| Practice area: | Economics of Education | Education and Labour Markets | Secondary education |
|---|---|
| Client: | Department for Education |
| Published: | 07 January, 2019 |
| Keywords: | impact assessment quantitative analysis |
London Economics were commissioned by the Department for Education to assess the impact and cost effectiveness of the Your Future | Their Future marketing campaign aimed at improving teacher recruitment in England. Combining information on website hits and website registrations, UCAS applications and marketing activities (and costs) over the period from 1st September 2012 to 31st March 2018 (covering five full recruitment cycles), the analysis demonstrated that:
- The number of website sessions induced by marketing has continued to grow from approximately 25% of website visits in 2013/14 to approximately 55% in 2017/18 (up to 31st March). In particular, marketing activities may have brought an additional 5.3 million website sessions between September 2015 and March 2018.
- Marketing has been driving the majority of website registrations over the 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18 academic cycles (estimated at 56%, 58% and 56% of all secondary subject registrations, respectively), increasing sharply between 2013/14 and 2015/16 and then remaining relatively constant until March 2018. The impact of marketing activities has increased compared to previous cycles. Specifically, marketing activities have brought an additional 121,600 website registrations for all secondary subjects over the past two and a half academic cycles, compared to 42,500 for the total duration of the previous three cycles (2012/13-2014/15).
- TV, Social Media and paid Search have been the strongest drivers of website sessions in the latest period; and Search and Social Media have been the most cost-effective marketing drivers. Unlike 2016/17 when Social Media was the most successful channel in driving website registrations, TV has fared better with registrations for all secondary subjects in 2017/18 so far. Digital Display is also relatively more successful in driving registrations than website sessions, and it has been particularly cost effective in driving shortage subject registrations.