Case Study: Snapchat Advertising – The Gordon

As a customer acquisition firm specialising in Australian higher education, our demonstrated track record of utilising data-driven, omni-channel approaches in the digital sphere has seen us move from strength to strength.

Driving market-leading ROI for our clients, understanding the value and projected growth of social media and digital technologies has seen our campaigns deliver higher returns with increased measurability across all facets of their delivery.

Our role is to enable innovative marketers and salespeople to bridge the gap between their business units to improve sales funnel visibility, marketing efficiency, organisation performance and (most importantly) revenue generation.

Social Garden is staffed exclusively by digital marketing specialists, offering a unique blend of education industry, technology, data and social media experience that underpins our strategic approach.

With the majority of our clients directly targeting people under 35, it is essential for them to include digital strategy as part of any marketing campaign they undertake.

As information is increasingly mobile and accessible, this has reframed how audiences consume news and advertisements, as well as how they manage their relationships between friends and brands.

In mid 2018 our work with The Gordon Institute of TAFE, saw us implement an innovative campaign that was highly targeted, visual, and engaging to recruit students for a Semester 2 intake.

We identified the social media platform Snapchat as a cost effective and targeted method of advertising to prospective students in Geelong, West Melbourne, the Bellarine and Warrnambool.

A mobile app that allows users to send and receive ephemeral images and short videos, Snapchat presents its content at a high level of perceived authenticity. This is particularly useful when consumers are more skeptical about traditional marketing practices than ever.

With a brief to target young people, Snapchat’s advertising age brackets of 13-17 and 18-24 meant a very tightly focused campaign. This level of nuance is simply impossible to achieve with traditional marketing strategies, which is why Social Garden has been investing a considerable amount into new methods of social advertising.

Competition was increasing within The Gordon’s target market as well due to the announcement of Free TAFE by the Victorian government, set to commence in 2019. The less saturated Snapchat market presented the perfect opportunity to speak directly to the target audience in a way that is native to their day to day social media use – through storytelling.

Using user generated content (UGC) created by real Gordon students from each relevant course area, we created videos to drive swipe ups to the landing page which pre-loaded as the video was watched. Targeting the younger demographic that is unique to Snapchat, we drove leads to a course specific landing page containing the enquiry form and phone number.

Using dynamic call tracking software we were able to track conversions that took place offline – over the phone, understanding the prospect’s journey behind the swipe up in greater detail.

Snapchat was accountable for 71% of the total calls generated throughout the campaign but only accounted for 11% of website visitors. Using UTM tagging we were able to attribute source and campaign name (course name) against each phone number who called from the website.

Our pioneering work in Australia collaborating with Snapchat eventuated in Social Garden being awarded the first Snapchat Bronze Level Partnership. This gives both us and our clients access to exclusive features, most importantly access to Snapchat beta-updates.

In conjunction with our ethos of continuous optimisation, having access to real-time data on Snapchat lead conversion means that our clients can now invigorate their campaigns continuously, as opposed to making assessments at their conclusion.