Clearing media pack 2024

Clearing solutions

2024

The Student Room – Clearing Solutions 2024

What should we expect from results day 2024?

Ever since the Covid pandemic, students have faced an uncertain journey through their exams and university applications.

And although results day 2023 brought with it more familiar grade outcomes, we still saw thousands of students visiting The Student Room for help with last-minute changes to their university plans.

These were students receiving ‘real’ exam results for the first time - having had teacher-assessed grades issued for their cancelled GCSE exams back in 2021.

By the end of September 2023, almost 68,000 students had found a place using Clearing (Ucas data). Nearly one third (32%) of them were students who declined their original firm choice - having found a preferable option after getting their grades. A further 30% found a university place after missing the grades for their offers.

Plans can change quickly: The Student Room exists to support students when that happens. And, whatever the summer of 2024 holds in store, The Student Room team is here to support you with your Clearing campaigns, goals and challenges.

They are students who have grown up with uncertainty throughout their school and college years. It perhaps shouldn’t surprise us if they choose to keep an open mind on their university choice right up until the day of their exam results.

In a poll run on The Student Room on A-level results

day 2023, 56% of respondents said they had received grades lower than expected. Many of these students came onto our site for help and advice after missing their offers.

Our survey in July 2023

found 63% of respondents saying they would be more likely to stay loyal to their course than their chosen university if left without a place on results day.

The Student Room – Clearing Solutions 2024

A look back to Clearing 2023 Every year, The Student Room proves it is the go-to destination for applicants in the build up to receiving their grades, as well as on results day and throughout August. While some visit our community celebrating their success, a huge number come seeking advice about applying through Clearing.

On A-level results day…

300,000+ users

7,000+ posts

Over

1 million

page views

During August 2023

We delivered more than

100 Clearing campaigns for university clients in 2023.

Catch up on all our 2023 insights and student sentiment over on TSR Matters.

5.3 million users 7.1 million

education forum page views

3.4 million

views of Official Rep posts

21,000+

new year 11-13 registrants signed up

3.3 million

page views on site from international traffic

The Student Room – Clearing Solutions 2024

What students were saying We saw more than 300,000 users come to the site on results day. More than 257,000 words were written as conversations covered celebrations, resits, remarks, Clearing, starting university and much more.

“Thank you so much - I’m not sure what we would do without the excellent support and advice from The Student Room. I really appreciate your help.”

“That makes plenty of sense, thank you so much for your help I feel so much more confident.”

“I didn’t get the grades I needed to study mechanical engineering so I’ve been through clearing and had two offers - one to study an MEng at University A in engineering (no specialism) and one to study a BEng in mechanical engineering at university B. I’m really stuck in deciding which to go for.”

“Thank you both so much for your great advice, it’s genuinely been a great help, now I feel even better about myself! “

“Got my A-level results and idk what to choose now. I originally had an offer for business management, however due to my grades they offered me a foundation year instead. I also have my insurance at University of X. What would you recommend I choose? I have four days to choose! Send help please.”

The Student Room – Clearing Solutions 2024

What our clients say about us

“It’s a great way for us to interact with our students and potential applicants outside of our usual official channels.”

“Extremely fantastic way to help prospective students with their decision making process, offering advice, help and your support.

Provides a safe space for people needing help and advice and is a friendly community.”

“The site is great for engaging with students across the country and internationally and can be an additional communication/ marketing tool. You get great support from account managers.”

“Very timely and professional service. We have used them a lot over the last year and have seen some good results.”

“Fantastic way for prospective students to find out about different courses, universities, find relevant info about open days, exciting news etc. I wish I knew about The Student Room when I was a student.”

The Student Room – Clearing Solutions 2024

National, regional, subject-focused and competitor bundles

National bundle

Location-targeted bundles

These targeted solutions reach Clearing applicants who match your student recruitment criteria during the peak A-level results week window - enabling you to connect with students across multiple channels.

• • • • • •

• • • • •

Subjects are in bandings Gold and Platinum and start from £30,000

Position your brand in focused areas of the site and use off-site touchpoints of email and SMS to convert your audience.

To view full details of the packages, bandings and availability visit https://tsrmatters.com/ 2024-clearing-packages/

Email in results week SMS in results week Search boost on The Uni Guide Content piece in Clearing hub Topic sponsorship Display impressions

Subject-targeted bundles • • • • •

Email in results week SMS in results week Topic sponsorship in results week Display impressions in results week Re-targeted impressions

Subjects are in bandings Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum and start from £7,000

Email in results week SMS in results week Topic sponsorship in results week Display impressions in results week Re-targeted impressions

Subjects are in bandings Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum and start from £6,000

Competitor targeted bundle • • • •

2 x competitor email (Pre and post results day) 2 x competitor SMS (Pre and post results day) 200,000 competitor display impressions 400,000 competitor remarketing impressions

Package rate: £10,000

The Student Room – Clearing Solutions 2024

Position your university around content and discussion

Be seen at the heart of discussions on site and influence relevant applicants in contextual spaces - all year round but most importantly over Clearing.

View an example

Topic sponsorship The Student Room is a well-loved and trusted space where students connect, ask questions and share information.

When you sponsor a specific topic, your brand will be prominently displayed in a space where applicants are already making life-changing decisions about their university application and potential Clearing plans. You can focus on a particular subject or cast a wider net by sponsoring topics such as A-levels or Applications, Clearing and Ucas.

Availability/options: Starting from £3,000 per week, contact us for the full breakdown of topics and tiered rates.

Targeted display advertising both on and off-site Our digital adverts are a highly targeted solution informed by powerful first-party data and insights and incorporating users explicitly opted in for Clearing updates. Clearing campaigns in July-August 2023 tracked 39,000+ conversions to client pages with a CTR between 0.04 – 0.10%.

Complement this on-site presence with off-site retargeting.

By combining our powerful audience insights with our industryleading ‘Ada’ retargeting technology and precise conversiontracking, we drive exceptional results for your Clearing campaign.

Our programmatic solution retargets The Student Room’s audience with your digital ads in brand-safe locations offsite. This allows you to target Clearing applicants throughout their decision-making journey by creating multiple marketing touchpoints across the web. Across July and August 2023, via retargeting, we drove 2,600+ tracked conversions to Clearing campaigns for clients.

Availability/options: Mixed format and billboards are available, starting from £15 CPM. Ada retargeting starts from £10 CPM.

The Student Room – Clearing Solutions 2024

Sponsored topic articles Students come to our Clearing hub looking for guidance and support during what is often a confusing and stressful time. Position your brand alongside useful and high-performing content that helps Clearing applicants make decisions about where to study.

There were more than 25,000 page views of our Clearing hub content during July and August 2023.

Sponsoring an article from our topic selection will associate your brand with the positive experience of finding answers and feeling reassured. Clearing content pages received an average user dwell time of 3:19 minutes (AugOct 2023). Topics available to sponsor include ‘How to get the best out of your Clearing call’ and ‘Sorting your plan B - Get ahead of Clearing.’

Availability/options: Our customer success team can advise you on rates and the available topics for your campaign.

View an example

View an example

TSR Talks Start a lively discussion which supports your Clearing strategy and showcases what your university has to offer.

TSR Talks receive on average three minutes dwell time on page with a benchmark of 1,000 page views.

Our team will offer continued support for your guest speaker to help them connect with our student audience.

We’ll then run up to two weeks of promotion and roadblocked ads on your TSR Talks page to maximise your brand exposure.

Availability/options: One per week, starting from £8,500

All performance stats are based on 2023 performance

The Student Room – Clearing Solutions 2024

Support your on-site presence across multiple other touchpoints

Lead pack and search boost The Uni Guide attracts traffic from applicants in the final decision-making stages. Users are shown your profile when it matches their course, location or university search criteria, so your audience is always highly-qualified when they click your lead buttons.

To maximise your reach and leads, you can also add search boosts to your package. This promotes your listing to one of the top three positions for two weeks.

Availability/options: Lead pack from £5,000 Search boost £4,000 for two weeks

Competitor targeting Competitor targeting is an incredible opportunity for you to reach Clearing applicants who have told us which of your competitor universities they are interested in. Sending an email or SMS is bespoke and highly targeted, putting you frontof-mind when your strongest prospective applicants are comparing your university against similar options.

Competitor bundles are also available.

Availability/options: Limited to 10 clients. Please request pricing for your bespoke audience.

The Student Room – Clearing Solutions 2024

Solus email Our Clearing database is a warm audience of prospective applicants who have opted in to hear about Clearing places.

You can use targeting criteria, such as subject interest or location to find your ideal applicant audience.

In 2023, one university achieved an open rate of 51.4% and a CTOR of 7.88%.

Availability/options: Targeting by subject or location in July and August starts from £1,500, national from £10,000. Results day sends £17,500.

View an example

SMS Listicle emails Feature in a listicle email to reach 120,000 prospective applicants, while splitting your share of voice alongside other universities.

Listicles give students a choice, resulting in a more authentic, usercentric experience. Average open rate 33.3% and average clicks per unique URL in listicle 17.75%.

Availability/options: Standard slot from £3,000 Premium slot from £5,000

View an example

Students are never far from their mobile phones. Get instant exposure to Clearing applicants by sending an SMS in results week.

The students in our Year 13 audience have opted in to receive Clearing updates from universities, so they are primed and waiting to hear from you.

Performance for SMS was strong in the weeks leading up to results day as well as those campaigns post-results.

Average click rates in 2023 were 22.9% and SMS sends are available between 8th - 22nd August (inclusive).

Availability/options: August targeting by subject or location starts from £750, national from £12,000.

The Student Room – Clearing Solutions 2024

Adopt an always-on approach to student recruitment Brand awareness and communication is key in the lead up to results day to ensure conversion. Elements of our portfolio can be used early on in the application cycle to support your targeted Clearing campaigns later on in the summer.

UPP Unlimited Engage Clearing applicants at every stage in their decisionmaking journey. UPP Unlimited is your always-on approach to brand awareness and drives engagement with Clearing applicants.

Find out more about the package.

TSR Insight TSR Insight is our in-house full service market research agency and has exclusive access to The Student Room community for market research. The team specialises in higher education and can project manage all aspects of your research, from initial conversation and recruitment to final debrief.

Find out more about our insight portfolio.

Get in touch The Student Room has a proven track record of delivering high-impact, targeted media solutions that exceed our clients’ Clearing student recruitment goals and deliver great results.

Get in touch with us to talk about the best options for your subject and budget requirements. hello@thestudentroom.com 0800 999 3222

thestudentroom.co.uk