The marketing landscape for higher education institutions has drastically changed over the years. Where students once primarily relied on viewbooks and in-mail brochures to make their decisions, many now turn to online resources as the first step in their college search process. This is where the power of Paid Search campaigns comes in.

But what if you’re looking to promote niche programs, degree programs with a unique-to-your-institution name, or other niche educational programs? Here are three actionable steps to help you navigate unique Paid Search campaigns.

1. Know and Understand Your Audience

The first step in navigating unique PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns is to gauge search volume using tools like Google’s Keyword Planner. Keyword Planner allows you to either input your own list of keywords or discover new ones using your landing page or website, while also providing forecasts for how they may perform within specific geographic areas.

Unique educational programs are often estimated to have low search volume. Figuring out why this might be the case for your particular program will help you find ways to both craft and optimize your campaign. You can then use this information to better inform your keyword strategy and ad copy.

Here are some possible considerations:

• Who is your target audience? Craft your campaign from their perspective. What information should you include in your ad copy, on your landing page, or in your keyword strategy?
• Conduct a quick search for the name of the program you are looking to promote. Is the name consistent with how other institutions are promoting this degree? How can you position your program to be more appealing?

2. Craft an Effective Keyword Strategy

Now that we’ve covered a few reasons your campaign might be experiencing low search or conversion volume, we can use that information to better align your campaign’s keyword strategy with your audience or program.

Developing an effective keyword strategy is the foundation for a successful Paid Search campaign. You can read about the basics of performing keyword research in this article, “A Higher-Ed Marketer’s Guide to SEO Keyword Research and Strategy,” written by our SEO experts at Carnegie. Though this article is from an SEO lens, we employ most of the same tactics for PPC campaigns.

With a foundational understanding of what keywords are and how to begin your research, let’s dive into some additional considerations when creating your keyword strategy for programs with low search volume.

Implement the Takeaways from Analyzing Your Audience

Once you’ve identified the limitations your campaign might be experiencing, determine how you can incorporate those takeaways into your keyword strategy.

For example, if your institution wants to promote a degree called The Art of Criminal Justice Around the World, it’s likely that prospective students aren’t using those same words to search for this type of degree.

Instead, you can position your program to better align with how students are already searching and what programs they are already familiar with. Keywords like “criminal justice degree,” “cj programs,” or even “police officer degree” will better position your PPC ads to get in front of the right audience.

Once you’re in front of the right audience, you can then use your ad copy to tell prospective students more about what makes your program stand out.

Leverage Broad Match Keywords & Question-Based Queries

With the introduction of Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) and new products like Google Lens, queries are becoming more question-based, and searches are becoming more conversational. Check out this article for more insights about how the introduction of AI Overview is changing the Paid Search landscape.

You can use a similar approach in your keyword strategy by incorporating long-tail keywords and question-based queries as Broad Match keywords. If you haven’t started leveraging Broad Match keywords, this is an easy way to expand your campaign’s reach and find additional converting users. Broad match keywords use a variety of signals present at auction time to help capture high-intent queries that you might not have otherwise been able to reach.

For example, we have found a lot of success with “how to become” keywords, such as “how to become a police officer” for a criminal justice program or “how to become a teacher” when promoting an alternative teaching program.

Analyze Organic Traffic

Tools for Search Engine Marketing (SEM) keyword research, like Semrush, are great for analyzing organic traffic trends and gaining insights into how users arrive at a particular landing page. Answer the Public is also a great resource for determining what prospective students are searching in relation to your program or institution.

You can use these insights to round out your keyword strategy by incorporating questions users are asking as additional long-tail keywords or topics surrounding the program you’re promoting into your ad copy.

Bonus: Collaborate with Your SEO Team

Aligning the keywords used in your Paid Search campaigns with those being used for your institution’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts can help boost your institution’s overall online presence. To learn more about leveraging SEO and PPC tactics together, check out Carnegie’s article, “The Power of Search Engine Marketing: How SEO and PPC Work Together.”

3. Craft Compelling Ad Copy

Let’s return to our unique degree called The Art of Criminal Justice Around the World. We included additional keywords to help us better reach prospective students, but now we have to encourage those users to click on our ads.

The final step involves figuring out how to differentiate this program from all of the other communication programs by determining what information is valuable for your audience. You can click on the following article to learn more about tailoring your messaging: Tailor Copy to Different Audiences.

Incorporating unique value propositions in the headlines and descriptions, like program cost, financial aid, or graduation rate, can help make your program stand out from the competition and encourage users to interact with your ad.

Here’s a helpful tip: analyze how your ad visually appears to prospective students by reviewing your ad combinations. In the Google Ads platform, navigate to the Ads section, click on View Asset Details under each ad, and then select Combinations. This gives you a glimpse into what headlines and descriptions appear most often and what your headline combinations look like to prospective students.

If you find that your ads are not conveying the right information, they sound repetitive, or you want to ensure a specific value proposition always appears as a headline, try pinning headlines in your Paid Search ad so you have more control over how your ads appear to users.

PPC campaigns for community and technical colleges already come with their own unique set of limitations, like budget constraints and increased competition against larger, four-year institutions. But even when promoting programs with low search volume, it’s possible to craft an effective keyword strategy and run a successful campaign. Reach out to us so we can help you navigate these challenges!