Open Days

The Student Room has both the data insights and the audience to deliver winning open day campaigns. Our platform attracts 12.2M Year 13 users a year and we have over 300,000 pageviews to our Applications, Clearing and Ucas forums each month.

Our open days research on 2024 and 2025 applicants found:

• More than half (58%) felt that open days should provide additional information that isn’t available online. However 47% felt that getting a feel for the university was more important than getting information.
• 37% felt that an open day had changed their mind about a university.
• Main open day goals were: Get a feel for uni atmosphere, explore the city and campus, meet and interact with staff or current students and to learn more about the course.

Client success stories 2024

University 1 (London based): Summer school 2024

This university ran a campaign to promote their Summer School. Two elements within this campaign were solus email campaigns to promote an open day. The emails were sent in December 2023 and performed well above benchmark. The emails delivered a 65% open rate and 4.9% click to open rate.

 University 2  (Wales based): Pre-App & Open Days 2023/24:

This university campaign served a total of 693,140 impressions and gained an average CTR of 0.08%. However, during the period of October and November specifically, the campaign promoted their autumn/winter open days and served 180,305 impressions. A specific run within a week of this promotion saw the campaign serve 42,890 impressions with a CTR of 0.22%.

Email blasts and listicles –  reinforce your message

Sending a series of targeted emails means your open day event is far more likely to be remembered, resulting in a much lower dropout rate. You also have the opportunity to highlight different aspects that make your university great, such as your student satisfaction ratings, your gorgeous campus, or the quality of your teaching.

We offer both solus email and listicle email options, so that you can select the best option for your objectives and budget. Our listicles calendar is available here. Open Day listicles are authentic email campaigns featuring your open day message and those of up to four other universities. Get more information about listicles here.

Content – make an impact with advice and storytelling

Applicants told us that the top factors which would impact their decision about where to go to university included: how they feel about the campus, whether they like the location, and whether the university feels right and they can picture themselves there. This emphasises why open days are so important.

Sponsoring content is a great way to spark the emotional connections that students are seeking and encourage them to find out more on your open day. For example, you could sponsor an article about “a typical week studying Medicine.”

Display – stay front-of-mind and increase your turn-out 

Keep reminding students about your open day events with high-impact display advertising across our site. Getting applicants to register is only half the battle; you also need them to remember to turn up on the day and you want them to feel excited about the experience. Display can help build a sense of anticipation in the lead-up to your events.

We position your display ads in the right places and at the right times to maximise your exposure to Year 12 and Year 13 students. We also test and optimise your campaign so that the best creatives are used. Billboards are particularly effective for open day promotions.

The Uni Guide – add open day booking buttons

Target university applicants who are already narrowing down their choices and considering your university. By adding cost-per-lead buttons to your university profile on The Uni Guide you can prompt prospective applicants to book straight away.

Your lead generation pack will also include lead buttons allowing students to request information, visit your website or download your prospectus.

Find out more about open day lead buttons here.

Subject-specific campaign – target students by course interest

Reach students who are expressly interested in your chosen subject(s) or topic.

By tracking onsite engagement and combining this with our rich student data, we can build a highly relevant audience.

Our subject-specific solutions are great for boosting application numbers for courses that are harder to fill.