How do you fill courses when every institution is competing for the same students?
By reaching the right students, parents and professionals with evidence rather than habit. Route plans and buys media for universities, colleges and education businesses, and we have run student-audience campaigns across radio, out of home, paid social and paid search for the last decade.
Who this is for
Marketing directors and student recruitment teams in higher and further education, and the businesses that serve the sector. If your year hinges on open days, clearing, enrolment windows or course-level demand, this is work we know well.
Why Route
Because education marketing is seasonal, local and accountable. We plan around your intake calendar, target at campus and postcode level and report so that every course, campaign and pound can be examined.
Our experience in education
We built marketing campaign dashboards for Newcastle University's central marketing team, with one reporting layer across every paid channel. For Askham Bryan College, a specialist land-based college, we delivered SEO, paid search and media planning over two years, which lifted the site health score to 94 against a target of 92 and put brand terms at position one. For e4education, a school website design company, we ran UX research, site redesign consultancy and lead generation, cutting paid search cost per click by roughly two-thirds.
Student audiences run through our transport work too. The First Bus 36 Service campaign with the West of England Combined Authority reached 283,000 audience profiles along the route, with students at local colleges as one of its three core audiences.
Related work
Newcastle University
Marketing campaign dashboards for the central marketing team - one view of every paid channel.
Capability, engagement live 2026Askham Bryan College
94 vs 92
site health score achieved against target
Two years of SEO, paid search and media planning for a specialist land-based college.
First West of England - 36 Service launch
283,000
profiles reached
An eight-week campaign around a free travel week, held to the ten postal sectors along a new Bristol bus route.
Read the case studyCommon questions
Can you target students without wasting budget on everyone else?
Yes. Campus-level out of home, postcode and radius targeting in paid social and search, and age-gated audiences on the platforms students actually use all narrow delivery to the people who can enrol.
Do you understand intake and clearing cycles?
We plan around them. Education budgets work hardest when flighting follows the decision calendar - open days, application deadlines, results day and clearing - rather than a flat monthly spend.
Can our in-house team keep the data?
Always. Campaigns run in your accounts, and our dashboard work exists precisely so your team sees the same numbers we do.
Planning your next intake campaign?
Call +44 (0) 191 933 7588, email info.route@route.agency, or send us your brief and we make every effort to respond within one working day.