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Don’t TikTok Us Out – Why Search Engines are Still Key to Earning College-Age Customers
May 5, 2024
Sarah Gilbert
Service providers for college-age students (Gen Z) undoubtedly feel pressure to create more ‘cool’ content on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. It makes sense, with over 60 percent of TikTok’s 1 billion monthly users belonging to Gen Z, people who serve this generation will want to get their content on this platform.
But – don’t count out the search engines as a primary source of information for this demographic. Google processes 8.5 billion searches a day, and the search volume for many college-related terms is in the millions each month. So, don’t forget out the old trusty search engines when marketing to Gen Z.
Here are some reasons why we like search engines as a reliable source of qualified lead generation:
Why we like the search engines
1. We know how to optimize for these platforms
TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat are fickle, and the types of content that go viral aren’t necessarily the things you want associated with your brand. Think ‘fails’ or ‘pranks’ since the most popular category of content on TikTok is categorized as entertainment.
Neither TikTok or Google release their algorithm, so optimizing for either of the platforms is based on experience, guesswork, and talent. However, it’s clear that a large portion of the TikTok algorithm is based on interactions, and if you can’t get your videos seen by enough people, they will never have a chance to go viral, whereas if you optimize for the search engines through content, on-page optimizations and links, you can follow a certain formula and your content will rank well.
2. You don’t have to try to go viral
There are tons of articles on the internet about how to go viral, but the truth is, you can’t bottle virality. If you could, maybe we would recommend that strategy, but since what you really need is a consistent stream of revenue, focusing on tried-and-true – and measurable – methods is still your best bet.
There’s no doubt that TikTok has influence on college-related decisions, we are just saying it is hard to measure and determine if those views are turning into dollars for your organizations.
Here’s a look at US News, undoubtably one of the leaders in organic search traffic for education-related topics. This includes everything from lists on the best colleges and degrees to other college-related topics like college travel and college student credit cards.
Here’s a snapshot of their organic traffic to the education section of their website (almost 4 million visitors a month) vs. their TikTok videos which get less than 50 likes.
As you can see, a company that is very well-known and has a lot of revenue from college-related business and decisions around products for college students has a hard time getting traction on TikTok.
3. Content is evergreen
Website content is evergreen because you can use it year after year with only a few small updates. It gets indexed by the search engines and will live on the internet if your website is around.
On the contrary, social media content is like a Snapchat story – there one minute and buried under new updates the next. It’s designed to be quick and engaging, but it’s not there for the long-term.
In terms of searches, the top college-related hashtags on TikTok are #collegelife, #collegefootball and #collegebasketball. So, while these may give viewers a good insight into campus life, and those viewers may indeed turn into an enrollment, the runway is much longer and harder to connect revenue to these views.
4. Analytics are superior
To put it simply, Google can track TikTok and other social engagement, but this doesn’t work the other way around. Google is billed as an ‘answer engine’ where nearly everything you could look for on the internet exists. You can track social media interactions in GA, but not the other way around. Plus, there are so many tools and ways to get insight into how your web content is performing.
5. It’s cheaper to create text-based content than video content
Video content can cost a lot of money, whereas web-based content is priced per-word and you can get interns or students to create this content along with graphics. For video content, you need a location, video equipment including cameras, lighting, software to edit the videos, graphics on the videos and more.
Now, this doesn’t mean don’t do social media content, it’s just important to be realistic in terms of how many buyers you will get from TikTok or other platforms, and if the cost to consistently produce content is worth it.
Determine who is searching: The student or the parent?
Gen Z states that parent involvement is still their number one source of influence, so you’ll also want to target keywords that parents are looking for, since they may be the ones doing the research and then bringing this information to their child.
Take the keywords and categorize them based on who you think the searcher is and – importantly – if they have buying power. Keywords like ‘top free xyz’ or ‘best xyz that doesn’t cost any money’ aren’t going to result in a purchase of any sort, whether that be tuition, a gap year trip or school supplies.
If the student is searching, on these pages you can provide tools or calculators or other things that may help them ‘sell’ the buyer (parent in many cases). If you’ve determined the student is the buyer, then you should provide a path to all the necessary information from the initial search page.
Now, this doesn’t mean don’t do social media content, it’s just important to be realistic in terms of how many buyers you will get from TikTok or other platforms, and if the cost to consistently produce content is worth it.
Using Search for Growth
Ultimately, all marketing channels can help grow your business. We are partial to organic search because that’s where we have the most knowledge, but we also look at the metrics and find that more people who buy still live in the search engines.
In budgets that may already be tight, don’t fall into pressure to create viral content if you can’t also afford to optimize your site for search. This way, you won’t miss out on the opportunity for all of the organic visits you can rely on each month.
Take the keywords and categorize them based on who you think the searcher is and – importantly – if they have buying power. Keywords like ‘top free xyz’ or ‘best xyz that doesn’t cost any money’ aren’t going to result in a purchase of any sort, whether that be tuition, a gap year trip or school supplies.
If the student is searching, on these pages you can provide tools or calculators or other things that may help them ‘sell’ the buyer (parent in many cases). If you’ve determined the student is the buyer, then you should provide a path to all the necessary information from the initial search page.
Now, this doesn’t mean don’t do social media content, it’s just important to be realistic in terms of how many buyers you will get from TikTok or other platforms, and if the cost to consistently produce content is worth it.