Clearing solutions

The number one destination for students applying through Clearing. We create winning marketing campaigns that will smash your Clearing student recruitment targets:

Always on - Brand building
Clearing forum sponsorship
Display advertising
Clearing sponsored content
The Uni Guide
UPP Unlimited

Always on - Engagement
Email and SMS  - full database
Listicle emails
Official Reps
Clearing TSR Talks

Research
Research products

Conversion
The Uni Guide lead generation (cost-per-lead)
Competitor targeting SMS or emails
Ada programmatic (offsite retargeting with conversion tracking)

Course interest and location targeting
Email and SMS - targeted
Clearing forum sponsorship
Clearing sponsored content

Clearing topic sponsorship

The Student Room is a well-loved and trusted space where students connect, ask questions and share information.

When you sponsor a specific topic, your brand will be prominently displayed in a space where applicants are already making life-changing decisions about their university application and potential Clearing plans. You can focus on a particular subject or cast a wider net by sponsoring topics such as A-levels or Applications, Clearing and Ucas.

Applicants will mentally associate your brand with useful content that helped them to plan their futures.

Display 

High visibility on the UK's largest online student platform

All campaigns are highly targeted, meaning every impression makes a powerful impact on a receptive student audience. We serve your ads alongside our top-performing Clearing content, securing you the maximum traffic, exposure, and engagement rates.

Our experts put different creatives through a rigorous testing process and optimise towards the best-performing ad formats, so you get brilliant results.

Clearing sponsored content

Sponsoring an article from our topic selection will associate your brand with the positive experience of finding answers and feeling reassured.

Students come to our Clearing hub looking for guidance and support during what is often a confusing and stressful time. Position your brand alongside useful and high-performing content that helps Clearing applicants make decisions about where to study.

Roadblock your content with display advertising for a winning solution that encourages undecided or unplaced students to engage.

Uni Guide

Convert Clearing applicants with our powerful direct response tool

The Uni Guide attracts a highly-qualified audience of students who are making their final university choices. Lead buttons on your profile encourage prospective applicants to: request a prospectus, submit an enquiry, book an open day, or visit your website. To maximise your reach and leads, you can also add search boosts to your package. This promotes your listing to one of the top three positions for two weeks.

Guarantee a great return on your investment with our fixed price cost-per-action model.

Email Clearing applicants

Reach our entire Clearing database 

Our Clearing database is a warm audience of prospective applicants who have opted in to hear about Clearing places.

You can use targeting criteria, such as subject interest or location to find your ideal applicant audience.

In 2023, one university achieved an open rate of 51.4% and a CTOR of 7.88%.

Listicle emails

An authentic way to reach a minimum of 100,000 prospective Clearing applicants

Feature in a listicle email to reach a huge student audience by splitting your share of voice with other universities. Listicles give students the perception of choice, resulting in a more authentic, user-centric experience. Average clicks per unique client URL in a listicle is 17.75%.

Choose from Premium and Standard slots (depending on your needs and budget).

These emails give students a high-value, authentic user experience because they offer choice.

SMS

Students are never far from their mobile phones. Get instant exposure to Clearing applicants by sending an SMS in results week.

The students in our Year 13 audience have opted in to receive Clearing updates from universities, so they are primed and waiting to hear from you. Performance for SMS was strong in the weeks leading up to results day as well as those campaigns post-results.

Average click rates in 2023 were 22.9% and SMS sends are available between 8th - 22nd August (inclusive).

Competitor targeted email or SMS

Reach applicants who are interested in your closest competitors

Competitor targeting is an incredible opportunity for you to reach Clearing applicants who have told us which of your competitor universities they are interested in. Sending an email or SMS is bespoke and highly targeted, putting you front-of-mind when your strongest prospective applicants are comparing your university against similar options.

Competitor bundles are also available.

Subject-specific marketing - Email and SMS

Target applicants who have opted-in to hear about specific courses

84% of Clearing opt-ins declared at least one subject interest. Target Clearing applicants who are showing a strong interest in your course or faculty. Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze targeted sends available by email and SMS:

Target by location

Target by subject

Clearing TSR Talks

Start a lively discussion which supports your Clearing strategy and showcases what your university has to offer.

TSR Talks receive on average three minutes dwell time on page with a benchmark of 1,000 page views. Our team will offer continued support for your guest speaker to help them connect with our student audience. We’ll then run up to two weeks of promotion and roadblocked ads on your TSR Talks page to maximise your brand exposure.

UPP Unlimited

Connect with Clearing applicants at every stage of the journey

UPP Unlimited supports an always-on approach to brand awareness and drives engagement with Clearing applicants at every stage in their decision-making journey. The package encompasses an impactful mix of media and engagement tools to enable you to attract, engage, convert and understand a huge audience of potential applicants and students. UPP Unlimited includes:

• On-site targeted impressions
• Impressions from off-site remarketing
• Three Official Rep accounts
• University Guide (ad-blocked)
• University forum (ad-blocked)
• Lead generation on The Uni Guide
• Course listing promotion on The Uni Guide
• Keyword alerts
• Two questions in our monthly omnibus survey to a Year 12 & 13 audience
• Discount on other TSR products*

View all UPP packages

*Some exclusions apply (please ask your Account Manager)

Research

TSR Insight is our in-house full-service market research agency and has exclusive access to The Student Room community for market research. The team specialises in higher education and is reliable, flexible and easy to brief.

These research services are ideal for Clearing:

• TSR Asks - monthly omnibus survey targeting prospective university applicants
• Vote and Tell - test your Clearing creatives on our student audience