CASE STUDY
Australian Catholic University
Australian Catholic University partnered with Bench Media to drive registrations and attendance for its 2025 Open Day program across multiple campuses.
Over 14,000 Open Day registrations, demonstrating significant demand and strong audience engagement
In an increasingly competitive education landscape, the objective was not just to generate awareness, but to actively convert prospective students into Open Day attendees. By connecting brand and performance channels through a unified strategy, the campaign delivered over 14,000 registrations, building a strong pipeline of future enrolments.
12.5%
increase in brand awareness
442%
conversion lift
GOAL
Drive high-quality Open Day registrations across ACU campuses while building awareness and consideration among prospective students earlier in their decision journey.
This required:
- Reaching new audiences at scale
- Engaging prospective students across multiple touchpoints
- Converting interest into confirmed Open Day registrations efficiently
APPROACH
A full-funnel media strategy was implemented to connect awareness, consideration and conversion.
At the top of the funnel, broad-reach channels including video and digital formats were used to build awareness and position ACU as a compelling study option.
Mid-funnel activity focused on audience engagement and consideration, using data-led targeting and retargeting to re-engage users who had interacted with the brand.
Lower-funnel channels were optimised towards conversion, with clear calls to action and messaging aligned to key Open Day dates. Performance activity was continuously refined using real-time data to improve efficiency and maximise registrations.
This integrated approach ensured each channel played a defined role while contributing to a single measurable outcome.
THE RESULTS
ACU achieved more than 14,000 Open Day registrations, representing a significant year-on-year increase in domestic Semester 1 applications, despite heightened competition across the sector. At a channel level, the data reinforced the importance of full-funnel integration:
- Users exposed to the full upper-funnel ecosystem (audio, BVOD, video and display) converted via Google Search at 1.69%, compared to 0.44% for those exposed only to Paid
Search – a 285% uplift in conversion rate. - A similar pattern was observed on Social platforms, where conversion rates reached 0.81% for users exposed to awareness activity, versus 0.10% for Meta-only audiences – a 683%
increase in efficiency. - A Conversion Lift Study via The Trade Desk confirmed a 442.30% incremental lift, directly attributable to upper-funnel media. This demonstrated that a significant proportion of conversions
would not have occurred without the integrated omnichannel approach.
Brand impact was also substantial:
- A Meta Brand Lift study recorded a 12.1-point increase in ad recall and a 12.5-point increase in brand awareness, both exceeding APAC and global education benchmarks.
- Action intent rose by 7.7 points, indicating that brand gains translated into behavioural
readiness. - A Lucid study across digital audio and video channels showed a 5.3% uplift in awareness among parents aged 35–44 after just a single exposure – a critical influencer segment in the
decision-making process.
Open Day is an important building block in our yearly recruitment cycle, and Bench embraced the complexities of our multi-campus, nation-wide campaign.
Getting people to attend Open Days in-person is a vital part of our conversion process. Once people come to our campuses, they can see how warm and welcoming ACU really is. Bench really understood the importance of digital in making our ultimate goal – genuine connection – possible.
