Driving Online Enrollment Growth Through Strategic Digital Investment
+34%
year-over-year increase in applications
+43.4%
year-over-year increase in admits
Through a targeted, full-funnel digital strategy, Carnegie helped ODUGlobal align media investments with priority program goals, expand its reach among prospective students, and scale campaigns to support measurable online enrollment growth.
Building a Strategic Digital Partnership to Accelerate Online Enrollment Growth
With ambitious enrollment goals across its online programs, ODUGlobal needed a strategic partner that could deliver deep digital expertise, collaboration, and forward-thinking recommendations. Carnegie initially supported military-focused recruitment, added targeted data science initiatives, then expanded into other priority program campaigns for ODUGlobal. The team’s strategic guidance and high level of service helped lay the foundation for an even broader partnership.
Carnegie and ODUGlobal developed a comprehensive digital strategy centered on measurable enrollment outcomes. By aligning media investments with priority programs, using performance data to guide decisions, and continuously adapting to evolving enrollment goals, the partnership helped ODUGlobal scale its digital efforts and drive meaningful growth across the enrollment funnel.
The Challenge
When a bold leadership vision created an opportunity to reevaluate its agency relationships, ODUGlobal was looking for a partner capable of doing more than executing campaigns. The institution wanted access to deep digital expertise, collaborative partnership, and innovative approaches to online recruitment. In a highly competitive market serving adult, military, and career-focused learners, its ambitious enrollment goals called for a team that could bring forward new ideas and adapt quickly as priorities evolved.
ODUGlobal also needed a more precise way to connect digital marketing investment to enrollment outcomes. With multiple priority programs and aggressive targets for each, a broad recruitment strategy would not provide the necessary focus. The challenge was to determine where investment could make the greatest difference, engage prospective students throughout the enrollment journey, and scale digital efforts as goals and funding increased.
Our Approach
Carnegie began by aligning its digital strategy with ODUGlobal’s priorities, focusing investments where the institution needed enrollment growth most. Working backward from ambitious program-level enrollment targets, we analyzed historical funnel performance to estimate the inquiries, conversions, and media investment required. When ODUGlobal increased its enrollment goals midyear, we developed a data-informed enrollment gap analysis to guide additional investment and direct resources toward the university’s highest priorities.
With these priorities established, we implemented a comprehensive, full-funnel digital strategy that balanced high-intent channels like Paid Search and Performance Max with broader awareness tactics, including social media, display, streaming video and audio, and location-based targeting. Expanded lead generation efforts reached new audiences and markets, while retargeting, website personalization, and tailored creative supported prospective undergraduate and graduate students throughout their enrollment journeys.
As enrollment goals and budgets evolved, we continuously evaluated performance, refined channel investments, and brought forward new recommendations to help ODUGlobal scale strategically. Our work also extended beyond paid media to support the university’s broader digital capabilities, including SEO, GA4, and an AEO audit that set the foundation for ODUGlobal to activate internally. This collaborative, adaptable approach helped connect digital investments more directly to institutional priorities while supporting continued enrollment growth.
What Worked
- Priority-driven digital strategy aligned media investments with ODUGlobal’s priority programs, concentrating recruitment efforts where the institution had the greatest need for enrollment growth rather than taking a broad, one-size-fits-all approach.
- Data-informed enrollment and investment modeling worked backward from program-level enrollment goals, using historical funnel performance to forecast the inquiries, conversions, and additional media investment needed to support increasingly ambitious targets.
- Integrated, full-funnel digital campaigns combined high-intent channels like Paid Search and Performance Max with social media, display, Connected TV, streaming audio, and location-based targeting to expand awareness and capture prospective student interest.
- Audience-focused creative and messaging brought ODUGlobal’s innovations to life through engaging digital advertisements and custom email content highlighting AI in teaching and learning, workforce alignment, and the university’s evolving approach to online education.
- Agile optimization and digital expertise enabled rapid adjustments to media strategy as budgets and enrollment goals expanded, while additional support across SEO, GA4, and AEO helped strengthen ODUGlobal’s internal digital capabilities.
The Results
By aligning digital investments with priority programs and scaling campaigns to support ambitious enrollment goals, Carnegie helped ODUGlobal achieve substantial growth across the enrollment funnel. A strategic increase in digital media investment, paired with expanded website personalization, contributed to a 1,215% increase in inquiries, generating more than 13 times the previous inquiry volume. This momentum extended further down the funnel, with applications increasing 34%, admits growing 43.4%, and new registrations rising 31.8% year over year.
ODUGlobal also reported meaningful enrollment gains, including a 45.7% increase in new online graduate enrollment. Together, these results demonstrate the value of connecting digital strategy to institutional priorities, making data-informed investment decisions, and continuously adapting campaigns to support enrollment growth.
+34%
year-over-year increase in applications
+43.4%
year-over-year increase in admits
13x
increase in inquiries following expanded digital investment
+31.8%
year-over-year increase in new registrations
+45.7%
increase in new online graduate enrollment
There are vendors and there are partners. Carnegie’s partnership is illustrated by their ability to add deep knowledge and value to our strategy, respond and optimize quickly, and embrace opportunities to test and try new things. At ODUGlobal, we want to be in front of the next big thing and Carnegie helps us do that to drive enrollment.
Services That Drive Success
Related Case Studies
Let’s Write Your Success Story
Get in touch to start the conversation about how we can help your institution thrive now and prepare for whatever comes next.