Key Finding Summary
The state of Michigan and the Michigan Center for Adult College Success (MCACS) received more than 12,300 registrations for the Michigan Reconnect program, with over 9000 students enrolling at area community colleges through a strategic marketing campaign managed by CollegeAPP.
CollegeAPP’s proprietary models and marketing strategies generated engagement rates that were 15-20X higher than industry standards, and produced results for half of the cost of typical campaigns across Instagram, Meta, Snapchat, and TikTok.
In just five months, this campaign more than doubled the total enrollments achieved by the previous ten months of efforts prior to CollegeAPP’s involvement.
Campaign Overview:
In October 2023, the state of Michigan expanded its Reconnect program that offers tuition-free community college to adult learners through a one-time appropriation. The state lowered the age threshold from 25 to 21, making an additional 350,000 Michiganders eligible to participate.
However, in the first several months of the program, few Michiganders took advantage of the new opportunity by signing up and enrolling in a local community college. The one-time funding meant that potential enrollees would miss the opportunity to enroll in tuition assistance by the end of the calendar year 2024. The Michigan Center for Adult College Success (MCACS), working in partnership with the Michigan Department for Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential (MiLEAP), hired CollegeAPP to address the challenge.
The above image shows a visualization of the CollegeAPP database.
Since its founding in 2019, CollegeAPP has built proprietary models within a robust database and aligned marketing strategies for enrolling adult learners that consistently outperform industry benchmarks in this space in terms of both efficacy and cost efficiency.
An example of in-district and out-of-district advertising is shown above.
CollegeAPP leveraged its data and managed the enrollment campaign, placing media created by our partners at Interact Communications. The enrollment marketing campaign ran from July to December 2024 with an advertising budget of $254,117 across the following channels: Meta (Facebook/Instagram), TikTok, and Snapchat.
CollegeAPP’s unique ability to predict potential learners’ intent to enroll through data led to the creation of distinct messaging for potential enrollees. In total, 42 ad sets were placed across platforms in both English and Spanish.
To best address the needs of potential learners, CollegeAPP customized the approach of using intent and education attainment models. These models helped us identify individuals with some college, no degree or less and a high likelihood of intent to pursue educational opportunities.h some college, no degree or less and a high likelihood of intent to pursue educational opportunities.
Examples of in-district and out-of-district advertising are shown above.
Furthermore, the campaign targeted individuals aged 21 to 24 - a newly eligible population under Michigan's expanded Reconnect program - and utilized customized audience lists based on geography and primary language spoken.
Throughout the campaign, the team met every two weeks with staff from MiLEAP and MCACS to analyze results in real time and make recommendations to optimize performance. These meetings led to actionable strategies to improve the campaign’s performance, such as the addition of a Spanish-language landing page specific for this campaign.
Highlighting Our Results:
In a conventional enrollment management campaign, the industry benchmark for engagement rate is 0.8%. Engagement rates represent the percentage of people who click an advertisement after viewing it. For a typical campaign, the cost per click (CPC) - the total media spending divided by the number of clicks – average is $2.11.
The campaign significantly outperformed industry benchmarks across all platforms. On Facebook and Instagram, the Meta campaign achieved a 16.5% engagement rate with a CPC of $0.94. Snapchat delivered a 19.7% engagement rate at a CPC of $0.92, while TikTok reported a 13.0% engagement rate with a notably low CPC of $0.58.
Contrasting CollegeAPP Campaign's Performance with Industry Standards
| Key Metric | Industry Performance on Average | CollegeAPP on Meta (Facebook + Instagram) |
CollegeAPP on Snapchat | CollegeAPP on TikTok |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engagement Rate | 0.8% | 16.2% | 18.4% | 14.4% |
| Cost Per Click | $2.11 | $0.93 | $1.03 | $0.62 |
The success of this campaign was demonstrated not only by improved advertising metrics but also by direct enrollment outcomes. Through the partnership with the state of Michigan, CollegeAPP matched advertising performance data with the actual students who registered for the Reconnect program. As a result, 12,301 new students aged 21-24 were matched as those who registered with Reconnect after engaging with the targeted advertisements. This surge in student enrollment represents more than double the total number of enrollments prior to the launch of CollegeAPP’s involvement.
Jeremy Hendges,
Michigan Center for Adult College Success
Reflecting on the results of this campaign and the partnership between CollegeAPP and the Michigan Center for Adult College Success, Jeremy Hendges, Executive Director of the Center, shared:
“CollegeAPP’s passion and dedication to understanding adults with intent — not just those who have previously stopped out — marks a pivotal shift in how we think about educational access and opportunity. Their work not only broadens access but also ensures a sustainable and equitable use of resources.”
Michelle Cyrus, Ed.D.
Office of Sixty by 30, MiLEAP
Michelle Cyrus, Ed.D., Student Success Strategy Manager, Office of Sixty by 30 within MiLEAP added:
“Throughout the campaign, we had weekly meetings with CollegeAPP's Digital Service team and leadership to review current results in real time. In these meetings, CollegeAPP provided valuable recommendations for optimizing the campaign and improving performance. Over time, their expertise and strategic advice led to noticeable improvements in performance. Our team greatly appreciated their depth of knowledge and proactive support, which was crucial to the campaign's success.”
Appendix:
Campaign Summary: Michigan Reconnect
July 1 - December 31, 2024
| Platform | Reach | Frequency | Link Clicks | Cost-Per-Click | Engagement Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TikTok | 694,593 | 10.48 | 99,933 | $0.62 | 14.39% |
| Snapchat | 312,839 | 8.38 | 57,536 | $1.03 | 18.39% |
| Meta (Facebook & Instagram) |
479,079 | 9.67 | 77,554 | $0.93 | 16.19% |
Special thanks to the Michigan Center for Adult College Success and the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential for their partnership, data reporting, and support of this case study. CollegeAPP also appreciates their work in conjunction with the team on a more extensive case study that will examine the data, marketing tactics, and policy approaches that state lawmakers and higher education executive officers can use to build similarly successful enrollment initiatives.