University of the People
University of the People Helps Students in Need Discover Tuition-Free Education with Taboola
UoPeople Uses Earned Media to Educate the Students on Tuition-Free Offerings
- 57,000 Clicks
- 56M Impressions
- 58% More Efficient in Lead Gen than Google
Company
University of the People (UoPeople) is the first non-profit, tuition-free, American-accredited online university.
Challenge
Increase brand awareness across its target audience— students without access to traditional higher education institutions.
Solution
Use Taboola to distribute a combination of earned media and educational program pages to increase brand awareness.
Results
In just one month, their campaign drove 57,000 clicks and 56 million impressions. Taboola was 58% more efficient in lead generation than Google.
Introduction
UoPeople is the first non-profit, tuition-free, Americanaccredited online university. Dedicated to opening access to higher education globally, UoPeople is designed to help qualified high school graduates overcome financial, geographic, political, and personal constraints keeping them from collegiate studies.
The university offers associate and bachelor’s degree programs in business administration, computer science, and health science, as well as master’s degree programs in business administration and education.
UoPeople was founded in 2009 and accredited in February 2014. Today, it has 18,552 students enrolled from more than 200 countries and territories. 1,000 of these students are refugees, of whom 600 are Syrian.
UoPeople is supported by the generosity of individuals and foundations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Foundation Hoffmann, The Ford Foundation, and more. UoPeople has been covered by the New York Times, BBC, NPR, Times Higher Education, US News and World Report, and more. President Reshef’s TED Talk about the university and its mission has over 6 million views.
Going Full-funnel: UoPeople Combines Earned Media and Program Pages to Drive Leads
UoPeople faced a daunting task in 2017 before partnering with Taboola—not enough people knew about them. After a successful pilot campaign that included sponsored content driving traffic to their website, UoPeople decided to continue ongoing brand awareness campaigns across the Taboola network.
Today there are millions of people in developing countries and around the world that don’t have access to a university education. By using Taboola to distribute informational materials, like news coverage and website assets, UoPeople can access a world of potential students and help give them an opportunity to study for a university degree.
Taboola is one of UoPeople’s main channels for awareness efforts today. Advertisers like UoPeople use Taboola to reach their target audience when they’re most receptive to new messages, products and services—the moment of next, when they’ve just finished consuming content.
UoPeople’s sponsored content campaigns include assets like recent news coverage, as well as program pages on their website that detail different options for students. The university’s earned media coverage helped it drive readers who it could then retarget with program pages to drive leads.
Data Marketplace and Retargeting Capabilities Support Brand Awareness Goals
UoPeople believes in the impact of brand awareness. Its digital team sought out Taboola in order to help it achieve brand awareness goals.
Currently, their campaigns are mainly targeting potential students in the United States. In order to reach the right people, UoPeople has implemented relevant audience segments from Taboola’s Data Marketplace and is leveraging retargeting tactics for success.
In just one month, their campaign drove 57,000 clicks and 56 million impressions. Taboola was 58% more efficient in lead generation that Google.
Today, there are millions of students around the world that don’t have access to universities. It’s our mission at UoPeople to ensure all qualified students have access to high-quality higher education. Taboola has helped us spread that message, hit our brand awareness goals, and drive applications more efficiently than any other channel.
- Asaf Wolff, Senior VP of Enrollment, University of the People