Paid Search vs. Paid Social. Why You Should Combine

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Paid Search
vs.
Paid Social
Why You Should Combine
HEM WEBINAR SERIES

▪ Ad Campaigns for Student Recruitment
▪ Creative Design & Branding
▪ Inbound Content Strategy
▪ Writing Blogs & Social Media Content
▪ SEO - Website Builds - Google Analytics 4
▪ CRM to Drive Lead Nurturing
▪ Student Application Portal
2
Our Service Capabilities

3
Scott Cross
Regional Manager
North America
Today’s Agenda
▪ Behavior trends in online search
▪ Today’s power of your Social Media ads
▪ Today’s power of your Search ads
▪ Bringing Social & Search ads together
▪ Commons mistakes
▪ Measuring your success

Audience Poll #1
4
When prospective students begin researching a school,
Where do you think they are most likely to start?
A. Google or other search engines
B. Instagram, TikTok, or other social platforms
C. College review or ranking websites
D. I’m not sure

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Behavior Trends in
Online Search

Why Schools Face This Dilemma
6
Teams are often siloed,
running campaigns
independently
Budget pressures push
teams to prioritize one
channel over another
Uncertainty about
what works best
can lead to
oversimplified
decisions
Outcome: Missed opportunities and fragmented student journeys.

▪ Schools often ask:
'Which one should we choose?'
▪ The answer:
Students engage with both search
engines and social media platforms
▪ Choosing one limits your potential.
▪ Combining both expands your school’s
reach and impact.
▪ They complement each other.
The False Debate: Search vs. Social
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▪ The Zero Moment of Truth is when a person
looks up information about a product, service, or
brand online.
▪ Website
▪ Ads
▪ Reviews
▪ Social media
▪ Reddit
Trends: Zero Moment of Truth & Zero Click Searches
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They
Search
Everywhere!
▪ Zero Click Searches are when a person gets the answer
they were looking for in the results of their search.
▪ The value here is to be cited as the source of their answer (and to place ads in Google Search).

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Trends: Gen Z Search Behavior Is Changing
◆ 41% of Gen Z use social
for search
◆ 32% use search
◆ 11% use chatbot
➔Schools that ignore social as a lead gen
tool risk missing entire segments of
future students.
Source: Social Sprout

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Trends: Gen Alpha Search is More Values-based
▪ Gen A EDU searches focus on preparing for
the future responsibly
○ Social impact
○ Inclusivity
○ Ethical leadership
○ Tech-forward
○ Environmental impact
▪ Gen A researches & plans early … like now
▪ Begin aligning your branding & messaging now
to attract and retain this future generation

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Today’s Power of Your
Social Media Ads

Audience Poll #2
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Which best describes your current use of Paid Social ads?
A. We use it mostly for awareness
B. We use it for lead gen with forms/landing pages
C. We use both approaches in a funnel
D. We don’t use Paid Social ads yet

Social Media Ads: More Than Just Awareness
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Best Used For:
● Build awareness
AND
Generate leads
● Creates emotional connections through
storytelling
● Warms up prospects for future action
● Social networks are improving their ad
functions for lead gen
● Awareness and engagement
● Event promotions
● Retargeting to re-capture interest

Social Media Ads: Best Practices for an Awareness Ad
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● Use aspirational outcomes
● Focus on one key idea or benefit.
● Use eye-catching visuals / video
● Add a clear, actionable CTA
Add example of high-
performing
storytelling
“awareness ad”

Social Media Ads: Best Practices for Lead Generation
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● Define exactly what the user
will gain.
● Use high-converting formats:
LPs or leadforms (not web page)
● Strong CTA that aligns with the
offer
● Segment audiences and tailor
messaging
● Incorporate visuals that match
the offer

Creative & Copy Alignment Across Platforms
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● Repurpose the same-campaign creatives across multiple social media channels.
● Maintain consistent messaging while adapting format & CTA.

Messenger Ads Drive Engagement
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● Meta Messenger ads drive lead flow
through quick replies or buttons like
“Schedule a Call”.
Source: Social Media Examiner
● WhatsApp ads can stand alone in
the platform, or act as click-to-
WhatsApp in other platforms
Source: SleekFlow

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Lead Quality from Social:
Misunderstood but Powerful
● Lower quality than Search
● Take longer to convert
But they are real and relevant
● Prepare a lead nurture workflow
to turn social leads to enrollment.
○ Create workflows combining
CALLS - SMS - EMAIL DRIP
- Then eNewsletter -

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Today’s Power in
Your Search Ads

Search Ads: Strengths and Strategies
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Best Used For:
● Captures high-intent prospects
actively searching.
● Ideal for middle-of-funnel
conversions.
● Provides measurable ROI.
- Branded searches
- Program-specific searches
- Deadline pushes

Search Ads: Strengths and Strategies
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● Best application of keyword match types
● Best application of intent segmentation
● Suggest Responsive Search Ads (RSAs)
● Suggest Dynamic Search Ads

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Bring Social & Search Ads
Together
on the Same Team

Platform Usage Trends in Education
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✓ Dominates for intent & lead gen
✓ Strongest for awareness and retargeting
✓ Power in Gen Z awareness & engagement
✓ Best for graduate EDU , professional, and executives
✓ The bridge between social & search
✓ Cosmetology, beauty, wellness EDU
SEARCH

Building a Funnel-Based Paid Media Strategy
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1. Awareness 2. Consideration 3. Decision 4. Enrollment:
SOCIAL
SEARCH SEARCH
SOCIAL SOCIAL
SEARCH

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1. Awareness
Paid Social
+ Visibility & awareness
+ Visual exposure of your
school/program when their
guard is down
+ Video illustrates your
course
+ Storytelling helps them
relate to student, graduate,
instructor
+ Click to website / conv.
2. Consideration 3. Decision 4. Enrollment:
SOCIAL
SEARCH SEARCH
SOCIAL SOCIAL
SEARCH

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1. Awareness
Paid Social
guard is down
course
instructor
2. Consideration
Paid Social
+ Illustrate your program
+ Attract those visually-drawn
+ Engage those early-
deciders
+ Click-to-Conversion
Paid Search
+ Be visible where they’re
comparing schools
deciders
3. Decision 4. Enrollment:
SOCIAL
SEARCH SEARCH
SOCIAL SOCIAL
SEARCH

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1. Awareness
Paid Social
guard is down
course
instructor
2. Consideration
Paid Social
deciders
Paid Search
comparing schools
deciders
3. Decision
Paid Social
+ Ad messaging is more
pointed
+ Upgrade CTA urgency
Paid Search
+ Meet an audience with
high-quality intent
+ Be visible at decision time
4. Enrollment:
SOCIAL
SEARCH SEARCH
SOCIAL SOCIAL
SEARCH

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1. Awareness
Paid Social
guard is down
course
instructor
2. Consideration
Paid Social
deciders
Paid Search
comparing schools
deciders
3. Decision
Paid Social
+ Ad messaging is more
pointed
+ Upgrade CTA urgency
Paid Search
+ Meet an audience with
high-quality intent
+ Be visible at decision time
4. Enrollment:
Paid Social
+ You can continue to
remain visible at this
stage
Paid Search
+ Sense of urgency &
FOMO
+ Deadline reminders
+ Last steps
SOCIAL
SEARCH SEARCH
SOCIAL SOCIAL
SEARCH

Sometimes the Journey is Not-so-Linear
29

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1. TikTok video
Introduce your
school to Gen Z
prospects.
2. Instagram Ads
Nurture interest
with student stories.
3.Search ads
Capture leads as
their intent to
learn more
increases.
4. Meta
retargeting
Place ad front of
those who clicked
on prior ads but did
not convert.
Close the loop for
non-converters.
Result: Full-funnel coverage and higher conversion rates.
Campaign Journey: Social + Social/Search + Search + Social

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1. TikTok video 2. Instagram Ads 3. Search Ads
4. Meta
retargeting
Week 1-3
20XX
Week 2-3 Week 3-6 Week 6-8
Objectives
● Lead Generation
● Clicks go to Landing
Page
● Conversions = Fill out
Form & Submit as a Lead
● Cost per Conversion
Objectives
● Clicks & Cost per Click
● Conversions = Fill out Form
& Submit as a Lead
● Conversions
Objectives
● Conversions
Objectives
● Visibility & Awareness
● Views
● Duration of views

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1. TikTok video 2. Instagram Ads
3. Google Search
ads
4. Meta
retargeting
Week 1-3
Objectives
● Visibility & Awareness
● Views
● Duration of views
20XX
Week 2-3 Week 3-6 Week 6-8
Objectives
● Conversions = Fill out Form
& Submit as a Lead
● Conversions
Objectives
● Conversions
$500 USD
per major market
$500 USD
per major market
$2,000 USD
per major market
$300 USD
per major market
Objectives
● Lead Generation
● Clicks go to Landing
Page

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Common Mistakes Schools Make
➔ Treating social as just 'brand awareness'
➔ Over-relying on search without first building a pipeline of awareness
➔ Putting too much faith in social for Lead Gen
➔ Running campaigns in isolation without cross-channel strategy
➔ Not retargeting or nurturing leads properly
➔ Using platform default settings (Create tailored targeting)

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ALL Search Behavior Is Changing
How to Adjust Your Ads
Spread budget across search, social, and emerging channels like TikTok
Search and Reddit Ads.
Create search-optimized social content (e.g. hashtags, FAQ-style captions).
Test TikTok Search Ads with text overlays.
Shift some budget to paid social for awareness and use retargeting to nurture
leads from search visits. Focus on cost-per-qualified-lead, not just CPC.
Prioritize video-based ads with student voices. Run campaigns that look and
feel like UGC (User-Generated Content).
Run click-to-message ads (Messenger, IG DMs), and include FAQ snippets in
ad copy. Speed matters more than ever.
Shifts in Search
Google’s influence is waning
Social is the new search
Google Search in Education is
more crowded and more expensive
Visual-first results dominate
Students want direct answers fast

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Tracking the Crossover Traffic
and
Measuring Results

Audience Poll #3
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How confident are you in your ability to track which ad platforms
are delivering enrollments?
A. Very confident – we have solid tracking in place
B. Somewhat confident – we track top-of-funnel only
C. Not confident – we rely mostly on guesswork
D. We don’t track campaign ROI at all

Tracking Lead Sources & Enrollment ROI
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● Connect ad campaigns to identify in your CRM.
● Track leads from first click to final enrollment.
We’ve seen success in EDU with HubSpot & Mautic.
● Cost per application
● Cost per enrollment
● Cost per inquiry / Cost Per Conversion / Cost Per Lead
Ads
● Cross-channel Tracking

Tracking Return on Investment
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Ads

Tracking Lead Sources
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ORIGINAL SOURCE DRILLDOWN 2
DRILLDOWN 1

Tracking All Campaigns in One Look
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Use GA4 to Measure the User Journey Across Platforms
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Key Takeaways: Why You Need Both Channels
1. Students use both search and social in their journey.
2. Paid Search captures demand, Paid Social creates it.
3. Integrated campaigns improve results at every stage.
4. Funnel alignment maximizes ROI.
5. Cross-channel tracking proves real impact.
6. Track the metrics that will help you understand ROI
… and also the roles of Search & Social, Organic & Paid, in the student journey.

Book a Free Strategy Consultation
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higher-education-marketing.com
Contact HEM for Customized Solutions
Scott Cross
scross@higher-education-marketing.com
North America
Philippe Taza ptaz
a@higher-education-marketing.com
UK & Europe

INFO@HIGHER-EDUCATION-MARKETING.COM
6560 DE L'ESPLANADE, SUITE 204
MONTREAL, QUEBEC H2V 4L5
+1-514-312-3968

Paid Search vs. Paid Social. Why You Should Combine

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