Projects
Driving UCAS Application Growth Through Intent-Led Recruitment Strategy
Client Overview
Blue Tiger partnered with a UK university to support student recruitment ahead of the January UCAS deadline.
The campaign was managed end-to-end from October through to the submission deadline, with a focus on increasing applications across key subject areas while improving efficiency in a competitive and budget-constrained market.
The Challenge
Operating with a 30% reduced media budget, the client needed to:
- Increase total applications year on year
- Improve cost per application (CPA)
- Drive higher levels of high-intent traffic
- Deliver stronger efficiency from reduced investment
The campaign also needed to compete within an increasingly crowded recruitment window, with many institutions shifting activity earlier in the cycle.
The Insight
Previous activity had focused on volume and reach, without fully accounting for differences in audience intent throughout the recruitment journey.
The opportunity lay in shifting to an intent-led strategy, engaging high-intent audiences earlier and optimising media investment against application outcomes rather than traffic alone.
The Approach
Blue Tiger delivered a segmented and Blue Tiger implemented a segmented and synchronised full-funnel strategy, aligning channel roles to different stages of the student decision-making journey.
Key elements included:
- Highly granular campaign segmentation by course and subject area
- Integrated digital and offline channel planning to build reach and frequency
- Increased investment in consideration and conversion stages
- Continuous optimisation based on performance data
Across Google Ads alone, over 40 campaigns were deployed, enabling tailored bidding strategies, messaging and budget allocation based on subject-level demand.
The Solution in Action
Campaigns ran continuously from October through January, ensuring early engagement and sustained visibility throughout the recruitment cycle.
Creative and messaging were tailored to different audiences and subject areas, ensuring relevance and improving engagement.
Performance was optimised continuously against application data, with budget reallocated toward the highest-performing campaigns, audiences and channels.
This ensured activity remained focused on delivering meaningful outcomes rather than top-line traffic alone.
Channels & Services Used
Digital channels
- Paid Social (Meta, TikTok)
- Paid Search
- YouTube
- Programmatic Display
Offline channels
- Out-of-Home
- Radio
Services
- Audience segmentation and insight
- Full-funnel media planning
- Creative testing and optimisation
- Performance measurement and reporting
- Campaign optimisation
The Results
The campaign exceeded all core KPIs, delivering strong growth and efficiency improvements:
Results achieved despite a 30% reduction in budget
Performance also exceeded wider sector benchmarks:
- Strong performance within key subject areas, including +22% YoY growth in foundation year applications
- +3.8% sector growth vs +12% campaign growth
Why It Worked
Success was driven by a shift toward intent-led recruitment, supported by segmentation and synchronisation across channels.
By engaging audiences earlier, aligning messaging to the decision journey, and optimising continuously against application outcomes, the campaign delivered both increased volume and improved efficiency.
This approach enabled the client to reverse declining application trends and compete more effectively during the January deadline period.
