empower students to thrive in a rapidly changing world, UNT has worked hard to create an inclusive campus that meets the needs of an array of higher ed attendees — from undergrads to doctoral candidates, and from international students to those outside of the traditional four-year path.

With so many different programs to offer to a variety of students, UNT was looking for an advertising channel that was flexible, yet highly effective and could consistently maximize return on investment (ROI). Due to its ability to reach a wide range of audiences and its high level of measurability, Connected TV (CTV) proved to be just what UNT needed. Heading into a pivotal time of year — back-to-school — they used MNTN Performance TV to target their ideal audiences on CTV and drive website engagement, resulting in the growth of key conversion metrics.

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CTV has helped us reach more of our prospective students than other channels were able to deliver. This has helped us increase conversions within our key target audiences while delivering effectiveness and efficiency typically associated with tactics lower in the marketing funnel.

Christopher Knapp
Director of Brand Marketing, University of North Texas

388%

Higher Prospecting CPV Than Goal

17%

Higher Retargeting CPV Than Goal

54%

Increase in Overall Site Conversion Rate

38%

Decrease in Overall CPA

Objective

Drive Admissions and Website Engagement

UNT was laser-focused on attracting more prospective students, but they didn’t simply want to get their ads in front of mass audiences, they were eager to target the right people for whom their university would be a good fit. To do this, they needed an advertising platform that would allow them to be precise in their audience targeting and help them to drive higher levels of website engagement via increased frequency of actions taken. This was particularly important when it came to the back-to-school season, a prime time for UNT to drive applications for all of their degree programs.

Solutions

Prospecting, Retargeting

In order to maximize their CTV advertising results leading up to and throughout the back-to-school season, UNT launched Performance TV prospecting and retargeting concurrently. MNTN’s easy-to-use platform allowed them to efficiently set up and manage both campaigns.

Reaching the right prospective students was of the utmost importance to UNT. To ensure this, they developed a comprehensive three-pronged prospecting audience strategy. First, they used geotargeting to hone in on households in Texas and surrounding states. Next, they utilized MNTN’s unique audience suite to target audiences with a general focus on higher ed, like households with prospective college students, people with a bachelor’s degree, and parents of college students. Then, to drill down even further, they targeted niche groups based on interests in UNT’s most popular majors, such as marketing, data science, and accounting and finance.

To further boost conversions, UNT retargeted people who had visited two or more pages on their website, but hadn’t yet converted.

UNT’s ad creative was also a key piece to their CTV efforts. To engage with their ideal audiences, they developed high-energy ads that spoke to the uniqueness of their university and educational programs, featuring imagery of real students throughout various locations on campus. Aligned with MNTN’s best practices for CTV, UNT’s ads included their logo throughout and a clear, direct call to action (CTA) — for example, “Apply by July 15th” —  which expressed urgency and encouraged viewer engagement.

The Results

Significantly Improved Key Metrics Prior to, During, and After Back-to-School

Maximizing the efficiency of ad spend and proving ROI were top priorities for UNT. MNTN’s robust reporting suite provided an easy understanding of how their campaigns were performing at any given time. In particular, UNT used (and continues to use) 1. MNTN’s Audience Segment Report, to learn about how each audience performed; and 2. the customizable Performance TV Report, which allowed them to track a variety of data insights catered to their business needs and campaign objectives.

UNT’s back-to-school campaign produced A+ results. Leading up to the BTS season (June through August), their cost per visit (CPV) improved by 45%. When reviewing the entire campaign — which ran through November — their conversion rate increased by 98% and their cost per acquisition (CPA) decreased by 69%. On top of this, they exceeded their CPV retargeting goal by 30% and their CPV prospecting goal by an incredible 700%.

Looking to the future, UNT will continue to use MNTN as their CTV partner to drive key conversion metrics and grow admissions.

 

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