10 Best Higher Ed Marketing Agencies You HAVE to Know About | 2024 Update

Think Orion is a top-notch higher education marketing agency with over 10 years of experience. Their team is always on top of the latest industry trends and constantly adjusts to changes. They’re focused on building demand through creative campaigns and effective education marketing strategies that outshine the competition.

In a recent project with a leading university in Nevada, Think Orion helped solve their issues with creative social media ad campaigns and SEO to drive organic growth. They used a full-funnel enrollment strategy, improving search rankings and driving traffic that led to qualified leads.

They’ve also worked with companies such as Studyforfe, Udacity, Product Gym, and Pinnacle Performance.

Unlike most marketing agencies, they're transparent about their pricing which starts at $2,000/month for early-stage companies starting out with paid media.

Manaferra is a SEO agency dedicated to helping higher education institutions attract more students through organic search. Their results-oriented approach has positioned them as industry leaders known for award-winning SEO and content marketing campaigns.

Partnering with a diverse range of institutions—from small colleges to prestigious Ivy League universities—Manaferra enhances online visibility, attracts more prospective students, and increases enrollment numbers through data-driven SEO strategies.

Some of their case studies include increasing Pacific College's organic leads by 900%, growing University of the Potomac's monthly traffic value by $125,000, and getting 550% more organic traffic for Our Lady of the Lake University.

SimpsonScarborough is a full-service agency laser-focused on branding and marketing for higher education companies.

With a long history of working with colleges and universities, they offer services that include market research, brand strategy, creative design, digital solutions, and media planning.

They have worked with clients like Cal Poly Humboldt where they increased campus-wide buy-in for the brand and demonstrated the importance of marketing. With Wittenberg University and the University of Montana, SimpsonScarborough developed strategies that combined creative and digital to increase brand awareness and engagement.

And let's not forget their work for Boise State University which increased their client's brand awareness by 28%.

Other notable clients from their 300+ brand portfolio include Cornell University (strategy, creative, and digital projects), Duke University (help with research strategy), and UCB (research and strategy).

OnCampus Advertising is a college marketing & events agency that helps brands reach college students effectively.

With 20 years of experience, OCA delivers budget-friendly campus programs (online and offline) that reach students across North America. They offer digital media, social media, email marketing, out-of-home advertising, and event sponsorships where students live, work, study, and play.

OnCampus Advertising works with advertising agencies, universities, and startups to reach the collegiate audience for branding, recruiting, product launches, and more.

Some notable brands include Kellogg's, Dunkin’, Uber, and Gillette.

For Kellogg's, OnCampus Advertising organized 25 campus events that hosted over 1,000 each and brought tons of buzz and engagement. Dunkin’s mobile app campaign resulted in over 350k students reached across 23 college campuses.

This full-service, higher education digital marketing agency combines time-tested strategies with future-focused approaches that reach tomorrow’s students where they live and breathe.

As enrollment numbers decline and prospective students change the way they search for, engage with, and decide which colleges and universities to attend, Vital is a leader in website design, brand strategy, and digital marketing for some of the fastest-growing higher education institutions in the US.

The secret to their clients’ success lies in four simple but often overlooked principles of higher education marketing: be relevant, be authentic, be inspirational, and be everywhere. Those principles underlie everything Vital does, from brand messaging to website design, paid digital media strategy, content marketing, and more.

The result is more brand awareness and website traffic, more social media engagement, more inquiries and leads, more high-intent applications, and ultimately, more right-fit students who are prepared to thrive at your institution.

Some of their 35+ higher ed clients include the University of San Diego, the University of New Hampshire, and the University of Massachusetts.

Founded by Adrian Marrullier, Sextant Marketing is a higher ed marketing agency with a single goal: help universities get more enrollments.

Since 2015, they’ve worked with over 25 higher education institutions and brought over 10k students with their marketing campaigns.

Some of their success stories include the University of Virginia for whom Sextant increased paid search enrollments by over 580%, and a 170% year-over-year increase in spring freshman enrollment for Kentucky State University using email, phone, and direct mail.

Founded by Philippe Taza, Higher Education Marketing (HEM) helps K-12 schools, language programs, universities, and colleges solve their recruitment challenges.

Since 2008, HEM’s multilingual team has been offering a range of digital marketing services including inbound marketing, paid advertising, email marketing, website design and development, and international student recruitment. They also offer consulting services such as digital marketing audits and HubSpot consulting.

HEM has worked with educational institutions in Canada, the US, and Europe.

Their data-driven approach has helped clients like Webster University Geneva increase enrollment by 30%, and Cumberland College get over 35% more sales leads. Let's not forget their engagement with Griffith College, Ireland's largest independent college, which led to a 20% year-over-year increase in registered learners.

Waterfall is an award-winning creative agency for higher education marketing founded by former Havas (one of the largest marketing communications agencies in the world) employees.

Their team of strategists, designers, copywriters, and multimedia storytellers provide services focusing on student recruitment, course marketing, research promotion, and academic storytelling. Some of the main marketing channels they use to achieve that are broadcast, digital media, print, and outdoor.

Some of their clients include the University of Manchester, where Waterfall created a lively and honest Postgraduate Research campaign that brought all PGR information together in one place, and Universities UK International for whom they achieved 10M+ reach and 150k+ engagements on social media.

Their exceptional creative work in the higher education sector has been rewarded by The PIEoneer Awards (Marketing Campaign of the Year in 2023), Heist Awards (Best Brand/Reputation Campaign in 2023), CIPR Awards (Best Education Campaign in 2023), and many more.

ED is a niche, full-service marketing agency focused on helping higher education institutions reach the right students, faculty, staff, and donors.

They're experts in community engagement, reputation management, and recruitment campaigns and have worked with clients like Lakehead University, the University of Manitoba, and Queen’s University.

Lakehead University saw an 8.9% increase in enrollments thanks to ED's social media campaign.

ED's “Trailblazer” campaign for the University of Manitoba got four awards from the CCAE Prix d’Excellence, and three wins at the 2012 CASE District VIII Communication Awards. It was then used for seven years after the initial launch.<"">David Petis, Executive Director at Red River College Polytechnic, was full of praise for ED and said their strategic alignment work has amplified the impact of his initiatives through integrated planning and marketing campaigns.

OHO Interactive is one of the top higher education digital marketing agencies with over 25 years of experience, that has worked with more than 180 colleges and universities.

They create enrollment marketing campaigns through paid media, SEO, and on-site conversion tactics.

Clients include Miami Business School, where they filled 30 seats in a new MBA program in five months with paid search and LinkedIn campaigns, Champlain College Online, which saw a 50% increase in leads from organic search after the website relaunch, and Pace University that got 22% more leads since working with OHO.

OHO's approach covers the entire customer journey and uses data and analytics to continuously optimize campaigns.

Clients mostly praise them for transparent partnerships, experienced strategists, and quality over quantity lead gen.