These Australian tertiary education institutions spent over $175m on ads last year
Australian tertiary education institutions spent more than $175m on ads in the past year, with a 19% spike in ad spend from May to June.
According to Nielsen Consumer and Media View (CMV) data, the leading Australian tertiary education institutions with the highest advertising expenditures were Deakin University, Torrens University Australia, Victoria University, Open Universities Australia, and La Trobe University.
Social media was also revealed as the most popular platform (60%) for ad spending to enrol new students.
The percentage of Australians aged over 16 interested in studying at TAFE or university has risen dramatically, rising from 7% in 2019 before doubling to 15% in 2023, before rising to 22% in 2024.
Unsurprisingly, the largest group interested in pursuing further education is school graduates aged 16-17, making up 49% of those interested. However, older generations are also eager to return to education. The second most significant group is 18-24-year-olds, at 18%, followed by those aged 25-39 at 22%, 40-55-year-olds at 17%, and those aged 55+ at 4%.
The data also reveals that 75% of those people are currently employed, with 44% working full-time, 31% working part-time, and 18% working casually, indicating a desire to upskill and improve their qualifications.
Moreover, 54% are parents or have children at home. Among this group, 20% have at least one child under five years old, 27% have at least one child between 5-12 years old, and another 27% have at least one child between 13-17 years old.
Nielsen Ad Intel’s Australia commercial lead, Rose Lopreiato, said this sector is so important and that’s reflected in the ad spend numbers.
“They demonstrate the difficulty of attracting students as they consider their TAFE or university options in such a competitive market and highlight the need for education providers to reach the right demographics, in the right places, at the right time – and nothing does that better than Ad Intel”.
When it comes to ads, Australian secondary students looking to pursue tertiary education in the next 12 months are 75% more likely than the average population to respond to online ads, 2.5 times more likely to click on video ads, and almost 2.8 times as likely to click on banner ads.
Additionally, 32% find online and mobile ads useful, if tailored to their interests, which is 48% higher than the average population.
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topics
Deakin University
La Trobe University
Nielsen
Open Universities Australia
Rose Lopreiato
TAFE
Torrens University Australia
Victoria University
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