The Pulse of Higher Ed

Perspectives on Online and Professional Education
from UPCEA’s Research and Consulting Experts

Key Findings from 2024 UPCEA Marketing Survey

UPCEA 2024 Marketing Survey Results | April 2025As more and more institutions face internal and external pressures to identify and cultivate new revenue streams, many are turning to online and professional continuing education to attract new learners and address fiscal shortfalls. While this continued increase in supply undoubtedly benefits the student, it makes an already saturated market even more competitive. UPCEA’s 2024 Benchmarking Online Enterprises study found that while 67% of institutions expect to obtain greater market share of the online marketplace over the next three years, only 24% of online leaders believe their institution’s approach to marketing online programs is better than their competitors. Additionally, with the increasing influence and permeation of artificial intelligence, and the associated evolving search behaviors of potential students, marketing has become even more indispensable for institutional survival.

 

UPCEA’s 2024 Marketing Survey explores marketing budgets, staffing, and challenges in online and professional continuing education (PCE) units. Among these units the average marketing budget was $1.18M dollars, with a median of $644,000. Annual marketing budget as a percentage of unit revenue had an average value of 11.9% with a median of 5.3%. This data reinforces that there is a growing chasm between institutions. The data distribution is becoming more right-skewed (a long tail of higher values). In such a distribution, the mean will be dragged up by the higher values, in this case institutions that are spending a greater percentage of revenue on marketing, while the median will represent the more typical, central value.

 

Key findings from the report include:
  • The average annual total gross revenue for online or professional education units was $28,433,649 with a median of $8,000,000. Not surprisingly, annual gross revenue increased as institution size increased.
  • On average, institutions’ overall annual marketing budget was about $1.2M with a median of $644,000. The average annual marketing budget as a percentage of unit revenue was 11.9% with a median of 5.3%.
  • In 2024, institutions averaged 7.74 full-time or full-time equivalent employees in their marketing departments compared to 6.88 FTEs in 2022, an increase of 0.86 FTEs. There were 5.0 in 2020, 6.40 in 2018, and 6.10 in 2014.
  • Only a third of marketing leaders (32%) agreed that their marketing budget is robust enough to meet the goals of their institution. Additionally, only 28% anticipated their marketing budget will increase year over year for the foreseeable future. Even with this current and anticipated shortfall, 80% agree that their marketing unit will target new segments of students over the next three years. There is some belief (38%) that AI and other emerging technologies will allow marketing teams to stretch marketing budgets over that same time frame.
By reviewing these critical data points, the goal of this report is to provide online and professional continuing education marketers with the necessary benchmarks needed to advocate for themselves, their units, and their students.
Download the study today.

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