/ Our Work

Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine

Industry:
Higher Educational Institution

Services Provided:
SEO, PPC

The Client

The Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine is a higher educational institution, and LSEO partnered with them to promote one of the school’s Master’s programs. The school was trying to address the launch of a new program and to advertise to various target audiences. Commonwealth leveraged the strength of LSEO to help them do that on a digital platform.

The Problem

The Commonwealth Medical College (TCMC)—now Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine—faced a major challenge. The institution was preparing to launch a new Master of Biomedical Sciences (MBS) program at its newly established satellite campus in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. This was the first time TCMC had expanded its MBS offering beyond its main campus in Scranton, and the stakes were high. With only four months to generate awareness and applications, the school had no established digital marketing infrastructure in place. Historically, TCMC’s advertising budget had been devoted almost entirely to traditional channels such as newspaper ads, direct mail, radio, TV, and billboards. Adding to the challenge, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) had recently enacted a policy restricting access to MCAT data for marketing use, severely limiting the school's ability to leverage historical audience targeting. TCMC not only needed to fill a brand-new class—it needed to build awareness from the ground up in a brand-new market, with limited data and a modest $33,000 marketing budget. The enrollment goal was ambitious: 12 students enrolled in 120 days or less.

The Strategy

LSEO.com was brought in to architect and execute a comprehensive, integrated digital marketing strategy to meet TCMC’s aggressive goals. The initiative began in January 2016 and had to produce results by the start of the inaugural class in April. LSEO’s approach combined search engine marketing (Google Ads), paid social media campaigns (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram), SEO, email outreach, organic social content, direct mail, newspaper placements, and in-person/virtual open houses. This multichannel strategy was carefully designed to align traditional tactics with digital campaigns, driving prospective students down a finely defined sales funnel. With audience data restricted, LSEO built lookalike audiences using internal insights and demographic profiles of existing MBS students. Highly targeted campaigns were launched across platforms, focusing on key conversion milestones: Drive interest and open house attendance. Encourage application submission. Nurture prospects through the admissions process. Convert accepted applicants into enrolled students. Specific ad creatives were mapped to each stage of the funnel, ensuring timely and relevant calls to action. For example, users who attended open houses were retargeted with messaging prompting them to apply, while accepted students saw ads encouraging enrollment deposits. This full-funnel, cross-channel strategy not only captured interest but shepherded leads through the entire enrollment journey.

The Results

LSEO’s campaign didn’t just meet expectations—it shattered them. Against a goal of 12 enrolled students, the campaign delivered 23 enrollments, nearly doubling the target. The cost of tuition per student was $45,000, meaning the campaign generated over $1,000,000 in direct tuition revenue within just four months. The total marketing investment? Only $33,000—including all ad spend and management fees—resulting in an extraordinary Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) exceeding 3,000%. These results were achieved despite severe limitations: no pre-existing digital ad infrastructure, restricted access to third-party data, and a historically offline marketing strategy. In the words of LSEO CEO Kris Jones: “This campaign is a highlight of my career… not only did we exceed goals, but we helped change the mindset of key decision-makers about the effectiveness of digital marketing.” Due to its success, LSEO was retained as the digital marketing agency of record for TCMC and went on to support other institutional priorities, including Alumni Development and Institutional Advancement.

33,000

Total Spend

3,135%

Return on Ad Spend

+23

Enrollments

+11 of initial goal

1.03M

Total Revenue

We engaged LSEO as our digital agency to provide us with services regarding paid advertising through Google AdWords. They also helped us to increase engagement on Facebook and LinkedIn. The knowledge that LSEO brings in terms of digital advertising … sets them apart.

They have a great reputation in the marketplace. We took a look at a number of vendors, selected five, and sent out a request for proposal [RFP]. We engaged the companies in a thorough review process, with presentations from all the companies who submitted RFPs to us, or submitted proposals based on our RFP. LSEO was selected as the vendor who we believed would provide us with the best services. Based on the presentation and proposal that they gave us, LSEO showed their ability to achieve success with past partners.