4 digital marketing trends graduate enrollment teams can’t ignore

If you’re leading graduate enrollment efforts today, you’ve likely felt how much the ground has shifted beneath your feet. Growth is slowing, lead sources are dwindling, and prospective students are changing the way they search, evaluate, and ultimately choose programs. Tactics that worked to fill pipelines in recent years no longer guarantee results.

One shift, though, is creating new opportunities: digital marketing has moved from a supporting tactic to a top strategic priority. As tried-and-true lead sources like test-taker lists and international prospect pools dry up, digital marketing has become one of the few scalable ways to reach and engage prospects. And when done well, digital marketing not only drives enrollment but also strengthens your institution’s brand in a crowded marketplace. When done poorly—or without a clear plan—it drains budgets and leaves you invisible to the very students you want to reach.

My teammates in our Adult Learner Recruitment division and I see four forces reshaping how institutions must approach digital marketing to achieve their graduate enrollment goals.

Trend 1: Digital marketing costs are on the rise

If it feels like your marketing dollars aren’t stretching as far as they used to, you’re not imagining it. Competition for digital ad space has pushed costs higher across nearly every platform. At the same time, markets for some of the most popular graduate programs (like the MBA) have become more saturated, meaning schools are paying more to reach each student.

This doesn’t mean paid media is no longer effective. But it does mean every dollar has to work harder, and institutions need more sophisticated approaches to audience segmentation, targeting, and measurement to get the greatest return on their marketing investments. The days of “set it and forget it” digital campaigns are gone.

Forward-thinking enrollment leaders are also moving beyond cost-per-lead as the primary measure of digital marketing success. As graduate enrollment leaders know, more leads don’t always mean more students. The more meaningful—and sustainable—metric is cost-per-enrollment. By focusing here, schools can better align marketing spend with actual enrollment results and make smarter, more strategic decisions about where to invest.

But in our recent survey, 56% of grad enrollment leaders said they don’t know their average cost-per-enrollment. And an additional 17% said they don’t track cost-per-enrollment at all. At EAB, we help our partners make this shift, stretching budgets further while filling programs with right-fit students at the most efficient cost-per-enrollment.

See How Our Partners Are Generating a 6:1 Average Return on Their Investment

Trend 2: Longer decision timelines require longer marketing campaigns

When I took the GMAT during my senior year of college, I assumed I’d apply to MBA programs within the five-year score validity window, after gaining a few years of work experience. That built-in deadline created urgency. Today, with many programs no longer requiring GMAT or GRE scores, that ticking clock is gone. Instead, enrollment decisions hinge on career shifts, family responsibilities, and financial considerations—factors that rarely follow a predictable or compressed timeline. In our annual survey of graduate and adult students, 40% said they researched programs for at least a year prior to application. A quarter of respondents said they researched programs for more than 18 months.

For enrollment leaders, this extended cycle poses a clear challenge: how do you keep prospects engaged with and interested in your institution over the long haul? A six- or 12-month nurture campaign no longer matches the ways students are searching for programs. Instead, schools need to think about building nurture campaigns that run continuously, providing value and reassurance at every stage of the decision process. A thoughtful, sustained digital presence that aligns with their consideration process keeps your institution top of mind. The nurture campaigns we create with our partner institutions last for 25 months to best align with students’ decision timelines.

We Secret Shopped 10 Programs’ Lead Nurture Campaigns—Here’s What We Learned

Trend 3: Stealth shopping enters the AI era

Here’s a challenge that catches some enrollment teams off guard: most graduate prospects never formally raise their hand. They research silently, exploring program websites for months without ever filling out an inquiry form. Our research indicates about 80% of applicants to graduate, online, and professional programs are “stealth,” meaning they are unknown to an institution prior to application.

This “stealth shopping” phenomenon has been around for a while, but it’s being accelerated by the rise of AI-powered search. Students no longer need to navigate to your .edu to learn more about your program. Instead, they can find the information they need aggregated in the AI summary of Google search results. They can ask ChatGPT to compare your program against your competitors’ programs. If your institution’s web content isn’t optimized to show up in these new pathways, you risk being left out of the conversation altogether.

Trend 4: (Hyper)personalization is imperative

Even as stealth shopping makes it harder to know who your prospects are, those same prospects are demanding more personalized experiences when they do interact. Thanks to advances in AI, consumers are used to receiving tailored recommendations in nearly every part of their digital lives—from shopping to streaming to travel. They expect no less when considering graduate programs.

That’s a tall order for enrollment and marketing teams that are already stretched thin. But the good news is that the same technologies driving these expectations can also help schools rise to meet them. Take AI-enabled chatbots, for example. When done well, chatbots can effectively answer students’ questions 24/7, freeing up time for your staff to focus on things that only they can do, like building relationships with prospective students.

Use an AI Chat Agent to Drive Student Enrollment 24/7

In my two decades working at the intersection of digital marketing and education, I’ve seen countless shifts in the marketing landscape. But the changes we are facing now are among the most complex and fast-moving. Institutions that recognize these shifts and adapt quickly can build sustainable pipelines and stronger brands. Those that don’t risk falling further behind as costs rise and today’s tech-savvy students gravitate toward competitors that meet their expectations.