How Johns Hopkins University Amplified Recruitment Outreach with Appily Awareness Marketing

Johns Hopkins University (JHU) wanted to drive awareness and interest around upcoming admissions events, especially in lesser-known markets. In partnership with JHU, we set a goal of generating 1 million impressions through a combination of prospecting and retargeting tactics. Our focus was on building top-of-funnel visibility and reinforcing the institution’s brand presence across targeted regions.

Leveraging Appily’s proprietary audience targeting capabilities and deep expertise in digital campaign execution, our Appily Awareness Marketing team strategically launched and managed 32 Google Display campaigns on JHU’s behalf. Each campaign was tailored to specific audience segments and geographic regions, featuring custom creative assets and messaging designed to maximize relevance and engagement.

The flighted media strategy was timed to amplify reach during key windows and ensure heightened visibility when it made the biggest impact.

The campaign exceeded reach projections by 67%, delivering 1,669,000+ impressions across 21 distinct markets. This significantly outperformed the original goal and expanded visibility in target regions. In addition, viewability rate climbed to 88%, outperforming the industry average rate of 70.

The campaign’s top-performing markets by total impressions included San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. While the campaign ran, search interest increased in major West Coast markets by 300%.

Hundreds of clicks were directed to JHU’s website, supporting their goal of connecting engaged prospective students with admissions counselors in target markets.