A private college had been running Google Ads internally after working with me once before. But with international enrollment down – thanks to recent government caps – they were struggling to fill classes and wanted help improving performance.
When I asked how they measured success, they said:
| “We track views of the program page.”
WTF were they looking at?
If someone clicks your ad and lands on that page, of course the page gets a view. That doesn’t mean they’re interested – or even qualified! It just means they clicked on the ad.
To actually measure quality, we dug deeper. With a bit of coaching, they identified what really mattered:
| Clicks on “Apply Now” or “Talk to an Education Advisor.”
Now we’re setting up proper tracking, and I’m training their team across six sessions to:
- Build campaigns focused on high-value leads, not surface-level clicks
- Understand how politics and demand shifts affect strategy
- Optimize toward actual enrollment – not vanity metrics
This is the kind of clarity I deliver in the Is Your Marketing Working? program.
- About the Author
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Darlene is a search marketer, analyst, speaker, trainer, and owner of DriveTraffic Digital Marketing. She has been working in the digital marketing industry since the mid 90s and has narrowed her specialty to SEO, Google Ads and Google Analytics. She is especially interested in Google’s new Search Generative Experience and how businesses will need to adapt to remain visible. Want to see how DriveTraffic can help? Let’s chat!
