Aston University
Powered by The Student Room’s unrivalled first-party data, Aston Univeristy’s programmatic campaign generated some impressive results.
The importance of data-informed programmatic buying
Every marketer wants to squeeze maximum value from their budget but buying cheap programmatic advertising is not always the way to do this. Ads will be served widely but not necessarily to the intended audience. So how do you ensure they are seen by the right people? With data-informed buying. By finding out exactly where the market for your product is, you can target with care.
Head of Digital at Aston University, Ben McAree, understands better than anyone the importance of utilising important insights. Many of Aston’s courses, from Optometry to Pharmacy, appeal to a small pool of potential students and so the need to connect with them before competitors is key. McAree is also mindful of achieving an optimal return on investment. The Student Room meet these challenges head on.
“We can’t be broad. We do specific courses and recruit from specific areas, geographically as well as socially. We have to be more targeted by the nature of who we are and what we offer. The Student Room’s data gives us the ability to do that.”
To ensure maximum engagement, The Student Room’s dynamic programmatic offering, Ada, is powered by comprehensive first-party data to target campaigns with laser-focused precision. The Student Room is home to the UK’s largest online student community, attracting millions of prospective higher education applicants every month.
By capturing and analysing visitor data, we help marketers precisely tailor their on and off-site campaigns to reach valuable audiences. Because we know who your audience is and what is important to them, we can anticipate their next steps and segment targeting by a range of data, including location, age and interests.
The unparalleled insight we provide our partners with, both during and at the close of campaigns, means we’re helping them make better media buying decisions in the future. And by sharing this valuable information as a matter of course we remain true to our promise of transparency.
“We can use the data to reach those students who we previously didn’t know were interested in Aston. This provides us with insight and opens up new areas to focus our campaigns on next year.”
The Student Room’s data is a vital component in our holistic approach to advertising. Because we strive for the highest standards of viewability and brand safety, we offer a firm foundation on which to launch impactful campaigns driven by the information powering our data management platform.
We demonstrated this during Aston University’s recent programmatic campaign. Using insights from our data we were able to target users by client specifications as well as by behaviour to serve two million impressions – double the amount guaranteed for our maximum CPM of £10.
“The Student Room’s data management platform is so strong, in terms of what it can achieve and how smart it is. They build products out of data rather than trying to achieve something unknown.” – Head of Digital, Aston University