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What motivates people to apply to ASU?

Published July 16, 2024�Presented as part of The Academy Summer Camp for the Marketing and Communication Community and organized by the Enterprise Brand Strategy and Management

Summer Camp 2024

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Today’s presenters

Arizona State University

Sr. director marketing technology

Jonathan Carroll

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Agenda

Current state of application events in GA4

How we find the data in GA4

Understanding attribution in GA4

Takeaways

{

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What applications are we talking about?

Undergrad and graduate experiences

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Application events in GA4

Current state

App submit

Campus

Career

App start

Campus

Career

Plan

Program

Program code

Session

Subplan

Term

Favorites score

App Submit

RFI Submit

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Application events in GA4

Future state

App submit

Campus

Career

Plan

Program code

Session

Subplan

Program

Term

App start

Campus

Career

Plan

Program

Program code

Session

Subplan

Term

Favorites score

App Submit

RFI Submit

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How do we collect the data?

App start

Campus

Career

Plan

Program code

Session

Subplan

Program

Term

Favorites score

App Submit

RFI Submit

https://webapp4.asu.edu/dgsadmissions/Index.jsp?program=GRTB&plan=TBALMMALM&campus=ONLNE&term=&session=SESA

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How do we collect the data?

App submit

Campus

Career

Plan

Program code

Session

Subplan

Program

Term

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How does the information get in the URL?

Some ASU websites pass the information in the URL. For example:

thunderbird.asu.edu

asuonline.asu.edu

degrees.asu.edu

Do you participate in web strategy?

Does your website follow this standard?

If not, what can you do to encourage adoption?

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Summary of available data

App start and app submit events

We use codes, not names

Names of colleges and programs may change over time, but program and plan codes rarely do.

Participation

is key

The data is collected when the data is passed to the admissions application URLs

Data can be incomplete

People can go directly to the admissions application directly or data is not shared via the URL

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How to find the data in GA4

Link to template

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Step 1

Open GA4

analytics.google.com

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Step 2

Open the Explore tab
Start a blank exploration

Or

Duplicate ‘App Start Exploration - Template’

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3

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Step 3

Input your date range
Select your dimensions

Campus
Career
Plan
Program
Program Code
Session Academic
Subplan
Term code
Any other dimensions you want

Select your metrics

Total users
Event count
Any other metrics you want

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Step 4

Choose your visualization technique

Example: basic table, pie chart, line graph, etc.

Select what dimensions and values to visualize

Example: event name in rows and session source medium in columns with total users as the value.

Create a filter

Example: Where event name exactly matches ‘app_start’ and campus exactly matches ‘TEMPE’

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Example report

Event name

Event Name:

app_start

Event Parameters:

Campus

Career

Plan

Program code

Session

Subplan

Program

Term

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What do these things mean?

Meaning of (not set) and not_provided

(not set): an app start event occurred without the necessary code to collect the enriched data.

Ex: the New American Application implementation of this standard is still pending.

Not_provided: The code to collect the enriched data was in place, but no values were passed to the URL.

Ex: user goes directly to the URL

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Exploration report

template

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Critical context on the data in GA4

This is not a system of record to count official application data.
Not all app starts will have program-level context because users can go directly to the application.
This data will be different than what is seen in a CRM, PeopleSoft, or other sources. The way users are identified is different and people can block GA4.

Cautions

Marketers can now have strong, directional insights into outreach efforts that drive app starts.
Insights are now available at the college, campus, and program level.
Media and outreach efforts can be planned based on historical performance.

Excitements

The future is evolving, join the marketing technology and data community to help shape the future at ASU.

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The ASU Enterprise GA4 instance now has a subproperty dedicated to the admissions pipeline.

So what events are included?

App start
App submit (in development)
Session start (for session-level attribution)

Why a dedicated supproperty?

Smaller chance of data being sampled
Dedicated key events for app start (currently available), app submit (in development), RFI submit (on roadmap).

Any photo can replace this photo to support your presentation.

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Access admissions attribution subproperty

Open GA4

analytics.google.com

Navigate to the admissions attribution sub property

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Attribution models

Navigate to advertising
Navigate to attribution > attribution models
Select the key event(s) you want to analyze

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3

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Attribution models

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Attribution paths

Navigate to advertising
Navigate to attribution > attribution models
Select the key event(s) you want to analyze

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2

3

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Attribution paths

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Understanding attribution in GA4

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Session level attribution

Difference in session definition from Universal Analytics to GA4

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Scenario 1

Universal Analytics

asu.edu

UTMs

Source = google
Medium = cpc
Campaign = remarketing

engineering.asu.edu

UTMs:

No UTMs

admission.asu.edu

UTMs

Source = engineering
Medium = referral
Campaign = fulton

app_start

UTMs

No UTMs

1:00

5:00

25:00

35:00

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Scenario 1

Universal Analytics

asu.edu

UTMs

Source = google
Medium = cpc
Campaign = remarketing

engineering.asu.edu

UTMs:

No UTMs

admission.asu.edu

UTMs

Source = engineering
Medium = referral
Campaign = fulton

app_start

UTMs

No UTMs

1:00

5:00

25:00

35:00

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Scenario 1

GA4

asu.edu

UTMs

Source = google
Medium = cpc
Campaign = remarketing

engineering.asu.edu

UTMs:

No UTMs

admission.asu.edu

UTMs

Source = engineering
Medium = referral
Campaign = fulton

app_start

UTMs

No UTMs

1:00

5:00

25:00

35:00

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Scenario 1

GA4

asu.edu

UTMs

Source = google
Medium = cpc
Campaign = remarketing

engineering.asu.edu

UTMs:

No UTMs

admission.asu.edu

UTMs

Source = engineering
Medium = referral
Campaign = fulton

app_start

UTMs

No UTMs

1:00

5:00

25:00

35:00

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Scenario 2

Universal Analytics

asu.edu

UTMs

Source = google
Medium = cpc
Campaign = remarketing

engineering.asu.edu

UTMs:

No UTMs

admission.asu.edu

UTMs

Source = engineering
Medium = referral
Campaign = fulton

app_start

UTMs

No UTMs

1:00

5:00

25:00

35:00

Midnight

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Scenario 2

Universal Analytics

asu.edu

UTMs

Source = google
Medium = cpc
Campaign = remarketing

engineering.asu.edu

UTMs:

No UTMs

admission.asu.edu

UTMs

Source = engineering
Medium = referral
Campaign = fulton

app_start

UTMs

No UTMs

1:00

5:00

25:00

35:00

Midnight

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Scenario 2

GA4

asu.edu

UTMs

Source = google
Medium = cpc
Campaign = remarketing

engineering.asu.edu

UTMs:

No UTMs

admission.asu.edu

UTMs

Source = engineering
Medium = referral
Campaign = fulton

app_start

UTMs

No UTMs

1:00

5:00

25:00

35:00

Midnight

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Scenario 2

GA4

asu.edu

UTMs

Source = google
Medium = cpc
Campaign = remarketing

engineering.asu.edu

UTMs:

No UTMs

admission.asu.edu

UTMs

Source = engineering
Medium = referral
Campaign = fulton

app_start

UTMs

No UTMs

1:00

5:00

25:00

35:00

Midnight

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Scenario 3

Universal Analytics

asu.edu

UTMs

Source = google
Medium = cpc
Campaign = prospecting

admission.asu.edu

UTMs

Source = linkedin
Medium = cpc
Campaign = remarketing

app_start

UTMs

No UTMs

asu.edu

UTMs

Source = facebook
Medium = cpc
Campaign = remarketing

1:00

5:00

25:00

35:00

Midnight

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Scenario 3

Universal Analytics

asu.edu

UTMs

Source = google
Medium = cpc
Campaign = prospecting

admission.asu.edu

UTMs

Source = linkedin
Medium = cpc
Campaign = remarketing

app_start

UTMs

No UTMs

asu.edu

UTMs

Source = facebook
Medium = cpc
Campaign = remarketing

1:00

5:00

25:00

35:00

Midnight

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Scenario 3

GA4

asu.edu

UTMs

Source = google
Medium = cpc
Campaign = prospecting

admission.asu.edu

UTMs

Source = linkedin
Medium = cpc
Campaign = remarketing

app_start

UTMs

No UTMs

asu.edu

UTMs

Source = facebook
Medium = cpc
Campaign = remarketing

1:00

5:00

25:00

35:00

Midnight

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Scenario 3

GA4

asu.edu

UTMs

Source = google
Medium = cpc
Campaign = prospecting

admission.asu.edu

UTMs

Source = linkedin
Medium = cpc
Campaign = remarketing

app_start

UTMs

No UTMs

asu.edu

UTMs

Source = facebook
Medium = cpc
Campaign = remarketing

1:00

5:00

25:00

35:00

Midnight

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Conversation

starter 1

Academic unit engagements are different

35% fewer days

6% fewer touchpoints

On average, Teachers College apply starts require ~2 fewer days and ~1 less touchpoint than Global Futures.

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Conversation

starter 2

Paths to apply are unique

There were 67 different paths that resulted in 190 app starts.

6 app starts were from users who visited asu.edu 12 times consecutively from organic search then one time from the fy24_conversica campaign.

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Conversation

starter 3

Choosing an attribution method is important

When using data-driven attribution, the value of organic search decreases slightly

Email follows a similar trend

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Link to data-driven attribution explanations

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Takeaways and next steps

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Take a ways

GA4 is not the only answer. GA4 data is integrated into GCP BigQuery. More advanced analysis can be performed by using SQL, but GA4 is a great tool provided to marketers at ASU.

GA4 is not the system of record for official application data.

App start events now have additional detail, including plan and program codes.

ASU Enterprise GA4 now has a dedicated subproperty for admissions attribution.

College specific app start events are now key events to enable multi-touch attribution from the session level.

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Next steps

Marketing technology and data community

The previous ‘Google Marketing Platform’ community has been renamed and focused on ‘marketing technology and data’. This will be more inclusive of diverse marketing technology data needs for digital strategies across the university.

Take the GA4 Admissions Attribution for a spin

If you don’t have access, request it here. If you have access but haven’t tried it out yet, please do!

Adopt the practice of passing info via the URL

Do you manage a website that drives people to apply? Is that website appending the click-through URL with the patterns observed by websites like Degree Search?

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Scan the QR code below to access today’s presentation decks.

For more information, list link to brandguide.asu.edu, email address or other specific contact method to close.

A link will be sent out via email and Slack for you to provide feedback on today’s sessions.

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