CASE STUDY: How Duke-NUS reached a global audience

Background
Established in 2005, The Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore (Duke-NUS) is a joint-venture between the National University of Singapore, and Duke University, from North Carolina, United States.

A collaboration between two noted universities, Duke-NUS’ mission is to transform medicine and improve lives. The institution has also gained recognition for bringing the American model of post-baccalaureate medical education to Asia -- its students begin their medical studies after earning a bachelor’s degree.

Aim
A global organization, Duke-NUS wanted to reach an international audience effectively and efficiently. As most potential students around the world now log on to research their tertiary options, tapping into online advertising and search engine marketing became an obvious choice for the university. The university not only wanted to increase the exposure of its website and brand, but also increase the number of online applications it received via Duke-NUS.edu.sg.

Execution
Duke-NUS chose Google AdWords for their online campaign as they wanted measurable and instant campaign results.

An AdWords user since 2008, Duke-NUS kicked off a new campaign in 2011 by tasking Clickr Media to manage and optimise their AdWords campaign. Targeted at a global audience of potential students seeking post-graduate education in medicine, Clickr Media created an integrated campaign that tied back to the university’s webinars, events and social media efforts to brand Duke-NUS.
The team also used Google Analytics to monitor the efficacy of the campaign, which data indicated that users who clicked-through due to the targeted keywords spent quality time on the Duke-NUS website. Leveraging on this data, the university shifted its focus to optimizing the top performing keywords to drive up the number of online applications for its PhD and MD programmes.

The team also used Google Analytics to monitor the efficacy of the campaign, which data indicated that users who clicked-through due to the targeted keywords spent quality time on the Duke-NUS website. Leveraging on this data, the university shifted its focus to optimizing the top performing keywords to drive up the number of online applications for its PhD and MD programmes.

Results
The resultant AdWords campaign led to a 72 per cent increase in traffic to the Duke-NUS website, and repeat visitors increased from 43 per cent in 2010 to 47 per cent in 2011. The campaign also resulted in a 13.6 per cent increase in online registrations from Google’s search engine on targeted countries.