About Rasmussen University:
Rasmussen opened an online campus in 2002, and the school acquired Aakers Business College in North Dakota and Webster College in Florida, then merged the schools into Rasmussen’s operations.
Presently, the school has more than 100,000 graduates and completed its transition to Rasmussen University in October 2020.
Renee was a catalyst for such growth and transition, kicking off the paid media campaigns and merging those brands under Rasmussen’s umbrella.
Under her leadership, Rasmussen was able to drive 691% more conversions while decreasing the cost per conversion by 39%.
What Was Done?
- Keyword research
- Wrote ad copy
- Tested ad variations
- Developed programmatic landing pages
- Launched multivariate testing
- Set up attribution and conversion tracking
- Set up Google Analytics, Google Console, and other systems
- Set up call tracking
- Set up keyword tracking
What else?
Renee introduced varying levels of micro-conversions into the CRM to get directional data allowing her to make decisions more quickly, to save Rasmussen more money on paid media, while further optimizing the campaigns.
She introduced attribution tracking and keyword tracking, while ensuring the data was correctly going into their CRM.
Renee also worked to redesign Rasmussen’s website with her team. She helped develop a strong content strategy that can still be seen today including pillar content and engaging blog content. The website has a search engine optimization foundation with over 1.3 million visits a month.
Results?
Renee brought new paid search methodologies from e-commerce to her work with Rasmussen in the higher ed sector, which was unheard of at the time.
Her level of expertise and drive for constant campaign improvement made Renee stand out and receive promotions several times during her tenure at Rasmussen/Deltak.
Renee has the keen ability to get to the heart of an issue through marketing analysis and turn that analysis into a targeted action plan. She is a pleasure to work with and has a knack for communicating marketing industry talk in laypeople’s terms to leadership teams and other departments to get buy-in at all levels.
Why Content and Psychology Matter in Paid Search?
More recently, search engines (primarily Google) have evolved to understand the intent and context – or semantics – behind every user search.
This creates an obvious need to analyze and understand search intent before creating content.
For example, let’s say someone searched “the ring of all rings”. Instead of displaying different types of rings one can buy for their wedding day or special occasion, Google knows the user is referring to Lord of The Rings – despite not including any book titles in the search.
Renee understands the semantics and intent of a prospective student to create paid search experiences that allow colleges and universities to connect with prospective students on a human level.
Renee and her team pine over writing ad copy that will differentiate the college from its competitors. Her team understands the value propositions for the institution, constantly testing creative ad variations, link extensions, image extensions, audiences, and more.
Background on Renee Seltzer
Renee started her career when GoTo initially launched pay-per-click campaigns back in 2001. She was bidding on $.01 for terms when the industry said it would never pay for traffic. She has watched the industry evolve to include automation and artificial intelligence, but what hasn’t changed is the need to understand what drives people to action and visitor psychology.
Over her six-year tenure at Rasmussen/Deltak, she was promoted several times and held various leadership positions. She oversaw a team of 10 + employees across multiple states. Later she moved on to be Director of Digital Strategy and Analytics, helping oversee the implementation of Salesforce and working with different departments to unify the data, which was a pain point at the time.
Renee went on to work for several higher ed organizations, and in 2014, she started her agency, Ellison Ellery.
