The hidden impact of your student recruitment and influence channels

Many enrollment teams rely solely on first-source attribution when evaluating the performance of their recruitment channels, focusing on initial name buys and similar metrics. This practice can mask important contributions that secondary sources make to enrollment outcomes. To illustrate that point, we conducted an analysis of how EAB’s Appily college-search platform (formerly Cappex) impacts students’ likelihood to convert, irrespective of the source through which they first engaged with a college. This post explores three things we learned from that analysis—with three implications for your enrollment strategy.

Quantifiable increases in conversion rate

One key finding was that prospects who inquired on Appily were twice as likely to deposit compared to non-inquirers, even if the relevant schools didn’t acquire that inquiry from the platform. However, those prospects were twenty times more likely to deposit if their names were acquired by the schools in question—a process whereby the students’ identities and interest are obtained from Appily by a recruiting school, thereby enabling further recruitment efforts. Crucially, this holds true regardless of the source through which the student initially entered the school’s prospect pool.

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Disproportionate positive impact for high-ability students

Another key finding of the analysis was that the positive impact of acquiring a student’s name increases with academic ability. As illustrated in the chart below, the higher a student’s GPA, the greater the increase in likelihood of them depositing when their identity and interest is made known to the recruiting school.

Disproportionate positive impact with students in reach markets

The analysis also found that the positive impact of acquiring a student’s name increases with a student’s distance from campus. As illustrated in the charts below, this phenomenon is additive with respect to GPA—i.e., the higher an inquiring student’s GPA and the farther they are from campus, the greater the increase in likelihood of them depositing when their names are acquired (though the effect is somewhat attenuated for out-of-region students relative to out-of-state students).

How do demographic shifts intersect with college search trends in your region?

Three important implications for enrollment strategy

These results show us that, even if you are finding success with one or more initial source providers, you might be overlooking significant enrollment contributions from other sources. As yield rates continue to plummet across higher education, you can use secondary sources in these ways to put your thumb on the scale and significantly impact the chances a prospective student will choose your school:

• Procuring and nurturing qualified leads drives conversion: You cannot just rely on students that are interested in you to choose you from amongst a highly competitive landscape. Active and personalized engagement is needed to best enhance deposit likelihood among interested prospects by further strengthening their affinity with your school. This strategic focus also ensures that high-intensity outreach efforts are concentrated on students likely to respond, optimizing resource allocation.
• Targeted engagement matters for high achievers: Higher GPA prospects who inquire on a digital platform become significantly more likely to deposit at a specific school when that school connects with them. This underscores the pivotal role of tailored interactions, particularly for academically accomplished prospects who may require personalized engagement to sway their decision in favor of your institution.
• Engaging remote prospects greatly boosts enrollment: As is the case with higher GPAs, our statistical analyses show that engaging with high-intent inquiries is particularly effective with out-of-state inquirers, which comprise a large segment of the market. This suggests that, even as prospects are increasingly willing to travel for school, more distant prospects might require more targeted and sustained outreach to influence their enrollment decision.