What the Meta Case Means for College Marketers

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0:00:10.4 Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Office Hours with EAB. Our guests today unpack Meta’s proposed multi-billion dollar settlement over teen privacy, and explore how that ruling could change the way that colleges reach prospective students on social media. They also share practical advice for aligning marketing with enrollment strategy, building trust across channels, and reaching right-fit students, in an increasingly fragmented digital landscape. So give these folks a listen, and enjoy.

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0:00:41.9 Emily Niedermaier: Hello, and welcome to Office Hours with EAB. I’m Emily Niedermaier, a managing director at EAB who oversees our Appily platform, which is a tool used by students and families to search for colleges, find scholarships, take virtual tours, compare college costs, and receive direct admission offers after creating a single academic profile. It’s pretty, pretty great. In my role, I work with everyone: from high school students, to counselors, to admissions officers, to digital marketing teams. And we’re all trying to find the right match between students and institutions. One thing I know for certain, colleges are working harder than ever to reach students online because that’s where the kids are. But the digital environment keeps getting more fragmented, more privacy-conscious, and more influenced by AI, which makes it 10 times harder to engage the right student, with the right message, at the right time.

0:01:35.9 Emily Niedermaier: Actually, this conversation about privacy, couldn’t be timelier. Last week, Meta agreed to a settlement, worth up to $18 billion, over how it handled teen data and engagement, which is exactly the kind of shift we’re going to talk about today. We actually, originally, recorded this podcast episode back in July, but decided to re-record it today, to incorporate this news and touch on what it means for marketers who rely on platforms like Meta to reach our target audience.

0:02:04.3 Emily Niedermaier: But first, we’re going to talk about how the digital landscape has changed over my, almost two-decade, career in advertising and marketing. And then dig into how higher ed institutions are adapting their strategy to find the right students who are likely to succeed at their school. Joining me today, is my very good friend and colleague of almost a decade, Brooke Verbeek. Welcome, Brooke. Please introduce yourself.

0:02:27.9 Brooke Verbeek: Hello, Emily. It’s great to be here. Thank you for having me. I’m Brooke. I have been in digital marketing, yes, for almost 10 years, and all of it alongside you. My role here at EAB, I am a digital marketing strategist on the Appily marketing team, but my role is, really, one of more creativity and strategy for our partners of understanding how do we adapt as the platforms change, and essentially, keeping up with digital marketing as it continues to evolve. So very timely for this conversation, indeed.

0:03:00.9 Emily Niedermaier: Love it. Brooke and I have, as she said, known each other a very long time. We actually worked together at a different marketing agency here in Richmond, Virginia, before we both came to EAB. So it might help today, to set a little context, by talking through some of the foundational best practices that we’ve learned over the years, and how that knowledge has adapted and changed. So let’s rewind. Brooke, how would you say things on social media have changed since, I don’t know, 2012?

0:03:32.2 Brooke Verbeek: Taking us way back. I would say… Gosh! The fundamentals, themselves, haven’t changed. We’re still here with the goal of connecting the right student with the right institution, and really making sure that that timing is aligned. So let’s start with what’s changed. I’d say, how we identify the students themselves, but also, how they themselves are discovering colleges. So all of the tools, all of the resources, have drastically shifted in over a decade. Let’s rewind to 2012, where it was really all about scale. So casting a wide net across demographics, across geography. Aligning interests, and hoping that something stuck. And then by 2016, we really saw the privacy regulations start to reshape how things were possible. So third-party data became less reliable. It forced a lot of us marketers to get much more intentional about privacy.

0:04:28.5 Brooke Verbeek: And then the year 2020, was one of harnessing user intent more than ever, I would say. So first-party signals became much more competitive to providing an advantage to your campaigns. So it allowed us to reach more students on an actual intent, rather than just assumption. And the year of 2026, I would say, is really the year of AI, right? So students aren’t just searching anymore, but they’re asking for personalization, and they are expecting that. So they’re expecting tailored recommendations from every interaction with your institution. So I’d say, the through line through all of those years, is reaching the right student earlier, but we have so much more confidence now.

0:05:11.4 Emily Niedermaier: So great. Thank you, Brooke. You’re so right. We’re gonna talk about this a little bit more. But this year, is really about everybody’s two favorite letters, AI; and we’ll dig into that in a little bit. I also think it’s important to note that Meta… Well, Facebook at the time… Set the standard, really, for performance marketing on social media. They were really the first to do it in a meaningful way. And since that market change, in a post-Cambridge Analytica world, first-party data now matters more than ever in this hyper-privacy-focused environment. And I’m sure, as you all read the news just last week, Meta reached a proposed settlement of up to $18 billion with 29 state attorneys general, resolving claims that Facebook and Instagram were designed to be addictive to teens, and that Meta improperly collected data from users under 13.

0:06:07.1 Emily Niedermaier: So, pending court approval, Meta will roll out functionality to turn that around. Some of the things they mentioned, included: default, two-hour daily time limits for under-18 users; overnight blackout windows; hidden like, reaction, and follower counts; there’s an option to turn off algorithmic recommendations; and they’re even proposing stronger age verification technology. The deal doesn’t ban personalized ads outright, and it doesn’t even really mention advertising specifically, but it lands on top of Meta’s existing 2023 policy, which limits teen ad targeting, to just age and location. And it puts a very public, dollar-figure-attached spotlight on how platforms use minors’ data for engagement and advertising. And I don’t know about you, $18 billion is nothing to sniff at.

0:07:01.7 Emily Niedermaier: And this is also going further than just Meta, too. Other platforms like Google, YouTube, and TikTok, are facing similar scrutiny. Which, for me, this leads me to think that this isn’t going to be a situation in which advertisers just find and move to the next big channel, but rather, this has the potential to disrupt how we engage and attract under-18 users much more broadly.

0:07:26.3 Emily Niedermaier: So, we know the technology has changed quite a bit over the past 20 years. But I want to talk a little bit about behavior, too. Brooke, how have you witnessed the student journey itself, changing? And what does that mean for how colleges find and engage with prospective applicants?

0:07:42.3 Brooke Verbeek: Man, so much has changed. All the above. I would say, the largest being that students are starting this journey earlier than I’ve seen in years past. So this generation is one that is well-informed. They are brilliant. They understand this landscape better than ever before. So the way that they are absorbing their content, and what they expect from brands, is putting a larger focus on institutional messaging, I would say. So for me as a marketer, that means we need to start much earlier, too. We’re thinking, not just across platforms, but understanding what really are the stages of the journey that, maybe, haven’t been present before. And how do you make sure that you’re delivering authentic content that is going to build confidence throughout all of those touchpoints.

0:08:28.9 Brooke Verbeek: So these students, they’re wanting answers, they’re hungry for them. And as much as we want it to be, it is not in a linear path. But we’re seeing that that’s okay, and it’s leading to behavior that’s… They’re not just applying sooner, but they’re also applying to more institutions. So they know they have options, and they know that they want that information sooner. So we’re looking at a shrunken window of time for building institutional trust. So if you are not, necessarily, meeting those needs in the moment of intent, you’re already behind.

0:09:00.6 Emily Niedermaier: Yeah. You risk losing them in a very overpopulated, overcrowded digital space. And I think it’s so interesting how brand storytelling has changed, too, over the past few years. I mean, historically, a university controlled its own story. But now, AI synthesizes dozens, or hundreds, or thousands, of sources. We don’t really know, and they haven’t been telling us; they haven’t been super forthcoming with that information. But students, increasingly, trust that synthesized answer more than any single source; even the school’s own.edu website. And that means families are forming impressions long before they ever inquire, apply, or visit. And their perspective is shaped by ads, other websites, an Appily.com profile, conversations with counselors, social media comments, and virtual tours, and all of this is being folded into AI-generated answers. So colleges have less control over their own narrative than ever, really. Would you agree?

0:10:04.8 Brooke Verbeek: Absolutely. You’re 100% right. And you kind of have to trust, right, that the output is strong, that it’s truthful. Is it on brand? Do you even have control of that anymore? Tone and messaging, is so important. And so many marketers work so hard to build that, to make sure that it is cohesive. Because ultimately, it’s synthesizing what’s happening, whether you like it or not. And we know, to your point, that this is not happening in isolation. So what does that look like from a student experience to, let’s say, their parent or caregiver? What do the guardians and the counselors see? How do your community members experience your institution? So if you’re not working across all of these different audiences, it has to really be one that is intentional, and everything has to be in sync.

0:10:52.8 Emily Niedermaier: Exactly. I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head. And I think that’s why message alignment, the way we talk about it now, it can’t just be a marketing exercise anymore. It’s really an enrollment strategy. And students don’t experience your institution, or any institution, in a departmental silo. They experience and they think about one united brand. So every touchpoint, from admissions, to marketing, to financial aid, to your faculty, to student support services, those all shape the overall impression that a student gets. And if a student, or a caregiver, or a counselor, sees one value proposition on an ad and a contradictory one on social media, or in the comments, that then leads to confusion and to distrust. And so, when messaging is consistent across teams, every impression becomes an investment in future enrollment, not just in a single campaign.

0:11:47.5 Emily Niedermaier: But that is so much easier said than done, though, right? I mean, it takes a ton of coordination and support across so many teams on campus. And often, these teams have very different goals, too, that are ultimately connected, but very different on a day-to-day level. Brooke, what do you wish enrollment leaders better understood about digital advertising? And what do you wish marketers understood about enrollment strategy?

0:12:16.1 Brooke Verbeek: My favorite question. I thoroughly enjoy this opportunity to really bridge the gap sometimes, to make sure that enrollment leaders understand the importance, but also likewise for marketers, to understand the tasks and the goals of those in leadership. So I would say… I think enrollment leaders underestimate, sometimes, how much brand awareness drives enrollment. And students are not acting at the first time that they encounter your college. They’re here to discover it over time, again, as we’ve mentioned, through so many different platforms, through the ads, the social posts, through Appily. But each one should be helpful and intentional in building familiarity and trust.

0:12:57.4 Brooke Verbeek: So, yes. Brand awareness is top of funnel, but they’re not competing with performance marketing strategies. This is really, really important to emphasize, that awareness is what makes performance marketing actually work. So if you have students who have never heard of you, they’re far less likely to click, engage, respond, inquire. These institutions that show up consistently, are earning that consideration when it matters most. So that’s the, ‘tale as old as time’ problem, where you need to make sure that you are known to be considered. And on the flip side, I would say, that marketers need to remember enrollment leaders are not just trying to maximize their clicks, or their opportunities. They’re trying to build a class. So every campaign that they build, should reinforce the larger enrollment strategy, and not just short-term click-throughs or conversion metrics.

0:13:50.7 Emily Niedermaier: So great. It’s so true. And when brand and enrollment strategy are aligned, like we said, every impression then, becomes an investment in your future enrollment. Maybe it’s not for the class this year, maybe it’s for your class next year, or the class in five years, if you’re connecting with a caregiver, a parent, or a counselor. Which I think is exactly why that consistent messaging across channels, matters so much.

0:14:17.0 Brooke Verbeek: Totally. I would say, that ties exactly into the intent signals that we lean into on… That we learn on Appily. Because Appily is the one-stop shop for students, we get richer intent signals through this. So they’re sharing the types of programs that they’re looking at, and the scholarships that they’re interested in. They tell us their class year, how far they’re willing to travel. Because these are the things that matter to them, so in turn, that data helps connect the dots for students, but also fuels marketing efforts to be much more efficient in turn.

0:14:49.5 Emily Niedermaier: Are there any other bedrock principles that higher ed marketing teams should embrace?

0:14:57.4 Brooke Verbeek: The one that I’d add is, evaluating your campaigns differently. So I know that the importance is not just how many applications did this ad generate, but did this increase my likelihood that a student recognizes and trusts our brand? So that brand recognition can be hard to measure, but it is important to get right, from understanding all of the signals outside of your website, but also the larger campaign performance. And this is where I see performance and awareness marketing building on each other, because, to your point, we are not just building one class. We’re here to create, kind of, generational understanding of your institution, and how you want to be in the market.

0:15:38.1 Emily Niedermaier: And again, sounds so easy when we just say it on a podcast episode. In an ideal world, we’d have an unlimited budget for all of our partner institutions. But of course, that is not the reality. So what should university leaders focus on to get the biggest bang for their marketing buck?

0:15:57.5 Brooke Verbeek: I would say, the focus should be on having confidence that you’re actually reaching a student who’s genuinely considering your school in a landscape, to your point, that’s gotten much more fragmented. So we have the understanding of in-market signals and behaviors, but when it comes down to reducing guesswork… Which is what we’ve talked about through all the years of digital marketing accessibility… I would say, it’s important to get confident, to get surgical in the way that you are targeting, to think about the message and the value propositions, not just from your side, or the institution, but also what matters most to these audiences, and get much more specific, and pain point recognition before setting up a campaign. So if you’re not testing, if you’re not scaling and measuring these results, you’re losing sight of how important brand awareness is, across the entire funnel.

0:16:50.4 Emily Niedermaier: And because we’ve been on the other side of the desk as advertisers, and still live in it every single day, we’ve built Appily into what we would want ourselves, if we were an advertiser looking for college-bound students. And I’d say that’s one of Appily’s biggest differentiators. We know, with 100% certainty, that everybody who’s visiting Appily.com, is a student, a parent, a caregiver, or a counselor, actively exploring higher ed options. That really matters in a market, where broad third-party data, is harder to rely on than ever. So when we built Appily Awareness, we combined access to that hyper-specific higher ed audience, with EAB’s history of digital advertising strategy and execution. So the value in Appily Awareness, isn’t just the audience itself; it’s also the strategic expertise behind the planning, the messaging, the targeting, and the optimization. And that distinction, which is an outcomes platform built on students opting in to share exactly what they’re looking for, versus a broad platform harvesting engagement data, like Meta, is exactly the line that regulators drew last week with the Meta settlement.

0:18:09.7 Emily Niedermaier: And so Brooke, since you are neck-deep in this every single day, what advice do you have for partners trying to reach the right-fit students at the right time?

0:18:19.9 Brooke Verbeek: Good question. I would say, even if your ask is highly specific, keep asking. Keep finding ways to get creative, because there will be a niche program, or a narrow audience, that you will be faced with. And we are here to help with that at Appily, because, again, all the reasons you mentioned, and all of the intent signals that can be layered on creatively. So let’s take location, and let’s layer that with a program of interest, and class year. You don’t have to choose between ‘and’ or ‘or’. Yes, it will get small in terms of audience size, and narrow to some extent, but a lot of that is high-funnel work that is now strategic, intentional, and you can get very customized with your messaging through that as well. So get confident with the data that you have. And you can’t really do that without the help of something like Appily. Because if a student is already on Appily, we’re here to pre-qualify that, and have real trust in what this audience is looking for to make your dollars and your advertising goals go much farther.

0:19:24.7 Emily Niedermaier: This makes me think about the example that you gave me recently, which I loved. A partner came to you, and they were looking for students who were interested in bagpiping… Which was a brand new one for us. How did you approach it?

0:19:39.7 Brooke Verbeek: Yes. I’ve heard a lot of unique requests; but this was, maybe, one of my most favorites. It’s a perfect example of getting creative. We layered a lot of fields of interest that we know, again, from Appily, for example, other institutions that have bagpiping programs, or related search behaviors. So it doesn’t have to just be specific to that exact intent signal, but how do we think holistically, again, about where is the student in the funnel, and what other options might they be seeking, that would give us those intent signals, too? So we are here as strategists to help piece together what is, originally, genuine field of interest, and build that into a campaign that ultimately performed well because it was so targeted and so specific.

0:20:26.1 Emily Niedermaier: So you’re telling me, we can’t just type, “Find me students who want to learn about bagpiping, or enjoy bagpiping” into the Meta advertising platform, or into Google’s advertising platform? I wish we could, but that simply doesn’t exist. And after last week’s news, it’s going to get even less precise on many of those platforms. Meta specifically, is under pressure to pull back on how much they can use teen engagement data for targeting. So a platform where students are telling us directly what they’re interested in, is only going to matter even more to advertisers.

0:21:03.9 Emily Niedermaier: Brooke, thank you so much. We have covered a lot of ground today. Is there anything else you’d want to add about how digital advertising has changed, or what our partners can expect?

0:21:15.8 Brooke Verbeek: I would say, stay nimble, stay open to the changes that are happening. Because they are happening all around us, as we’ve learned in just these recent news articles. But we continue to do that ourselves. We are always here to learn and evolve our strategies, too, on the Appily marketing team, but also alongside our partners as well. So EAB is a wealth of knowledge and resources. So I would certainly encourage you to take a look at the blog post by yours truly, Emily, titled, “5 Digital Marketing Channels That Enrollment Teams Should Prioritize.” I think that ties perfectly with a lot of what we’ve talked about today. And don’t be afraid, as I mentioned, to come to us for creative recommendations and strategy questions, because that is our role. We love to be a part of those conversations, and look forward to them, truly. So grateful for you to have me on here, Emily. And really appreciate it.

0:22:10.4 Emily Niedermaier: Absolutely. Thank you for being here, Brooke. And thank you for the plug on my blog post. I would really love for everyone to check it out. This was so fun catching up on our favorite topic, nerdy digital advertising conversations. Hopefully, we’ll be back again sometime soon. Thanks to all of our listeners. And we will talk to you again next time.

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