Uncovering the true impact of online enrollment
Red Door's paid media drove thousands of enrollment inquiries for NAU's online programs. But gaps in the campus-choice data hid how well online was doing. So we built better tracking and pieced together the full picture, giving NAU a clearer view of its real ROI.
NAU's online degree programs are a major growth priority, and paid media is the engine driving prospective students to inquire. But the marketing team could only optimize spend and prioritize leads if it could see, accurately, how many of those prospects were truly online-intent. Getting that number right meant looking deeper than the surface data showed.
The challenge was an optional campus-choice field on the inquiry form. Most prospects left it blank, and "online" meant different things across teams. By applying data extrapolation, our team estimated the missing campus preferences and uncovered 3,000 to 3,200 online-intent prospects, nearly double what surface reporting showed.
Turning a blind spot into an advantage
A sharper number is only worth as much as what you do with it. Working hand in hand with NAU's team, we turned the online-intent estimate into an operating advantage: media budget could shift toward the channels and campaigns actually driving online prospects, and the enrollment team could prioritize the highest-intent leads. To keep the view current, we automated Domo reporting to track online demand going forward, then delivered CRO recommendations that simplified the inquiry form, closing the data gap at its source.
Proving the impact of online investment
By closing the data gap, Red Door gave NAU a clear, defensible view of paid media's contribution to online enrollment growth.
Enrollment queries generated
More online prospects than raw data showed
Estimated online-intent prospects
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