This 83-page report gives data and commentary from 36 officer from 33 colleges and universities about their use of Snapchat for college marketing and student recruitment. The study gives highly detailed data on extent of use and spending on a range of Snapchat advertising options such as snap ads, Geofilters, sponsored lenses and other Snapchat options. It also looks at the amount of staff time spent on Snapchat, and plans for spending and staff time use in the near future. Respondents give their advice on whether and how to use Snapchat in college marketing and compare its effectiveness with other social media and search engine options such as Google, Facebook and Instagram.
Data in the report is broken out by many institutional variables of the colleges affiliated with those who took the survey – college enrollment, college type, annual tuition, public/private status – as well as many personal characteristics of the respondents themselves – work title, age and gender. So, for example, it is possible to see how public relations officials feels about Snapchat vs. those who work in admissions, or enrollment marketing.
Just of few of the report’s many findings are that:
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Mean spending on Snapchat was approximately three times higher at 4-year colleges than at research universities or community colleges.
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A shade more than 11% of those surveyed used an advertising agency to prepare their Snapchat ads.
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Community colleges and colleges charging less than $10,000 in annual tuition were the most likely to say that they would be increasing their use of staff time spent on Snapchat in the near future.