Virginia Commonwealth University
Building a Data-Driven Enrollment Engine for VCU Online
About
Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a premier public research institution located in Richmond, Virginia, known for its academic excellence, innovative programs, and commitment to student success. Serving a diverse student population through on-campus, online, and hybrid modalities, VCU offers a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs designed to prepare students for impactful careers.
Length of Relationship
Oct 2024 – Current
Programs Marketed
10 (30% Undergraduate, 70% Graduate)
main Objective
Lead generation, application growth, enrollment growth
Modalities Supported
- On-Campus
- Online
- Hybrid
CRM & Marketing Automation Platforms
Slate
Primary KPIs
- Cost per Lead (CPL)
- Lead Quality
- Total Leads
- Applications
The Challenge
When VCU partnered with Swish in October 2024, program-specific advertising was a brand-new initiative for the university. They had never run paid campaigns for academic programs before — from designing creative assets for social ads to building dedicated landing pages, this was uncharted territory.
The opportunity was significant, but so were the unknowns: Which channels would perform best? How should budget be allocated across undergraduate, graduate, and hybrid offerings? How could the university ensure leads were both cost-efficient and high quality?
We needed to build the entire paid media framework from the ground up — establishing creative standards, tracking infrastructure, and performance benchmarks — all while driving tangible results in lead generation, applications, and enrollments within the first year.
The Approach
A cornerstone of the campaign’s go-to-market strategy was to set up a bi-directional data integration between media platforms and VCU’s Slate CRM — allowing us to both push lead data into Slate and re-ingest those same records enriched with application, enrollment, and lead quality metrics.
This automated system, powered by Zapier, Funnel.io, BigQuery, and Looker, now provides VCU with a unified, near real-time view of ROI at the program and channel level, including at the lead quality & application/enrollment level.
Key initiatives:
- Connected Slate CRM applicant data to ad platforms to build high-quality lookalike audiences for prospecting
- Reverse-engineered CPL goals using channel- and program-level benchmarks to define monthly and annual targets
- Aligned media plans and budget flighting to recruitment milestones, increasing spend during peak application periods
- Overcame the lack of first-party audiences by running traffic and conversion campaigns in parallel to quickly grow retargeting pools
The Results
01
-66% CPL
- Reduced cost per lead from $90 to $30 in five months, sustaining sub-$35 CPLs for the remainder of the campaign.
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02
50%
Lead-to-application conversion rate achieved in Google Search graduate campaign, with every applicant enrolling.
03
7.5K+
- Leads generated at an average CPL of $46, delivering strong volume and efficiency.
04
5+
- Consecutive months of improved Meta click-to-lead conversion rates from Feb–Jun 2025.
