The George Washington School of Business
Media Planning and Buying
Challenge
LMO partnered with GW School of Business (GWSB) in 2019, eventually supporting 12 programs through 2024. The main challenges included navigating a highly competitive DMV market with declining national domestic enrollments, and addressing enrollment gaps despite meeting lead goals (due to deferrals and students choosing competitors). Furthermore, LMO had to strategically allocate a static budget across an increasing number of programs to meet all lead targets and simultaneously lower the costs per lead (CPL).
Objective
Our primary objective was to strengthen the George Washington School of Business’s position in a crowded higher education market while improving lead quality and driving enrollment growth across an expanding portfolio of programs.
Solution
LMO implemented a comprehensive, data-driven marketing strategy that aligned each program’s target audiences and behavioral insights into efficient campaign groupings. This approach provided a streamlined solution to managing the numerous programs, and demonstrated LMO’s ability to handle complex campaigns. The strategy allowed similar programs and certificates to share landing pages while giving users the option to select the path that best fits their career goals. Real-time reporting and bi-weekly meetings enabled dynamic budget shifts and strategy refinements toward programs with the greatest enrollment needs.
Upper-Funnel Units: We partnered with trusted media vendors to launch eye-catchinghigh-impact video and rich media units that told the GWSB story and expanded awareness across the competitive DMV market.
Application Waiver: To convert more prospective students, we developed a campaign and creative that promoted an application fee waiver for students already in the pipeline.
Channel Optimizations: We continuously analyzed performance data to identify which channels and tactics were driving the highest-quality leads at the lowest CPL.
Weekly Status Meetings & Reporting: Weekly status meetings and reporting ensured consistent collaboration with the GWSB team. These check-ins gave us visibility into post-lead activity and helped us adjust tactics based on real-time enrollment feedback.
List Purchase: To reach prospective students who were actively taking steps toward graduate study, we collaborated with GWSB to purchase a first-party list of highly qualified individuals.
Dashboard Visualizer: We provided GWSB with a custom, real-time performance dashboard, giving them direct access to campaign metrics and promoting transparency.
8,521
Leads Generated Across 8 Campaigns
9,647
Generated Leads
69%
Increased Leads
$92
Cost Per Lead
