Driving Enrollments for KIPP Texas Public Schools Amidst Pandemic Uncertainty

Client Overview

KIPP Texas Public Schools are located in Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio with 59 pre-K-12 schools and more than 31,000 students. KIPP Texas creates educational opportunities for kids in underserved areas. In fact, their schools are so academically excellent, students from KIPP Texas graduate college at a rate three times greater than their peers.

Families who want their students to attend public charter schools, like KIPP Texas, must apply to participate in a lottery. As a result, parents have become savvy, applying to more than one public charter school in an effort to get their child an opportunity for a seat in a high-quality school. That results in a serious scramble by public charter schools as they not only have to compete for applications, but work to build an emotional connection with a family so if the child is offered a seat, that family enrolls the child and attends the school.

The Challenge

With the pandemic casting doubt on the upcoming school year and families preoccupied with broader concerns, KIPP Texas faced a critical situation, having thousands of seats left to fill. Recon Digital Media tackled this challenge with a strategic digital marketing approach, recognizing the need to both counteract hesitancy among families and prompt proactive enrollment.

Full-Funnel Approach

Recon Digital Media launched a comprehensive full funnel paid media campaign targeting families in underserved communities to raise awareness of KIPP Texas Public Schools, drive traffic to KIPP Texas website, and increase the propensity to convert.

Our tactics included:

Mobile GeoFence/GeoFollow targeted ads in low-income area grocery stores on the first week of the month to reach low-income families immediately after they’ve received their government assistance check
Streaming Audio ads presented as :15 second or :30 second English and Spanish audio spots targeting low-income families on Spotify, Pandora, SlackerRadio, etc.
Connected TV ads presented as :15 second or :30 second video messages targeting low-income families on Roku TV, Apple TV, Sling, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, and XBOX One
Video Pre-Roll targeting online behavior of low-income families with a focus on job recruiter sites, news sites, and educational content
Search Engine Marketing bottom of the funnel search ads to reach users searching for charters schools like KIPP Texas produced conversions efficiently
YouTube advertising targeted at a Spanish-language demo to drive awareness of KIPP Texas as a free charter school option in our target geographies
Facebook advertising through full-funnel brand awareness, traffic, and conversion campaign to reach low-income parents in select zip codes in each of our markets and guide them toward converting into applicants

Results

The success was measured not only in the achieved enrollments but also in the ability to instill confidence and drive action amid the prevailing uncertainties of the pandemic.

542

Enrollments

200x

Return on Ad Spend

$12k

Value of a Student

$60.92

Avg. Cost per Enrollment