Key Marketing KPIs for Higher Education Institutions

What are Marketing KPIs for Higher Education Institutions?


KPI stands for Key Performance Indicators.

Marketing KPIs are measurable statistics that show that a marketing strategy is hitting its key business goals. In the higher education field, they help educational institutions track performance, identify areas of improvement, and make data-driven decisions.

Relevance in Higher Education
In higher education, marketing KPIs are essential to help you understand student behaviour and fine-tune the recruitment processes. This contributes to the long-term success of the institution. By focusing on KPI metrics, institutions can enhance their marketing efforts and boost revenue.

Here’s a list of Marketing KPIs Higher Education Institutions should be using to track their performance:

Enrollment Rates

Enrolment rates measure the number of students who become paying students after being accepted. This KPI measures the effectiveness of recruitment efforts and the institution’s appeal to prospective students.

Boosting enrolment rates from 60% to 70% will invariably result in higher admissions. And this will result in higher tuition revenue.

For example, if at the enrolment rate of 60%, 1,000 students were admitted, if the enrolment rate increases to 70%, an additional 100 students would enrol, directly impacting revenue.

Application Numbers

Tracking the total number of applicants will help you get an idea of the level of interest the institution is garnering. This gauges the success of outreach and inbound marketing efforts.

Increasing the number of applications will result in higher revenue. For example, if we put in the work to boost applications (or potential students) from 5,000 to 6,000.

If the acceptance rate and conversion to student rate remain the same, this will result in more enrolled students and therefore higher tuition revenue for the institution.

Acceptance Rates

Acceptance rates refer to the ratio of applicants who are offered admission. This means they have applied and gone through the institution’s selection process.

Efficiently managing acceptance rates to balance quality and quantity can increase revenue. Sometimes lowering the percentage of accepted students may be the best way forward.

For example, lowering acceptance rates from 50% to 45% to balance high application numbers will increase the institution’s prestige. This will, in turn, attract more applicants and lead to higher enrolment and tuition revenue.

Yield Rates

Probably the most important statistic for long-term success, the yield rate, indicates the conversion rate from accepted students into enrolled students – from interest to actual paying students. This shows the quality and value of the offers being made to the students, which is a reflection of the institution’s intrinsic value.

If an institution improves its yield rate from 30% to 40% more accepted students will enrol. For example, If 500 students are admitted and the yield rate increases by 14% above the usual 70%, an additional 50 students might enrol.

Retention Rates

Retention rates measure the percentage of students who continue from one year to the next, reflecting student satisfaction and the quality of the educational experience.

Increasing retention rates from 80% to 90% ensures continued tuition revenue from existing students, reducing the cost of recruiting new ones. It also increases student lifetime value.

Graduation Rates

Graduation rates refer to how effective an institution is at supporting its students through the academic programs and helping them complete their studies.

Higher graduation rates are important as they are later used by the marketing team to attract more prospective students. This metric measures the institution’s effectiveness at helping students achieve their goals.

Increasing graduation rates leads to higher enrolment due to a boost to its reputation, which makes the institution more desirable. 

Student Demographics

Understanding and various diverse demographics the institution appeals to can open the institution to new markets and increase overall revenue.

A good CRM will help you understand the enrolment fluctuations based on demographics and understand the potential of certain markets.

For example, increasing international student enrolment by a mere 5% can significantly boost revenue, because international students pay much higher tuition fees.

This KPI helps measure how good the institution is at attracting students internationally and can be a key indicator of resilience. Being able to recruit international students will help the institution survive should there be a decrease in local demand. 

Alumni Engagement

Engaged alumni demonstrate ongoing value and connection to the institution and are more likely to donate and support fundraising efforts in the future.

Increasing alumni engagement by 20% can lead to higher donations to cover research, support scholarships, as well as finance new facilities and programs.

Website Traffic

Increased website traffic measures the success of digital marketing strategies. Doubling website traffic through improved SEO and content can lead to an increase in applications, resulting in higher enrolment and tuition revenue. 

This KPI measures the number and quality of visits to the institution’s website, providing insights into the effectiveness of online presence and marketing efforts.

It also provides clear figures that allow an institution to make educated projections about future enrollment. For example: if a boost in traffic of 20% resulted in 100 new enrolments, it is likely to happen again with a similar improvement in traffic from the same keyword categories.

Social Media Engagement

Social media engagement KPIs indicate how well the institution is connecting with current and prospective students on social platforms. This KPI might track likes, shares, comments, and follows on social media platforms.

Increasing social media engagement might increase the number of enquiries from social platforms, some of which can turn into applications and enrollments.

Increasing social media engagement can therefore lead to a higher number of inquiries and applications.

Email Campaign Performance

Email campaign performance tracks open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates of email marketing campaigns, providing data on the effectiveness of email marketing strategies.

Providing that the email list contains high quality prospects, improving email open rates from 15% to 25% and click-through rates from 5% to 10% will likely result in more applications and higher enrolment.

Lead Generation

Lead generation refers to the number of prospects engaging with the admission department. Increasing the number of leads will naturally increase the number of applications and enrolments. This is probably the most important marketing KPI to monitor.

This KPI monitors the ability of the marketing team to attract and capture interest from prospective students – a key step in the enrolment process.

Cost per Lead/Acquisition

Cost per lead/acquisition helps evaluate the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of marketing efforts. This helps institutions understand where their marketing budget is best spent. Using a good CRM (like HubSpot) to track the lead all the way to the lifetime value of the client can give you priceless insights into where you should be spending your marketing money.

Often the goal is to reduce the cost per lead, allowing the institution to generate more leads within the same budget.

Student Satisfaction

Student satisfaction surveys and feedback scores directly impact retention and word-of-mouth referrals, providing important feedback for continuous improvement.

Improving student satisfaction stats can reduce dropout rates and produce higher program completion rates. Happier students are more likely to stay and complete their programs.

Content Engagement

Content engagement tracks interactions with blog posts, videos, and other content, indicating the effectiveness of content marketing efforts in engaging and informing the target audience.

If your content is built on the customer journey, content engagement is also an indicator of prospects moving through the funnels on your site. This results in more leads and more enrolments.

Short term strategies can also help. For example: publishing a series of successful blog posts and videos can increase engagement and lead to more applications and enquiries.

The Key to improving your metrics

“What cannot be measured cannot be improved”

If you don’t measure the key KPIs for your educational institution, it is likely going to be very difficult for you to improve performance in that particular area.

Using a CRM that is equipped to give you all the metrics easily in one place will give you the visibility to make good decisions fast in your business. It will also empower you to waste less marketing money.

HubSpot is a CRM that has a strong reputation for providing detailed metrics across the various functions of educational institutions.

If you would like to measure some or all of the KPIs above efficiently with little effort, book a call with Ale, our CRM specialist, and he will walk you through the details. Book Here