Five Ways Education Providers Can Use Facebook And Instagram Video Ads

Explore five ways ads on Facebook & Instagram are being used for different Education-focused campaign objectives. 

Facebook and Instagram are some of the most effective tools at an education advertiser's disposal. As an industry, Education is one of the top performers when it comes to Facebook and Instagram ad performance. This becomes clear when looking at Facebook's ad benchmarks, where you can see that Education has the lowest average cost-per-action (CPA) at $7.85, and the second-highest conversion rate at 13.8% - both significantly stronger than platform-wide averages.

These positive performance metrics come largely due to the fact that Education’s target demographics are predominantly digital natives and frequent users of both platforms. 79% and 67% of 18-29-year-olds in the U.S use Facebook and Instagram respectively. For this demographic, these platforms play a huge role in day-to-day life: it is where they go to communicate, be entertained, consume content, and conduct research.

This has made Facebook and Instagram extremely powerful advertising tools for education providers wanting to engage with prospective students, subscribers, or customers. 

Whether you’re in higher education, learning applications, or an online EDU, the road to campaign success on Facebook and Instagram requires the same key component: high quality creative. This means video.

Let’s explore some examples of effective and engaging video ads - and how they allowed EDU providers to achieve their campaign objectives. 

1. Highlighting Flexibility: DeVry University

DeVry University chose to focus on the flexibility they offer their students in the ability to take courses both on-campus and online. Together we reinforced this theme throughout with related imagery and key “on your schedule” messaging which speaks directly to adults who are juggling work, life, and study. With a campaign objective of garnering high click-through rates, the ad features concise messaging along with a clear, and an actionable, CTA.

2. Driving Conversions Through Interactivity: Babbel

Language learning app, Babbel, wished to engage their audience on a richer level by incorporating interactivity into their digital strategy. They brought this strategy to life by working with Shuttlerock to create a Facebook Playable that gave users the ability to demo the app, giving them a preview of how it functions.

By immersing audiences with a first-hand experience, Babbel generated leads that were much more engaged, and subsequently, of higher quality. This helped reduce Babbel’s cost per purchase by 11%.

3. Displaying Career Potential: Jolt

In order to speak to audiences looking to advance their professional career, Jolt developed the above creative which addressed their target directly with a “supercharge your career” message. With an overarching goal of increasing click-throughs and registrations, the ad was designed to have clear messaging, supported by positive visuals showing the course in action.

4. Promoting Upskilling Courses: Shaw Academy

eLearning provider, Shaw Academy, offers video classes in a variety of different fields. To showcase a selection of these courses, they worked with Shuttlerock to produce a set of snappy 6-second videos using Shaw’s existing static imagery. Each direct response-focused in-feed ad represented a different course, and all videos used engaging animations to capture viewer attention before quickly cutting to a CTA frame linking to each course’s respective registration page.

5. Showcasing Diversity and Lifestyle: University of Technology Sydney

Research has found that up to 83% of prospective international students use social media in order to evaluate potential universities. For this reason, Higher Education providers wishing to attract international students should use social media channels such as Facebook and Instagram to showcase their best aspects, such as student lifestyle and their welcoming nature towards international students. 

The above video for the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) was used to promote their My Unilife series which showcased stories of international students from around the world, sharing what life is like as a student in Sydney. The ad shows scenes from the city whilst also highlighting the strong international presence that the school has.

When you utilize video ad placements on Facebook and Instagram, you are able to communicate your message in a much more efficient manner. Due to their ability to showcase a condensed narrative to a huge, engaged user base, Facebook and Instagram are the ideal platforms to use in order to reach key demographics and succeed in higher levels of campaign performance.

As a Facebook and Instagram Marketing Partner, Shuttlerock has produced video ads for a wide range of Education providers worldwide (with an equally wide set of campaign objectives). No matter how difficult the course ahead is, our understanding of these objectives - and our expertise in creating effective video ad placements - is how we can help you get that A+.

In the meantime, we’ll work on our Education-related jokes...