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How PX helped Dorsey College continue to
hit performance goals and grow enrollments for over
10 years through a centralized online marketing strategy

Introduction

Dorsey College and PX (Edufficient) began their long-standing relationship in December 2013, initially running only pay-per-lead (PPL) and later adding digital in November 2015. Over the past 10 years, the partnership has continued to mature and survived a pandemic that required a shift in operations and all campus-based programs.

This is a result of meeting and exceeding year-over-year benchmark performance metrics, with an unwavering focus on continuous improvement and optimizations, with the north star metric of growing enrollments.

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Key metrics at a glance

Fall 2024 vs. Fall 2023
16%
YOY increase in
lead volume
11%
CPL across channels is down 11% YOY,
PPC down 18%
8%
Lead to enrollment holds steady YOY
(industry average: 5-8%)
9%
YOY growth in student enrollment,
with CPE down 5%
2%
YOY growth in student starts,
10% YOY growth in PPC, with CPS flat
4%
increase in spend YoY
The long-term partnership between Dorsey and PX has allowed us to be both nimble and strategic in how we innovate, engage with prospective students throughout their decision-making process, and in preserving our brand in what can be an often noisy and crowded online environment. PX has become an extension of our internal team. They understand our goals and challenges, which is invaluable and allows us to focus our time and efforts on driving positive outcomes for our students and for Dorsey overall.
John O’Sullivan Vice President of Marketing, Dorsey College

About Dorsey

Since 1934, Dorsey has been committed to providing quality career education and positive reinforcement to enable the development of self-esteem, self-reliance, professionalism, and confidence in all students to support the diverse communities in which they live and work throughout the state of Michigan.

Today, Dorsey College has seven campus locations offering a wide range of programs in healthcare, nursing, EMS, beauty, culinary, and skilled trades. The Dorsey family of schools also includes Dorsey School of Beauty, located in Taylor, MI, and Training Direct, located in Bridgeport, CT.

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Top Challenges

Campus-level Complexity Campus-Level Complexity

Managing multiple online marketing channels at a campus level across multiple campus locations

Agility with Compliance Agility with Compliance

Staying agile amidst changing platform capabilities, compliance requirements, and algorithm changes.

Proving Impact Proving Impact

Ensuring every dollar spent would translate to enrollment outcomes.

COVID Disruption COVID Disruption

The pandemic disrupted on-campus-only programs, while low-cost online competitors surged.

Primary Goals

The primary marketing objective for Dorsey is to improve the quality of interactions with their prospective pool of students, gaining more visibility, and growing enrollments.

Conversion Efficiency

Maintain stable cost-per-enrollment and lead-to-enrollment rates.

Competitive Edge

Outperform competitors in ad presence and performance.

Budget Allocation

Allocate budgets to top-performing channels and vendors.

Data-Driven Decisions

Make decisions based on historical performance data.

Scalable Testing

Scale testing of ad copy, placements & platforms across audiences, programs, and campus locations.

Compliance

Regular audits of landing pages, call reviews and regulations enforcement.

The Solution

Power of centralized marketing

Dorsey College leverages the benefits of centralizing all their online marketing and operations with PX. Through the PX team, Dorsey launches and manages their campaigns on paid social, paid search, third party leads, marketing automation, SEO, and much more.

By helping Dorsey centralize their online marketing, PX was able to give Dorsey a consolidated view of performance across all their channels, allowing for more strategic, data-driven decision-making across levels of their business. This allows for better allocation and diversification of their marketing dollars and drives demand towards required programs and campus locations. Streamlining the bulk of the admin work involved in marketing- integrations, compliance, invoicing, is another pro of centralizing.

Continuous testing and optimizing

The PX team is constantly testing. This includes testing across ad copy, landing page formats, creatives, placements, content formats, channels, launching BETA within Google’s new products, to keep Dorsey’s campaigns up-to-date and effective.

One successful experiment was to launch seasonal ad copy which proved to have a positive impact on CPL and conversions, and hence was scaled across campaigns. Additionally, “localizing” ad copy and images to resonate with local demographics enhanced engagement, addressing the challenge of engaging with a diverse pool of students.

While the world of online marketing is constantly changing, PX helps Dorsey stay ahead of trends. We’ve done this in many ways, but one of the most impactful was the move towards fully utilizing Google automation and machine learning to further optimize paid search campaigns. This led to decreases in overall CPL, CPE, and CPS. CPL decreased by 18% on Google YoY in Fall 2024.

Compliance Standards

PX has developed a comprehensive compliance review process to ensure Dorsey remains compliant with TCPA and the respective accreditation requirements at both the campus and program levels. This process includes rigorous compliance checks for all third-party lead vendors, also when new call centers, sources, or campaigns are added. Regular audits of landing pages, detailed monitoring of call recordings, and maintaining an up-to-date blacklist of non-compliant partners are all integral to this robust compliance strategy.

Power of Centralization

Dorsey College leverages the benefits of centralizing all their online marketing and operations with PX. Through the PX team, Dorsey launches and manages their campaigns on paid social, paid search, third party leads, marketing automation, SEO, and much more.

By helping Dorsey centralize their online marketing, PX was able to give Dorsey a consolidated view of performance across all their channels, allowing for more strategic, data-driven decision-making across levels of their business. This allows for better allocation and diversification of their marketing dollars and drives demand towards required programs and campus locations. Streamlining the bulk of the admin work involved in marketing- integrations, compliance, invoicing, is another pro of centralizing.

Test and Optimize

The PX team is constantly testing. This includes testing across ad copy, landing page formats, creatives, placements, content formats, channels, launching BETA within Google’s new products, to keep Dorsey’s campaigns up-to-date and effective.

One successful experiment was to launch seasonal ad copy which proved to have a positive impact on CPL and conversions, and hence was scaled across campaigns. Additionally, “localizing” ad copy and images to resonate with local demographics enhanced engagement, addressing the challenge of engaging with a diverse pool of students.

While the world of online marketing is constantly changing, PX helps Dorsey stay ahead of trends. We’ve done this in many ways, but one of the most impactful was the move towards fully utilizing Google automation and machine learning to further optimize paid search campaigns. This led to decreases in overall CPL, CPE, and CPS. CPL decreased by 18% on Google YoY in Fall 2024.

Heightened Compliance Standards and Processes

PX has developed a comprehensive compliance review process to ensure Dorsey remains compliant with TCPA and the respective accreditation requirements at both the campus and program levels. This process includes rigorous compliance checks for all third-party lead vendors, also when new call centers, sources, or campaigns are added. Regular audits of landing pages, detailed monitoring of call recordings, and maintaining an up-to-date blacklist of non-compliant partners are all integral to this robust compliance strategy.

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