Education Media That Turns Consideration Into Enrolment
Enrolment is a considered decision that plays out over months, not a single search to win.
Bench is an education media agency connecting brand and performance across the full student journey, so interest becomes confirmed registrations and enrolments, not just awareness.
We’ve helped education providers turn Open Day interest into thousands of confirmed registrations, backed by a connected media strategy built for the full decision journey.
Winning Consideration Before Applications Open
A prospective student rarely decides in one moment. They compare institutions, weigh campuses and intakes, and talk to parents or advisers long before they ever search for a course by name.
That makes education one of the hardest categories to market well.
Domestic and international cohorts behave differently, multiple campuses compete for the same budget, and brand activity rarely gets credited for the registrations and enrolments it eventually drives. When awareness and acquisition activity are planned separately, it becomes harder to understand how media builds preference and contributes to recruitment outcomes.
Where the Breakthrough Happens
The opportunity isn’t capturing students the moment they search for a course. By then, most of the decision is already made.
Bench helps education providers build awareness and preference earlier, while a student is still comparing options rather than ready to act.
That early investment is then connected directly to Open Day registrations, applications and enrolments, so the brand activity gets credit for the outcomes it actually drives rather than disappearing before the funnel’s lower stages.
Creating Influence Across the Student Decision Journey
Enrolment decisions move through distinct stages, and each one needs a different kind of media.
Bench connects strategy, above-the-line, performance and programmatic media around that journey, rather than running them as separate campaigns. Above-the-line and programmatic build awareness and shape preference while a student is still comparing options. Performance channels then capture that intent as it turns into action, from course searches through to registrations.
Media Planning
Connected media planning across awareness, consideration, registration and enrolment
Audience Strategies
Audience strategies that reflect prospective students, parents and other decision influencers where relevant
Investment Planning
Investment planned around intakes, campuses, audiences and recruitment priorities
Data Analysis & Report
Measurement designed to understand media’s contribution to awareness, registrations, applications and enrolments, subject to available data
This is what separates a connected recruitment strategy from a collection of campaigns that happen to run at the same time: every channel plays a defined role in the same decision journey, and every stage feeds the next.
How We Helped Australian Catholic University Increase Open Day Registrations by Over 400%
ACU needed more than awareness for its 2025 Open Day program. It needed registrations, and proof that the media driving them was actually working.
Bench’s connected media strategy delivered:
14,000+
Open Day registrations
442%
incremental conversion lift from upper-funnel media
+12.5pt
increase in brand awareness
x4
Users exposed to the full upper-funnel mix converted via search at nearly four times the rate of search-only audiences
Bench built a full-funnel strategy connecting audio, BVOD, video and display with search and social, so every channel played a distinct role in the same outcome. That upper-funnel investment is what drove the search conversion gap above, not a coincidence of timing.
“Open Day is an important building block in our yearly recruitment cycle, and Bench embraced the complexities of our multi-campus, nationwide campaign.”
— Stephanie McCormick, National Marketing Manager
Why Education Marketers Choose Bench
A multi-stage, multi-campus recruitment strategy is a long, considered decision journey without a clear end date.
Choosing a media partner means trusting them with that whole journey, not just a single campaign. These are the reasons education marketers choose Bench to run it.
- Independent advice, with no allegiance to a platform or media owner, so every channel recommendation is made on merit
- A Sydney-based team with direct access to experienced strategists and channel specialists, not a junior account team
- Strategy, above the line, performance and programmatic managed as one connected approach across every campus and intake
- Bench Connect providing clear visibility across planning, delivery and results, so nothing sits in a black box
- Proven experience across complex, multi-stage education decisions, from first awareness through to confirmed enrolment
Media Planned Around the Moments That Shape Enrolment
Education marketing doesn’t run at a flat, always-on pace, and treating it that way wastes budget on the weeks that matter least.
Bench plans around the moments that actually shape enrolment:
- Open Days
- Application periods
- Change-of-preference activity
- Offer rounds
- Late applications
- Supplementary intakes
Timing, audience emphasis and investment all adjust to match. A multi-campus provider needs that same discipline applied across every campus and intake at once, not a single national calendar stretched to fit.
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