Online Advertising Increases for For-Profit Colleges

The biggest advertiser for the Google Incorporation is not a retailer. Instead, the largest advertiser actually happens to be the for-profit college, University of Phoenix. The University of Phoenix has been spending a total of about $400,000 on online advertising per day, which is analytical information that came directly from SpyFu, according to NBC News.

The university is currently spending more than some of the normal big spenders, which would include retailers and banks. Some people may think that such spending on online advertising from a college is outrageous, but this has become something that is necessary for the university, especially when it comes to increasing enrollment.

The University of Phoenix, along with various other colleges, is going to have to make some adjustments if they would like to increase enrollment of students. The first thing that they are going to need to do is to consider lessening the tuition fees so that tuition will be more affordable for the students. It is a competitive market, and these universities have to have an edge if they would like to take on the enrollments from their rivals. The operators representing various other for-profit colleges, including Kaplan and DeVry, have recently been spending more money on their online advertisements. Each of these for-profit colleges is on the list of the top 25 advertisers on Google.

Even with the increase in spending of other college, the University of Phoenix is taking the leading, having doubled its spending on Google advertisements during the span of one month, between October and November. An analyst for the Wells Fargo Securities, Trace Urdan, has said, “I have witnessed several versions of this cycle but none as extreme as this.” Urdan also said, “We are going to see more pointed efforts at marketing and more price competition in an effort to try to capture more market share both from each other as well as from traditional schools.”

While an increase in marketing is necessary for these for-profit colleges, there will need to be other efforts that must take place in order for enrollment to increase. It is believed that aside from offering the lower tuition fees, these colleges should also increase the amount of programs that they will offer to the students, ultimately broadening their horizons. The University of Phoenix currently offers a broad range of courses, and it also has a total of 230 campuses available. The for-profit college also offers online course to students, which provides students with an added sense of convenience when learning and working on obtaining a degree in a specific field.