A Master's of Supply Chain Management program rebuilt its messaging and targeting around career outcomes, and grew applications in a year the rest of the sector was down.
Graduate applications were down sector-wide. The program had tested paid advertising previously, but the team couldn't get a clear read on whether the ads were actually contributing to applications.
What they wanted was sharper messaging, smarter targeting, and the ability to see paid media's impact in the funnel.
We worked closely with the program and admissions teams to overhaul both messaging and targeting.
The first lift was creative. We interviewed alumni, mapped the most common doubts prospective students had raised, and built campaigns around what graduates actually did after the program: the role changes, the industry moves, the leadership tracks. Out of that came a "Ten Months to ___" theme. The program runs ten months, so the creative used that as a framing device: ten months to a new role, ten months to a leadership track, ten months to a different industry. It made the time investment feel concrete and the payoff specific.
For targeting, we filtered by years of professional experience, current role types, and adjacent degree backgrounds, so spend went toward people who would best fit the program.
We ran the program across three channels, each playing a different role. Meta drove the most cost-effective leads. Google brought qualified search traffic from people already considering a master's. LinkedIn returned the highest-quality applicants. Fewer in volume, stronger in fit.