Instagram Lead Generation for Higher Education Marketing

Over the past few years in social media advertising, lead generation ad formats have made it easier than ever for colleges and universities to collect quality prospective student leads directly from social media platforms. On both LinkedIn and Facebook, when a user clicks a lead generation ad, a form pops up within the platform with auto-populated information taken from the user’s profile. This form allows for easy submission without the user having to leave the platform and increases the likelihood that the leads contain contactable and quality information. While these formats have proven to be successful on LinkedIn and Facebook, what about Instagram?

Instagram as a lead gen driver

Instagram rolled out lead generation forms in early 2017, and while the platform has mostly been used as a brand awareness tactic, we have seen success with generating leads as well. Instagram now has over one billion active users on their platform, and as part of the Facebook app family, lead generation ads can easily be set up across both platforms.

We have seen great success using lead generation on Instagram with our undergraduate campaigns. For one college we work with in Florida, their Instagram ads generated 45% of the total leads across both Instagram and Facebook for their associate and bachelor’s degree campaign we ran this past June. For another college in Maine, their undergraduate transfer campaign saw 74% of their Facebook and Instagram leads being generated from Instagram tactics.

Instagram success for prospective graduate and continuing education students

While most advertisers assume Instagram is best used for undergraduate audiences, it’s important to note there is a large graduate-aged audience on the platform as well, as can be seen in the graph below from PEW’s 2018 social media use research.

With 64% of 18–29-year-olds active on Instagram, the ability to reach a graduate and continuing education audience is entirely possible. For one university in Georgia, about 15% of their total leads on Facebook and Instagram came from their Instagram tactics for their graduate EMBA and PMBA degree programs.

It’s not just static images that are seeing positive results

Instagram has added advertising options through Stories as well, and lead generation forms were recently added as an option on Instagram Stories. Through our initial tests, we are seeing great results with leads on Stories. For one university in Florida, 16% of leads came from Instagram Stories within the first few months of running.

With lead generation forms being auto-populated with user information and allowing users to stay within the platform, gaining quality leads is easier than ever. It’s proving to be an effective tactic across LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Our success with Instagram is not limited to just one campaign type or tactic but across undergraduate and graduate audiences in both newsfeed and Stories ads.

Contact us today to learn more.