EtonX Paid Social Advertising
EtonX wanted to promote 2 separate eLearning products across various markets. With the right social media advertising, we knew we could tap into them all.
An Unknown Product from a Well-Known Name
BACKGROUND
EtonX was a new eLearning project from the prestigious Eton College, offering courses in vital ‘soft skills’ such as leadership, critical thinking, communication and writing.
When EtonX came to us they were looking to explain and promote their products in a variety of markets across Europe and Asia. Their audience was composed of the teenagers who could take their courses and their parents.
Explanation and Persuasion in Multiple Languages
THE CHALLENGE
EtonX wanted to promote 2 separate eLearning products in separate markets. Firstly, there was their ‘Making an impact’ course which they wanted to advertise in Russia and Kazakhstan. The course theme was completely new for a Russian-speaking market and EtonX had no real knowledge of interest levels in this type of course.
Secondly, EtonX wanted to promote their tutor led courses in various markets after the COVID-19 pandemic caused many schools to close for substantial periods. This was also the first time that this type of course would be promoted in these markets.
The challenge, therefore, was presenting a product which had likely never before been considered by the target audiences, and explaining it well enough in short, engaging copy to drive people to the website and sign up. All of this was to be done across 10 countries. In multiple languages.
This project would require a lot of in-house collaboration from our multilingual team.
Social Media: Something All Teenagers have in Common
THE WORK
When choosing how best to promote these products we considered, amongst many other things, target audience demographics and the type of product that was on offer.
With our primary target audience being between 17-21 years old, a social media advertising campaign made immediate sense. What’s more, given that this was a new product, we expected search volumes to be fairly low, so we focused mainly on social media.
After carrying out thorough market research, we decided to use Facebook Ads in Italy, Spain, Poland, Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, Qatar and Hong Kong, and several more social channels such as VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Google AdWords and Yandex Direct in Russia and Kazakhstan.
For our ‘Making an impact’ campaign we used a combination of organic and paid social as well as some search ads – so we could test the waters and tweak our approach as we went. We first needed to educate our audience about the course. For this we used organic content, providing regular material on what potential customers could get out of the courses and building a trustworthy brand. Then we began our paid ads. We tailored different messaging to both parents and students, but principally highlighted the key benefits each course would bring.
The tutor-led course campaign was using paid social channel only, addressing the need for quality online education created by the school closure.
Millions of Impressions, Thousands of Clicks, 10 Markets, 6 Weeks, 1 Satisfied Client
THE RESULTS
Our campaigns for both products proved to be successful. Within 6 weeks our Facebook Ads had driven tens of thousands of users to the EtonX website, at an average cost of £0.10/click. Whilst our main goal for the tutor-led campaign was to drive people to those specific courses, EtonX saw many people sign up for the self-study courses as a result of being directed to the site.
Our campaigns in Russia and Kazakhstan achieved over 2 million impressions and several thousand clicks. What we’re arguably most proud of, is how our ads drove down the cost per acquisition to just £22/user. With courses having an average price of £229, this represents a huge return on advertising spend.
EtonX highlighted how our marketing campaigns demonstrated a very efficient acquisition of users in completely new territories.